Special Thematic issue of the Journal of Lesbian Studies on WHITE PRIVILEGE

Some readers may be interested in this call for papers:

The Journal of Lesbian Studies will be devoting a thematic journal issue to the topic of WHITE PRIVILEGE.

There is little scholarship that focuses specifically on whiteness and white privilege in lesbian studies. Possible topics to be considered include an examination of white privilege in:

• lesbian relationships
• lesbian communities
• intersections of white racial identities and lesbian identities
• representations of lesbians
• lesbian health
• feminist theory
• fiction
• poetry

Please send a one-page abstract of your proposed contribution to: adottolo@brandeis.edu by November 30, 2012. Proposals will be evaluated for originality and writing style, as well as how all the contributions fit together. Potential authors will be invited to write full articles in the range of 10-15 double-spaced pages.

Bindel and Anti-Lesbianism

Some time a go a colleague in work mentioned in passing that she'd seen a photo of me on the University staff pages that appeared to be missing a number from underneath it.  Other than that, it was a perfect mug shot.  Needless to say, it was soon replaced by a photo that was vaguely more flattering.

The Guardian too seems to have been replacing photos of hacks in recent months and I noticed that Julie Bindel has a new photograph accompanying her articles (it may be months old, I only noticed today).  It was not taken by someone who likes Julie Bindel.  She appears to have the feint beginnings of a moustache accompanied by black and baggy eyes.  The website photo (the same one) looks slightly better but she might still want to undertake a similar exercise to the one I did, and replace the photo for a more flattering - and indeed accurate - photo.

I don't say this to mock - glass houses/stones and all that - but it did seem ironic accompanying a story which is all about looks and an attitude of anti-lesbianism.  It's a great piece from Bindel, well worth a read. She concludes that: 'hate speech serves as a warning to all women and girls that we have to toe the line – be properly feminine and subservient to men, and if we are to dabble in lesbianism then at least have the courtesy to look like a male fantasy of one.'

Are not my own initial reflections an indication of the very thing that Bindel is talking about?  That I begin by commenting on facial features.  Of course they are.  Are you 'less' of a woman to look like you have facial hair?  My academic answer is simple:  No.  My honest - none academic - answer is I'm not sure, but it does make me uncomfortable.  My intellectual side says it shouldn't, don't be absurd and yet there it is.  It leaves me uncomfortable.   If I see an elderly woman with facial hair, do i think less of her?  Yes, I think she's let herself go, that she should have it removed.  These prejudices run deep in those who we might thing of as 'enlightened' in so many other respects.

Indeed, I wonder how many liberal types - of all sexualities - will read the Bindel piece, nod sagely and continue to neglect their own prejudices?  The colleague mocking my photo did not suggest I was any less of a man for a bad photo, yet often - as Bindel notes - we do apply those values to lesbian identities.

I would suggest we also apply a similar set of expectations to masculinities, and critique campness as similarly deviant.  The key difference is that camp is seen as safe - safer than 'straight' masculinity whilst butch lesbianism is seen as more dangerous than 'straight' femininity.

Too often we think that hate speech is something that others do.  Don't dismiss the Bindel piece.  Read it and reflect.

CFP: Annual Lesbian Lives Conference ‘The Modern Lesbian’

Readers may be interested in the following CFP and event:

Call for Papers 20th Annual Lesbian Lives Conference ‘The Modern Lesbian’
15-16th February 2013
Hosted by University of Brighton LGBT and Queer Life Research Hub
In conjunction with Women’s Studies Centre, University College Dublin

The theme for the 20th Annual Lesbian Lives Conference is The Modern Lesbian. Conference conveners of this two-day international and interdisciplinary conference now welcome proposals from academics, scholars, students, activists, documentary and film-makers, writers and artists.

This year’s keynote speakers and guests include: Sarah Schulman, Lisa Downing, a book launch of Laura Doan’s Disturbing Practices: History, Sexuality and Women’s Experience of Modern War, 1914-18, Rachel Adams (The Modern Lesbian photography project), plus special screening/panels from the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation).

Proposals are welcomed on (though are by no means limited to) the following: • The Modern Lesbian? • lesbians and (post-)modernism • lesbians and The New Woman • lesbians in the history of sexuality • lesbians and modernity • lesbian mobilities, migrations, movements and diasporas • Age, aging, generation gaps, lifecourses and has'bians • Bisexuals, bi-queers, and other (post-)moderns • modern transitions, trans modernities, Trans people • gender violence/s • lesbians (and) technologies • Modern media • Modern lifestyles • lesbians and surrealism • lesbians, fashion and fashion statements • Feminism and Eugenics • Political campaigns and communities • (emerging) communities, identities, labels and transgressions • (traditional) weddings, (serial) marriages • pets, animals and other non-humans • lesbians, sex, reproduction and bed death • the lesbian detective • lesbian pulp • queer temporalities, futures and futurism • queering surrealism

The conference organisers welcome proposals for (A) individual papers, (B) sessions, (C) round table discussions, (D) workshops and (E) visual presentations or performances. (*see below for more details) This year’s conference also includes a series of film screenings, which will run concurrently with the main programme. We encourage submissions across all genres, both fact and fiction which align to the conference theme, and which have been produced within the last two years. Please see our website for further details about each of these: http://arts.brighton.ac.uk/projects/lgbt/events/events/lesbian-lives-conference-2012 

The Lesbian Lives Conference is open to all genders and any political and sexual orientations. There is an ethos of welcome and accessibility. E-mail proposals of no more than 300 words to LGBTQ@brighton.ac.uk.

If your proposal is for the film strand, please include a url to the work, which should be available to view online (please ensure that you include any password details if it is not publicly accessible). Please do not send hard copies to us. The closing date for the submission of proposals is Friday 14th September 2013 For more details and for regular conference updates visit http://arts.brighton.ac.uk/projects/lgbt/events/events/lesbian-lives-conference-2012 

The Lesbian Lives Conference has been organised by the Women’s Studies Centre at University College Dublin for the first seventeen years and in 2011 celebrated its 18th birthday in Brighton. In 2013 The University of Brighton is delighted to co-host the 20th conference. The Lesbian Lives Conference is not just the world’s only annual academic conference in Lesbian Studies, it is a large international event that draws speakers and participants from all continents and hosts the best-known as well as emerging scholars in the field. It aims to provide a public debate platform for community voices.

In the past we have hosted Emma Donoghue, Jackie Kay, Joan Nestle, Cherry Smyth, Del La Grace Volcano, Sarah Waters and academics such as Sara Ahmed, Terry Castle, Laura Doan, Lillian Faderman, Sarah Franklin, Claire Hemmings, Alison Hennegan, Sally R. Munt, Helena Whitbread, Bonnie Zimmerman among many others. The social, cultural and artistic impact of this annual conference cannot be underestimated as it gathers together academics, activists, performers and writers who do not otherwise have the opportunity to address such large audiences or to network across international and professional boundaries. It is a forum for political organisation on the levels of both community activism and established international NGOs. Many books (academic and literary) and films (documentaries and dramas) are launched at this event and it is continually referenced in lesbian work and events internationally. The conference sets the parameters for debate in the manifold disciplines that now take ‘Lesbian’ or ‘Lesbian Communities’ as the object of enquiry or as a category for analysis.

*The conference organizers welcome proposals for (A) individual papers, (B) sessions, (C) round table discussions, (D) workshops and (E) visual presentations or performances: A. Individual Papers: Individual papers should last 20 minutes (c. 2,400 words). Individuals should submit: (1) paper title, (2) abstract (up to 300 words), (3) biography (c. 100-150 words), (4) institutional affiliation and address (if any), (5) audio-visual requirements. B. Sessions: Panels of academic papers should include 3 speakers and 1 moderator. Each paper should last for 20 minutes (c. 2,400 words), with a further 30 minutes for questions and discussion. Proposers should submit (1) session title, (2) paper titles, (3) abstracts for each paper (c. 100 words), (3) biography for each participant (c. 100-150 words), (4) institutional affiliation and address (if any) for each participant, (5) audio-visual requirements. C. Round Table Discussions: Round table discussions should include 6 speakers and 1 moderator. Each paper should last for 10 minutes (c. 1,200 words), with a further 30 minutes for questions and discussion. Proposers should submit (1) round table title, (2) rationale for round table (up to 300 words), (3) biography for each participant (c. 100-150 words), (4) institutional affiliation and address for each participant (if any), (5) audio-visual requirements. D. Workshops: Workshops last 90 minutes. Proposers should submit (1) workshop title, (2) rationale for workshop (up to 300 words), (3) biography (c. 100-150 words), (4) institutional affiliation and address (if any) E. Visual presentations or performances; documentary, video, art, musical, theatrical, comic or multi-media presentations by individuals or groups are welcomed.

Portas on Sexuality

Today, the Guardian carries a fabulous interview with the kick-ass Business guru Mary Portas. The memorable bit of the interview for me was her observation about Homebase. Oh I hear you Mary. However, the more important aspect for the purpose of this blog are her comments about her sexual identity. Portas is in a Civil Partnership - having previously being married to a man. She is regularly held up as a lesbian icon but she challenges these fixed labels in her interview with a rather brilliant quote:

"Errrr . . . when you look at female sexuality it's very different. Lots of women have been in love with men and then women and vice versa, it's just not so defined and I couldn't explain it in black and white. Have I loved men? Yes. Have I loved more than one woman? No. But did I know that I'd had crushes on men and women in the past? Yes. So it was never like, oooh! But was I happy in my heterosexual relationships? Yes. That's the way it just happened. I certainly wasn't a suppressed lesbian thinking, 'God, I can't wait to get out of this marriage', cos that would be just awful, awful, awful. No, my ex-husband and I know what we had, and it was great, some of the best years of my life, really some of the best. We just grew apart, and that happens. And I happened to fall in love with a woman."

Read the original Guardian story here and see Pink News' take on the story here.