Abstract: Henry Abelove has reflected on the different approaches his students have had to the history he teaches. It is the differences between his queer students of the present, and his lesbian and gay students of the past, that he ruminates on; the differences are more than semantic. (1) He characterises the shift as 'fundamental', affecting 'sensibility, style, tone, values, and commitments'. (2) He classifies the trope of marginalisation as crucial in some of the fundamental writings investigating and analysing lesbian and gay histories in the United States. (3) Current queer students, Abelove has found, 'don't own [this history] in anything like the same measure as did their lesbian and gay predecessors'. (4) He suggests that his current students do not 'typically experience their own subjectivity as marginal, even at those moments when they feel most oppressed by homophobic and heterosexist discourses and institutions. Marginalisation isn't their preferred trope.' Marginalisation, he believes, is not a narrative device that his students use for organising the narratives of their lives or their history. (5) This is one of the reasons he cites for the different degrees of ownership his past and present students have over the majority of published lesbian and gay history. I was reminded of these ruminations when listening to, and subsequently reading, Katie Holmes' keynote address at the Lilith Symposium, published in this issue. She described two feminist history conferences in 1988 and 1990, in which attendees 'were looking for a history they could own, one which made sense to them'. They were eager for a past that they could use to '[help] make sense of something of their lives'. In different ways, both Holmes and Abelove are reflecting upon times in their disciplines when histories were of considerable value to individuals in quite specific ways. Within the context of identity politics and social reform movements, histories have played a role in defining a basis for a collective identity. This is not to suggest that history today does not help readers and writers understand the present generally, or themselves personally, but significant transformations have occurred within the context of political social organisation and understandings of identity. What I think this means for feminist history and the history of sexualities is that these histories are no longer mobilised in the ways they have been in the past. As I was beginning secondary school when the two feminist history conferences were held in 1988 and 1990, I feel that in some ways I missed the moment when women's history was at its fashionable peak. I began to learn about it on the 'downward' slide of public popularity. This did not, however, sway my interest in it. But being closer in age to Henry Abelove's current students, I feel I can relate to the way in which he writes about his students' attachment to the histories written. When thinking about the importance of feminist histories to me, ideas of ownership are not how I frame it. I suppose I would say I find feminist histories fascinating, illuminating and productive as they allow me to think about the past and present in new and challenging ways. They give me licence to think about how and why we tell particular stories and demand that I consider these ideas in my own teaching and research. In a similar vein to Abelove's students, I also puzzle over the possibility of 'authenticity' and the idea of possessing a 'deep subjectivity'. (6) So while feminist histories have helped me and continue to help me understand aspects of society and my places within it, this occurs in subtly different ways than it did almost two decades ago. Identity politics is under revision and ultimately, the basis for political unity and collectivity has been thoroughly questioned. (7) In terms of feminism, we are currently contemplating a 'third wave' that is dispersed and largely apolitical. …
Publication Year: 2006
Publication Date: 2006-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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