Controversies About her Sexuality

Weiter mit Susan Sontag:

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Yoshie Furuhashi THE DEATH OF Susan Sontag, one of the most acclaimed intellectuals of her time, on December 28, 2004 immediately inspired controversies about her sexuality. Many writers rightfully questioned major newspapers’ studied silence in their obituaries on her relationships with women. For instance, Patrick Moore, the author of Beyond Shame: Reclaiming the Abandoned History of Radical Gay Sexuality (Boston: Beacon Press, 2004), wrote: “On Dec. 29, 2004, the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times reported Sontag’s death on their front pages, with more stories inside. Yet neither paper mentioned Sontag’s relationships with [Annie] Leibovitz and other women” (“Susan Sontag and a Case of Curious Silence,” Los Angeles Times, January 4, 2005). So far, so good. Some critics, however, went further, questioning Sontag’s own treatment of her own sexuality. “In a 2000 New Yorker profile, Sontag outed herself as bisexual, familiar code for ‘gay,’” asserts Moore. Sometimes, the declaration of bisexuality is indeed a cover for homosexuality, as the former — especially for women — is often seen as less threatening than the latter. Nothing hurts the straight male ego more than the idea that some women are simply not sexually interested in them — at all! In the case of Sontag, though, she said that she had been in love nine times: “Five women, four men” (quoted in “Finding Fact from Fiction,” The Guardian, May 27, 2000). Since there is no good reason to doubt her honesty (certainly Moore offers none), it seems uncalled for to suggest that she was claiming to be bisexual for the sake of expediency when she really was lesbian. (solidarity-us.org)

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