Analysis Of But Some Of Us Are Brave Lesbians By Jewelle Gomez

Jewelle Gomez’s essay, ““But Some of Us Are Brave Lesbians: The Absence of Black Lesbian Fiction,” discusses the dearth of modern fiction featuring lesbians of color. In the fashion of a crime expose Gomez describes the factors surrounding the “murder” of black lesbian fiction. After a promising influx in the 1980s, modern fiction involving lesbians of color is almost nonexistent. Just like the families and friends of a murder victim regaling the good old days, Gomez reminisces on what, “now, in retrospect, seems like a time of abundance.” (Gomez 292) However the questions remains, who is responsible for the absence of lesbian fiction? Gomez retraces her steps as a black lesbian writer to an essay she wrote for Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology. A collection of essays, poems and stories all from a predominately lesbian group of black writers. Out of all the authors included, a small minority is still writing fiction. Instead most of the authors are writing nonfiction about lesbian life. …show more content…
Gomez names Alice Walker’s The Color Purple (1983) as the last time mainstream publishing has been interested in black lesbian fiction. Bringing up the problem of marketability regarding black lesbian fiction frequently throughout the essay, Gomez states, “Unlike the physical world where things have at least three dimensions there is a mono dimensionality to the thinking of most corporate publishers, who identify one aspect of a book that can be marketed and focus all attention there.” (Gomez 295) So what is the most marketable aspect of a work of black lesbian fiction, when it comes to The Color Purple the marketing campaign focused around the theme of friendship between women. This is evidenced by the description on the book