TOW #4 - IRB: Eating Fire, My Life as a Lesbian Avenger by Kelly Cogswell (Part I)

            Kelly Cogswell was a lesbian born in Kentucky. When she came out to her mother at age 18 her mother told her that she ‘just hadn’t found the right man’. This prompt Kelly to move out and go to New York, the city, where she believed, she would finally be accepted by someone. In Eating Fire, My Life as a Lesbian Avenger, Kelly retells the process and perils of the activist group the Lesbian Avengers. Kelly was considered one of the unofficial heads of the organization from a little after it began to the moment it caved in on itself.

            Halfway into the book I believe that Kelly’s purpose is to inform people of the truths of what happened in the Lesbian Avengers. At the beginning of the end of the Lesbian Avengers, Kelly mentions that a lot of lies were spread about the group. A majority of the lies were about the group being racist and exclusive. Through Kelly’s retelling the group doesn’t come off as racist, they actually did a lot of work for lesbian Latinas. Anything that was accused of being racist seemed accidental or interpreted the wrong way.

            The primary audience is the lesbians who believed all the lies about the Avengers. Then the unintended audience is just people everywhere. However with the unintended audience the purpose then changes from clearing the group’s name to just bringing light to the group’s existence.  All the events that the Lesbian Avengers curated never seemed to get much media attention. If they got any at all it was one line in an article that generalized them and never really properly described what they were fighting for.

            Regarding Kelly’s primary purpose of revealing the truth, I do believe she accomplishes it. Throughout the first half of the book she mentions the rumors and lies that were being said about the group and then disproves them with facts and true anecdotes. Kelly also achieves her purpose with her unintended audience. For the most part the whole first half of the book is the story of the Lesbian Avengers, with the exception of a few personal stories included.