Getting Specific: Postmodern Lesbian Politics

Whereas feminist theory divides between two strategies, one based on equality (or sameness) and the other on difference, this book proposes a new approach-specificity. We are neither simply "the same as" or "different from" one another, Shane Phelan observes, and any theory that assumes as much is mistaken and dangerous. Here Phelan offers an alternative, a "democratic identity politics," which recognizes the specifics of human experience and at the same time accounts for alliances and communities. Getting specific, she suggests, allows us to discover the networks of meaning and power that shape our lives and to discern and respect genuine individuality. In particular, Phelan points out the pitfalls of a lesbian feminism that ignores the specificities of race. Drawing on the theory surrounding U.S. women of color, she shows how the failure of white lesbians to consider the role of race in their lives leads to inadequate social theory and political action. These failures in turn limit the possibilities for trust and cooperation across race, and thereby weaken all struggles for democratic change. Along the way to formulating a democratic identity politics out of her critique, Phelan examines concepts of power, justice, community, interest, and liberation. In developing a new vision of coalition and alliance for lesbian feminism, she opens a new course for all political and social theorists.