essay
  LESBIANISM :vANG without YIN
  By . CELESTE NEWBROUGH
                                                lesbiani·sm and the feminist move-      tudes toward male homosexuals
     The Oriental concept of Yin and            ment. Several years ago the epi-        and lesbians.
  Yang is said to embody a principle            thet that feminists were "just a          Homosexuality has been roundly
  of balance of"masculine" and "femi~           bunch of lesbians"--whether baldly      condemned in most societies and
  nine" foi-ces a.nd therefore, at least        stated or artfully insinuated--was     in most times. Other than that it
  in the popular mind, between man              essentially a means of discarding      defies the principle of Yin and Yang,
  and woman, The c.ompliment<j.ry nature        the possibility that feminism could    which we will return to later, it has
  of the sexes embodied in this belief is       ever grow in influence beyond the      been condemned because it is un-
  jarred by the existence of homosex-            -----~gates of its own                natural" and non-productive. Both
  ual relationships.                                                                   of these ascrioed attributes have
      This essay will diMcuss the issue                                                been rationalizations rather than
  of lesbianism--defined as a life style                                               real causes of its unpopularity, as
   :lf some Women in which most emo-                                                      a glimpse into these arguments
                                              Today, the
  tional, sexual and social needs are                                                        suggests:
                                              visibility of
  channeled "int.o    relationships with                                                         That exclusive homosex-
                                              lesbianism in
  women rather than with men. It is the                                                         uality is unnatural is un-
                                              the feminist
  existence of Yang WIthout Yin,                                                                  deniable. It is an unnat-
     To describe lesbianism as an is-                                                               ural deviation from an
  sue of contemporary thought is pre-
  sumptuous. It has certainly been a
  subject of controversy within and
                                               sexu.al feminists,
 pertaining to the feminiSt movement,
                                               and the increas-
 and it has just recently been articu-
 lated in political terms by Jill
 Johnston'"'in her book, LESBIAN
 NATION. Kinsey's classic surVey
  conducted only a little over a decade                                                                       mosexuals
  ago places the headcount of lesbians                                                                        than hetero-
 far below that of male homosexuals,                                                                           sexuals ap-
 The term 11 1 esbianism 1 itself was
                                                                                                               proximate
 not likely to be found in a psychology
                                                                                                               the bisexu-
 text even half a decade ago. "Female
                                                                                                              ality which is
 homosexuality" was instead included
 parenthetically under discussions of
 homosexuality, which was touted as
 a generic term yet focused upon the
 male,
      Is it visionary then, or extravagent,
  to view this psychiatric stepsister as
  an issue which may one day soon
  drape in lavender the covers of TIME
  and ESQUIRE and spice the subject                                                                    posite sex, Assum-
  matter of academic soirees? Such a                                                                ing in spite of this
  prediction, whether wise or foolish,                                                            that homosexuality is
  is irrelevant, for lesbianism is an                                                          unnatual, it must be noted
  issue to me.                                                                                 even the most unsympathet-
   Standing within the radical fringe,                                                    ic observer that civilization, it-
  s!umbling along the exploding edges         which imbue this
                                                                                       self, and human behavior within
  Of the new feminism, I see this issue       former put-down wlth an uneasy          it, is unnatural in many respects.
  as one of those critical pOints of ref-     air of prophesy,                        Why has one dimension of its un-
  erence--a marked fissure along which           What has lesbianism been in the       naturalness, homosexuality,been
  the old may collapse and the new            past, how has it been approached.        so singly scorned?
· thrust upward,                              and how does its newly attained             It is interesting to note
     It is clear that as a part of the        visibility and recognition affect       as well that those groups
  new feminism we are experiencing             both feminism and its antithesis,      and individuals who most c:mdemn.the
  a swift closing of the gap between          In the rest of this essay I will at-     "unnaturalness 11 of homosexuality
  potential and actual lesbianism,            tempt to begin an answer,               are also those most eager to mo-
  due not to an increase in so-called            The first two questions can be        bilize the harshest forces of social
  sexual preference but rather to             addressed only with much J!Uess-         censure toward its control, a tacit
  an increase in consciousness of its         work, for lesbianism has been           and rather pathetic admission of
  availability as a life style. This in-      buried within the larger context of     its viability, were the impule es of
  crease has ushered in a growing             homosexualit}'. First, I must           the flesh to be left unfettered. It
  headcount, a small increment in             look at the way in which homosex-       is clear we must look elsewhere
 'recognition and a new groundswell           uality has been viewed, and then        for the roots of that prejudice which
 of baffled hostility against both            ferret out finer shadings of atti-      has resulted in, rather than from,
                                                                                      this specious logic.
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