I examine the rules of sex and dating in a midwestern white middle-class lesbian
community. I interview participants and describe how they comply with these rules,
which largely (though not entirely) correspond with stereotypes of white
middle-class female sexuality. The participants also describe how through the
community rules they resist heterosexual norms of sexuality, which primarily means
resistance of stereotypical male sexuality. The women seem unaware of the ways in
which they participate in the process of creating and reifying these rules within
their community, perceiving themselves instead to be completely ignorant of them. I
examine these patterns within the context of the lesbian ‘sex
wars’, concluding that the legacy of lesbian feminism has remained
surprisingly strong in this community.
Ault, Amber
(1994)
‘Hegemonic Discourse in an Oppositional Community: Lesbian
Feminists and Bisexuality’
, Critical Sociology20(3):
107-122
.
2.
Ault, Amber
(1996)
‘Ambiguous Identity in an Unambiguous Sex/Gender Structure: The
Case of Bisexual Women’
, The Sociological Quarterly37(3):
449-463
.
Bem, Sandra Lipsitz
(1995)
‘Dismantling Gender Polarization and Compulsory Heterosexuality:
Should We Turn the Volume Down or Up?’Journal of Sex Research32(4):
329-334
.
5.
Butler, Judith
(1990) Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of
Identity.
New York: Routledge
.
6.
Califia, Pat
(1980)
‘Feminism vs. Sex: A New Conservative Wave’
, Advocate, 20 February.
7.
Califia, Pat
(1994 [1980]) ‘Among Us, Against Us: Right-Wing
Feminism’, reprinted in Pat Califia, Public Sex: The Culture
of Radical Sex.
Pittsburgh, PA: Cleis Press
.
8.
Collins, Patricia Hill
(1991) Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and
the Politics of Empowerment.
New York: Routledge
.
9.
Daly, Mary
(1978) Gyn/Ecology.
Boston, MA: Beacon Press
.
10.
Dworkin, Andrea
(1981) Pornography: Men Possessing Women.
New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons
.
11.
Echols, Alice
(1989) ‘The Taming of the Id: Feminist Sexual
Politics, 1968-83’, in
Carole Vance
(ed.) Pleasure and Danger: Exploring Female Sexuality, pp.
50-72.
London: Pandora Press
.
12.
Eder, Donna
,
Staggenborg, Suzanne
and
Sudderth, Lori
(1995)
‘The National Women’s Music Festival: Collective
Identity and Diversity in a Lesbian-Feminist Community’
, Journal of Contemporary Ethnography23(4):
485-515
.
13.
Esterberg, Kristin Gay (1993) ‘Salience and Solidarity: Identity,
Correctness, and Conformity in a Lesbian Community’, unpublished PhD
thesis, Cornell University.
14.
Esterberg, Kristin G.
(1997) Lesbian and Bisexual Identities: Constructing
Communities, Constructing Selves.
Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press
.
15.
Faderman, Lillian
(1991) Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers: A History of Lesbian
Life in Twentieth-Century America.
New York: Penguin Books
.
16.
Findlay, Heather
(1992)
‘Freud’s Fetishism and the Lesbian Dildo Debates’
, Feminist Studies18(3):
567-584
.
17.
Foucault, Michel
(1990 [1978]) The History of Sexuality: An
Introduction, Volume 1 (trans. Robert Hurley).
New York: Vintage Books
.
18.
Frye, Marilyn
(1991) ‘Lesbian
“Sex”’, in
Judith Barrington
(ed.) An Intimate Wilderness: Lesbian Writers on Sexuality.
Portland, OR: The Eighth Mountain Press
.
19.
Gagnon, John H.
and
Parker, Richard G.
(1995) ‘Conceiving
Sexuality’, in
Richard G. Parker
and
John H. Gagnon
(eds) Conceiving Sexuality: Approaches to Sex Research in a Postmodern
World, pp. 3-16.
New York: Routledge
.
20.
Gagnon, John H.
and
Simon, William
(1973) Sexual Conduct: The Social Origins of Human
Sexuality.
Chicago, IL: Aldine
.
21.
Halperin, David M.
(1993) ‘Is There a History of
Sexuality?’, in
Henry Abelove
,
Michele Aina Barale
and
David M. Halperin
(eds) The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader, pp.
416-431.
New York: Routledge
.
22.
Harris, Laura
and
Crocker, Elizabeth
(1997) Femme: Feminists, Lesbians, and Bad Girls.
New York: Routledge
.
23.
Hollibaugh, Amber
(1989 [1984]) ‘Desire for the Future: Radical
Hope in Passion and Pleasure’, in
Carole S. Vance
(ed.) Pleasure and Danger: Exploring Female Sexuality, pp.
401-410.
London: Pandora Press
.
24.
Hollibaugh, Amber
and
Moraga, Cherríe
(1983) ‘What We’re Rolling Around in
Bed With: Sexual Silences in Feminism’, in
Ann Snitow
,
Christine Stansell
and
Sharon Thompson
(eds) Powers of Desire: The Politics of Sexuality, pp.
394-405.
New York: Monthly Review Press
.
25.
Iasenza, Suzanne
(2000)
‘Lesbian Sexuality Post-Stonewall to Post-Modernism: Putting the
“Lesbian Bed Death” Concept to Bed’
, Journal of Sex Education and Therapy25(1):
59-70
.
26.
Kennedy, Elizabeth Lapovsky
and
Davis, Madeline D.
(1993) Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold: The History of a
Lesbian Community.
New York: Routledge
.
27.
Krieger, Susan
(1983) The Mirror Dance: Identity in a Women’s
Community.
Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press
.
28.
Millett, Kate
(1970) Sexual Politics.
New York: Ballantine Books
.
Phelan, Shane
(1989) Identity Politics: Lesbian Feminism and the Limits of
Community.
Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press
.
31.
Post, Laura L.
and
Avery, Judith E.
(1995)
‘Therapeutic Approaches to Inhibited Sexual Desire in Lesbians’
, Counseling Psychology Quarterly8(3):
213-220
.
32.
Rich, Adrienne
(1980) ‘Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian
Existence’, in
Catharine R. Stimson
and
Ethel Spector Person
(eds) Women: Sex and Sexuality.
Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press
.
33.
Rothblum, Esther D.
and
Brahoney, Kathleen A.
(1993) Boston Marriages: Romantic but Asexual Relationships
among Contemporary Lesbians.
Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press
.
34.
Rubin, Gayle
(1989 [1984]) ‘Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical
Theory of the Politics of Sexuality’, in
Carole S. Vance
(ed.) Pleasure and Danger: Exploring Female Sexuality, pp.
267-319.
London: Pandora Press
.
35.
Rupp, Leila J.
(1999) A Desired Past: A Short History of Same-Sex Love in
America.
Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press
.
36.
Rust, Paula C.
(2000) ‘Neutralizing the Political Threat of the
Marginal Woman: Lesbians’ Beliefs about Bisexual
Women’, in
Paula C. Rodríguez Rust
(ed.) Bisexuality in the United States: A Social Science Reader.
New York: Columbia University Press
.
37.
Seidman, Steven
(1992) Embattled Eros: Sexual Politics and Ethics in
Contemporary America.
New York: Routledge
.
38.
Stein, Arlene
(1997) Sex and Sensibility: Stories of a Lesbian
Generation.
Berkeley: University of California Press
.
39.
Stein, Arlene
(1998 [1992]) ‘“Sisters and
Queers”: The Decentering of Lesbian Feminism’, in
Peter M. Nardi
and
Beth E. Schneider
(eds) Social Perspectives in Lesbian and Gay Studies, pp.
553-563.
New York: Routledge
.
40.
Stein, Edward
(1992) Forms of Desire: Sexual Orientation and the Social
Constructionist Controversy.
New York: Routledge
.
41.
Tanenbaum, Leora
(2000) Slut! Growing Up Female with a Bad Reputation.
New York: Perennial
.
42.
Taylor, Verta
and
Rupp, Leila J.
(1993)
‘Women’s Culture and Lesbian Feminist Activism: A
Reconsideration of Cultural Feminism’
, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society19(1):
32-60
.
43.
Taylor, Verta
and
Whittier, Nancy E.
(1998 [1992]) ‘Collective Identity in Social
Movement Communities: Lesbian Feminist Mobilization’, in
Peter M. Nardi
and
Beth E. Schneider
(eds) Social Perspectives in Lesbian and Gay Studies: A Reader,
pp. 349-365.
New York: Routledge
.
44.
Tiefer, Leonore
(1995) Sex Is Not a Natural Act and Other Essays.
Boulder, CO: Westview Press
.
45.
Valverde, Mariana
(1987) Sex, Power, and Pleasure.
Baltimore: New Society Publishers
.
46.
Vance, Carole S.
(ed.) (1989 [1984]) Pleasure and Danger: Exploring Female
Sexuality.
London: Pandora Press
.
47.
Weeks, Jeffrey
(1981) Sex, Politics, and Society: The Regulation of
Sexuality Since 1800.
London: Longman
.
48.
Weinberg, Martin S.
,
Swensson, Rochelle Ganz
and
Hammersmith, Sue Kiefer
(1983)
‘Sexual Autonomy and the Status of Women: Models of Female
Sexuality in US Sex Manuals from 1950 to 1980’
, Social Problems30:
312-324
.
49.
Wolf, Deborah Goleman
(1979) The Lesbian Community.
Berkeley: The University of California Press
.
