Missing bridges: the invisible (and hypervisible) lesbian of color in theory, publishing, and media

Abstract

While moving from theory, through the Women in Print Movement, and up to the current images of lesbians this dissertation considers how the figure of the lesbian of color has been erased and highlighted at different times and in different spaces. Chapter one, "What Does Invisibility Look Like?" examines how and where the figure of the lesbian of color is overlooked, squeezed out, or tokenized. In chapter 2: "Rhetorically irreverent, politically radical, and deeply personal: Lesbians of Color Organize," the work of the Azalea Collective in Brooklyn, NY, the Combahee River Collective in Boston, MA, Cherríe Moraga and Gloria Anzaldua's planning for This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color, and the work of Kitchen Table Press are explored. Chapter three, "Publishing and Perishing: The Women in Print Movement from 1980-2002," compares the climate in 1981 when This Bridge Called my Back: Radical Women of Color Speak Out was published to the climate for Sing, Whisper, Shout, Pray: Feminist Visions for a Just World in 2002. Chapter four, "What's visible now? The Creation of [White] Lesbian Celebrities" examines the classed and racialized messages embedded in the media figures of Rachel Maddow, Suze Orman, and Ellen DeGeneres.