Unpacking queer politics - Sheila Jeffreys

Unpacking Queer Politics argues that the strong lesbian feministmovement of the 1970s, which was able to articulate a philosophyand practice that distinguished lesbian politics from gay malepolitics, was submerged in the 1990s beneath a gay male agendacalled queer politics.





The new politics repudiated lesbian feminist ideas and celebrated'manhood' as a goal for gay men. Practices which construct this'manhood', such as sadomasochism, cutting and piercing,female-to-male transsexual surgery, and which are promoted in queerpolitics, need to be understood as forms of self-harm which resultfrom the oppression of lesbians and gay men. The political agendaof queer politics is damaging to the interests of lesbians, womenin general, and to marginalized and vulnerable constituencies ofgay men.


The book concludes by arguing that precisely the commitment toequality in relationships and sex that has been so important tolesbian feminists, and so excoriated in much of queer theory,should form the basis of a social transformation. In this waylesbians should be seen as the vanguard of social change.