‘Sleeping with the enemy’: Non-monogamy and 1970s lesbian-feminists

Abstract

Many white American women who came out as lesbians in the 1970s in the context of the feminist movement saw their lesbianism as part of their core identity. A tenet of that movement was that sexual/romantic involvements with men were incompatible with being a ‘true’ lesbian. Women who did were often ostracized. Changes in the lesbian-feminist community and larger society, including the viability and visibility of bisexuality and non-monogamy, have allowed some of these women to explore sexual and romantic involvement with men while holding onto the feminist aspects of their lesbian identification because of non-monogamy’s feminist potential. This analysis supports the work of van Anders in critiquing the primacy of genital configuration as a means of defining sexual orientation.