Women's History in the New Millennium: Adrienne Rich's "Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence:" A Retrospective

Almost since she came to work for the Journal, managing editor Stephanie Gilmore has been lobbying for a retrospective on Adrienne Rich's classic article, "Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence." I knew from my partner, Verta Taylor, who has for many years co-edited the women's studies anthology Feminist Frontiers, that Rich had stopped giving permission to reprint her classic article. Not knowing exactly why, we bravely invited Rich to comment on the responses we were gathering, and to our delight, she not only graciously agreed to write a piece (forthcoming in the spring issue), but she also explained that she was refusing permission to reprint the original version of the article, published in Signs, because she preferred the version published in 1982 in Blood, Bread, and Poetry, since it includes a preface and postscript dealing with some of the most controversial aspects of this profoundly influential and provocative piece. Rich gave us permission to reprint that version and we are honored to do so.

"Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence" has shaped our understanding of lesbian history and the history of sexuality in the most momentous ways, which is why we offer this retrospective. We decided to invite scholars working in different fields, from different generations, to comment on what the article has meant to them and to our understandings of sexuality. We are delighted with the results, and we think you will be, too. Joan Nestle, a feminist contemporary of Rich whose passionate scholarship and activism has transformed the field of the history of sexuality, offers a moving reflection on sex, war, the sex wars, and recent history. Judy Tzu-Chun Wu, who as an undergraduate first encountered Rich in person, in the classroom, reflects on the significance of the concepts of compulsory heterosexuality and lesbian existence for Asian American women's history. Mattie Richardson, who also encountered Rich as an undergraduate, although through the printed page, asks provocative questions, based on Rich's concepts, about African American women's history, suggesting that sexual and gender deviance and lesbian sexuality have been painted over in order to present a canvas of respectability. Finally, Alison Kafer, only ten years old when the article first appeared, extends Rich's concepts to the field of disability studies, raising thought-provoking challenges to scholars to think about able-bodiedness and its relationship to sexuality.

These elegant essays urge us to consider not only what has changed since 1980, when Rich first shook the world of scholarship with her essay, but also the directions in which we are headed in what, from a historical perspective, is still the beginning of a new millennium.