Who-Stole-Feminism.-How-Women-Have-Betrayed-Women

THE GENDER WARDENS 265If Paglia is right, sexual liberation may not be going in the direction ofeliminating the Other as a sex object; it may instead be going in the directionof encouraging women to objectify the male as Other, too. Such a developmentwould certainly be a far cry from the gender feminist Utopiadescribed by University of Massachusetts philosopher Ann Ferguson:With the elimination of sex roles, and the disappearance, in anoverpopulated world, of any biological need for sex to be associatedwith procreation, there would be no reason why such a societycould not transcend sexual gender. It would no longer matter whatbiological sex individuals had. Love relationships, and the sexualrelationships developing out of them, would be based on the individualmeshing together of androgynous human beings. 28Ferguson's Utopia conjures up visions of a world of gender-neutralcharacters like Pat on "Saturday Night Live." Although Pat-like peoplecan be very nice (doubtless, never rough), their sexually correct meshingsdo not invite heated speculation. To put the matter bluntly: the androgynoussociety has always been a boring feminist fairy tale with no rootsin psychological or social reality.A group of gay women who call themselves "lipstick lesbians" arerebelling against the androgynous ideal that feminists like Ann Fergusonand Joyce Trebilcot celebrate. According to Lindsy Van Gelder, a writerfor Allure magazine, the lipstick lesbians are tired of Birkenstock andL. L. Bean courtier, "womyn's" music festivals, potluck dinners, and allthe "rigid dos and don'ts of feminist ideology." 29She reports on severallesbian go-go bars in different parts of the country where lipstick lesbianscongregate and treat each other in ways that are very much frownedupon in most gender feminist circles.I believe that the Bartkys, the Friedmans, and the Fergusons aredoomed to disappointment but that in any case no feminist should everhave an agenda of managing women's desires and fantasies. For supposewe could succeed in "trading in the fantasy of being overwhelmed byRhett Butler for one in which we seize state power and reeducate him."Suppose, indeed, that we succeeded in getting most people to feel and tobehave in ways that are sexually correct by gender feminist lights. Oncethe methods and institutions for overhauling desires are in place, whatwould prevent their deployment by new groups who have different conceptionsof what is sexually correct and incorrect? Having seized statepower, some zealous faction would find ready to hand the apparatus