XQ281

Author: Jennifer Martenson

Publisher: Burning Deck (2001)

XQ281 is a satiric response to the so-called "gay gene" that made headlines in 1993. Noting that no genetic marker for "lesbianism" has been found, the poem quickly becomes entangled in footnotes. Mock-inquiries into the biology of lesbianism in the vocabulary of genetics and linguistics results in a hybrid work where the category of "woman" is a "dense, fibrous tissue." More concerned with codes of conduct than genetic codes, XQ281 does not take sides on the nature/nurture question as much as it plays around in the ideological context of the debate.