The real problem here is that we stopped asking questions too early in the lesbian and feminist movement, and rushed to erect what appeared to be answers into the formidable and rigid edifice that we have now. One of the most deeply held opinions in feminism is that women should be autonomous and self-directed in defining their sexual desire, yet when a woman says “This is my desire,” feminists rush in to say, “No, no, it is the prick in your head women should not desire that act.” But we do not yet know enough about what women– any women– desire. “Politically correct sexuality is a paradoxical concept.

The Persistent Desire: A Femme-Butch Reader Passive resistance or the fist is most appropriate for the situation, though not a very good basis for theater and humor.” Without a solid organization of all women, this requires taking on a male identity, beating men at their own game. For women to confront male authority is to break all traditional training and roles. The queen was playing with male privilege, which was his by birthright. For queens to confront male authority was a confrontation between two men, on some level equals. In lesbians’ actual struggles in the bars or out on the streets, authority was always male. But why didn’t camp develop and thrive within the lesbian community itself? Because the structures of oppression were such that lesbians never really escaped from male supremacy. Therefore, such objectification could never be the basis for a genre of humor with wide appeal. Concomitantly although individual women might be able to sexually objectify a man, women has a group did not have the social power to objectify men in general. The most obvious cause for the minimum development of camp among lesbians was that masculinity was not and still isn’t as incongruous as femininity in twentieth century American culture and therefore not as easily used as a basis for humor. Gay male camp is based not simply on the incongruous juxtaposition of femininity and maleness, but also on the reordering of particular power relationships inherent in our society’s version of masculinity and femininity. “The difference between the butch and the queen is rooted in the system of male supremacy.

The persistent desire joan nestle