I want to say a little about the way ‘Compulsory Heterosexuality’ was originally conceived
and the context in which we are now living. It was written in part to challenge the erasure of
lesbian existence from so much of scholarly feminist literature, an erasure which I felt (and
feel) to be not just anti-lesbian, but anti-feminist in its consequences, and to distort the experience of heterosexual women as well. It was not written to widen divisions but to encourage
heterosexual feminists to examine heterosexuality as a political institution which disempowers
women – and to change it. I also hoped that other lesbians would feel the depth and breadth of
woman identification and woman bonding that has run like a continuous though stifled theme
through the heterosexual experience, and that this would become increasingly a politically
activating impulse, not simply a validation of personal lives. I wanted the essay to suggest
new kinds of criticism, to incite new questions in classrooms and academic journals, and to
sketch, at least, some bridge over the gap between lesbian and feminist. I wanted, at the very
least, for feminists to find it less possible to read, write, or teach from a perspective of unexamined heterocentricity.

Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence

The time has come to think about sex To some, sexuality may seem to be an unimportant
topic, a frivolous diversion from the more critical problems of poverty, war, disease, racism,
famine, or nuclear annihilation But it is precisely at times such as these, when we live with
the possibility of unthinkable destruction, that people are likely to become dangerously crazy
about sexuality Contemporary conflicts over sexual values and erotic conduct have much in
common with the religious disputes of earlier centuries They acquire immense symbolic
weight Disputes over sexual behaviour often become the vehicles for displacing social anxieties, and discharging their attendant emotional intensity Consequently, sexuality should be
treated with special respect in times of great social stress

/pdf/thinking-sex-notes-for-a-radical-theory-of-the-politics-of-16zw3vryax.pdf

Thinking sex: notes for a radical theory of the politics of sexuality

I want to say a little about the way "Compulsory Heterosexuality" was originally conceived and the context in which we are now living. It was written in part to challenge the erasure of lesbian existence from so much of scholarly feminist literature, an erasure which I felt (and feel) to be not just anti-lesbian, but anti-feminist in its consequences, and to distort the experience of heterosexual women as well. It was not written to widen divisions but to encourage heterosexual feminists to examine heterosexuality as a political institution which disempowers women—and to change it. I also hoped that other lesbians would feel the depth and breadth of woman identification and woman bonding that has run like a continuous though stifled theme through the heterosexual experience, and that this would become increasingly a politically activating impulse, not simply a validation of personal lives. I wanted the essay to suggest new kinds of criticism, to incite new questions in classrooms and academic journals, and to sketch, at least, some bridge over the gap between lesbian and feminist. I wanted, at the very least, for feminists to find it less possible to read, write, or teach from a perspective of unexamined heterocentricity. 

Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence (1980)

http://users.uoa.gr/~cdokou/RichCompulsoryHeterosexuality.pdf

http://childprotectionnorthayrshire.info/cpc/download/?file=639

The child sexual abuse accommodation syndrome

The Freudian Coverup

The Words May Change but the Melody Lingers on

The best kept secret

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The Freudian Coverup

The Words May Change but the Melody Lingers on

The best kept secret