ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the external forces that contributed to the destruction of lesbian feminism in the1980s. It examines the impact of individualistic, anti-egalitarian, neoliberal politics in the US and in the UK, which had a devastating effect on left-wing and progressive politics in general, including the WLM and lesbian feminism. In the UK, in particular, the conservative turn included the government passing legislation to prevent what it called ‘the promotion of homosexuality’ in 1988, which had a chilling effect on lesbian and gay politics. The intellectual response to neoliberal politics was the development of a libertarian ideology, post-structuralism and its derivative in terms of lesbian and gay politics, which was queer theory. The intellectual climate changed dramatically, from one in which revolution was seen as desirable and possible to one in which those who still believed in such things were dismissed and pooh-poohed as simplistic fools and romantics. For feminists and lesbians, the new turn of mind was particularly catastrophic. Women who adopted postmodernism cast scorn on the idea that the word ‘woman’ could have any meaning, saying that it was ‘essentialist’. The advance of women’s studies and feminism into the academy was fatally undermined by these developments.
