A body is not a metaphor: Barbara Hammer's X-ray vision.

This article examines three films by legendary experimental filmmaker Barbara Hammer that deal with the sick, aging, or dying body: Optic Nerve (1985), Sanctus (1990), and A Horse is Not a Metaphor (2008). By analyzing films that do not explicitly confront sexual identity, this article questions the continuing usefulness of the designation "lesbian filmmaker" when considering Hammer's diverse body of work. Tracing the "double consciousness" through which Hammer approaches the body and its construction in patriarchy-particularly in the discourse of medicine-this article argues that Hammer's is a thoroughly corporeal, but not exclusively lesbian, cinema.