The Pedagogy of/in Images: Notes on Lesbian Desire and Knowing How to Fuck

Abstract

This article brings together feminist, lesbian and queer studies in visual culture, asking how images construct norms for bodies and desires, and how well-represented and representable these desires may be for young people in the education system. Although the chapter focuses on lesbian experiences, the aim is not to reify a particular identity, but rather to draw on their capacity to raise political questions that, where they intersect with queer theory, project not an essentialized identity but its vanishing points. Far from trying to make a case for why lesbian sex should be more visible, or present it as unambiguous, the author raises the question of the politicity of a queer and non-essentialist gaze deploying the potential imaginaries of these experiences.