Reflecting on lesbianities and anarchist struggles is, in a first impulse, the
search for names and materials about anarchist lesbians visible in history, asearch that presents us with a gap of references. Asking why these absences leads
us to two questions: first, the female invisibility within different movements,
given by structural issues of machismo and misogyny; and second, the aggravation
of this condition when we think of lesbian women, made invisible also thanks to
lesbophobia. ---- Lesbianity and the issues surrounding it are systematically
shrouded in invisibility, the history of lesbian women has been repeatedly erased
or not taken into account in various contexts. Since lesbianity is a crack in the
norm, a threat to the dominant heteropatriarchal structure in our society, which
explains the great effort to erase it.
Thus, despite the male predominance also in our anti-capitalist circles, it is
possible to find references to anarchist women, such as names such as Maria
Lacerda de Moura, Lucy Parsons , Espertirina Martins and Emma Goldmann. Goldmann,
in fact, was an important anarchist theorist who raised, in her trajectory, the
banner of non-prejudice against lesbians and gays, being criticized even within
libertarian contexts, after all, even the anarchist movement in her time was not
free from discrimination against LGBTQIA+ subjects[1].
However, none of these women mentioned are lesbians, as far as is known. One of
the few prominent names of publicly lesbian anarchists is Lucía Sánchez Saornil.
Lucia was a militant anarchist and feminist, Spanish poet, known for being one of
the founders of Mujeres Libres , an important autonomous organization of
anarchist women, born out of the need to resist machismo outside and within
libertarian circles.
The organization was articulated by the search for what they called the ''double
struggle'', for social anarchist emancipation and for female emancipation. The
Mujeres Libres had great expressiveness during the Spanish Civil War and is still
an important reference in the gender debate and anarchism.
Lucia also served with the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) and
Solidaridad Internacional Antifascista (SAI) and, among other things, published
in important gazettes in the 1920s, sometimes using male pseudonyms to enter
these spaces. She achieved the happy feat of exploring lesbian themes in a period
when any break with heterosexuality was criminalized and female voices were
secondary, yet we know little of her history in our circles.
Being a lesbian was a political and affective condition that constituted her
identity. Lucia Sánchez, in addition to being persecuted as an anarchist, was
also persecuted as a woman who loved other women. These identities were not
separate, she undoubtedly treated her sexuality as part of her struggle and how
she perceived the world and her companions around her. However, women's sexuality
is rarely considered in the study of their resistance trajectories and, in most
cases, it is assumed, beforehand, that they were/are heterosexual.
So, in addition to looking for these references, it is important to reflect on
why sexuality is pushed to a place of lesser importance. Why is sexuality so
often seen as a subject considered subjective, identity and individualized? Why
don't we politicize our sexualities and seek to understand them as part of
systems of domination or practices of revolution?
Since the struggle of women has been teaching us, for a long time, about how the
private is political , and we know that, as much as we sell an idea that our
sexualities only concern who we have sex or not, they are very more than that.
Heterosexuality, for example, is not just an option or personal taste that freely
happens, it is much more part of a culture, a system, there are institutions
committed to its maintenance and that benefit from it. Compulsory heterosexuality
(RICH, 2010[1982]) serves capitalism, keeping women subservient to a logic of
production and reproduction that is fundamental to this economic\political system
of our society.
Thus, being a lesbian woman can also be read as a way to subvert repressive and
normative logics. In these terms, we can think about how lesbianities have the
potential to extrapolate private affective-sexual relationships, constituting
other forms of interaction and solidarity between women, which can culturally
modify the rivalries and subservience pushed to socially disciplined female
populations.
The visibility of our sexualities is therefore political. And, therefore, it is
necessary to think politically about relations, whether they are hegemonic or
marginalized, also removing them from a liberal field that identified them only
as isolated orientations, identities disconnected from structural issues and
therefore not dialogued in our theories and anarchist practices. As Audre Lorde
reminds us:
[...]this is the banner of cynicism on the right, encouraging members of
oppressed groups to act against each other, and for so long we've been divided
because of our particular identities that we can't all come together in one
effective political action. (LORD, 2017[1983], p. 6)
Lorde also claims that our libido is not just the sexual energy we use in love
relationships, but rather an energy that moves us to produce other forms of
speech, to work and fight. Based on this, we can affirm that our desires,
affections and relationships are also vital in the battles we fight.
It is necessary to rescue the history of the expressive movement of lesbian
groups and activists in Brazil and Latin America, as an example we have the GALF
- Grupo de Ação Lesbian Feminista, which was replicated in Peru, and which was
responsible for the magazine Chana with Chana , considered the first lesbian
publication in the country. The Chana Chana with even made direct reference to
the Mujeres Libres and often brought discussions with libertarian themes, such as
the notion of autonomy.
In 1983, in São Paulo, the GALF led the case of the Ferro's Bar uprising , where
there were protests against the frequent repression of lesbian women and even the
ban on the sale of Chana with Chana . This episode was the reason why August 19th
was nationally considered Lesbian Pride Day, and we must not forget those origins.
The history of lesbian movements is marked by resistance and rebellion. Lesbian
authors and activists were essential to bring to light relevant debates such as
simultaneous, intersectional violence, addressed for example by the Black
Feminist Collective Combahee River , composed of black, heterosexual and lesbian
women, including important black lesbian authors such as Aude Lorde and Cheryl
Clarke.
We can also remember the contributions of Ochy Curiel - Afro-Dominican and
lesbian social anthropologist - who denounces the heterosexual character of the
construction of the State and the idea of Nation in his works. She also seeks to
politicize lesbianity beyond just a ''sexual orientation'', as does Dorotea Gómez
Grijalva - a Mayan theorist from Guatemala - who defends the proposal of a
''political lesbianity''.
In Brazil, Heretika, an independent lesbofeminist and anti-capitalist editorial,
has done an excellent job of translating and disseminating texts by lesbian,
black feminist and anti-capitalist authors, thus democratizing, through zines,
the reach of these writings and reflections. As anarchist groups, we also need to
appropriate this knowledge in our internal and public formations. Even when not
directly anarchist, many of these productions can contribute to the enrichment of
our daily theory and practice.
Lesbian women have historically suffered from extreme exclusion, whether
in[hetero]feminist movements, by those who did not want to be ''confused with
lesbians'', or in mixed non-heterosexual spaces, dominated by gay men who
monopolized the agenda. As well as in the left, where political parties
underestimated, made invisible and diminished the struggles considered
"homosexual" in general and even anarchist strands that crystallized the class
debate as central and did not propose to weave an intersectional understanding of
this debate .
Assim, podemos nos perguntar: Grupos anarquistas têm sido um espaço de
acolhimento ou de exclusão para mulheres lésbicas? Companheiros e companheiras
heterossexuais têm pautado suas lesbofobias internalizadas? Continuamos
reproduzindo modelos de militância masculinistas? Temos oportunidade para debater
sobre nossos afetos nos espaços de resistência?
Lesbianities are multiple. There are black lesbians, peripheral people, mothers,
fat people, people with disabilities, rural workers, indigenous people. And the
more intersecting these lesbian bodies are, the more violence they receive. Also
from the State, the police and the capitalist labor market. The less feminized,
the more excluded from professional spaces that profit from the hypersexualized
sale of female bodies. Thus, lesbian women are sometimes seen as not useful, a
hindrance to this production/reproduction system.
Public policies for the LGBTQIA+ population are important achievements, obtained
through struggles, but they are also fragile and dismantled with each
authoritarian change of government. Furthermore, the policies that have been
instituted so far are secondary to the safety and health of women who interact
with women. It is also necessary to guide the radicalization of these struggles,
as self-management and autonomy have historically been words and actions dear to
the survival of lesbians. As one of Heretika's reflections reminds us:
It is not by chance that rebellious and unyielding women are negatively accused
of being lesbians. At different times, lesbianism, seen as a dysfunction,
represented and still represents a threat to the norm of institutions such as the
Church, the nuclear Family and the State itself. The fact that lesbianism is so
feared and repressed by the State, reveals to us that there is political power
and strength in the love between women.
I conclude then with this reflection and call for articulation: To what extent
can anarchist struggle contribute to lesbian struggles, and to what extent can
lesbian struggles contribute to anarchist struggles?
References:
LORD, Audre. The Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power . Translated by Tatiana
Nascimento dos Santos - December 2009. R etirado Sister Outsider, 1984. In
Texts chosen from Audre Lorde . Heretika Publisher (PDF)
LORD, Audre Transforming silences into language and action. Translated from
Audre Lorde - "Foreign Sister" (Sister Outsider), Essays and Lectures, 1984.In
Selected Texts by Audre Lorde. Heretika Publisher (PDF)
RICH, Adrienne. Compulsory heterosexuality and lesbian existence . Bogoas. n. 05
| 2010 | for. 17-44
Lucía Sánchez Saornil . 2013. Available at:
https://www.anarquista.net/lucia-sanchez-saornil/. Accessed on: Aug 25, 2021
[1]Acronym that searches cover the diversity of sexualities and gender
identities, being Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transvestite and Transsexual, Queers,
Intersex, Asexual and the + signaling the possibility of other identifications.
Posted by Specific Anarchist Forum
https://faebahia.blogspot.com/2021/08/visibilidade-lesbica-afeto-e.html
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