Lesbian erotica, feminism, and fantasies of justice

And why do we call it "lesbian erotica" instead of "chick porn" anyway?

So here's the thing for people who don't know. "Lesbian erotica" is different now, but at one time, from the mid-80s til almost the year 2000 "lesbian erotica" was a category of (supposedly) sexy feminist writing.

The backdrop behind that era's lesbian erotica was the idea that all sex was patriarchal by default, and all commercial sex doubly so, unless and until the sexist, patriarchal dynamic was addressed within the context of the sex itself. Pornography was classed as commercial sex and widely loathed by lesbian feminists. (To be fair, there was and is a lot of terrible and sexist pornography. Even among feminist pornography there's some terrible pornography. I assume. Not that I would know anything about that.) And yet some lesbians noticed that sex was kinda hot, maybe? And that if there wasn't a guy involved, then feminism should allow a lot more room for non-sexist sex.

This notion was widely regarded as heretical and as a result many a lesbian feminist fought loudly and often uncharitably with other feminists, lesbian and not. This time of huge feminist upheaval, infighting, transformation and realignment is generally known (among people who know about the era at all) as "the sex wars". It's kinda like la guerre des farines, but 200 years later and paradoxically avec culottes.

While the fiercest battles were waged in academic journals, feminist consciousness raising groups, and anti-violence conferences, there were ancillary skirmishes. One set of those occurred over the notion that feminists might find value in sex and steamy stories (or even visual pornography, but SHHHH DON'T TELL). Quite a number of the feminists entertaining this notion even believed that reimagining the erotic could be accomplished less completely than Audre Lorde proposed and still be both positive and powerful.

It was even proposed that there could be such a thing as activist writings on sex. These would be erotic writings and classed as "erotica" as pornography was, by definition, a category of women-hating representation diametrically opposed to the aims and practices of feminism. Historical examples were used, Anaïs Nin and Sappho being perhaps the two most common, though if not certainly among the most common, to prove that writing about sex could change human minds about what sex could and should be. Perhaps, supposed these writers, the creation of a new erotica that rejected masculinity and the oppression that inevitably accompanied it might have its uses. Indeed mightn’t it have a similar effect on contemporary women, freeing them from the shackles of habituation that restricted their ability to imagine a new, woman-centred and anti-sexist form of sexuality never before seen upon the earth? (For now we will set aside the feminist sexual outsiders such as Debi Sundahl who wrote fearlessly explicit, body-centred porn for women throughout the period of the sex wars. They were important participants in feminism and the sex wars both, but manifestly not the creators of “lesbian erotica”.)

And, okay, this is a great goal, I think we can all agree. However it's also a bit of a big ask for a couple hundred lesbian feminist authors in 1985. While aiding women to reimagine their lives in liberated ways might be cool and all, most women were still stubbornly heterosexual and spending their porn bucks on Jean Auel novels about riding bareback on wild horses and the inventor of the atlatl. And little thought at all was given to the possibility that actual men might read this new class of erotica, though if it ever became sufficiently widespread men were sure to read and react to it. It is unclear what lesbian erotica writers might have done, had they received praise for their writings from heterosexual men. The idea, then, that this erotica would sweep the culture and transform ideas about sex continent wide was never deeply explored, and always more aspirational than practical.

That does not mean, however, that the authors paid no attention to the practical. Remember that the sex wars were a feminist civil war, with many of the most invested participants themselves lesbians. To disseminate their porn, excuse me, "erotica", the authors would have to sell a product that the sex positive feminists would buy, but that the sex negative feminists would not oppose so fiercely that a book on a shelf would not end friendships or divide communities.

The result was a watery erotica, in which floated images of Gaia, the earth mother, and bloomed lotus metaphors for lacustrine genitalia. The authors did all they could to avoid anything resembling the male gaze, and as a result fed their readers "dripping drops of misty mucus" and other unfortunately unpalatable phrases.

With time the sex wars ended in an uneasy cease fire, premised on the notion that feminism had so far progressed on telling women's truths, and that if some women liked to fuck then they should be allowed to say so, however wrong they were to like it. As the friction subsided, the authors' sex, inevitably, grew hotter. Over the years the content of lesbian erotica grew less mystical and more physical. The gap between women's porn and lesbian erotica narrowed before ultimately closing with the growing popularity of authors such as Tristan Taormino. For marketing reasons, as near as I can tell, the newly merged genre retained the name lesbian erotica, but was thoroughly penetrated by the conventions and explicit style of women’s porn.

That said, the dream of activist sexual writing -- call it erotica, porn, or just smut -- has never died. Activist porn is a fantasy grounded in a uniquely embodied idealism, and I like to think I am doing my part to keep it alive to this day. To that end, I invite my readers of any gender to write something sexy (or at least sex-related) in the comments that you believe invites other readers to see people or their behaviours in new ways, ways that are more honest or ways that have been neglected. And if you don't feel up to the challenge, that's fine. Leave a vague idea of the story you wish might exist to open eyes and change minds. I might even take inspiration from it and create the story you crave.

Pervert Justice, after all, is not only about changing popular notions of what constitutes justice; it also concerns itself with giving the pervert what she justly deserves.