Reclaiming lesbian feminisms: Beginning discussions on communities, geographies and politics

In the late 1980s, critiques of the universalism of second-wave feminism led to the re-evaluation of lesbian feminism, a diverse movement that had been developing in North American and West European context since the early 1970s. New generations of lesbians increasingly rejected many of its ideals and stereotyped past lesbian movements as essentialist and exclusionary. Contending that as gender continues to be relevant to sexuality politics, in this paper we discuss whether lesbian feminisms might have something to offer contemporary LGBT and queer politics. Our investigation focuses on re-examining the limitations and possibilities of lesbian feminisms for contemporary politics, practice and theory. Using a question-and-answer format, the paper is structured as a discussion between three separate/individual authors, each of whom is differently situated. The result is a cross-cultural, interdisciplinary, and multi-generational assessment by three post-lesbian feminists working with gender and sexualities in geography and sociology.