Lesbians are so chic...

Description

Uncomfortable close encounters with 'real' lesbians all attest to the superficiality of dominant media's mis-representation of lesbians and lesbianism. Cottingham contests the lesbian significance of the mainstream media's 'lesbian chic' phenomenon which, she argues, is less a manifestation of lesbian cultural power than a commodification of lesbianism whose primary purpose is to disempower and marginalize lesbians, and all women, who threaten the existing political structure. The author suggests that the threat actual lesbians (as opposed to their mass media simulacra) pose to the social and sexual economy of contemporary society should be refocused into a radical new definition of feminist politics