Identifying Lesbian and Mother :: Argumentative Persuasive Papers

Identifying Lesbian and MotherIn her 1995 book, On the Outside expression In The Politics of Lesbian Motherhood, Ellen Lewin presents the phenomenon of sapphic women who, through childbirth, gain access to the heterosexual community as an in-group member. At first glance, Lewins observations seem to counterbalance traditional inner(a)/outside ideology, portraying the boundaries of the hetero- and homosexual worlds as permeable rather than rigidly, relationally exclusive. A more exhaustive analysis, namely of the accounts of the women Lewin interviews, serves instead to reinforce wrong/outside construction in relation to self and perceived identity. While the women are allowed into the selective sphere of heteronormality, they do not cross these categorical lines as both lesbian and mother. This paper will argue that the terms lesbian and mother are mutually exclusive, perhaps not in reality, but in the capacities of identity, performance, and location within an inside/outside dy namic. Lewin prefaces her analysis with a glance at the classic Western representation of the lesbian. This depiction focuses on the exclusion of lesbians from typical female roles of gestation and nurturing macrocosm a mother carried an implied notion of heterosexuality, therefore, lesbianism and motherhood cancelled each other out in the popular imagination (107). Indeed, many of the women surveyed shared the sentiment of motherhood as overwhelming and engulfing other dimensions of their livesincluding what they considered the lesbian component (109). While this may be ascribed to the daunting tasks of mothering and childcare, the women pointed to a more self-appropriated explanation as they echoed one other in their tendencies to downplay the significance of their lesbianism in giving accounts of themselves as mothers (110). Simultaneously, these women were rooting themselves more deeply in the heterosexual world and losing ties with the homosexual world. Many of the reports qu ote the lesbian mothers as feeling stronger ties to the world they share with straight women than with other lesbians. Many felt the lesbian community to be unfriendly to lesbian mothers. One cleaning woman was even asked to leave her all-lesbian rap group after her child was born, as her fellow group members believed she was no loner attuned to lesbian issues (124). The question remains as to why straight mothers, as a representation of the larger heterosexual community, would be so quick to ally themselves with lesbians, even lesbian mothers. For a student of feminist theorist Diana Fuss, this coalition seems to threaten the inside (read dominant) status of heterosexual society.