Women on the Edge of a Dyke-otomy

SUMMARY This paper considers some of the contradictions of authenticity as a defining feature of lesbian community in Aotearoa/ New Zealand. We sketch the genealogy of marginalization within the lesbian community through the development of subjectivity, community and political struggle for equality. To this end, we deconstruct three major, interrelated "problems" in speaking of lesbian politics: subjectivity, community and universality. At its broadest, the lesbian subject refers to any woman who desires women. But in practice such a "continuum" does not satisfactorily identify a bounded community. In articulating its voice, any community necessarily creates a governing discourse, thereby creating outsiders and insiders to that community. This paper explores the conditions under which the lesbian community has marginalized an "other" lesbian subject with particular reference to sexual practices and associations with heterosexuality in order to establish an authenticity of identity.