Since her emergencein the mid-eighties as an aggressively original artist, CeciliaDougherty has struggled to inscribe a lesbian aesthetic within a mediumthat doesn't freely relinquish its male-dominated terrain. From herearly endeavors to portray lesbian sex in a mundane, non-exploitativemanner, such as Claudia (1987, 8 mins), to her more recent efforts tousurp male space by appropriating the garb of gay icons, mostprominently as Joe Orton in Joe-Joe (1993, 52 mins), Dougherty hasfought to give lesbian representation its due. Her newest work, MyFailure to Assimilate (1994, 20 mins), redirects this territorialimperative toward the consequences of trying to participate inmainstream culture. According to Dougherty, the tape is "about theschizophrenic nature of an individual's relationship to language andsocial structures which categorically deny her existence. It's alsoabout the high price of becoming visible on your own terms, and theacute lack of assurances that an outsider's position can ever besecure." Anti-assimilationist in posture, Dougherty's latest isn'ta retreat from the fight for representation; rather, it's a vividglimpse of the battle scars.-Steve Seid Plus: TheDrama of the Gifted Child (1992, 6 mins) and Sick (1986, 6 mins).