The Return of the Material

Abstract

The antagonism between some queer and feminist authors is well known. Writers such as Judith Butler (1990), Gayle Rubin (1993), Eve Sedgwick (1990) and Carol Vance (1992) challenge feminist writers, with different levels of hostility, for viewing sexuality only through a gaze of gender and patriarchy. They argue that feminists ignore alternative forms of identity and pleasure in favour of a concentration on male oppression and female victimisation. While Butler pursues these criticisms in order to generate new feminist perspectives, for writers such as Sedgwick and Rubin, their arguments lead to the conclusion that there is a need to move beyond feminism. Meanwhile feminists such as Elizabeth Glick (2000), Sheila Jeffreys (1994; 2003), and Martha Nussbaum (1999b) accuse these same queer theorists of being elitists who are unwilling to concern themselves with what happens outside the academy, the novel or the film. They see the queer perspective as a prime example of the turn in theory away from the reality of the material world and towards a concern with cultural activities and career success (Stanley and Wise, 2000; Wilson, 1993).