Lesbians Quick Cards Flashcards
What is wrong with the term lesbian?
- Emma Donoghue- Lesbianism appeared 1870 and Lesbian as an adjective in 1890.
- Didn’t exist before?
- Donoghue looks at words like Tommy and Tribade
- Harriette Andreadis- long too assumed that women in the past could not name their erotic desires, rather than recognizing their refusal to name them!
Did lesbians have an identity?
Basically the essentialist v. Social constructionist debates!
Martha Vicinus- looks at Dorothy Strachey Bussy, who had a boarding school romance0 looking back over 50 years could see her love for Mlle
Judith Brown: ‘before the nineteenth century, women who engaged in sexual relations with other women were incapable of perceiving themselves as a distinct sexual and social group, and were not seen as such by others.
Frances Wilder in the early 1920s- wrote to Edward Carpenter thanking him for the introduction of a sexual discourse- hadn’t been able to identify herself before!
Leila. J. Rupp looks at Lesotho, a poor country which bordered South America- women engage in sexual activities, however in this culture it is not defined as sexual- because it can only be sexual if there is a penis involved!
What are the methodological problems for women’s history?
Less Visible- women were much less in control of their own lives! (Rebecca Jennings).
Lesbian Continuum- Adrienne Rich
Male agenda- Emma Donoghue identifies- it is always looked at with regards to gay men, at clubs pubs etc.- male dominated spaces. Rebecca Jennings also demonstrates that these cannot be the same thing
Terminology!
Lack of sources?
Sex!
Were women sexual?
Isabel Hull in a 1981 Review of Faderman, criticized her for having a category so broad that it did not need genital contact!
Women thought of being not as sexual! 1950s Alfred Kinsey found that only 20% of unmarried women had had sex by 19, in 1971- this had risen to almost 50%.
Sex wasn’t threatening- because the men could not become cuckholds- Rebecca Jennings!
Yes
Anne Lister (1791- 1840), kept diaries of her sexual encounters with women! Called orgasms kisses by code.
Rebecca Jennings looks at the tribade!
Also the clitoris was re-discovered in the mid 16th century- Realdo Colombo - could be stimulated by fingers- that meant danger as it was not necessary for a man to do it!
What are the problems with looking at sources on the study of lesbians
- Have to look at cultural representations! These are not necessarily clear-cut and can be analysed in different ways. (Rebecca Jennings)
- Less written- a lot of emphasis has been put on romantic friendships- because this is what source material can be gathered.
- Invisible- female sexual activity doesn’t leave a trace!
- Emma Donoghue- lesbianism was very much a silent sin!
- Women’s problems- have lower literacy rates! 10/20% in 1700 and almost 50% at the close of the eighteenth century!
- Martha Vicinus 2004- ‘white, educated, Anglo- Americans’ most likely to leave sources
- Not really police records! Scotland Kirk Sessions records show that just one case of female sodomy in 1625 (and this was heterosexual?)
What were Boston Marriages?
Late 19th century term used for two women who were unmarried, in a monogamous relationship with each other and lived independently!
- Anne Fields and Sarah Orne Jewett- lasted 3 decades- when Sarah died, Anne tried to get published, friend told her not to let too much slip!
- Ladies of Llangollen- Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby eloped together in wales in 1778- lives together for 40 years! Lilian Faderman says that were even admired, and also were a bit of a tourist attraction!
- Lilian Faderman says that these could be acceptable because there was no indication that these were actually sexual relationships!
- Would need money for a woman to be socially independent!
What were Romantic Friendships?
Carrol Smith- Rosenberg and Lilian Faderman- same sex relationship would be inconceivable
Rise in boarding schools- throw people together in this kind of atmosphere/ structure-
R.W. Shufeldt in 1902 ‘female boarding schools and colleges are the great breeding grounds of artificial love.
Martha Vicinus looks at how these boarding school relationships weren’t romantic, as this would indicate a loss in self- control!
Charlotte Bronte and Ellen Nussey in the 19th century, would write letters to each other signed my beloved etc.
What were female husbands?
Was more of an early eighteenth century thing, because later romantic friendships could provided a more conventional model of expression for female love!
Edward de Lacy Evans- 23 years in Victoria Australia
Mary Hamilton,
1766- case of James How (Mary East) - married to a woman for 36 years, a pillar of the community!
-Norton, Vicinus and Donoghue emphasize the social above the personal element in these cases!
-Whereas Lotte Van De Pol and Rudolph Dekker argued that taking the role of a husband in the institutional framework of marriage- enabled women to make more sense of their desire for other women
What impact did sexologists have on the perception of lesbians?
- the lesbian became the female invert!
Krafft-Ebing divided the lesbian into four categories of sexual deviance-the worst being literally everything apart from genitals being male! Gynandry!
-Alice Mitchell became the embodiment of the invert or lesbian in medical and popular discourse
How did the new women become associated with lesbianism?
- Gained more access to education and more autonomy- so usurping the male role- links with lesbianism!
- Women’s organisations such as WSPU established by Emmeline Pankhurst allowed like minded people to meet eachother!
- Also womens involvement in the army- lead to them becoming increasingly independent!
- Education Act 1870- more access to education
Carrol Smith Rosenberg says that by 1900- the mannish lesbian had come into being!
