18.2.10

ΣΑΝ ΣΗΜΕΡΑ. AUDRE LORD

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- Κάρλα: Ποιον ορισμό θα έδινες για το να είσαι λεσβία;
--Audre: Γυναίκες με πολύ ισχυρή γυναικεία ταυτότητα, όπου η αγάπη κι ο έρωτας μεταξύ γυναικών είναι ανοιχτά και πιθανά, με κάθε δυνατό τρόπο, πέρα από το σαρκικό. Υπάρχουν λεσβίες, ένας θεός ξέρει.. αν γνώριζες λεσβιακούς κύκλους στη δεκαετία των '40 και των '50 στη Νέα Υόρκη ... που δεν ήταν φεμινίστριες, και δεν αυτοαποκαλούνταν φεμινίστριες. Αλλά η αληθινή φεμινίστρια λειτουργεί μέσα από μια λεσβιακή συνειδητότητα, είτε κοιμάται με γυναίκες, είτε όχι. Δεν μπορώ να το ορίσω μόνο με σεξουαλικούς όρους, αν και η σεξουαλικότητά μας έχει τόση ενέργεια, που γιατί να μην την απολαμβάνουμε; Κι έτσι επιστρέφουμε στην ανάγκη να προσδιορίσουμε το ερωτικό. Υπάρχουν τόσο πολλοί τρόποι να περιγράψουμε το τί είναι "λεσβία". Τμήμα της λεσβιακής συνειδητότητας είναι η απόλυτη αποδοχή του ερωτισμού στη ζωή μας και, προχωρώντας ένα βήμα παρακάτω, να χειριστούμε το ερωτικό όχι μόνο με σεξουαλικούς όρους ...
Hammond, Karla. "An Interview with Audre Lorde." American Poetry Review March/April 1980 (sapphogr.net)

Audre Geraldine Lorde (February 18, 1934 - November 17, 1992) was a Caribbean-American writer, poet and activist.
Theory
Lorde criticised feminists of the 1960s, from the National Organization for Women to Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique, for focusing on the particular experiences and values of white middle-class women. Her writings are based on the "theory of difference", the idea that the binary opposition between men and women is overly simplistic: although feminists have found it necessary to present the illusion of a solid, unified whole, the category of women itself is full of subdivisions.
Lorde identified issues of class, race, age, gender and even health — this last was added as she battled cancer in her later years — as being fundamental to the female experience. She argued that, although the gender difference has received all the focus, these other differences are also essential and must be recognised and addressed. "Lorde", it is written, "puts her emphasis on the authenticity of experience. She wants her difference acknowledged but not judged; she does not want to be subsumed into the one general category of 'woman'".[8] In a period during which the women's movement was associated with white middle-class women, Lorde campaigned for a feminist movement conscious of both race and class.
While acknowledging that the differences between women are wide and varied, most of Lorde's works are concerned with two subsets which concerned her primarily — race and sexuality. She observes that black women's experiences are different from those of white women, and that, because the experience of the white woman is considered normative, the black woman's experiences are marginalised; similarly, the experiences of the lesbian (and, in particular, the black lesbian) are considered aberrational, not in keeping with the true heart of the feminist movement. Although they are not considered normative, Lorde argues that these experiences are nevertheless valid and feminine.
Lorde stunned white feminists with her claim that racism, sexism and homophobia were linked, all coming from the failure to recognise or inability to tolerate difference. To allow these differences to continue to function as dividers, she believed, would be to replicate the oppression of women: as long as society continues to function in binaries, with a mandatory greater and lesser, Normative and Other, women will never be free. (en.wikipedia.org)

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