May 8 saw the conclusion of the 11th season of the Chicago History Museum's "Out at CHM" series with "Lesbianography: Lesbians and Sex"—a presentation and discussion which covered the history of lesbian pornography, lesbian identity, intersections of race and sexuality, and gender borders.
After guests enjoyed drinks, a selection of hors d'oeuvres and the music of renowned Chicago DJ Darlene Jackson ( aka Lady D ), the Chicago Room at the museum essentially became a safe space to talk about lesbian sexuality and what forms of entertainment reflect both individual desire and expression.
Twenty years ago, Rose Troche directed a film called Go Fish that told the story of Max, Ely and Kia—a group of Chicago lesbians—and touched upon themes of gender roles, the differences between butch and femme and the desire to connect both mentally and physically. "I think I saw her on the subway yesterday," Max said in the film while fantasizing about Ely. "She was supposed to sit down next to me, spill her soda on me and we were supposed to laugh, make a game of cleaning up where we touch each other more than necessary and coincidentally get off at the same stop."
UC Berkeley gender and women's studies professor and self-described "accidental academic" Juana Maria Rodriguez began the evening with a poignant and often-hilarious look at the history of lesbian pornography. "We actually spend several lecture classes figuring out what a woman is and we never really conclude anything," Rodriguez said. "When you combine lesbian and pornography things get really complicated. Are these lesbian identified women in pornography? Are these people just acting like lesbians in pornography?"
Alongside her tongue-in-cheek commentary, Rodriguez regaled the audience with photographs showing women featured on the covers of wrestling magazines in the 1940s. "You kind of just have to sometimes get it where you can," she said. By the 1950s, choices included pulp-fiction titles such as Satan was a Lesbian. In 1982, they had evolved to slow-motion shots of Mariel Hemingway's crotch in Personal Best, or Catherine Deneuve and Susan Sarandon enjoying sex as only a vampire and a gerontologist can in 1983's The Hunger. The film also starred David Bowie—who was, according to Rodriguez, "the dyke-iest of them all."
"Things kind of got interesting with 'On Our Backs—entertainment for the adventurous lesbian,'" Rodriguez said. "It emerged at the height of the sex wars and was a reference to the upstanding feminist magazine Off Our Backs. But some of us preferred On our Backs. There was an educational component to it. You could read porn and learn things." In discussing the Showtime drama The L Word, Rodriguez noted that in five seasons, "There were, maybe, three sex scenes that were kind of worth it."
Rodriguez said that today the Internet fills life with things "to make us happy." Production companies such as CrashPadSeries.com have become a home to authentic queer sexuality. Meanwhile, queer porn stars such as Poppy Cox and Jiz Lee have found a measure of celebrity and consistent work. "We also have attention to lighting and aesthetics. Just higher production values," Rodriguez said. "You also start to have different kinds of bodies represented on the screen."
"We started with wrestling and looking everywhere for porn," Rodriguez added. "Now porn is everywhere. Pop culture is filled with things that get you off. Where you go to look for stuff depends on what you're looking for and what you do when you find it."
Indiana University-Bloomington Associate Professor of Gender Studies LaMonda Horton-Stallings explored what, in popular culture, counts as porn. "What do we consider lesbian? What spiritual traditions go into what gets designated as porn?," she asked before beginning her presentation with a clip from the Crashpad film Superfreak, which focuses on the adventures of punk-funk musician Rick James's ghost, who roams around looking for queer women to possess.
"Too often, conversations about porn revolve around men," Horton-Stallings said. "Too often, those about women and real lesbians suggest the segregation of space maintained by gender and sexual orientation. The straight women and the boys go here; the queer dudes and the lesbians go elsewhere."
"My ancestors were superfreaks," Horton-Stallings admitted. "And I have clearly become a conduit for their continued activities. I am rewarded with a renewed energy or some windfall of an opportunity like a speaking engagement at the Chicago History Museum."
Horton-Stallings theorized that both straight and gay and lesbian strip clubs as well as film production companies that focus upon stripping "have everything to do with a different spiritual tradition that thinks about what it means to erotic intimacy in human relations," she said. "Black dance has allowed Black women with same sex desires who might be politicized with a lesbian identity a certain validity that might be shaped by different spiritual traditions about sexuality and gender that have nothing to do with the body."
Chicago History Museum Grants and "Out at CHM" Manager Michael Cansfield told Windy City Times that the series this year has been extremely well-attended. "It makes it the largest ongoing public program, that the museum does," he said, adding that there is a committee meeting this month to talk about topics and presenters for 2015. "Nothing's confirmed yet, but I anticipate that we will keep with our Sex, Drugs and Rock n' Roll theme that we had success with this year."
