‘A real lesbian wouldn't touch a bisexual with a bargepole'

Critical Discourse Studies 12 (2):139-162 (2015)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Drawn from an investigation of the construction of collective identity in DIVA magazine between 1994 and 2004, this article considers the discursive contestation of the boundaries necessarily, though never straightforwardly, erected in the process. Analysing first a selection of articles and second debates about who ‘we’ are in and between readers' letters, the article focuses on the ‘trouble’ posed by bisexuality in this era. Readers draw on and contest a cluster of interrelated characterisations of bisexuals: as undecided, as a kind of pollutant, and as inadequate facsimiles of ‘real lesbians', as well as more or less open characterisations of ‘us’. These arguments are necessarily managed editorially, and always ‘end’ with calls for acceptance. This does not fully recover the ambiguity with which bisexuality is handled, however, and the article concludes by discussing the dilemma faced by the imagined community.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,221

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Adventures in Lesbian Philosophy.Claudia Card (ed.) - 1994 - Indiana University Press.
Born That Way? The Metaphysics of Queer Liberation.Maren Behrensen - 2013 - APA Newsletter on Philosophy and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Issues 12 (2):2-7.
The Reversibility of Teacher and Student: Teaching/Learning Intersectionality and Activism Amidst the LGBTQ Protest.Jennifer McWeeny - 2011 - American Philosophical Association Newsletter on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Issues 10 (2):5-12.

Analytics

Added to PP
2018-08-01

Downloads
13 (#882,392)

6 months
3 (#439,386)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations