How lesbian feminist theories of sex illuminate public anxieties about sin, guilt, and innocence

Stereotyped as manhating, puritanical killjoys, lesbian feminists have drawn almost as much contempt as the conservative Christian movements to which they are compared. Rather than dismissing this negativity, Lesbian Feminist Killjoys embraces it. The book proposes that the negativity of an earlier era sheds light on irresolvable complicities that shape queer and trans life today.

Grounded in the archives of lesbian feminist movements, Lesbian Feminist Killjoys centers the contributions of four key lesbian feminists: Beverly Smith, Andrea Dworkin, Pat Parker, and Jill Johnston. Author Wendy Mallette unpacks these writers’ understanding of sex as inextricably tied to patriarchy, capitalism, racism, and colonialism. Their thinking is brought into conversation with theorizations of queer negativity and the concept of social sin. By taking cues from Black, womanist, and queer Christian theology, Mallette traces how fantasies of innocence—appearing in feminist and queer studies, Christian theology, and debates about sex and race in the public sphere—underwrite a violent tendency to disavow guilt and scapegoat others. Mallette also responds to denials of inherited guilt displayed in recent anti-critical race theory, anti-DEI, and anti-trans legislation. Ultimately, Lesbian Feminist Killjoys reveals how strands of negativity can offer powerful resources to contend with gender and racial oppression.