Political Lesbianism and Sexual Politics

Psychiatrists in a college mental-health setting have an opportunity to observe first-hand, among the student body, changes in modes of thinking and acting oftentimes polar in their extremity, in the mere span of a decade. These highly visible surface shifts in behavior reflect deeper socio-political undercurrents and may be considered in many instances the experimental attempts to cope with the emotional turmoil experienced during late adolescence. The ideology of feminism, which has infused the present decade, has significantly altered women students' self concepts but the intensity with which students espoused the movement earlier on in their search for sexual direction and identity (a preoccupation of this age group) appears to have markedly diminished. The rapidity with which students whole heartedly embrace and then relinquish a former passion when it no longer fits in with their needs is well known. Movements peak and subside each with intense active involvement in which initially personal concerns are minimized and organizational participation is at a maximum only to be subsequently reversed. The failure to sustain interest in a movement can be thought of as a function of the students' rapidly changing developmental needs and does not necessarily reflect change or failure of the movement's relevance; it is rather when the student's perception of ideological issues changes that interest tends to wane.

A movement with an ideology whose core tenet is the affirmation of a strong female identity apart from men, and one which purports to alter existing relationships between the sexes, giving females a more equitable share in the power structure must inevitably