Lesbian Politics: Sex, Difference, and Domination (In-Person)
208 West 13th Street, #210
New York, NY 10011
“Lesbians are not women,” the feminist theorist Monique Wittig famously pronounced. But what did she mean? According to Wittig’s theory, sexual difference is an ideology, not an ontological given. The relationship of woman to man is one of domination, determined as much by material and economic oppression as language and discourse. In other words, “there is no sex. Only sex that is oppressed and sex that oppresses.” By existing outside of heterosexuality, lesbians refuse the category of “woman” and break its ontological illusion of timeless difference: what Wittig calls the “heterosexual contract.” How, with Wittig, can we understand the possibilities of a feminism that seeks to abolish sex? What is the political role of lesbians within a heterosexual system? Can heterosexuality itself exist without producing or participating in sexed oppression, and if not, what are the alternatives? What is the meaning—and what are the possibilities—of lesbian politics?
In this course, we will draw on Wittig’s work, as well as that of other French thinkers, including Simone de Beauvoir and Colette Guillaumin, to explore what a lesbian political theory can mean and its liberatory potential within and against patriarchy and the heterosexual paradigm. Following the intellectual and political debates among Wittig and her contemporaries, we will probe the limits and possibilities of lesbian theory as a basis for the abolition of the “sex-class system.” How did Wittig and her fellow materialist feminists differentiate themselves from “French Feminist” theorists like Hélène Cixous and Luce Irigaray? How did Wittig’s creative experiments with gender and storytelling lay the groundwork for the emergence of queer theory in the United States? What can a lesbian politics provide for non-lesbians, both gay and straight? Authors will include Monique Wittig, Simone de Beauvoir, Christine Delphy, Colette Guillaumin, Françoise d’Eaubonne, and Françoise Verges.
Course Schedule
Monday, 6:30-9:30pm ETOctober 19 — November 09, 2026
4 weeks
$355.00
Registration Open