Life as a Lesbian Feminist: An Interview with Holly Hughes
Introduction
Through intersectionality, an individual’s experience is shaped by various combinations of intersecting identities. Conceptions such as race/ethnicity, class and sexual orientation can all drastically affect what a person goes through in their lifetime and the oppression they may face. Through issues of sexism, heterosexism, invisibility, absence or misrepresentation in the media, identity development and evolving ideals of various social movements such as feminism, it becomes clear just how influential one’s identity may be. Holly Hughes, an American lesbian performance artist born in 1955 in the Midwest, faced all of these issues and more throughout her life. Within …show more content…
Intersectionality is an integral factor in explaining the varying experiences of differing individuals. It primarily “emphasizes that each person belongs to multiple social groups, based on categories such as ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation and social class,” (Matlin, 2012). This indicates that experiences of a white lesbian may differ from the experience of a lesbian of African American decent and so forth. Matlin (2012) states intersectionality declares that one cannot simply combine the experiences of two individuals to match that of someone with both of their identities. For instance, the experience of a white straight women cannot be combined with the experience of a black gay male in order to equate the experience of a black lesbian. Although ignored in traditional feminism, these experiences are reconnoitered in what is known as womanism, which proclaims other forms of feminism place too much emphasis on gender and should “pay attention to other human dimensions such as ethnicity and social class,” (Matlin, 2012). Presumably, this refers to differing sexual orientation as well and implies one may have more difficult experiences in traditional feminism due to confliction with other personal …show more content…
However, recent research claims this is most likely not the case. With evidence for a more fluid model of identity development, several common themes have been identified. One major influence lesbians appear to face are silencing forces, or external factors inhibiting lesbian identity development. One such factor in Hughes life was her family/community environment whilst growing up. Hughes (2004) described her family life as “hideous in a very typically American middle-class white way,” as they were generally unhappy. This made the development of her sexual identity that much harder to achieve. “This unsupportive family context limited Hughes’s ability to vocalize her developing sexuality by silencing expression about sexuality and other aspects of identity,” (Shapiro, Rios, & Stewart, 2010). Unfortunately Hughes was unable to shake these silencing forces when she finally left home for college. The school she went to was rather religious, and although Hughes identified as a Christian at the time, she found her religion and lesbian identity to be discordant, (Hughes, 2004). Overall, her college experience was very stifling. “…Lesbian sexuality was invisible or discouraged,” as she “described her undergraduate years as a time of struggle against her environment during which her sexual identity development was shaped by a lack of support and engagement,” (Shapiro,
Introduction
Through intersectionality, an individual’s experience is shaped by various combinations of intersecting identities. Conceptions such as race/ethnicity, class and sexual orientation can all drastically affect what a person goes through in their lifetime and the oppression they may face. Through issues of sexism, heterosexism, invisibility, absence or misrepresentation in the media, identity development and evolving ideals of various social movements such as feminism, it becomes clear just how influential one’s identity may be. Holly Hughes, an American lesbian performance artist born in 1955 in the Midwest, faced all of these issues and more throughout her life. Within …show more content…
Intersectionality is an integral factor in explaining the varying experiences of differing individuals. It primarily “emphasizes that each person belongs to multiple social groups, based on categories such as ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation and social class,” (Matlin, 2012). This indicates that experiences of a white lesbian may differ from the experience of a lesbian of African American decent and so forth. Matlin (2012) states intersectionality declares that one cannot simply combine the experiences of two individuals to match that of someone with both of their identities. For instance, the experience of a white straight women cannot be combined with the experience of a black gay male in order to equate the experience of a black lesbian. Although ignored in traditional feminism, these experiences are reconnoitered in what is known as womanism, which proclaims other forms of feminism place too much emphasis on gender and should “pay attention to other human dimensions such as ethnicity and social class,” (Matlin, 2012). Presumably, this refers to differing sexual orientation as well and implies one may have more difficult experiences in traditional feminism due to confliction with other personal …show more content…
However, recent research claims this is most likely not the case. With evidence for a more fluid model of identity development, several common themes have been identified. One major influence lesbians appear to face are silencing forces, or external factors inhibiting lesbian identity development. One such factor in Hughes life was her family/community environment whilst growing up. Hughes (2004) described her family life as “hideous in a very typically American middle-class white way,” as they were generally unhappy. This made the development of her sexual identity that much harder to achieve. “This unsupportive family context limited Hughes’s ability to vocalize her developing sexuality by silencing expression about sexuality and other aspects of identity,” (Shapiro, Rios, & Stewart, 2010). Unfortunately Hughes was unable to shake these silencing forces when she finally left home for college. The school she went to was rather religious, and although Hughes identified as a Christian at the time, she found her religion and lesbian identity to be discordant, (Hughes, 2004). Overall, her college experience was very stifling. “…Lesbian sexuality was invisible or discouraged,” as she “described her undergraduate years as a time of struggle against her environment during which her sexual identity development was shaped by a lack of support and engagement,” (Shapiro,