Sapphic Slashers
In "Sapphic Slashers," Lisa Duggan masterfully examines two very distinct, yet both highly influential narratives that modernized the American values of race, class, gender, and sexuality well into the 20th century. Prior to her analysis of both the lynching and lesbian identity narratives, Duggan stresses that her intention is not to find direct connections between them. "The goal of the study is not to persuasively demonstrate an empirical link between lynching and lesbian love murder. The lesbian love murder story and the lynching narrative were not simply analogous or parallel tales of sexual pathology leading to political disfranchisement; they thematized different antagonisms and motivated different forms of social action that cannot be represented as equivalent."1 Though it is evident both narratives do not contextually share many similarities, it is clear that black men and white women did share many similarities in terms of the circumstances endured, the obstacles overcome, the unjust outcomes, and more importantly the yearning for political, economic, social, and sexual freedoms- freedoms that were out of their grasp from the force that had grappled them for an entire century, the white male patriarch cal society.
Despite the successes following the Civil War and the emergence of many vocal political and civil rights leaders, the efforts of these brave men and women were still overshadowed by "white" imperial domination. As seen in the film Birth of a Nation, following Reconstruction, white males were still determined to gain control and limit the expressiveness and political freedoms of many black leaders. In the households, white males were determined to keep their women within the domestic sphere. This meant maintaining the long-term ideals that women were supposed to be chaste, pure beings with limited vocal and sexual freedoms.
Through this white male desire to maintain domination over these innocent women and so-called "inferior races," it is easy to see the likely emergence of the two narratives Duggan examines. The roots of these narratives lay in the long-time suppression and oppression of the female gender and the black race. Clearly, the narratives did not come out of nowhere. Many women started to become more expressive in terms of their sexuality and their fight for political equality. No longer would they be silenced. The revelation of this to the white man's world scared and threatened their power. In terms of sexuality, what they had once viewed as natural sudden became unnatural. Similarly, black civil rights, political, and economic freedoms were becoming more and more prevalent. The stronger blacks became educated in the economic, literary, and social world, the more white men grew weary and a sense of uneasiness escalated into feelings of hate and jealousy. In 1892, for both white women and black men, the quest for democracy had reached a peak. Unfortunately, in retrospect, another high point was reached this year. According to Duggan, "the peak year for lynching of black men by white mobs in the south was 1892." Through Duggan's analysis of these two narratives, the lynch/rape narrative, and the lesbian identity narrative, we are given a sense of a reality so typical of those times, a realistic view as to how unjust, how disheartening, and how cruel an imperial society could be. How cruel? The results- a lynch narrative that is essentially a Southern white man's fairytale, a fictional view, a cowardly assault on blacks built on lies, a lesbian narrative that twists sexual reality, and ignores the plain and obvious truth, that an act of cold-blooded murder was committed.
Duggan introduces the rape/lynch narrative, and the lesbian identity narrative by describing them both as "a sexual triangle." In the lynching narrative, this sexual triangle was an inversion of reality. Duggan highlights, "The lynching narrative operated through multiple reversals, displacements, and exclusions. Interracial desire, sexual coercion, and violence were attributed to black men, a reversal of the common practice of white male sexual attacks against black women."2 What is painfully obvious is the fact that many white male southerners made up these false stories because they were threatened by the growth of black economic and political prosperity. The ...
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Duggan introduces the rape/lynch narrative, and the lesbian identity narrative by describing them both as "a sexual triangle." In the lynching narrative, this sexual triangle was an inversion of reality. Duggan highlights, "The lynching narrative operated through multiple reversals, displacements, and exclusions. Interracial desire, sexual coercion, and violence were attributed to black men, a reversal of the common practice of white male sexual attacks against black women."2 What is painfully obvious is the fact that many white male southerners made up these false stories because they were threatened by the growth of black economic and political prosperity. The decision to kill and lynch many blacks for the protection of their chaste, white women was simply an excuse for their growing fear. And what does this say about white women? Placing women as a "passive object of interest,"3 once again, limited them to the traditional domestic sphere. This excuse used by white southerners made the narrative into a social issue, instead of what it really was, a political and economic issue. It became the "white hero versus the black villain." Duggan clearly illustrates the true meaning of this triangle; "The sexual rivalry structured by the lynching triangle epitomized a deadly competition over the right to vote, to exercise economic independence, and to protect an autonomous domesticity." Duggan analyzes a specific lynching event that took place almost simultaneously with the lesbian identity case. This lynching involved three black men brutally murdered by a group of white men simply for owning a competitive grocery store.
The lesbian identity narrative, an event labeled "A Very Unnatural Crime," sent shockwaves throughout the south in 1892. A young woman named Alice Mitchell murders her lover a woman named Freda Ward, in broad daylight. The murder rattled a society so new and so blind to the circumstances. The question was how to react to lesbianism. As Duggan questions, "Could a normal woman love and plan to marry another woman?"4 The narrative also corresponds to a sexual triangle, an "erotic triangle." A normal, happy couple is torn by the acts of a violent third party. Through the Mitchell- Ward story, that third party is not a black man, but a white woman, and this would be the ultimate shock. The surprising murder of a white woman by another woman was startling enough but as Duggan says, "the mystery and fascination of the story was generated by the question of her motive."5 Could a woman truly love another woman, "like a man?" Also, how would her crime be treated? Young, middle-class, white respectable women were not supposed to act this way. Should the truth be told, the facts of the matter were blatantly obvious, an act of murder was committed. However this could not settle well with a white male society. If they wanted to maintain their domination over society, this "sexual perversion or sexual abnormality" could not be accepted. They had to rationalize the actions of Alice Mitchell, "create a sympathetic story to explain a murder to a jury of white men."6 Therefore, they were set on turning a "murder case" into an "insanity case." Looking deeper into the issue, had the murderer been a black man or woman and not an elite white woman, they would not receive any attention from the press or anything close to a defense like that of Alice Mitchell.
The lesbian identity narrative was something new therefore it created a high impact on the mainstream press. Newspapers throughout the nation were interested and intrigued by this "sensational," erotic news story. "Intense, loving friendships between girls were accepted as commonplace- in Memphis such girls were said to be "chumming." But passion of the sort that could lead to romantic obsession and murder was considered startling and newsworthy."7 Despite the intrigue, the local and national press responded to this case differently. The local press had to be careful in terms of what they wanted the people to read. Duggan states, "The news as reported in the Memphis dailies was thus systematically shaped by the perceptions and assumptions of the prosperous white men who controlled newspaper publishing. Therefore, the news was determined to defend the white home, by this threat of deviant sexuality and violence. To better serve their point, the press focused on the dangers of the Mitchell-Ward case on the white family. The element that truly caught national new attention was the psychological state of this so-called lesbian. Was this murderer a fiend? Or was she a "maniacal crank?" The sensationalism of this news story led to many correspondents from around the nation to travel to Memphis and interview the principals. While the local news was set on containment, the national press was determined to thoroughly examine and spread the details of this tragic crime.
The lynching narrative held many resemblances to the lesbian narrative in terms of the mainstream press. White stories of black crimes and the lynching of black criminals strengthened segregation and boosted white males defense of moral order. "Tales of racial rape and lynching began to produce the united whiteness of the modern nation, blurring class lines while entrenching the racial, gendered terms of citizenship so starkly represented in D.W. Griffiths widely distributed 1915 film, The Birth of the Nation."8 However, on a positive note, the lynching narratives also held value for opposing freedom fighters. Through these false crimes and utter lies, black men and women were able to express their views and their positions throughout the press. Once again, as more and more white men hoped to contain, the truth would slowly leak out. "In the black press the issues were framed as political and economic. In the white press, white violence acted to contain black criminality."9 But were these blacks really committing crimes? One woman would answer this question in a controversial response to the white man's lynching narrative.
Ida B. Well's was determined to extend her advocacy for the truth of political equality and personal freedom. She joined many other black freedom fighters such as Frederick Douglass and John Mitchell in opposing segregation, and criticizing white ideals of supremacy. Well's focused on a response to the lynching narrative of 1892 in Memphis. Not only did she argue the struggle of "manhood rights" but also she questioned the roles of many white women involved in these rapings. She argued that, "perhaps it is the white woman that is the initiator of these consensual relations." Well's stresses that the narrative and the practice of lynching itself promoted the idea that white women having sex would black men could only be defined as rape. She saw this as an entire swing from reality. How could a white man not rape a black woman? Yet how is it that a black man repeatedly rapes a white woman? According to the narrative, there is no possibility of choice. It is this argument that led to Well's banishment from Memphis, as she was given numerous death threats upon her return.
The results of the lesbian narrative case were an insult to gender and the freedom of sexuality. Out of fear, the defense for Alice Mitchell denied who she truly was, as seen through her letters, she was a "lesbian woman in love." The case denied the existence of lesbianism. While responding to the questions of the defense, Alice Mitchell answers honestly, and sanely about how she felt about Freda and what drove her to do what she did. Yet the jury and society was blind to this. They saw her words as the words of a "lunatic." Through the use of experts and their analysis of Mitchell's psychological state, the defense was able to manipulate the jury into forgetting about the crime committed. Much like the results of the lynching narrative, as more and more people became familiar with the injustices displayed in this narrative, the more sexual expressiveness and freedom grew. "Oppositional "lesbian" agents and stories emerged into widespread publicity in the 1920s."10 As late as 1950, a man named Dr. Cauldwell took the opportunity to respond to the injustices of the Mitchell-Ward case. Cauldwell cites that the physicians who testified in Alice Mitchell's trial were guided by pseudochivalry rather than by science. Despite the setbacks of the case, Cauldwell "takes pride in the progress made during the past 58 years."11 Both Dr. Cauldwell and Ida B. Wells' responses to these narratives hold much value. As Duggan states, "The efforts of Wells and other antilynching activists did not end lynching, but they did put the practices defenders on the defensive and made it increasingly difficult for northern liberals to accept the lynching narrative and remain silent."12 Dr. Cauldwell's analysis sheds light on the rise of understanding the science of lesbianism, a sexual identity "unknown" during the 1890s.
Though contextually unparallel, yet simultaneously distasteful, the results of the lynch narrative and lesbian identity narrative contributed to the redefining of American social values and the growth into modernization. Both narratives fought the long time ideals of white male supremacy. Women intent on becoming more vocal, exploded into the 20th century stronger than ever, with their quest for suffrage, the freedom to expand and explore their sexual identities, and their right to escape the traditional domestic sphere. African-Americans, fifty years removed from the shackles of slavery, were determined to gain political and economic justice. Though the results may have been ignorance or just flat out lies, had it not been for the lynch narrative, the works and efforts of freedom fighters such as Ida B. Well's may not hold the same value. The same goes to women reformers in response to the lesbian narrative. The injustices were used as a source of motivation- motivation to let the truth be told, to encourage all those blind to the harsh realities of a white male dominated world. Through all the pain, suffering, sacrifice, and hardships, both narratives positively modernized views on class, gender, sexuality, and race. As Duggan states, "In Memphis in 1892, Alice Mitchell and Ida. B. Wells experienced love and loss and transformed mourning into social action."13 Their efforts are clearly recognized. Today, though not exactly sound and harmonious, racial equality and sexual freedom are much more accepted and valued in a democratic society.
Duggan, Lisa. Sapphic Slashers. (Durham: Duke University Press, 2000), 3)
2 Duggan, Lisa. Sapphic Slashers. (Durham: Duke University Press, 2000), 20)
3 Duggan, Lisa. Sapphic Slashers. (Durham: Duke University Press, 2000), 20)
4 Duggan, Lisa. Sapphic Slashers. (Durham: Duke University Press, 2000), 24)
5 Duggan, Lisa. Sapphic Slashers. (Durham: Duke University Press, 2000), 26)
6 Duggan, Lisa. Sapphic Slashers. (Durham: Duke University Press, 2000), 89)
7 Duggan, Lisa. Sapphic Slashers. (Durham: Duke University Press, 2000), 25)
8 Duggan, Lisa. Sapphic Slashers. (Durham: Duke University Press, 2000), 40)
9 Duggan, Lisa. Sapphic Slashers. (Durham: Duke University Press, 2000), 41)
0 Duggan, Lisa. Sapphic Slashers. (Durham: Duke University Press, 2000), 154)
1 Duggan, Lisa. Sapphic Slashers. (Durham: Duke University Press, 2000), 197)
2 Duggan, Lisa. Sapphic Slashers. (Durham: Duke University Press, 2000), 22)
3 Duggan, Lisa. Sapphic Slashers. (Durham: Duke University Press, 2000), 31)
