“Don’t miss the fact that neither [Miley] Cyrus nor [Julianne] Hough are claiming to have been “born this way.” Bianco does not laud Cyrus and Hough as feminist champions because they possess a fixed, immutable lesbian orientation. Rather Bianco lauds these women for choosing a sexual identity that will bring down the patriarchy. (Yes, in the run-up to legalizing gay marriage, we were assured that orientation is a fixed and immutable reality. I guess that narrative has served its political purpose. It is now okay to treat orientation as a choose-your-own-adventure story.)”
(Denny Burk) If you’ve ever wondered about the connection between feminism and LGBT identities, a recent article by Marcie Bianco at NBC News clears things up. Among other things, Bianco says this:
Men need heterosexuality to maintain their societal dominance over women. Women, on the other hand, are increasingly realizing not only that they don’t need heterosexuality, but that it also is often the bedrock of their global oppression.
Patriarchy is at its most potent when oppression doesn’t feel like oppression, or when it is packaged in terms of biology, religion or basic social needs like security comfort, acceptance and success. Heterosexuality offers women all these things as selling points to their consensual subjection.
Historically, women have been conditioned to believe that heterosexuality is natural or innate, just as they have been conditioned to believe that their main purpose is to make babies — and if they fail to do so, they are condemned as not “real,” or as bad, women.
Bianco goes on to tell the stories of two female celebrities—Miley Cyrus and Julianne Hough—who have recently turned from heterosexuality to LGBT identities. Bianco contends that Cyrus and Hough are in the vanguard of feminist liberation.
Research