Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches

 “Hegemony” refers to the disproportionate influence—political, social, cultural—of a dominant group. In political philosophy, the idea often appears through the term “hegemonic discourse,” or a dominant group’s narrative about reality. Lorde examines the white heteropatriarchal hegemonic discourse, which is a constructed “reality” wherein heterosexuality, whiteness, and masculinity are desirable and deserve to dominate, while all else is lesser and deserves to be dominated.

When a group’s dominance becomes hegemonic, the marginalized are often so overwhelmed and indoctrinated by the hegemonic discourse that they genuinely believe themselves inferior, even if that belief is unconscious (or “internalized”). For example, in the essay “Scratching the Surface,” Lorde points out how the hegemonic discourse—the narrative that a woman is loathsome if she loves anything other than a man—intimidates women, especially lesbians and bisexual women, into isolation from one another to keep them from realizing their power and worth.

Lorde generally uses the term “homophobia” in the sense outlined by the American Psychological Association: “dread or fear of gay men and lesbians, associated with prejudice and anger toward them, that leads to discrimination in such areas as employment, housing, and legal rights and sometimes to violence.” However, the word has gathered controversy since the Associated Press, in 2012, criticized it for etymological inaccuracy; phobia (or irrational fear), they assert, may not accurately describe discriminatory motives.

George Weinberg, the clinical psychologist who coined the term in 1965 and who spearheaded the effort to expunge “homosexuality” from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, repudiated the AP’s decision to bar the term, and he argued that “homophobia” is essentially a pathology that surpasses mere bias (Woodsome, Kate. “Gay Rights Activist Slams AP for Nixing ‘Homophobia.’” VOA News. 2012). Neither censuring the AP’s dictum nor fully agreeing with its wholesale rejection of the term, the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association stylebook advises reserving the term for “relevant usage, such as in quotations, opinions or broad references to the concept.” Lorde’s usage falls under this description.

Horizontal hostility, a term dating to 1970s feminism, refers to infighting and factions within marginalized groups and their liberation efforts. In “Scratching the Surface,” Lorde describes the horizontal hostility that arose within 1970s Black communities when the men treated women’s solidarity as a threat; this sabotaged Black women’s ties with one another and distracted from the actual threat of racism. Another, quite different example is in “Learning from the 60s,” wherein the author asserts that a Black person who is traumatized by racism may misdirect their anger toward other Black people.