BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//GayOut//Event Export//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH BEGIN:VEVENT UID:302349@gayout.com DTSTAMP:20261014T220740Z DTSTART:20261019T183000Z DTEND:20261019T213000Z SUMMARY:Lesbian Politics: Sex\\, Difference\\, and Domination (Brooklyn I nstitute for Social Research — BISR) DESCRIPTION:We’re happy to host the Brooklyn Institute of Social Resear ch’s course on Lesbian Politics every Monday from 6:30-9:30pm from Oct. 19 through Nov. 9. This 4-week course draws on Monique Wittig’s work\\ , as well as that of other French thinkers\\, including Simone de Beauvoi r and Colette Guillaumin\\, to explore what a lesbian political theory ca n mean and its liberatory potential within and against patriarchy and the heterosexual paradigm. \\nAll payments\\, refunds\\, and enrollments ar e through BISR. Please use the registration link on their website. \\n Lesbians are not women\\,” the feminist theorist Monique Wittig famous ly pronounced. But what did she mean? According to Wittig’s theory\\, s exual difference is an ideology\\, not an ontological given. The relation ship of woman to man is one of domination\\, determined as much by materi al and economic oppression as language and discourse. In other words\\, there is no sex. Only sex that is oppressed and sex that oppresses.” By existing outside of heterosexuality\\, lesbians refuse the category of “woman” and break its ontological illusion of timeless difference: w hat Wittig calls the “heterosexual contract.” How\\, with Wittig\\, c an we understand the possibilities of a feminism that seeks to abolish se x? What is the political role of lesbians within a heterosexual system? C an heterosexuality itself exist without producing or participating in sex ed oppression\\, and if not\\, what are the alternatives? What is the mea ning—and what are the possibilities—of lesbian politics?\\nFollowing the intellectual and political debates among Wittig and her contemporarie s\\, we will probe the limits and possibilities of lesbian theory as a ba sis for the abolition of the “sex-class system.” How did Wittig and h er fellow materialist feminists differentiate themselves from “French F eminist” theorists like Hélène Cixous and Luce Irigaray? How did Witt ig’s creative experiments with gender and storytelling lay the groundwo rk for the emergence of queer theory in the United States? What can a les bian politics provide for non-lesbians\\, both gay and straight? Authors will include Monique Wittig\\, Simone de Beauvoir\\, Christine Delphy\\, Colette Guillaumin\\, Françoise d’Eaubonne\\, and Françoise Verges.\\ nHannah Leffingwell is a writer\\, historian\\, artist\\, and educator sp ecializing in queer and gender history\\, feminist and queer theory\\, le sbian culture(s)\\, and contemporary LGBTQ+ and feminist social movements . In addition to her role as associate faculty at BISR\\, she has taught at The New School as a member of the part-time faculty and at NYU as an a ssistant instructor. Her research chronicles transnational lesbian organi zing in the 1970s-90s and has been featured on Outhistory.org\\, Gender & amp\\; History\\, and is forthcoming in an edited collection for Bloomsbu ry Academic. She holds a PhD in History and French Studies from New York University\\, where she defended her dissertation\\, “Becoming Lesbian: The Making and Unmaking of the International Lesbian Movement\\, 1972-19 98\\,” in 2024. Her writing has also appeared in Jacobin\\, The Chronic le Review\\, Public Seminar\\, Political Junkie\\, Eurozine\\, Sinister W isdom\\, and the Journal of the History of Ideas Blog. She is also active on Substack\\, where she writes a newsletter called “The Dykegeist.” \\nThe Bureau of General Services—Queer Division is Manhattan’s only queer bookstore\\, located on the second floor of the LGBT Center. We’r e open Tuesday-Sunday from 1-7pm and accessible by the 6th Ave 1 2 3 L tr ains and 8th Ave A C E trains. Our cafe\\, The Bureau Cafe\\, is open Tue sday-Sunday from 9am-7pm.\\nhttps://www.gayout.com/usa-canada/united-stat es/new-york/events/lesbian-politics-sex-difference-and-domination-brookly n-institute-for-social-research-bisr--2026-10-19 LOCATION:The LGBT Center NYC URL:https://www.gayout.com/usa-canada/united-states/new-york/events/lesbian-politics-sex-difference-and-domination-brooklyn-institute-for-social-research-bisr--2026-10-19 STATUS:CONFIRMED END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR