Dyke Ideas

Process, Politics, Daily Life

By Joyce Trebilcot

Subjects: Composition And Rhetoric Studies
Series: SUNY series, Feminist Philosophy
Paperback : 9780791418949, 151 pages, February 1994
Hardcover : 9780791418932, 151 pages, March 1994

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Table of contents

Preface

MYSTERY
Notes on the Meaning of Life
"Craziness"

GUILT
The Prick/Chick
Guilt
Stalking Guilt
Dissecting Guilt
Story

PROCESS
Dyke Methods
Ethics of Method
Not Lesbian Philosophy

COMPETITION
Competition
Envy

SEX
Taking Responsibility for Sexuality
Hortense and Gladys on Sex
Decentering Sex

VALUE
Lesbian Feminism in Process
On the Edge

Notes on Words

Acknowledgments

Description

Dyke Ideas is a passionate and insightful contribution to lesbian philosophy. The main value is wimmin—women separate from men and men's inventions. "Craziness," guilt, competition, sex, and other topics are explored in ways that reject male values and move toward wimmin-identified cultures.

Method is central. The authoritarian, God's-eye stance typical of academic writing is disavowed in favor of an approach that denies that others "should" accept the author's beliefs. Persuasion is tyranny, Joyce Trebilcot thinks, so she tries not to interfere with a reader's processes of creating/discovering her own ideas. This book suggests that lesbian philosophy is like a potluck: wimmin bring their own contributions and also help themselves to the offerings of others.

Dyke Ideas is written in a candid, clear, jargon-free style that makes it accessible to a wide range of readers. The writings (which include essays, poetry, a dialogue, and forms without names) resonate with the feelings and thoughts of many wimmin.

Joyce Trebilcot is a writer who has long been active in lesbian, feminist, and women's studies affairs. One of the founders and former coordinator of the Women's Studies Program at Washington University in St. Louis, she helped make the Program a source of activism and a haven for radical feminists and lesbians. Her writings appear in lesbian, feminist, and philosophical contexts.