Lesbian Ethics

Lesbian ethics advocate the creation and maintenance of community among lesbians, independent from maledefined social structures, policies, attitudes, and laws. Lesbian approaches to ethics are varied and do not subscribe to a systematic set of rules but rather support practices that enable women to break away from patriarchal dominance, including patriarchal ethical theories. Traditional ethical theory articulates rules by which men can live together, respecting each other's rights and property, fulfilling duties that accompany particular social roles, and adhering, with some exceptions, to commonly shared norms such as honesty, protection of human life, and promise keeping.

Lesbian ethicists recognize that traditional ethical theory supports the status quo of structures that are sexist, racist, ageist, classist, and heterosexist, to name a few of the isms that lesbian approaches attempt to overcome. Heterosexualism, the embrace of maledominated social practices and institutions, is seen to validate oppression. For example, definitions of property rights long excluded, and in many parts of the world still do exclude, women from equal consideration. Indeed, women have been and still are more often defined as [Page 1283]property than as property holders. Similarly, definitions of justice and “doing what is right” often mirror male traditions of obligations and social norms, such as family honor and filial duty.

The experience of acknowledging oneself as a lesbian often requires women to step outside the bounds of commonly accepted and familiar social relationships with which they have been raised. Even if their immediate families are accepting and understanding of their sexual identity, there are strong social messages of disapproval, condemnation, hatred, and fear. Finding one's own strength and self-acceptance in this milieu is challenging, at best. These common experiences fueled the emergence and articulation of lesbian ethics, which champions truly liberated choice.

Self-understanding is the natural starting place for lesbian ethics, suggests philosopher Sarah Hoagland, because as women fully understand themselves and their relations with others, they open the door to their own agency. One important role for such agency is social transformation. As with all feminist ethics, lesbian ethics expresses a strong commitment to work to create a society that fully supports women's rights. However, lesbian ethics go beyond liberal feminist arguments in seeking a moral revolution to replace patriarchal social structures rather than simply amending them. Lesbian ethics advocate not merely broader support for women but a community in which women, inclusive of lesbians, fully control and shape their lives.

Lesbian ethics are sometimes criticized for spending more time discussing what they aren't and what they are in rebellion against than what they are. There is little discussion of whether the society aspired to by lesbian ethics is one that has room for both hetero- and homosexual relations. In this way, the visions of lesbian ethics are perhaps utopian and incomplete. However, given the reality of heterosexual dominated society, the contribution of lesbian ethics provides a unique opportunity to explore the potential of women's creativity and choice apart from the man-made world.