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Summary Of Arlene Stein's Sex And Sensibility

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Throughout the semester, Arlene Stein’s book “Sex and Sensibility” develops the coursework of content that That, at this point, have three underlying themes: The recognition of new sexual identities and their associated orientations, The separation of the Feminist and Lesbianist movements, and the differentiation of the “Old Gay” and “New Gay”lesbian identities. For starters, Stein’s writing style is a perfect example of the scenery that displays the pandemonium consuming the mystery of the lesbian movement at the time. She precisely and methodically reconstructs the scenes by dancing around the pages and re-accounting different stories that always tie back to the original themes. An example of this is the second chapter of the book when …show more content…

For example, Stein states in the text “Lesbians were not failed women, but actually rebels against gender inequality. If the “exchange of women” compulsory heterosexuality, was the bedrock of the sex/gender system, then women who made lives with other women were actually subverting the dominant order” (Stein 1997, p.36). Stein, expounding the notion of the lesbianist movement was superb, however, she is biased in her recounts; she utters no mention of the heterosexual men who supported the movement nor she does give credit to the gay men who dared to challenge the confines of heteronormativity, yet, they are mentioned only as afterthoughts.
Stein’s lesbian identity seemed to be the compelling force behind her context, her identity exemplifies the notion of the Caucasian, middle class, woman. Similarly, with the perception of the feminist movement, the majority is a Caucasian and middle-class sector, both groups seem to undermine the importance of other

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