Anne Donadey and Francois Linnoet collaborate on the daring Feminisms, Genders, & Sexualities from ISMLL; Feminisms is arguably the broadest and least cohesive essay in the anthology, which itself makes no attempt to pigeonhole its offerings beyond a very loose arrangement by “topic.” After opening (225) with references to everything from “lesbians of color” to “transnational perspectives” and “religion,” the authors stay true to form until their conclusion (p. 239), where they reiterate earlier assertions that–far from cleaning up the “mess” left by previous decades’ attempts to handle the wide array of issues connected with the subjects listed in their title–Donadey & Linnoet essentially hope to keep the conversation going, and challenge\resist such constructs as the “definition” of homo/hetero-sexuality, femin/mascul-inity, even race, culture, and (inter)national pasts. Theirs is an informational piece as opposed to a rigorous polemic: Donadey & Linnoet merely pass on the facts they observe, diverse and (at times) disjointed as those facts are. If there is a common thread running through their article, it seems to be the use of gay\lesbian theory from the 1970s as it has defined itself, sought alliances, and changed–both organically and as a result of dialogue with fields such as feminism–into the present day.
Topos: Pertinence. While their historical survey is both well-organized and interesting, it is in the authors’ putative conclusions/goals that one detects an attempt to pack too much information, from too extensive a base, into Feminisms’ contents. This renders a number of specific comments–and on a certain level their entire essay–questionable in terms of target audience. If feminism is understood in one respect as an effort to reach and empower “everywoman,” why has so little attention been paid the urgently oppressed, such as the third-world mother who simply desires a safe and healthful environment in which to raise her children, or the “lower-class” inner-city teenage girl who feels doomed to a life surrounded by addiction, violence and despair? It may be academically interesting to consider questions of inner sexual identity, yet these are not likely to impact the lives of the many marginalized, impoverished, even desperate individuals–of whatever gender or orientation–whose needs are simply more urgent: getting out of abusive situations; providing materially for those under their care; rehabilitating from substance addiction, etc: the very people an essay like this should be reaching. Unlike, say, an Eileen Cushman (who called for a new practical activism on the part of professional compositionists) or a Randy Shilts (who discussed the difficulty of trying to convince fellow gays to readress certain practices in order to protect themselves from the then-new AIDS danger), Donadey & Lionnet come across as airy and unconnected. “Transgressive potentialites of nonnormative sexual pleasure” (p. 231) makes for compelling “journalese,” but does not relate to the basic needs and desires of women and the disenfrachised worldwide who possess neither the time nor the resources to linger in the ivory tower.
