Saturday, June 14, 2025
  • Sign In
  • Sign Up
Donate
Lesbian and Gay News
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Reports
  • Opinion
  • Interviews
  • Politics
  • Lesbian Lives
  • Gay Lives
  • Conversation
  • Home
  • Reports
  • Opinion
  • Interviews
  • Politics
  • Lesbian Lives
  • Gay Lives
  • Conversation
No Result
View All Result
Lesbian and Gay News
No Result
View All Result

Claire Heuchan talks to author and campaigner Julie Bindel about her new book Feminism for Women: “We’re warriors,” she reminds me. “Lesbians absolutely are sexual outlaws.”

Home Arts Books
byLesbian and Gay News
August 29, 2021
in Books, Interviews
4 min read
Claire Heuchan talks to author and campaigner Julie Bindel about her new book Feminism for Women: “We’re warriors,” she reminds me. “Lesbians absolutely are sexual outlaws.”
TweetShare

Julie Bindel is an author, journalist, and campaigner who has spent more than four decades challenging male violence against women and girls. As co-founder of Justice for Women and a fierce opponent of the sex industry, she has devoted her life to feminist struggle. And now – with Feminism for Women: The Real Route to Liberation – Bindel shares her insights and experiences with a new generation of readers.

Though Bindel is full of the cold when we speak, she brightens the moment we start talking feminist politics. It’s not the public kudos of writing a book that motivates Bindel, nor the opportunity to embed herself further into the feminist canon. Her feminism has never been focussed on the ‘stars’ of the movement. “I don’t just want young feminists to look at Germaine Greer or Gloria Steinem and think ‘that’s feminism,’” she says. “They are – of course – part of the movement, but [young women] have to understand the women that fought for material changes. And they are grassroots activists; Black and working-class women who had the most to lose.”

You may also like

Claire Heuchan talks to lesbian feminist author and academic Janice Raymond about her new book Doublethink: A Feminist Challenge to Transgenderism

Remembering bell hooks, by Claire Heuchan

Gary Powell: “For Frank Furedi, transgenderism and all wokeism resemble Puritanism in their joylessness and rejection of the sensual, and we must find our courage to resist this misery.”

Simon Fanshawe on his new book The Power of Difference: “The very diversity policies and action that were supposed to free us as individuals, have ironically become tools of conformity.”

Her late friend Andrea Dworkin, another woman with little time for the glamorous side of feminism, continues to be a touchstone for Bindel’s own politics. “When I asked why the ones that fight the hardest and the longest are almost inevitably those that have themselves suffered the worst type of male violence, Andrea Dworkin once said ‘All women are on a leash, but those of us that are on a shorter leash fight the hardest to get rid of it.’”

How, then, do we throw off that leash of patriarchal control? There is no doubt in Bindel’s mind: “We have to have solidarity between women. But it’s been fractured. We’ve been told that we have nothing in common… either across generations or ethnicities, between poverty and wealth.

“I know that if you only focus on what we have in common, then there’s a danger that only the most privileged of women will benefit from feminism. Not all women are the same. But if we don’t look at what we have in common – which is male violence, the threat and reality – we will not know what to fight.”

Not for the first time, Bindel grows frustrated with liberal sensibilities. “The problem with the identity politics of today is that it’s all identity, but without the politics around it that we experienced in the women’s movement of the ‘80s.”

Bindel believes that, as feminists, we should all be considering the politics of desire – The Straights in particular. “Heterosexuality has just disappeared off the agenda; became the silent norm again. In the seventies and throughout much of the eighties, we talked about heterosexuality as a system. And it wasn’t to say to heterosexual women, ‘you’re duped, you’ve got false consciousness.’ It was to actually look at what heterosexuality meant.

“I see that very much as [the equivalent of] white people not learning that they’re white; not having consciousness that we do exist in a framework where somebody else is being oppressed in relation to you.”

Author and campaigner Julie Bindel

Political lesbianism is often misunderstood, characterised as an attempt to force straight women into giving up men. But Bindel has no problem with heterosexuality – rather, the patriarchal system that frames it as inevitable.

“It’s not that the women are doing anything wrong by being heterosexual,” Bindel is quick to clarify. “Heterosexuality is imposed on women. And far fewer would choose it, if there was a choice. Plenty still would – and that’s fine. But when we stopped being able to critique heterosexuality as a system then lesbianism also lost this philosophical thrust. It just became a lifestyle choice.”

Though many saw the introduction of same-sex marriage as a welcome step, Bindel despairs at the depoliticisation of lesbian identity. “We’re warriors,” she reminds me. “Lesbians absolutely are sexual outlaws.”

Yet lesbian feminists who oppose pornography and the prostitution of women are framed as ‘sex-negative’; sometimes even subjected to more criticism than men who profit from the sex industry.

“I remember going to Essex University,” Bindel recounts. “I went to debate Jerry Barnett on pornography. He’s a porn producer, and he’d awarded prizes to two production companies. One that made a porn film parodying the attacks made by John Worboys, the Black Cab Rapist. And the second around African women coming from Congo, to London or Europe, and being desperate for help. So, they’d let any white man fuck them. It was in every way possible grotesque.”

The disparity between how Bindel and Barnett were treated is revealing. “He wasn’t heckled. He wasn’t followed through the university campus being told he wasn’t welcome; that he was a bigot. He was completely left alone. While I was shouted out as a whorephobic and transphobic by these bloody blue fringe students – who had never read a thing I’d written.”

“They have made it very, very clear that they own all the LGBT space. [Women] can only be welcome in their space if we play the game. And lesbians have never, ever been good at capitulating.”

Though accusations of ‘whorephobia’ have been levelled against her research of the sex industry, Julie is far more interested in criticising the behaviour of men buying sex than the women selling it. “In prostitution, women have the least choice and men have the most. So why would we then talk about her choices? We have to look at the person with the most power; look at the choices they are making.”

Bindel is also keen to analyse the choices of men in the LGBT movement. “They have made it very, very clear that they own all the LGBT space. [Women] can only be welcome in their space if we play the game. And lesbians have never, ever been good at capitulating. That’s why we split off from the gay liberation movement. That’s why feminist women in the sixties split off from the left to form the women’s liberation movement. That’s why women today demand our own Lesbian Strength marches.”

Given the extent of GBT misogyny, is that community viable for lesbians?

“No,” says Bindel, without hesitation. “But I think the disco’s great.”

Feminism for Women: The Real Route to Liberation is out on 2nd September and available to pre-order on Amazon.

Claire Heuchan is an author, essayist, and Black radical feminist. She writes the award-winning blog, Sister Outrider.

Tags: Claire HeuchanJulie Bindel
Previous Post

Trans-substantiation: A quest for truth in the Quakers, by Deborah Evans

Next Post

Feminism for Women: Julie Bindel’s blistering critique of patriarchy, reviewed by Claire Heuchan

Comments

No comments yet, be the first to leave a comment.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must sign in to join the conversation.

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Sign in to comment.

Would you like to sign in or register?

TopStories

Fact-checking Forstater – Dealing with the eight Maya Myths, by LGN legal commentator Dennis Kavanagh
Reports

Fact-checking Forstater – Dealing with the eight Maya Myths, by LGN legal commentator Dennis Kavanagh

by Lesbian and Gay News
May 3, 2021
3.9k
Critiquing transgender theology: A review of Janice Raymond’s ‘Doublethink’ by Robert Jensen, Emeritus Professor of Journalism at the University of Texas
Books

Critiquing transgender theology: A review of Janice Raymond’s ‘Doublethink’ by Robert Jensen, Emeritus Professor of Journalism at the University of Texas

by Lesbian and Gay News
January 23, 2022
2.1k
“This is a form of conversion therapy for young people who are gay or lesbian.” Watch Dr David Bell on Channel 4 News
Gender Dysphoria

“This is a form of conversion therapy for young people who are gay or lesbian.” Watch Dr David Bell on Channel 4 News

by Lesbian and Gay News
February 26, 2021
1.3k
Watch Allison Bailey’s Keynote Speech: “Lord Nick Herbert, do not make participation in next year’s global conference on LGBT rights, conditional on LGB people supporting gender identity.”
Reports

Watch Allison Bailey’s Keynote Speech: “Lord Nick Herbert, do not make participation in next year’s global conference on LGBT rights, conditional on LGB people supporting gender identity.”

by Lesbian and Gay News
November 14, 2021
534
The Government’s Conversion Therapy consultation ends this Friday and Sex Matters – a great ally to lesbian and gay people – have made it easy to respond, reports Gary Powell
Reports

The Government’s Conversion Therapy consultation ends this Friday and Sex Matters – a great ally to lesbian and gay people – have made it easy to respond, reports Gary Powell

by Gary Powell
February 5, 2022
746

RecommendedPosts

“We wanted to write lesbian experience back into history”: An interview with Jay Taverner by Claire Heuchan

“We wanted to write lesbian experience back into history”: An interview with Jay Taverner by Claire Heuchan

by Lesbian and Gay News
October 18, 2021
911

Living and Loving in the Age of AIDS by Derek Frost: this poignant and informative autobiography records a devastating era for gay men

Living and Loving in the Age of AIDS by Derek Frost: this poignant and informative autobiography records a devastating era for gay men

by David Bridle
February 16, 2022
540

“Don’t feed the trolls, engage more with the lesbian community and remember to switch off!”: Kat Howard reveals her New Year’s Resolutions for 2022

“Don’t feed the trolls, engage more with the lesbian community and remember to switch off!”: Kat Howard reveals her New Year’s Resolutions for 2022

by Lesbian and Gay News
January 1, 2022
620

Gareth Roberts: How younger gay men are LARPing the lives of their forebears (i.e. Live Action Role Play)

Gareth Roberts: “David Bowie’s depiction of a coterie of post-religious dyed-haired narcissists chopping at children’s bodies just sounded freakishly mad. It doesn’t seem so daft now.”

by Lesbian and Gay News
June 16, 2021
2.1k

“Our demand is simple: Fire Kathleen Stock. Until then, you’ll see us around.” ‘Anti Terf’ students at Sussex University target professor of philosophy in campaign of harassment

“Our demand is simple: Fire Kathleen Stock. Until then, you’ll see us around.” ‘Anti Terf’ students at Sussex University target professor of philosophy in campaign of harassment

by Jo Bartosch
October 9, 2021
4.3k

Gary Powell: Do we need to get off Twitter and form a new, gender-critical political party in the UK?

Gary Powell: Do we need to get off Twitter and form a new, gender-critical political party in the UK?

by Lesbian and Gay News
July 22, 2021
3.3k

MostRecent

Announcement from the LGN Management Team: Lesbian and Gay News is closing

Announcement from the LGN Management Team: Lesbian and Gay News is closing

March 27, 2022
7k

Lesbians United on taking back the narrative

March 23, 2022
512

“The current model is not sustainable and another model is needed”: Interim Report of Cass Review welcomed by families with transgender-identified children, reports Gary Powell

March 23, 2022
822

Categories

  • Activism
  • Books
  • Conversion Therapy
  • Film
  • Gay Lives
  • Gender Dysphoria
  • Interviews
  • Lesbian and Gay News
  • Lesbian Lives
  • News
  • Opinion
  • Politics
  • Reports
  • Sponsored Editorial
  • Theatre
  • Transgender
  • Videos

Related Posts

“I was surprised thinking I’d been writing a thriller to discover I’d actually been writing a love story too!” Adam Macqueen on his new novel The Enemy Within set in 1980s radical politics

“I was surprised thinking I’d been writing a thriller to discover I’d actually been writing a love story too!” Adam Macqueen on his new novel The Enemy Within set in 1980s radical politics

March 2, 2022
455
Claire Heuchan: Using difference creatively

Claire Heuchan: 2022 – My year of reading books by lesbian and bisexual women

January 31, 2022
345
Critiquing transgender theology: A review of Janice Raymond’s ‘Doublethink’ by Robert Jensen, Emeritus Professor of Journalism at the University of Texas

Critiquing transgender theology: A review of Janice Raymond’s ‘Doublethink’ by Robert Jensen, Emeritus Professor of Journalism at the University of Texas

January 23, 2022
2.1k
Claire Heuchan: Using difference creatively

Janice Raymond takes on gender identity: Doublethink reviewed by Claire Heuchan

January 12, 2022
861
Claire Heuchan talks to lesbian feminist author and academic Janice Raymond about her new book Doublethink: A Feminist Challenge to Transgenderism

Claire Heuchan talks to lesbian feminist author and academic Janice Raymond about her new book Doublethink: A Feminist Challenge to Transgenderism

January 11, 2022
1.1k
Remembering bell hooks, by Claire Heuchan

Remembering bell hooks, by Claire Heuchan

December 21, 2021
526

Next Post
Feminism for Women: Julie Bindel’s blistering critique of patriarchy, reviewed by Claire Heuchan

Feminism for Women: Julie Bindel’s blistering critique of patriarchy, reviewed by Claire Heuchan

Categories

  • Activism
  • Books
  • Conversion Therapy
  • Film
  • Gay Lives
  • Gender Dysphoria
  • Interviews
  • Lesbian and Gay News
  • Lesbian Lives
  • News
  • Opinion
  • Politics
  • Reports
  • Sponsored Editorial
  • Theatre
  • Transgender
  • Videos

About Us

Lesbian and Gay News is an alternative source of news and opinion. Lesbian and Gay News picks up from an historic tradition of British lesbian and gay publications such as Gay News, which ran from 1972-1983, and The Pink Paper, which ran for 25 years from 1987.

  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise with Us
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy

© 2021 staging.lesbianandgaynews.com - BM Payments Services Limited

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Reports
  • Opinion
  • Interviews
  • Politics
  • Lesbian Lives
  • Gay Lives
  • Conversation
  • Videos
  • Sign In
  • Sign Up

© 2021 staging.lesbianandgaynews.com - BM Payments Services Limited

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Add New Playlist

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.