23 usually erotic attraction of a woman to another woman. First used in the late 16th
century, the word lesbian referred to the Greek island of Lesbos. However, the more common usage of lesbianism describes a female
homosexual which was coined by a lesbian poet Sappho c. 610 – c. 580
BC
in the late 19th century who commonly wrote homo-erotic poetry. Thus, lesbian is
recognized as a romantic feeling between women. In other words, it can be defined as a sexual relationship of a woman with another woman, either in long-
term relationships or simply in short-term ones. The issues concerning the lesbians in Europe and North America happened at the turn of the 21st century in
terms of legal recognition for same-sex unions, child-rearing rights, womens health-care, taxes, inheritance, and the sharing of medical benefits with a
partner.
13
Brooten uses the “lesbian” term to refer to “a woman who behave like a man i.e., usurps a male culturall role and is oriented towards female companions
for sex”.
14
She explains that this definition accords with the Roman-period cultural conceptualizations of female homoeroticism.
2. Lesbian Criticism
Humm defines lesbian feminism as “a belief that women-identified women, committed together for political, sexual and economic support, provides
an alternative model to malefemale relations which lesbians see as oppressive”.
15
According to Charlotte Bunch, Ti-Grace Atkinson, and Andrienne Rich, lesbian feminism engages both a sexual preference and a political choice because it
13
Maggie Humm, The Dictionary of Feminist Theory, p. 117.
14
Bernadette J. Brooten, Love Between Women: Early Christian Responses to Female Homoeroticism, ChicagoLondon: The University of Chicago Press, 1996, p. 17.
15
Maggie Humm, The Dictionary of Feminist Theory, p. 117.
24 rejects male definitions of women’s lives. Both the institution and the ideology of
heterosexuality are attacked by Lesbian feminism because of considered as being centre of patriarchy. Thus, lesbian feminism is a movement of female or a variety
of feminist belief and practice which emphasize on sexual and or political goal. It is a cultural movement and critical perspective that questions the position of
women and lesbians in society in the 1970s up to early 1980s. There is historical background why lesbian feminist rising. One of them
was influenced by the dissatisfaction of some feminists within the feminist movement itself. Feminist movement is considered unsuccessful to answer the
whole range of women problems, because it neglected the sexual oppression of women or lesbian. Around 1970s, a variety of groups within the feminist
movement initiated to convey their dissatisfaction with a collective feminism that they increasingly saw as shaped by the interests of the dominant group within the
movement: white, middle-class, collage-educated, and heterosexual women
16
. Consequently, the groups that did not or could not identify with this mainstream
progressively separate itself from the conventional feminism to formulate their own feminism. The examples of some independent groups of feminist are black
feminists, Chicana feminists and lesbian feminist. As maintained by lesbian feminists, the mainstream feminists questioned the traditional views of gender,
although they are failed to question the traditional views of the same-sex relation. Thus, lesbian feminism turns away from the conventional feminism to pursue its
own separate trail.
16
Hans Bertens, Literary Theory: The Basics, New York: Routledge, 2008, pp. 218-219.
25 Lesbian criticism and feminist criticism initiated efforts to fight patriarchal
oppression. There are differences among the two types of criticism, i.e. feminist and lesbian criticisms. The initial criticism gives major concern on “sexism” in
patriarchal domain, whereas lesbian criticism deals with both sexism and heterosexism. Therefore, lesbian critics address the issues of psychological,
social, economic and political oppressions encouraged by patriarchy and heterosexisms.
17
According to the history, since the mid-1980s, lesbians have contested the marginalization fostered by heterosexual feminist; while color and working class
lesbians have refused to be marginalized by white middle-class lesbians. Hence, Tyson emphasizes that “This criticism therefore has remained one of the richest
and exciting issues of research and political activity”.
18
One of the highly interesting questions is the definition of lesbian itself and how someone can be
identified as a lesbian. In answering the above mentioned question, there are a number of critical
opinions from different literary scholars. Similar to this question is “can a lesbian be defined as a woman who has sex with another woman?” If this question is
answered based on heterosexualism, this would mean that virgins who thought of themselves as heterosexual would have no right to call themselves heterosexuals
unless and until they had genital sex with man.
19
Therefore, it brings us to the conclusion that one’s sexuality must be defined in terms of one’s sexual desire
and sexual activity.
17
Lois Tyson, Critical Theory Today, p. 323.
18
Lois Tyson, Critical Theory Today, p. 323.
19
Lois Tyson, Critical Theory Today, p. 323.
26 According to Tyson, a more appropriate definition of a lesbian is “a
woman whose sexual desire is directed toward women”.
20
According to her opinion this definition has an advantage in identifying a heterosexual married
woman as a lesbian. Because of the fact that there are some married women who were romantically and sexually attracted to women rather than to men even
though they may have loved and respected their husbands,. For example, Virginia Wolf who had affair with Vita Sackville-West when she was still legally married
with her husband.
21
Another focus of lesbian criticism is “romantic friendship” in 19th century in Britain and America. In this kind of relationship there is passionate attachment
and tenderest love expressions, but there is no evidence of sexual activity or desire. Therefore, it is not reasonable to argue that expressions of passion such as
“I love you my darling, more than I can express, more than I am conscious of myself”, are indicating sexual desire, or a kind of sexual activity. Tyson explains
that at this period of time is known for its overblown sentimentally and excesses of verbal expression, and effusions of physical affection between women. All of
those things were accepted, even encouraged, by patriarchy as charming displays of women’s “overemotional nature”.
22
Therefore, from female romantic friendships perspective in this 19
th
century, it is treated as an appropriate subject for lesbian analysis, whether or not they involved sexual desire or activity.
Tyson states that defining sexual activity or sexual desire today has a risk of ignoring an important dimension of women’s life. That may be well understood
20
Lois Tyson, Critical Theory Today, p. 324.
21
Lois Tyson, Critical Theory Today, p. 324.
22
Lois Tyson, Critical Theory Today, p. 324.
27 by lesbians. She indicates that in order to do away with this ignorance and to
promote solidarity among all women, some lesbian theorists have suggested that lesbian identity is not limited to the sexual domain. In contrast, lesbian identity
consists of directing one’s attention and emotional energy to other women and having other women as one’s primary source of emotional and psychological
support.
23
Andrienne Rich calls this a “lesbian continuum”. She says: “it includes a range - through each woman’s life and throughout history - of woman-identified
experience, not simply the fact that a woman has had or consciously desired genital sexual experienced with another woman”.
24
Women-identified experience can be emotional bonding through shared work or play, the giving and receiving
of psychological support, and the shared experience of joy in life. Then, Berry also explores that this lesbian continuum “designates a wide variety of female
behavior, running, for instance, from informal mutual help networks set up women within particular professions or institutions, through supportive female
friendships and finally, to sexual relationships.”
25
Meanwhile Zimmerman emphasizes that it is as interconnections among the various ways in which women
bond together.
26
Furthermore, some lesbian theorists argue that by denying men access to their bodies, lesbians deny patriarchy and heterosexuality as its main component.
This means lesbianism could be a tool, a tool that is used to end patriarchy and heterosexuality. Such kinds of lesbians are sometimes called separatists since they
23
Lois Tyson, Critical Theory Today, p. 324.
24
Lois Tyson, Critical Theory Today, p. 325.
25
Peter Barry,
Beginning Theory:
An Introduction
to Literary and
Cultural Theory,
ManchesterNew York: Manchester University Press, 1995, p. 142.
26
Peter Barry, Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory, p. 142.
28 try by all means to disassociate themselves from all men esp. male domination,
including gay men, and from heterosexual women or even from the lesbians who do not share their view.
27
That is the reason why from the separatism perspective lesbianism is not merely an issue of personal sexuality. It also has a political
mission. However, separatism is not only a way of fighting patriarchy and heterosexuality. It also means to save other purposes in the lives of women, to
provide protection and security for women. For example, it serves as the provision of shelters for beaten physical abuse women, divorce, women studies programs,
legalization of abortion and many other issues facing women.
28
Another more critical question is in what way a literary work can be acknowledged as a lesbian text. Responding to this problem, Tyson remarks the
complexity in indicating whether a particular writer is a lesbian or not. Hence, we cannot depend on the author’s sexual orientation to categorize a text as a lesbian
text, especially after given the preceeding definition of that term lesbian. Furthermore, she states that “Even if we know it, we cannot be too sure to tell
whether or not we are reading a lesbian text”
29
. In spite of the complexity, Zimmerman provides three categories to
determine the lesbian text. The first category emphasizes on the sexual orientation of the author, whether she is a lesbian or not. The second one implies on the
content of the story, whether it tells about the life of a lesbian or not. The final category concentrates more on the theme of story, whether it talks about the
27
Lois Tyson, Critical Theory Today, p. 325.
28
Lois Tyson, Critical Theory Today, p. 325.
29
Lois Tyson, Critical Theory Today, p. 326.
29 “vision” of lesbianism or not.
30
Based on these categories, lesbian literature can be defined as works which deal with lesbian and or lesbianism. It involves lesbian
characters, plot or theme portraying lesbians and their life as well as their relationship written by lesbians and non-lesbian authors.
3. Queer Theory
