In this episode, the two co-hosts Helena Kondak & Astrid Healy-Carrasco, Gender Agenda member Martha Dacombe, and the newest member of the podcast team, Faith Cunningham, discuss how political lesbianism, defined as the wilful choice to disengage from any romantic or sexual relations with men, has been used to fight back against growing misogyny. We traced the history of the movement to the ideological debates of the feminist 2nd wave in the United States, and explored its modern application in South Korea through the 4b movement. We then weighed the pros and cons of this mode of action, as this movement offers an individual solution while perpetuating constraints on women’s freedom and establishing sexuality as a potential choice.
Inviting you to debate with us, we made a few references:
Alice Coffin, The Lesbian Genius
Amia Srinivasan, The Right to Sex (2021); https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/09/13/who-lost-the-sex-wars, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3csvtw2#:~:text=A%20group%20of%20feminists%20in,of%20the%20first%20lesbian%20separatists
Monique Wittig, The Straight Mind
Figures & groups:
- Andrea Dworkin
- The Furies
- The 4B movement
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