----------------------------------------------- Lesbophobia and Transphobia A Betty Friedan quote suggests some parallels ----------------------------------------------- Anti-trans prejudice within the feminist movement over the last 40 years has drawn on stereotypes and logical fallacies much like those behind Lesbophobia within the movement around 1970. Here is a quotation from an interview of Betty Friedan entitled "Critique of Sexual Politics" in _Social Policy_ Magazine (1970), as reprinted in her book _It Changed My Life: Writings on the Women's Movement_ (Dell, 1977), pp. 214-217. Friedan is criticizing "the new sexual theorists" like Anne Koedt who are questioning heteronormative assumptions about female sexuality, and also celebrating Lesbianism as a valid and liberating option: "Unfortunately, the new sexual theorists do not seem to see the possibility of sex and love combined, of joyful sex as part of a larger, meaningful relationship. And some are badly exaggerating the presumed positives of lesbian sex. We don't want a society in which there are two separate sexes, men and women, with each getting their pleasure by themselves -- men with men and women with women. Such a vision is hardly the radical future. It is only pseudo-radical because it does not lead to any real institutional change of any kind. In essence, we cannot permit the image of women to be developed by the homosexual. The male homosexual omits the strength of women just as the bull dyke omits the essential tenderness of men. What is the point of reacting against one's sexual role as man or woman merely to adopt the stereotype of the opposite sex?" (Ibid., pp. 215-216.) In fairness to Friedan, I should add that she looks back in her book on the claim of Radicalesbians and other groups in 1970 -- that "Sisterhood is Powerful" must mean Lesbians, too -- from a different perspective: "Today, five years later and light-years advanced, maybe, in my own consciousness, I might feel the validity of such a statement." (Ibid., p. 211.) As a woman who has experienced both transphobia and Lesbophobia at different points over the last four decades, I hope that a flourishing and inclusive sisterhood will decisively reject the stereotypes and fallacies behind both forms of oppression. Margo Schulter 23 November 2014