Bisexuality and the Challenge to Lesbian Politics. Paula C Rust
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and burgeoning discipline with hundreds of minors, majors, and graduate programs throughout the United States. Lesbian Studies occupies a peripheral place in the discourse in such programs, characteristically restricted to one lesbian-centered course, usually literary or historical in nature. In the many women’s studies series that are now offered by university presses, generally only one or two books on a lesbian subject or issue are included, and lesbian voices are restricted to writing on those topics considered of special interest to gay people. We are not called upon to offer opinions on motherhood, war, education, or on the lives of women not publicly identified as lesbians. As a result, lesbian experience is too often marginalized and restricted.
In contrast, this series will prioritize, centralize, and celebrate lesbian visions of literature, art, philosophy, love, religion, ethics, history, and a myriad of other topics. In “The Cutting Edge,” readers can find authoritative versions of important lesbian texts that have been carefully prepared and introduced by scholars. Readers can also find the work of academics and independent scholars who write about other aspects of life from a distinctly lesbian viewpoint. These visions are not only various but intentionally contradictory, for lesbians speak from differing class, racial, ethnic, and religious perspectives. Each author also speaks from and about a certain moment of time, and few would argue that being a lesbian today is the same as it was for Sappho or Anne Lister. Thus, no attempt has been made to homogenize that diversity, and no agenda exists to attempt to carve out a “politically correct” lesbian studies perspective at this juncture in history or to pinpoint the “real” lesbians in history. It seems more important for all the voices to be heard before those with the blessings of aftersight lay the mantle of authenticity on any one vision of the world, or on any particular set of women.
What each work in this series does share, however, is a common realization that gay women are the “Other” and that one’s perception of culture and literature is filtered by sexual behaviors and preferences. Those perceptions are not the same as those of gay men or of nongay women, whether the writers speak of gay or feminist issues or whether the writers choose to look at nongay figures from a lesbian perspective. The role of this series is to create space and give a voice to those interested in lesbian studies. This series speaks to any person who is interested in gender studies, literary criticism, biography, or important literary works, whether she or he is a student, professor, or serious reader, for the series is neither for lesbians only nor even by lesbians only. Instead, “The Cutting Edge” attempts to share some of the best of lesbian literature and lesbian studies with anyone willing to look at the world through lesbians’ eyes. The series is proactive in that it will help to formulate and foreground the very discipline on which it focuses. Finally, this series has answered the call to make lesbian theory, lesbian experience, lesbian lives, lesbian literature, and lesbian visions the heart and nucleus, the weighty planet around which, for once, other viewpoints will swirl as moons to our earth. We invite readers of all persuasions to join us by venturing into this and other books in the series.
We are pleased to include Paula C. Rust’s Bisexuality and the Challenge to Lesbian Politics: Sex, Loyalty, and Revolution in The Cutting Edge series. Like Changing Our Minds: Lesbian Feminism and Psychology by Celia Kitzinger and Rachel Perkins, Rust tackles a controversial topic within the lesbian community. In a thoughtful study that is both enlightening and provocative, Rust analyzes the bisexual woman, a person who has often been marginalized or even scorned within the lesbian community. Bisexual women and men will find this book affirming, and those who are either firmly homosexual or heterosexual will find this book to be a treasure of useful knowledge.
KARLA JAY
Professor of English and Women’s Studies
Pace University
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
First and foremost, I am deeply grateful to the 470 women who took the time to participate in this study during its many interview and questionnaire phases, from the “speed demon” who completed the questionnaire in a mere 45 minutes to everyone who gave five or six hours of their lives to help make this project happen. Special thanks go to the six women who assisted me by conducting the early phase interviews, giving me feedback on the questionnaire, and finally distributing questionnaires to several hundred women: Beth Masck, Beverly Santiago, Debbie Hillebrand, Elizabeth S., Lorna Rodriguez Rust, and Susan Gold.
I would also like to thank the members of my dissertation committee, who supported me in the research on which this book is based. When I decided to do research on lesbians’ attitudes about issues that are important within the lesbian community instead of research on a “safe” topic with a “broader” appeal, I thought I was risking my career. Who would take me seriously, and how would I ever find a job? Mary Jackman, Mayer Zald, Beth Reed, and Mark Chesler enthusiastically supported me throughout the project. My most sincere thanks go to Mary Jackman, who spent many, many hours straining her eyes over the initial draft of my dissertation, patiently wading through pages of detailed digressions and writing over and over again the comment “cut drastically.” The support I received from the University of Michigan extended beyond the efforts of individual faculty; the Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies gave me the grant that made the research possible.
I am also grateful to those people who have supported me since, including the members of my department at Hamilton College who are my friends as well as my colleagues, Doug Raybeck who gave me the nudge I needed to start publishing the findings of my research, Niko Pfund of New York University Press who was interested enough in my work to inquire about it, Karla Jay who accepted it as part of her series “The Cutting Edge,” all the editors and anonymous reviewers along the way who taught me the writing skills I thought I had, my mother Mildred Rust who eagerly reads everything I write, and both my parents for giving me a solid start in life and a love of knowledge. In addition, several undergraduate student assistants helped with various stages of data preparation and coding. My thanks to each of them, especially Jacqueline Vargas and Danielle LaGrange for doing the most tedious kinds of work carefully and cheerfully at all hours of the day and night. The book you hold in your hands is not a revised dissertation; it is a book written from the ground up with the help and support of many people.
Finally, my deepest gratitude and love go to my most enthusiastic supporter, Lorna Rodríguez Rust, who has been with me through everything for the last eleven years. I saw her through her board exams, and now she has seen me through the birth of my first book.
INTRODUCTION
—I feel people who think they are bisexual are confused about it, or in transition.
—It does not exist.
—Everyone is inherently bisexual.
—Bisexuals are indiscriminate—they just sleep with anybody.
—People who love people regardless of sex.
—In a more egalitarian society, I’d be much more supportive of women who choose to sleep with men, but now, I’d prefer them to unite with lesbian women and build the strength of our community and movement.
Bisexuality touches very sensitive personal and political nerves among lesbians. The very idea sparks heated debate. Does bisexuality really exist, or is it a phase one goes through while coming out as lesbian? Are bisexuals women who have succeeded in casting off the repressive strictures of our sex-phobic society in order to express the full range of their sexuality, or are they lesbians suffering from an internalized homophobia that prevents them from recognizing their true sexual nature? Is bisexuality a sign of political cowardice among those who are unwilling to give up heterosexual privilege, or is it the next step in sexual liberation?
Bisexuals are beginning to organize politically. Local bisexual organizations that began as support groups have become increasingly political and begun to network with each other. In June of 1990, the North American Multicultural Bisexual Network1 was founded at the BiPOL conference in San Francisco; in October of 1991, the First International Bisexual