Where Did All the Lesbians Go? Resistance Through Lesbian Separatism in the 1970s and

Abstract

Lesbian separatism is an iconic piece of queer history that emerged as a form of resistance to the homophobia and sexism that lesbians were experiencing in the 1970s and 1980s. Lesbian separatism took many forms such as urban collectives focused on creating women-made media, collectives who lived as travellers, and the legendary residential separatist communities who lived on shared land together. Lesbian separatism was founded on the theory that in order for women to succeed, they must separate themselves from all contact with men to escape from our society structured in sexism and heteronormativity (Koller et al. 2023, 3). I know that living in an isolated community of lesbians sounds dreamy, however, these communities were flawed. In this piece, I discuss the history of lesbian separatism, the influential collectives, and the factors that contributed to the downfall of the movement.