Opengender

In this chapter, I will explore the productivity of discourses of lesbian feminism in both popular and counter-cinemas of the 1970s and 1980s. I shall not attempt any comprehensive overview of feminist theory and politics or to address the broad range of feminist engagements with Marxism. I intend only to demonstrate the importance of tropes of 'female bonding' and of 'the gaze' to lesbian-feminist theory and practice in order to establish a historicised discursive context for lesbian readings of popular film.