Against the Dividing of Women: Lesbian Feminism and Heterosexuality

I am arguing for a continuity of interests between lesbians and heterosexual women, and that lesbians and heterosexual women have common experiences which enable them to understand and empathize with each other. I document the history of the feminist critique of heterosexuality from early radical feminism to the contemporary arguments of Rich (1980), Raymond (1986) and Penelope (1985a, 1985b, 1985c). From a lesbian feminist standpoint, I suggest that setting up an oppositional dichotomy between `lesbian' and `heterosexual' divides women from each other and perpetuates the heterosexual hegemony. The continuing revaluation and redefinition of lesbianism is essential in order to achieve the political priority of feminism: an end to male domination.