in women's studies today, we discussed "the myth of the vaginal orgasm" and compulsory heterosexism. a few things hit me in a weird place while in class, but i was incapable of thinking my way through them....until after class when chris and i discussed the class.

1. adrienne rich tries to destimatize lesbianism by talking about the lesbian continuum. there are heterosexual, bisexual, and homosexual women out there. most women have close, emotional relationships with other women and are thus homosocial. she argues that there is not that big of a difference between homosocial relationships and homosexual relationships--only the sexual part. yet, one is socially acceptable (or possibly even advocated) while the other is stigmatized.

while thinking about this, i thought about how before i came out of the closet, i was mostly homosocial. but the more out i become, the more and more heterosocial i have become. this is something VERY interesting to brainstorm about....

perhaps i was somewhat forced to become heterosocial because lesbianism is stigmatized and therefore my female friends no longer felt comfortable around me. i'm sure there are other reasons....does anyone else have any interesting ideas?

2. we talked about "political lesbians" that came out in the 1960's. they were introduced as women who realized that men were not needed to achieve pleasure as previously thought before the "myth" was published so they became lesbians to advance the feminist cause. instantly, i had a negative reaction to this idea--that women could choose to be complete lesbians. i feel that if you are a full-blown lesbian then you don't really have a choice in the matter. i can understand that slightly bisexual women might make a choice to aknowledge their sexuality and be true to themselves, but lesbians having a choice is a little bit of a stretch.

after much thought, i hypothesize that many of these women were lesbians all along. the publication of "the myth of the vaginal orgasm" simply gave them a backboard from which they could leap into lesbianism. i think that feminist political reasons made it easier for them to deal with the social osticization from which they were bound to suffer. what do you think? is anyone more familiar with this notion or "political lesbians?"

my day has been good so far. i did overhear some disturbing comments at lunch but i do not feel like typing them now. more later...