Heteronormativity made me lesbian: Femme, butch and the production of sexual embodiment projects

What is it about?

We argue that it is not the fear of actually being raped but the constant threat of rape, in a culture in which almost no language about women's active sexuality exists, that can result in the articulation of some femme and butch identities as active expressions of sexuality. To do this, we introduce the term sexual embodiment projects which is intended to describe the lifelong process of negotiating limited and constraining discourses about sexuality (especially for female-bodied people) in producing a sense of self that is livable.

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Why is it important?

Early twitter comments on our article have criticized us for arguing that sexuality is a choice. This is precisely NOT what we argue. The concept of sexual embodiment projects articulates sexuality and desire as neither individual choice nor static biology, but rather constant practices in which people actively negotiate the limited ways we have of making sense of and embodying sex, our bodies, and our lives. It is designed to recognize that all sexuality takes place in a social context, but that actors are not hopelessly duped by discourse. Actors remain active, though not always intentional. We do this by noting the continuing relevance of some radical feminist criticisms (sans essentialisms), updated with Foucauldian notions of disciplined bodies, but focused on lived experience in interaction (using Dorothy Smith's ontology of the social).

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