Surface Tension: Love, Sex, and Politics Between Lesbians and Straight Women
Representing a fascinating spectrum of feelings and opinions about lesbianism, the friendships women share -- or fear -- and the rich diversity of personal choices women make today, this collection of brash and thoughtful essays, stories, and interviews offers\ -- Dorothy Allison on what it means to be a lesbian\ -- Carla Trujillo on the impact of "sexual betrayal" by an ex-lover\ -- Elizabeth Wurtzel on the creative freedom experienced only by lesbians\ -- Susie Bright on the sexual dance...
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Representing a fascinating spectrum of feelings and opinions about lesbianism, the friendships women share -- or fear -- and the rich diversity of personal choices women make today, this collection of brash and thoughtful essays, stories, and interviews offers-- Dorothy Allison on what it means to be a lesbian-- Carla Trujillo on the impact of "sexual betrayal" by an ex-lover-- Elizabeth Wurtzel on the creative freedom experienced only by lesbians-- Susie Bright on the sexual dance between lesbians and straight women-- Guinevere Turner on the pain of reconciling one's sexual orientation with past relationships Publishers Weekly Addressing seemingly all the permutations of lesbian/straight relationships and identity (the friendship between gay and straight women, straight women who pass as gay women, bisexual women, sexual relations with lesbians who eventually become straight), poet and essayist Daly's collection is certainly wide-ranging, but it's also rather formless. Many of the pieces are confessional, but readers (or readers likely to buy this book) will find that the guilt, the disapproval, not to mention the mechanics, sound familiar. Some writing is jargon-filled (``culturally I am woman-identified''; ``I told Becky it was a little hard for me to be nonreductive'') or just bad (``maybe she's desirous in general currently and I'm receptive to desirousness.''). There is some good writing: notably Lisa Palac's delightful, bemused description of sexual experimentation through the personals and Guinevere Turner's touching account of a chance encounter with a woman who shared her childhood in a commune. Two straight women, perhaps because they are outsiders among outsiders, give very clear readings of social and political complications: Ann Powers discusses the muddled issue of straight women committed to queer politics, while Daphne Merkin is painfully honest in her opinion that male homosexuality has a greater validity than lesbianism: ``When I think of two women together, I think of it as the default position... I have no doubt that somewhere in this assessment floats a sadder, more insidious piece of reality, having to do with the way women continue to be perceived by society at large and how we in turn assess one another.'' (Jan.)
Introduction9Between Girls17"How We Met": An Interview with Gloria Steinem and Robin Morgan29Kat34Like Cutting Off My Arm38Working Out47Can't Help It55lifeline64Till Men Do Us Part70The Kick Inside82What Is It About Straight Women?95A Closet of One's Own: On Not Becoming a Lesbian99Wives111An excerpt from Trilogy126Queer in the Streets, Straight in the Sheets: Notes on Passing133Conceptual Lesbianism142Photographs and My Faux-Lesbian Body151Almost a Dyke: In Search of the Perfect Bisexual160The Queer Kitchen169The Old Age Home175Sharing the Bathroom178Low Cut186Interview with Jessica Hagedorn197The (Fe)male Gaze202If Only I'd Been Born a Kosher Chicken218The Disappeared231Listening236Contributors247Permissions Acknowledgments253
\ Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly\ Addressing seemingly all the permutations of lesbian/straight relationships and identity (the friendship between gay and straight women, straight women who pass as gay women, bisexual women, sexual relations with lesbians who eventually become straight), poet and essayist Daly's collection is certainly wide-ranging, but it's also rather formless. Many of the pieces are confessional, but readers (or readers likely to buy this book) will find that the guilt, the disapproval, not to mention the mechanics, sound familiar. Some writing is jargon-filled (``culturally I am woman-identified''; ``I told Becky it was a little hard for me to be nonreductive'') or just bad (``maybe she's desirous in general currently and I'm receptive to desirousness.''). There is some good writing: notably Lisa Palac's delightful, bemused description of sexual experimentation through the personals and Guinevere Turner's touching account of a chance encounter with a woman who shared her childhood in a commune. Two straight women, perhaps because they are outsiders among outsiders, give very clear readings of social and political complications: Ann Powers discusses the muddled issue of straight women committed to queer politics, while Daphne Merkin is painfully honest in her opinion that male homosexuality has a greater validity than lesbianism: ``When I think of two women together, I think of it as the default position... I have no doubt that somewhere in this assessment floats a sadder, more insidious piece of reality, having to do with the way women continue to be perceived by society at large and how we in turn assess one another.'' (Jan.)\ \
