Beyond the Gay/Straight Split: Socialist Feminists in Baltimore

In recent histories of U.S. feminism, collaborations between lesbians and heterosexuals are overshadowed by the infamous "gay/straight split" of the early 1970s. In lesbian history, seventies androgyny is often characterized as a lesbian-feminist indictment of butch-femme lesbians' gender, which obscures androgyny's polyvalence. Oral history and a locally published journal illustrate how feminists in a Baltimore neighborhood shared politics and an idealized "socialist gender" in the 1970s. The article reveals that women "dressed down" in ways that de-emphasized their femininity and emphasized their critique of consumer capitalism. It argues that the continuing historical construction of the split between feminist lesbians and their heterosexual counterparts limits both the history of women's liberation and of sexuality.