Lesbian Porn Magazines and the Sex Wars: Reimagining Sex, Power, and Identity

Description

Lesbian Porn Magazines and the Sex Wars re-examines the heated debates about the politics of sexuality known as the sex wars, investigating how they were fundamentally engaged in the complex intersections of gender, race, class, and sexuality. Groeneveld presents an accessible and fascinating framing of lesbian sex magazines as activist media texts engaged in education, community building, and dialogue, amplifying theories or writers and artists across the intersectional spectrum. Making use of archival material and a cohort of lesbian radical porn magazines, the book posits that collectively these magazines helped create and circulate new ideas about sex, power, and identity. The chapters cover lesbian public culture, trans self-representation, AIDS activism, and issues of consent. This is an essential intervention into sexuality studies and is suitable for students and scholars in gender and sexuality studies, sociology, media studies, literature, and cultural studies. Lesbian Porn Magazines and the Sex Wars: Reimagining Sex, Power and Identity is the 2021 winner of the NWSA Routledge Subversive Histories, Feminist Futures Prize. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents List of Figures Preface Notes Acknowledgements Introduction The Sex Wars Studying Lesbian Sex Magazines An Overview of Lesbian Sex Magazines Defining Lesbian Porn Chapter Overview Notes Chapter 1: Letters to the Editor as Frictional Space Letters to the Editor Sections as Frictional Space The Racialized Discourse of Anti-Pornography Feminism BDSM and the Sex Wars Rethinking Lesbian Identity Conclusion Notes Chapter 2: Micro-Theorizing, Pedagogies of Pleasure, and the Sexual Imperative in Lesbian Sex Advice Columns Overview: Advice Columns in Lesbian Sex Magazines Pedagogies of Pleasure and Pleasure Activism Cultivating Community and Collaborative Knowledge-Building Practices The Sexual Imperative: The Changing Terrain of Sex-Positive Feminism Micro-Theorizing Lesbian/Queer Identities Conclusion Notes Chapter 3: “The Possibility of Freedom”: Black Feminist Sex Radical Theorizing Some Race Trouble with the Sex Wars Navigating Hypersexualization Code Switching, Allyship, and Coalition The Possibility of Slavery/the Possibility of Freedom “Playing in the Slime”: Fantasies of Racial Revenge Playing with Fear Conclusion Notes Chapter 4: Small Activisms: Trans Self-Representation in Lesbian Sex Magazines Reading Trans and Lesbian Histories Small Activism, Big Impact Gender Fucking The Emergence of Trans Discourse Transsexual Nudes The Emergence of Transfeminism Conclusion Notes Chapter 5: Making Lesbian/Trans Lifeworlds in Fiction and in Fact Dreaming Trans Lifeworlds into Being Imagining Lesbian Public Cultures through Fantasy Creating Nationalized Lesbian Sex Publics The International Reach of Lesbian Sex Magazines Bookstores as Lesbian Infrastructure Conclusion Notes Chapter 6: AIDS Information Activism and Networks of Care AIDS Information Activism in Lesbian Sex Magazines Pedagogies of Pleasure Networks of Care Redefining Lesbian Identity Information vs. Practice Conclusion Notes Chapter 7: Consent and Lesbian Porn Magazines Consent and the Sex Wars Outrageous Women ’s Consent Statement Framing Non-Consent in Lesbian Pornographic Fiction When Consent Doesn't Matter, I: The Case of “Wunna My Fantasies” When Consent Doesn’t Matter, II: The On Our Backs Digitization Debate Conclusion Notes Conclusion: The Afterlife of Lesbian Porn Notes Bibliography Index