Lesbianism
Lesbianism refers to female homosexuality, that is, women who experience romantic love or sexual attraction to other women. The word lesbian (from lesbio 'a native of Lesbos', alluding to Sappho) is used to refer to a homosexual woman who feels sexual, physical, emotional and sexual attraction. sentimental only towards women.
Likewise, in certain contexts and times, the cult term sapphism and the poetic term tribadism are also used to refer to female homosexuality, whose respective adjectives sapphic, -ca and tribada/tríbada refer to lesbians or lesbianism.
In the late 19th century, sexologists published their observations on same-sex desire and behavior and distinguished lesbians in Western culture as a distinctive entity. Since then, historians have re-examined relationships between women, questioning what it is that makes a woman or a relationship qualify as lesbian. The result of this debate has introduced three components when it comes to identifying lesbians: sexual behavior, sexual desire and sexual identity.
Women's sexuality throughout history has been largely constructed by gender roles, which have limited the recognition of lesbianism as a possibility or valid expression of sexuality. Early sexologists based their characterizations of lesbians on their belief that women who challenged their strictly defined gender roles were mentally ill. Since then, many lesbians have reacted to their designation as immoral outcasts by building a subculture based on rebellion against gender roles. Lesbianism has been fashionable at times throughout history, affecting how lesbians are perceived by others, and how they perceive themselves. Some women who engage in homosexual behavior may reject lesbian identity altogether, refusing to define themselves as lesbian or bisexual.
The different ways in which lesbians have been portrayed in the media suggests that Western society as a whole has been simultaneously intrigued and threatened by women challenging female gender roles, and fascinated and awed by romantic relationships between women. However, women who embrace lesbian identity share experiences that make up a picture similar to that of ethnic identity: as homosexuals, they are bound by the potential discrimination and rejection they experience from their families, friends, and others. As women, they have different concerns than men. Political conditions and social attitudes also continue to affect the formation of lesbian relationships and families.
Etymology and word development
The word "lesbian" is derived from the name of the Greek island of Lesbos, home to the VII and VI century to. of the poetess Sappho. From surviving writings, historians have deduced that Sappho was in charge of a group of young women for their instruction and amusement. Not much of Sappho's poetry has survived, but What is known reflects the subjects she wrote about: the daily lives of women, their relationships and rituals. He focused on the beauty of women and proclaimed his love for young girls. Before the end of the 19th century, the word "lesbian" was an adjective that normally qualified anything derived from Lesbos, including a type of wine. However, the term "lesbienne" in its modern sense was already used in literature. French since the XVI century. In England, the use of "lesbian" with its current meaning can be traced back to the 17th century, as documented by Emma Donoghue in Passions between women (1993). In 1890, the word was used in a medical dictionary as an adjective to describe tribadism (as "lesbian love"): sexual gratification of two women through the simulation of intercourse. "Lesbianism", to describe the erotic relationship between women, was documented in the 1870s. The term was interchangeable with "sapphic" and "sapphism" around the turn of the century XX. The use of "lesbian" in the medical literature became prevalent; around 1925 the word appears defined as a noun to refer to the female equivalent of a sodomite.
The development of medical knowledge was an important factor in the connotations that the word was to include. In the mid-19th century, medical educators tried to establish ways to identify male homosexuality, which was seen as a social problem considerable in most Western societies. Categorizing sexual behavior, sexologists such as the German Magnus Hirschfeld referred to "inversion" as normal sexual behavior for males and females, whereby males and females ranged from the "perfect male sex type" to the "perfect male sex type." perfect feminine". The amount of medical literature devoted to female homosexuality was much less than that devoted to male homosexuality, as medical professionals did not consider it a significant problem. In some cases, they didn't even acknowledge their existence. However, the psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebing of Germany and the sexologist Havelock Ellis of the United Kingdom wrote some of the earliest and most enduring categorizations of female homosexuality, regarding it as a type of insanity. Krafft-Ebing, who contemplated lesbianism (which he called "uranism") as a neurological disease, and Ellis, himself influenced by Krafft-Ebing's writings, believed that the condition was not permanent. Ellis was of the opinion that the feelings of many women who professed love for other women changed after they were married and had a "real life". However, Ellis admitted the existence of "true inverts" who would spend their entire lives in erotic relationships with other women.. These were members of the "third sex", which rejected the subordinate, feminine, and domestic role of women. by males; because women in Victorian times were considered incapable of initiating sexual encounters, women who did so with other women were considered to have masculine sexual desires.
Krafft-Ebing's works were widely circulated and helped raise public awareness of female homosexuality. Psychiatrists' claims that homosexuality was a congenital anomaly were generally widely accepted by males homosexuals; they indicated that his behavior was not inspired or should be considered a criminal vice. In the absence of other descriptions of their emotions, homosexuals accepted the designation "different" or "pervert" and used their outlaw status to form social circles in Paris and Berlin. "Lesbian" and "lesbianism" began to describe elements of a subculture.
Biological theories about the causes of lesbianism
Embryonic development
Scientific studies carried out by the University of Auckland in 2018 suggest that a woman's sexual orientation could be partially influenced by exposure to androgens during pregnancy. A female with androgen traits and masculine behavior may be an indication of high testosterone in her fetal development in utero.
Genetics
A 2011 UK study of identical twins concluded that genetic factors play an important role of up to 25% in predisposition to lesbianism. The study found that identical twins who share their entire genetic code are more likely to both be lesbian than fraternal twins, who share half their genes by comparison. This shows that genetics can influence up to 25% of homosexuality in women.
Psychobiology
According to a study published by the University of Essex in the United Kingdom in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, women can be lesbian or bisexual, but very rarely they are completely heterosexual. The researchers monitored the behaviors of 345 women when viewing explicit images of naked women and men. Using both eye-tracking devices that measured factors such as pupil dilation (known to be a strong indicator of sexual arousal) as well as direct measures of psychological sexual response, the study found that women who identified as heterosexual responded with the same sexual arousal both when seeing images of naked women and men. Meanwhile, lesbian women showed far more sexual responses to their preferred gender (females) than male images.
Other causes
It is popularly believed that women who were sexually abused by a male perpetrator or during their childhood, especially by male relatives, become more likely to be lesbian. Although it is true that suffering an experience of this type could result in the development of a phenomenon known as misandry or aversion towards men, this does not necessarily mean that the victim feels attracted to people of the same sex, so this theory could be considered just a myth.
Identity and gender
Lesbians, particularly in Western culture, are often seen as having an "identity" that is defined by their own individual sexuality, as well as membership in a group that shares common characteristics. Through history, women in many cultures have had sexual relations with other women, but they were rarely considered part of a specific group of people that was defined by the type of sexual relations. Because women have been a political minority in Western cultures, the additional designation as homosexual resulted in the development of a subcultural identity among lesbians.
Construction of lesbian identity
For some women, the realization that they were engaging in behavior or relationships that could be classified as "lesbian" caused them to be shunned or hidden, such as Professor Jeannette Marks at Mount Holyoke College, who lived with the head of the College, Mary Woolley for 36 years. Marks discouraged young women from having abnormal "friendships" and insisted that happiness could only be achieved with a male. Other women, however, accepted the distinction and used their uniqueness to distinguish themselves from straight women and gay men..
Berlin had a vibrant homosexual culture in the 1920s, with there even being an anthem, Das lila Lied, which lesbians also perceived as their own. There were about fifty clubs and bars for women, ranging from the large and luxurious cabarets and cafes, like the famous "Eldorado", visited by stars like Marlene Dietrich, or "Chez ma belle-soeur", passing through the mixed ones, with everything type of public, such as the "Dorian Gray" in the Bülowstrasse, and popular such as the "Club des amies", which held parties three times a week, even the most sordid, such as the "Café Olala", which also attended transvestite men, or the "Tavern", which had a room reserved for ladies. In 1928, a book entitled Berlins lesbische Frauen ("Berlin's Lesbian Women") by Ruth Margarete Roellig popularized the German capital as a center of European lesbian culture. Parties and events were publicized in various magazines, which functioned as a link for the community. There was also an authentic explosion of lesbian culture, as evidenced by artists such as Claire Waldoff, Jeanne Mammen, Christa Winsloe or Anna Elisabet Weirauch, author of the trilogy Der Skorpion, the quintessential lesbian novel of the time. Male homosexuality was prohibited by article 175, but the police in cities like Berlin and Hamburg used to look the other way. The fight for the elimination of the article allowed to articulate the first homosexual movement, of which women, less affected, formed only a marginal part. Even so, the women around the Humanitarian Scientific Committee made a notable contribution to the fight for the emancipation of both women and homosexuals, mentioning Theo Anna Sprüngli, the first lesbian activist in history, Johanna Elberskirchen and Emma (Külz-) Trosse.
From the 1890s to the 1930s, American heiress Natalie Clifford Barney maintained a weekly literary salon in Paris to which major artistic celebrities were invited and focused on lesbian themes. Combining Greek influences with contemporary French eroticism, she attempted to create an updated and idealized version of Lesbos in her living room.Her contemporaries included artists such as Romaine Brooks, who painted the women in her circle; the writers Colette, Djuna Barnes, Gertrude Stein and the novelist Radclyffe Hall. Paris also had a notable lesbian scene, particularly in the Montmartre area, which had been known for it since the 19th century, Pigalle and Montparnasse. One of the first nightclubs was "Le monocle" opened by Lulu de Montparnasse, which was attended by women dressed in tuxedos and short hair or buns. Another famous venue was the one opened by singer Suzy Solidor, "La vie parisienne"; although visited by artists such as Tamara de Lempicka, who painted a famous portrait of the singer, and Colette, Solidor did not meet with the approval of the Parisian lesbian intelligentsia. of gays and lesbians, such as that of the "Montagne de Sainte-Geneviève", which evolved into a great dance on Mardi Gras day.
In 1928, Radclyffe Hall, a British aristocrat, published the novel The Well of Solitude. Its plot centers around Stephen Gordon, a woman who identifies as an invert after reading Krafft-Ebbing's Psychopathia Sexualis and lives within the homosexual subculture of Paris. The novel included an introduction by Havelock Ellis and was intended as a call for tolerance of inverts, publishing the disadvantages and accidents of being born an invert. Hall followed the theories of Krafft-Ebbing and Ellis and rejected Freud's. that homosexual attraction was caused by childhood trauma and was curable. The publicity Hall received had unexpected consequences; the novel was put on trial for obscenity in London, a spectacular scandal described by Professor Laura Doan as "the moment when the construction of a modern English lesbian subculture crystallized". English newspapers reported that the book included "sexual intercourse". among lesbian women" and Hall's photography went on to accompany every major newspaper story on lesbianism for the next six months. the nape, suit jacket (often with trousers) and monocle, which became a well-known "uniform" associated with lesbianism, although less extreme versions, the flappers, became fashionable among "modern" women.
In the United States, the 1920s were one of social experimentation, especially in matters of sex. The fact was heavily influenced by the theories of Sigmund Freud, who claimed that sexual desire is expressed subconsciously, despite the individual's willingness to ignore it. Freud's theories were much more popular in the United States than in Europe. Big cities with a nightlife were immensely popular, and women began to seek sexual adventures. Bisexuality became fashionable, especially in the first gay neighborhoods in the United States. No other place offered as many possibilities to the visitor as Harlem, the New York neighborhood inhabited mainly by people of African origin. These visitors were the so-called slummers, whites who enjoyed jazz and nightclubs. Blues singers Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Ethel Waters, and Gladys Bentley sang about their affairs with visiting women such as Tallulah Bankhead, Beatrice Lillie, and soon-to-be-named Joan Crawford. Homosexuals began to compare their new status as a recognized minority with that of blacks. Among Harlem residents, lesbian relationships were common and tolerated, though not openly accepted. Some women performed lavish wedding ceremonies, even applying for marriage licenses in New York City, using male names. However, most women in homosexual relationships were married to men; bisexuality was more accepted than lesbianism.
Across New York City, in Greenwich Village, the gay community was also growing; both Harlem and Greenwich Village offered rooms for single men and women, which was one of the main factors in their development as centers of the gay community. But the atmosphere was different in Greenwich Village. Bohemian intellectuals who rejected Victorian ideals were concentrated in the Village. Homosexuals were mostly male, although figures such as the poet Edna St. Vincent Millay, the hostess Mabel Dodge and the writer Eva Kotchever, owner of the famous "Eve's Hangout", were known for their affairs with women and promoting tolerance of homosexuality. Women who could not visit Harlem or live in Greenwich Village were first able to visit bars in the 1920s without being considered prostitutes. The existence of public spaces in which women could socialize, which even served lesbians, "became the most important public manifestation of the subculture for many decades", in the words of historian Lillian Faderman.
During the decades before the Spanish Civil War there was also a certain flowering of lesbian culture and visibility in Spain. Cipriano Rivas Cherif premiered in 1929 with his theater group El Caracol in Madrid his play A dream of reason, about a couple of women looking for a man to have a child. Lucía Sánchez Saornil, the founder of the feminist section of the CNT, Mujeres Libres, also published some poems dedicated to women under the pseudonym "Luciano de San-Saor". In novels, it was Carmen de Burgos who introduced lesbianism into her plots. A sapphic circle was even formed in Madrid around Victorina Durán, as a meeting place and gathering place for women. Among the lesbians who had a certain relevance in At the time we can mention Victoria Kent, the first woman to act as a lawyer in a trial in Spain, Carmen Conde, the first language academic, Ana María Sagi and Irene Polo. They must be joined by the famous dancer and muse of the arts Carmen Tórtola Valencia, who lived for almost thirty years, until her death in 1955, with her lover Ángeles Vila-Magret, whom she adopted to cover appearances, although it was an open secret.
The Great Depression
The main component needed to encourage lesbians to lead a public life and seek out other women was financial independence, which all but disappeared in the 1930s with the Great Depression. Most women in the United States found it necessary to marry a man to maintain the "front," often a gay man, so that they could both discreetly have homosexual relationships, but also a man seeking a traditional woman. Independent women in the 1930s were blamed for taking jobs away from men. This social attitude produced small, tight-knit communities centered around bars in large cities, while in less urbanized areas, lesbians remained isolated. Discussing homosexuality in any context was taboo, and women rarely discussed lesbianism even with each other; they referred to openly gay people as in the Life. Freud's psychoanalytic theory, ubiquitous in the medical community, viewed homosexuality as a neurosis affecting immature women.
In Germany, the social situation of lesbian women was similar, though even more oppressive. The Nazi party had already managed to be the second largest force in parliament in 1930 and the SA began to act in the streets, threatening anyone who did not conform to their ideals. At the end of the 1920s, the homosexual movement was in decline and when Hitler came to power in January 1933, events precipitated: in February, the Prussian Ministry of the Interior ordered the closure of all stores and magazines that were related to homosexuals; in May the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft was closed and looted, and its library burned along with other works "contrary to the German spirit" on May 10, 1933. In June the homosexual associations were definitively dissolved. Despite everything, the " bowling club» Die lustige Neun («The fun nine»), created in Berlin in 1924, managed to organize lesbian parties in which between two and three hundred women participated, at least until April 1940 It is not known if the parties, known from the descriptions of the Gestapo minutes that closely monitored them, continued during the War years.
In Switzerland, the Damen-Club Amicitia for women, together with the Excentric-Club Zürich for men, created the magazine Freundschafts-Banner ('Flag of Friendship'), organ of the 'Swiss Friendship Movement'. The magazine and movement were from its inception dominated by women, most notably Anna Vock, Mammina, until the early 1940s, an unusual development, perhaps prompted by the illegality of female homosexuality in some cantons. The magazine, heir to the German homosexual movement, evolved in 1942 into Der Kreis - Le Cercle - The Circle, the only magazine for homosexuals that was published during World War II and the seed of what would become the homophile movement. after the War.
World War II
In Germany, in general, it can be said that lesbianism as such was not prosecuted by the system during World War II, despite the fact that some jurists called for the conduct to be punished, and that the lesbian and feminist movement was forbidden. There are reports of individual cases of lesbians being abducted and taken to brothels in concentration camps, but the facts are so vague—and in some cases contradictory—that their authenticity has been questioned. The difficulties of lesbians during the War were rooted in the threat of persecution, which produced great insecurity, and above all in the prohibition of women from doing "prestige" work. All women were consequently relegated to cheap labor, which in the case of lesbians, without the help of a husband's salary, was especially hard on their survival. Nazism was so patriarchal that in 1942 the Ministry of Justice he still considered that female homosexuality was more discreet and therefore difficult to discover, so if he decided to outlaw it, he ran the risk of condemning innocent women. They also said that by having less public relevance, lesbianism was not as dangerous as male homosexuality, which could be used to blackmail public officials. Finally, the Ministry stated that lesbianism was not usually permanent. Austria did have an article, §129, which included lesbianism as a crime. Despite this, one cannot speak of systematic persecution and a maximum of 5% of the cases persecuted by §129 between 1938 and 1945 were of women.
The start of World War II produced an enormous change in the lives of Americans, since military mobilization involved millions of men. Women were also accepted into the military, the Women's Army Corps (WACs) and the navy, the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES), from the US Contrary to the procedure implemented by the US military since its inception to exclude male homosexuals, no equivalent methods were introduced to eliminate lesbians; they were gradually introduced during the war. Despite the usual attitude towards the female role in the 1930s, the army recruited independent women and masculine in the 1940s, and rejected fragility. Some women who arrived at the recruiting station dressed in men's clothing could answer in the negative to the question whether they had been in love with another woman, and be easily accepted. However, sexual activity was prohibited and "licenses blue discharge (blue discharge) were almost certain if a woman identified as lesbian. As they met, the lesbians formed compact groups on the base, met in service clubs, and began using code words. Historian Allan Bérubé documents that homosexuals in the armed forces consciously or unconsciously refused to identify as gay or lesbian, nor did they discuss the sexual orientation of others.
More masculine women weren't necessarily plentiful, but they were visible, so they tended to attract women interested in meeting other lesbians. Women had to approach the subject of their interest in other women carefully, sometimes taking days to develop an understanding without asking and saying nothing clearly. Women who had not joined the military were aggressively appealed to take jobs in industry that had been vacated by men, to maintain national productivity. The increased mobility, sophistication and independence of many women during and after the War made living without a husband an option, something that would not have been possible under different economic and social circumstances, further strengthening lesbian networks and environments.
The Postwar Period
After World War II, there was a general desire in the US to return to the pre-war social situation as soon as possible. Coupled with growing paranoia about communism and the psychoanalytic theory that had become Ubiquitous in the medical community, in 1950 homosexuality became for the US government an undesirable characteristic for its officials. Homosexuals were believed to be vulnerable to blackmail, and the government removed all known homosexuals from its ranks, beginning a broad effort to obtain information about the private lives of employees. State and city governments followed suit, arresting people in bars and parks, and enacting laws against both male and female cross-dressing. The military and government conducted extensive interrogations, asking women if they had had sex with other women, and identifying isolated experiences in a criminal identity, separating strictly heterosexual and homosexual. In 1952 the American Psychiatric Association included homosexuality in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders among pathological emotional imbalances. The view that homosexuality was a disease curable was widespread in the medical community, the general population and i even among many lesbians. Attitudes and practices towards outing gay among public officials spread to Australia and Canada. A paragraph was added and passed in a bill in the House of Commons in the United Kingdom to create the crime of "maximum indecency" among women in 1921, but was later rejected by the House of Lords as there was an apparent concern that attention to deviant behavior would serve to promote it.
There was very little information about lesbianism, apart from medical and psychiatric texts. The gatherings of the lesbian community were reduced to bars, where frequent police raids (once a month on average) were carried out, with the consequent publicity in the newspapers for those who had been arrested. In response, eight San Francisco women began gathering in their homes in 1955 to talk and dance. When they decided to make it a regular meeting, they became the first lesbian organization in the United States, called the Daughters of Bilitis (DOB). DOB began publishing a magazine called The Ladder in 1956; On the first page was the mission statement, the first of which was "variant education" and which was intended to provide information about homosexuality to women, specifically about lesbianism, and about famous lesbians in history. However, by 1956, the term "lesbian" had such a negative meaning that DOB rejected its use as a description, using the word "variant" instead. DOB was extended to Chicago, New York and Los Angeles, and The Ladder was mailed to hundreds—even thousands—of DOB members, discussing homosexuality, sometimes challenging the idea that it was a disease, contributions from female readers offering their own reasons for being lesbian and suggesting ways to accept it or cope with social rejection. British lesbians followed with the publication of Arena Three in 1964, with a similar mission.
Reflecting the strict sexual categories defined by the government and society at large, the lesbian subculture developed extremely rigid gender roles among women, particularly among the working classes in the United States and Canada. Although many municipalities had issued ordinances against cross-dressing, some women, the so-called butch, went to bars dressed as men and reflecting traditional masculine behavior. Others wore women's clothing and assumed more modest and typically feminine behaviors. The butch and femme models of socialization were integrated in such a way in lesbian venues that women who refused to choose between one of the two models were ignored or at least did not get dates; it was not acceptable for masculine women, butch, to have romantic relationships with other masculine women, just as it was not acceptable for feminine women, femme, to have relationships with other butch women. i>femmes. Masculine women were not a novelty of the 1950s, however the roles were ubiquitous in the 1950s and '60s, and not limited to the United States: from the 1940s to the 1970s, butch/femme culture flourished in the United Kingdom, although there were fewer class distinctions. The distinction between masculine and feminine lesbians was considered vulgar by upper-class American lesbians of the time. Many wealthy women married to satisfy family obligations, and others fled to Europe to live as expatriates.
Despite the lack of data on homosexuality in academic texts, or perhaps precisely because of it, other sources of information on lesbianism appeared. A novella titled Women's Barracks, chronicling the experiences of women in the Free French Forces, was published in 1950. The book described a lesbian relationship that the author had witnessed. After selling 4.5 million copies, it was placed on the House Select Committee's list of pornographic materials, Current Pornographic Materials, in 1952. His publisher, Gold Medal Books, continued to publish the novel Spring Fire in 1952, with the same theme, which sold 1.5 million copies. Gold Medal Books, overwhelmed with the mail of women writing on the subject, decided to go ahead with publishing more books, creating the genre of lesbian pulp fiction. Between 1955 and 1969, more than 2,000 lesbian-themed books were published and sold. at corner stores, train stations, bus stops, and newsagents throughout the United States and Canada. Most were aimed at the male audience. On the covers were code words and images; instead of "lesbian", words like "bizarre", "twilight", "extravagant" or "third sex" were used in the title, and the cover illustration was inevitably voluptuous. A small group of women fiction authors pulp were women writing for lesbians, including Ann Bannon, Valerie Taylor, Paula Christian, and Vin Packer/Ann Aldrich. Bannon, who also read lesbian pulp fiction, later claimed that women identified the novels by the cover illustration. Many of the books used cultural references: giving places, terms, describing styles of dress and other codes to isolated lesbians. As a result, this type of literature helped propagate lesbian identity, both among lesbians and heterosexual readers.
The second wave of feminism in the United States
The social rigidity of the 1950s and early 1960s produced a response from social movements that tried to improve the situation of African-Americans, the poor, women, and gays. The latter two, the gay liberation movement and the feminist movement, connected after the violent Stonewall riots in New York. What followed was a movement characterized by an upsurge of gay activism and feminist consciousness that transformed the definition of feminism. of lesbian.
During the sexual revolution of the 1970s, the differentiation between sexual identity and behavior for women occurred. Many women took advantage of their new social freedoms to have new experiences. There were women who experimented with homosexual relationships, although many maintained their heterosexual identities. However, with the advent of second wave feminism, lesbianism grew into a political identity that described a social philosophy, often overshadowing sexual aspects as a defining characteristic. A militant feminist organization called the Radicalesbians published a manifesto entitled The Woman-Identified Woman in 1970, which declared that "a lesbian is the rage of all women condensed to the point of point of explosion." Militant feminists expressed disdain for an inherently sexist and patriarchal society, concluding that the most effective way to overcome sexism and achieve equality with men was to deny men any kind of power or pleasure about women, including sexuality. Women who followed this philosophy—self-described lesbian feminists—used the term "lesbian" to describe any woman whose social interaction and political motivation was devoted to the well-being of women. Sexual desire was not a defining characteristic of a lesbian feminist, her political commitment was. The independence of males, defined as oppressors, was a central tenet of lesbian feminism, and many "believers" aspired to separate themselves physically and economically from traditional male-centered culture. In the ideal society, called the Lesbian Nation, "woman" and "lesbian" were interchangeable.
In 1980, the poet and essayist Adrienne Rich expanded the political meaning of lesbian by proposing a continuum of lesbian existence based on the "woman-identified experience". All relationships between women, Rich proposed, have some lesbian element, regardless of whether they claim a lesbian identity: mothers and daughters, women working together, and women caring for each other, for example. This perception of relationships between women connects them across history and cultures, and Rich considered heterosexuality a condition that had been forcibly imposed on women by men. Several years earlier, DOB founders Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, similarly relegated sexual acts as unnecessary to determine what a lesbian is, giving their own definition: "a woman whose erotic, psychological, emotional and social interests are mainly in her own sex, even when that interest not be expressed openly."
Although lesbian feminism was an important change, not all lesbians supported it. Lesbian feminism was a youth-oriented movement: its members were mainly college women with experience in the New Left and radical causes, but who were unsuccessful in convincing radical organizations to take up the cause of women. Many older lesbians who had discovered their sexuality in a more conservative age preferred to maintain their ways of coping with a homophobic world. Daughters of Bilitis disappeared in 1970 over a disagreement over prioritizing gay issues over feminist issues. As equality was a priority for lesbian feminists, the difference in roles between men and women, or butch and femme, were considered patriarchal. They avoided the gender roles that had been pervasive in bars, as well as what they perceived as gay male chauvinism; many refused to work with gay men or take part in their causes. However, lesbians with a more essentialist point of view, who considered that they were born homosexual and used the term "lesbian" to define a sexual attraction, often they often viewed the separatist and angry views of lesbian feminists as detrimental to the cause of gay rights.
In other countries
Europe
The Constitutio Criminalis Carolina of 1532, one of the few European laws that condemned lesbianism, had a great influence on subsequent legislation. Thus, Hirschfeld named in 1914 six European countries in which female homosexuality was illegal. Among these countries were Sweden (since 1864) and Finland (since 1889), whose anti-sodomy laws were neutrally drafted. The figures for persecution were much lower than those for men: in Sweden, between 1880 and 1944, 0.8% of people tried were convicted of lesbianism and in Finland, between 1894 and 1971, 5%. Denmark modified its laws in 1933 to include women in anti-homosexual laws, as did Iceland in 1940. In Norway, lesbianism was never prohibited and from 1854 women were no longer persecuted for this cause. Scandinavian countries were among the first in Europe to legalize consensual homosexual acts between adults in the mid-XX century: Denmark and the Faroe Islands in 1933, Iceland in 1940, Sweden in 1944; Finland in 1971 and Norway in 1972 followed somewhat later. The equalization in the legal age of consent was made in the Nordic countries with a delay of 30 to 40 years, with respect to the legalization of sexual acts between adults. With the exception of Norway, these legalizations were done without much political influence from the LGBT liberation movement. Since the mid-19th century, Denmark has been the pioneer and Copenhagen the cultural center of Scandinavian homosexuals.
In France, female homosexuality was "able to avoid serious moral condemnation" by staying private and "dwelling in the forbidden areas between the ethical boundaries" of society, as Catherine van Casselaer notes. Not that it could be freed from social regulation, nor from homophobic censorship, but since the French Revolution it benefited from a strong tradition of individual freedom. The relatively little persecution of lesbians has also been explained as a consequence of the little importance given culturally to women and female sexuality. In the 1970s, lesbians and gay men united in organizations such as the Homosexual Front for Revolutionary Action to fight, among other things, for the equalization of the age of sexual consent, the only remaining discriminatory law in France. Important figures of French feminism and lesbianism in the second half of the XX century were Françoise d'Eaubonne, Colette, Simone de Beauvoir, Monique Wittig and Genevieve Pastre.
In West Germany, the modern LGBT movement stems from the film Nicht der Homosexuelle ist pervers, sondern die Situation, in der er lebt (1971) by Rosa von Praunheim, after which they formed, among others, the Homosexuelle Aktion Westberlin (HAW). The HAW formed a lesbian section in 1972, which in 1973 staged the country's first lesbian demonstration, protesting a series of newspaper articles that smeared them. Lesbian groups were growing in number and visibility, and by the 1990s the movement was fully articulated. Germany is currently one of the most liberal and tolerant places on the planet, and lesbians are protected by anti-discrimination laws; although there is still no right to marry for homosexuals, there is the possibility of civil union.
Latin America
In Latin America, lesbian awareness and associations appeared in the 1970s and have been expanding as the various countries have achieved democracy or, in the case of those that already had it, reformed it. But even so, until the end of the XX century, no regime in the area, democratic or not, has respected gay rights. or lesbians. Despite the fact that homosexuality is legal in most countries, intimidation and harassment tactics have been used for a long time, when the laws of "corruption of minors" or "misconduct or good customs" were not used to persecute homosexuals. In the Hispanic sphere, the conflict with the lesbophobia of feminists and the misogyny of gays has generated a difficult path for lesbians and their associations.
Argentina was the first country in Latin America to have an LGBT group, Nuestro Mundo (NM), organized in 1969. NM created the Homosexual Liberation Front (FLH) in 1971, along with five other organizations, all clandestinely and in private homes. Around 1972, among its former members was the lesbian organization Safo. From the initial activity in Buenos Aires, she soon began collaborating with feminists in Córdoba, Mendoza and Mar del Plata, and even in Tucumán. Persecutions and harassment were constant and worsened with the arrival of the dictatorship in 1976, when all the groups were dissolved due to State Terrorism in Argentina in the 1970s and 1980s. The autonomous lesbian movement began in 1986 with the creation of the Grupo Autogestivo de Lesbianas (GAL) and the magazine Codo con codo, both of short duration. In 1987, the Cuadernos de Existencia Lesbiana began to be published, which continued to be published in 2000. The V Feminist Encounter was the catalyst for the creation in 1990 of the groups Frente Sáfico (Fresa), Las Lunas las Otras and the Lesbian Reflection Group. Ilse's appearance on television led to the creation in 1991 of Convocatoria Lesbiana, from which the groups Buenas Amigas and Sentimientos later emerged. The lesbian groups later united in the Lesbian Front to overcome their difficulties with heterofeminism and collaborate with the Argentine Homosexual Community.
Mexico has been the Latin American country in which the lesbian movement has been most alive. One of its main figures was Nancy Cárdenas, spokesperson for the Homosexual Liberation Front (FLH), the first LGBT organization in the country, even though lesbians in the FLH were a minority. Cárdenas was also the protagonist in 1973 of the first interview with a homosexual person on Mexican public television. Around 1975, International Women's Year, there was a feeling that men, both heterosexual and homosexual, centered their sexuality on the phallus, a symbol of pleasure and power, a point of view rejected by lesbians. There were several attempts by Cárdenas' entourage to create their own lesbian organization, but the laws and social contempt aborted the project. The first lesbian organization in Mexico was called Lesbos and was founded in 1977, arising from the need to defend their interests within the feminist movement, which, despite attempts to approach the new organization, rejected them for fear of being identified with them.. In 1978, Oikabeth emerged, a more aggressive organization that fought for the visibility of lesbians and that, after a brief collaboration, separated from the misogynistic Homosexual Revolutionary Action Front, becoming the first independent group of both the homosexual and feminist movements. that paved the way for numerous others. Separatist tendencies continued to be evident at the first Meeting of Lesbian Feminists of Latin America and the Caribbean, held in 1987 in Mexico, from whose controversies the National Lesbian Coordinator (CNL) was born, which was later associated with the Coordination of Feminists of Mexico City. At the beginning of 1997 there were thirteen lesbian groups in Mexico City, but despite everything, lesbian organizations have had little influence on both the homosexual and feminist movements.
In Chile, the dictatorship prevented the creation of a lesbian association until 1984, the date of the creation of the Ayuquelén Collective, the first group of its kind. The turning point was the beaten murder of a lesbian in the middle of the street and in front of numerous witnesses, shouting "Damn lesbian!" The association was linked to the feminist movement from its beginnings, although its relations were difficult. In 1987 they conducted their first interview in a newspaper, which gave them visibility, but caused problems with feminists who feared an identification of both movements. At that time they came into contact with the ILIS and ILGA and later collaborated with MOVILH on some issues such as the abolition of article 365 of the penal code. Today there is a Coordination of Lesbians that publishes the magazine Amazonas.
In Nicaragua, lesbian awareness began to form even later, in 1986, when the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) expelled gays and lesbians from its ranks. State persecution prevented associations from forming until the advent of AIDS, when government educational efforts promoted associationism. The first lesbian organization was Nosotras, founded in 1989. An attempt to make the LGBT community visible in 1991/92 led the government to outlaw homosexuality in 1994. The coup left the movement exhausted and it did not recover until 2004, with the creation of Grupo Safo / Grupo de Mujeres Lesbianas de Nicaragua, four years before the legalization of homosexuality.
The Meeting of Lesbian Feminists of Latin America and the Caribbean, sometimes simplified as Meetings of Lesbians, have been since the late 1980s an important center of exchange of ideas for Latin American lesbians. With changing headquarters and a biannual rhythm, its main goals are the creation of communication networks, changing the situation of lesbians in Latin America, both from a legal and a social point of view, increasing solidarity among lesbians and trying to destroy myths about them.
Female homosexuality without identity
The differing meanings of lesbian since the turn of the 20th century have prompted some historians to review the historical relationships between women before the use of the word had mostly erotic connotations. Discussions among historians have led to further questioning of what can be called a lesbian relationship. As lesbian feminists have argued, a sexual component is not necessary to come out as lesbian if your primary and closest relationships are with women. When past relationships are considered in a proper historical context, there have been times when love and sex were separate and unrelated notions. In addition to the difficulties of qualifying, female sexuality is often unrepresented. appropriately in texts and documents. Until very recently, much of what was documented on female sexuality had been written by men, in the context of male understanding, and relevant to women's associations with men, in their role as wives, daughters, or mothers, for For example, depictions of female sexuality often inaccurately suggest tendencies or ideas, giving historians clues as to how widespread and accepted erotic relationships between women once were.
Ancient Greece and Rome
History is often analyzed through contemporary ideologies. Ancient Greece, as a subject, was very popular among the ruling classes in Britain in the 19th century. Based on their social priorities, early scholars interpreted Ancient Greece as a white, male, Western society, and basically stripped women of any historical importance. Women's social life in Greece took place almost exclusively among women, as what happened among the men. In this homosocial environment, erotic and sexual relations between men were common and are reflected in literature, art and philosophy. Although there are practically no testimonies about homosexual activity between women, there is speculation about the existence of male-like relationships between adult and young women. The poet Alcmán de Esparta used the term aitis, as the feminine form of aites — which was the official name for the youngest member of a pedophile relationship. Aristophanes, in Plato's The Banquet mentions women loving other women, but uses the term trepesthai (to be centered upon) instead of eros, which was the word used for other erotic relationships between men and between men and women.
Historian Nancy Rabinowitz claims that some ancient Greek red-figure vase paintings showing women with their arms around other women's waists or leaning on other women's shoulders can be interpreted as an expression of romantic desire. Much of the daily life of women in ancient Greece is unknown, specifically the expression of their sexuality. Although men engaged in pedophilic relationships outside of marriage, there is no clear indication that women were allowed or supported to have homosexual relationships before or during marriage, as long as they fulfilled marital obligations. The women who appear in Greek pottery are affectionately depicted, and on the occasions when the women appear with other women, their images are eroticized: bathing, touching each other, with representations of dildos near the scene, sometimes with images also being depicted. They see representations of heterosexual marriages or pedophilic seduction. It is not known if these representations arise from the observer or an accurate representation of the women's lives.
Women in Ancient Rome were similarly subject to the masculine definition of sexuality. According to modern studies, it is believed that males viewed female homosexuality with hostility. It is believed that they viewed women who had sex with other women as freaks of nature who would attempt to penetrate women—and sometimes men as well—with their "monstrously enlarged" clitorises. According to scholar James Butrica, lesbianism "does not not only challenged the male's view of himself as the exclusive giver of sexual pleasure, but also challenged the basic foundations of male-dominated Roman culture." There is no historical documentation of women having other women as sexual partners.
Middle Ages
In the European Middle Ages, the homosexual condition was repressed and hidden. Therefore it is difficult to find cases and data with historical references on erotic-loving relationships between women. The main sources are ecclesiastical archives (sermons, homilies, encyclicals, councils, catechisms) and legal (judicial processes, complaints, sentences). The Councils of Paris (1212) and Rouen (1214) forbade nuns, in order to avoid temptation, from sleeping together and required that a lamp burn all night in the bedrooms.
Until recently, it was believed that lesbianism had been ignored by medieval civil laws. More modern studies tend to disprove the fact, although much more research is still needed. The first civil law condemning lesbianism was the Orléans code, the Li Livres de jostice et de plet (1260):
Feme qui le fet doit à chescune foiz perdre membre, et la tierce doit estre arsse.
A woman who does it must lose each time a member and the third duty be burned.Livres de jostice et de plet (1260)
However, it would be Cino da Pistoia who, in 1314, with the publication of his Commentary, would interpret Roman law for the first time in a condemnatory way for lesbianism. Da Pistoia interpreted an obscure law of Diocletian and Maximian, the Lex foedissiman of AD 287. C., which condemned prostitution and libertine women, to condemn women who have relationships with other women. In 1400 Bartolomeo de Saliceto took up this interpretation of the Lex foedissiman to condemn lesbianism with the death penalty. Saliceto's Lectures would become a reference for all of Europe, whose legislation was based on Roman law, until the XVIII. In general, few cases have been found in which these laws were applied and it does not appear that there was widespread persecution.
Lesbianism also appears in literature, albeit very rarely. In the Songbook of the Vatican Library there is the following song of derision:
Mari'Mateu, ir-me quer'eu d'aquem,
because non poss'un cono baratar;
someone who would not or fear,
e alguem que o tem non mh'o quer dar;
Mari'Mateu, Mari'Mateu,
so ruthless ch'es de cono com'eu!
E foi deus ja de cones avondar
here outros that or non am mester,
e ar fezer muyto dejar
a min e ty, but ch'és molher;
Mari'Mateu, Mari'Mateu,
so ruthless ch'es de cono com'eu!Mari'Mateu, I want to get out of here.
because I can't negotiate a pussy;
Someone who would give it to me doesn't have it,
And someone who has it doesn't want to give it to me;
Mari'Mateu, Mari'Mateu,
So dear as hell as I am!
And God made the fuck abound
here others who don't need it,
and do it a lot to wish
me and you, but you are a woman;
Mari'Mateu, Mari'Mateu,
So dear as hell as I am!Cotom phone, Vatican songbook1115
Modern Europe
Female homosexuality has not received the same kind of negative response from religious or criminal authorities throughout history as male homosexuality or adultery. While sodomy between men, between men and women, and between men and animals was sentenced to death in practically all European countries, in many, recognition of sexual contact between women was practically non-existent in medical and legal texts, as was the case in Great Britain. In Spain, Italy, and the Holy Roman Empire, sodomy between women (usually the use of phallic instruments for penetration) was included among the acts considered unnatural and punishable by burning.
In Spain, a case from the beginning of the XVII century is documented in which two women known as Las Cañitas They were judged by the Spanish Inquisition in Salamanca for "bujarronas" —according to the expression used by the court. The minutes specified that "they treated each other with a reed artifice in the form of a man's nature ". Found guilty, they were flogged and sentenced to exile, although royal pardon came years later.
However, female homoeroticism was so common in English literature and theater that historians have suggested that it was in vogue for some time in the Renaissance. A consequence of the Dutch Massacre of Sodomites of 1731–1732, it was the beginning of the persecution of the tribads in the Netherlands. From 1731 to 1811, the date of the introduction of the French penal code, in Amsterdam alone, 23 women were tried for this crime.
Ideas about female sexuality were tied to contemporary understandings of female physiology. The vagina was considered a concave version of the penis; where natural perfection created the male, it was often thought that nature was trying to correct itself, turning the vagina into a penis in some women. This is the case of Juan Huarte de San Juan, a Spanish physician and psychologist whose Examen de ingenios for the sciences had considerable influence throughout Europe. Huarte was of the opinion that if a male fetus was subjected to cold, its genitalia would retract to become a vagina, creating a girl who was physiologically feminine but psychologically masculine. These were later thought to be cases of hermaphroditism, which became synonymous with hermaphroditism. of female homosexual desire. Medical consideration of hermaphroditism depended on measurements of the clitoris; women were thought to use this longer, protruding clitoris to penetrate other women. Penetration was the main focus of concern in all sexual acts and a woman who was considered to have uncontrollable desire due to her large clitoris was called a tribe (literally, "rubber"). Not only were large clitorises believed to arouse desire in some women, leading them to masturbate, but some pamphlets warned women that masturbation could produce these enlarged clitorises. For some time, female masturbation and lesbian sex were synonymous.
Class differences became related to lesbianism when the fad for homoeroticism passed. The tribads were considered both members of the lower classes, trying to corrupt virtuous women, and representatives of an aristocracy ruined by debauchery. Satirists began to suggest that their political rivals (or more often their wives) were crooks to ruin their reputations. For example, there were rumors that Anne I of Great Britain had a passionate affair with Sarah Churchill, who became Duchess of Marlborough thanks to her proximity to the queen. When Churchill was unseated as the Queen's favourite, Churchill herself spread rumors that the Queen had affairs with her ladies-in-waiting. There were also rumors about Marie Antoinette for a few months between 1795 and 1796, and about Queen Marie Caroline., sister of the former and wife of King Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies, who was said to be Lady Emma Lyon's lover.
Female Husbands
Hermaphroditism had appeared in the medical literature so often that it was considered common knowledge, although cases were rare. Homoerotic elements in the literature were very frequent, specifically the confusion of one sex for the other to deceive and seduce an innocent woman. Perhaps the most extraordinary example of literature in Spanish is that which appears in Los siete libros de la Diana by the Portuguese Jorge de Montemayor. In the scene, Ismenia is a man who pretends to be a woman dressed as a man who falls in love with a shepherdess. Although Ismenia is a man, the shepherdess does not know it and despite this she accepts courtship, kisses and cuddling. This type of dramatic resource was very common in Spain during the Golden Age, as shown by the works Don Gil De las calzas verdes (1615) by Tirso de Molina or White hands do not offend by Calderón de la Barca. In England these roles were called breeches role and were frequently used by playwrights, such as Shakespeare in his Twelfth Night (1601) or Edmund Spenser in The Faerie Queene (1590).
There are rare documented cases of Renaissance women impersonating men undetected for years or decades. If caught, punishments ranged from death, to time in the pillory, to simply being punished by wearing costumes. women. One of the best known cases is that of Catalina de Erauso, who even managed to get papal permission to dress as a man. In 1746, Henry Fielding wrote a pamphlet entitled The Female Husband, based on the life of Mary Hamilton who married different women three times and was sentenced to public whipping. Similar examples are those of Catharine Linck in Prussia in 1717, executed in 1721; and the Swiss Anne Grandjean, who married and moved to Lyon, but was denounced by a woman with whom she had previously had an affair and sentenced to the stocks and jail. Queen Christina of Sweden's tendency to dress in male was well known in his time and excused by his noble birth; she was raised as a male and at the time it was speculated that she was a hermaphrodite. Even after she abdicated the throne in 1654 to avoid marriage, she was known to have affairs with other women.
Some historians view the cases of cross-dressing women as manifestations of women claiming a power that they naturally would not have been able to enjoy dressed as women or as their way of rationalizing their desire for other women. Lillian Faderman claims that Western society felt threatened by women who rejected their feminine role. Women who were accused of using dildos, such as two 16th century lowercase Spanish nuns executed for using material instruments, were punished more severely than those that did not use penetrating elements. There are documents about two marriages between women in Cheshire, England in 1707 (between Hannah Wright and Anne Gaskill) and 1708 (between Anne Norton and Alice Pickford), without any comment on the fact that both parties were female. Reports of clerics with lax standards performing weddings and later writing about their suspicions that the husband was a woman continue to surface until the end of the following century.
Outside Europe, women were able to dress as men and go unnoticed for a long time. Deborah Sampson fought in the American Revolution as a male, under the name Robert Shurtleff, having relationships with women. Edward De Lacy Evans was born a female in Ireland, but took a male name on a trip to Australia, living 23 years as a male in Victoria, marrying three times. Percy Redwood caused a scandal in New Zealand in 1909 when it was discovered that he was Amy Bock, who had married a woman from Port Molyneaux; newspapers disputed whether this was a sign of madness or an inherent character flaw. In Spain, in 1901, Marcela Gracia Ibeas and Elisa Sánchez Loriga were married in the church of San Jorge in La Coruña, with Sánchez Loriga adopting the male role; Although the marriage was not annulled, both had to flee to Argentina after being persecuted by the courts.
Reexamining Romantic Friendship
Between the 17th and 19th centuries, it was fashionable for women to express passionate love for each other, which was accepted and even encouraged. These relationships were called romantic or sentimental friendships and were very common in the United States and Europe. These friendships are documented with a large amount of correspondence written by women. Whether these types of relationships included physical sexual contact was not publicly discussed, but women could form close and exclusive relationships and were still considered virtuous, innocent, and chaste; a similar relationship with a man would have ruined her reputation. In fact, these relationships were encouraged as an alternative and as an exercise prior to marriage.
In the Hispanic world, romantic friendships between women can be traced back to the XVII century, such as that of María de Zayas and Sotomayor, novelist, and Ana de Caro, playwright and essayist. Both lived together in Madrid, earning their livelihood as writers, without depending on any man. But perhaps the best known are those formed by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz and the Viceroyalties Leonor Carreto de Toledo, Marquise of Mancera, and María Luisa Manrique de Lara and Gonzaga, Marchioness of Laguna de Camero Viejo, to whom he dedicated fiery poems. He gave María Luisa Manrique de Lara the nicknames of Lisi, Lísida, Fili or Filis.
I, therefore, my beloved Philis,
that your deity reverend,
that you will be idolater
and that your rigour come:
[... ]
Being a woman, not being absent,
it is not to love you impediment;
for you know that souls
distance ignore and sex.op.cit. Villena p. 108
In France, perhaps the best-known case is that of Madame de Staël, who, despite her various marriages, maintained an intense friendship with Mademoiselle Juliette Récamier:
You're the first thing in my life. When I saw you, I thought being loved by you would be like being one with destiny. I'd be fine if I could see you. You are the queen of my heart, tell me that you will never hurt me; precisely now you would have in your hand hurt me terribly.
Goodbye, my beloved and adored. I embrace you in my heart. My angel, tell me at the end of your letter: I love you. The feeling I will have when reading those words will make me believe that I am holding you.op.cit. Feustel p. 71
In the UK, these types of friendships were also very frequent. In 1709 Lady Mary Wortley Montagu wrote to Anne Wortley that "no one was so completely and sincerely yours [...] I do not think it possible for a man to be so sincere as I am." The poet Anna Seward had a deep friendship with Honora Sneyd, to whom he dedicated many poems. Mary Wollstonecraft, a writer and philosopher, was also related to another woman named Fanny Blood. Wollstonecraft's first novel, Mary: A Fiction, was in part about her relationship with Fanny Blood. Perhaps the best-known romantic friendship in the United Kingdom was that between Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby, known as the Misses of Llangollen. Butler and Ponsonby eloped in 1778, to the relief of Ponsonby's family (concerned about her reputation, having eloped with a boy), to live together in Wales for 51 years, being considered "eccentrics". "the epitome of virtuous romantic friendships" and inspired the poetry of Anna Seward and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. provide details of their sexual relationships with Marianna Belcombe and Maria Barlow. Both Lister and Eleanor Butler were considered masculine in contemporary writings and, although there were suspicions about the sapphic nature of these relationships, they were still praised in the literature.
In the United States, the most intense romantic friendships used to be called "Boston marriages." Poet Emily Dickinson wrote more than 300 letters and poems to Susan Gilbert, who later became her sister-in-law, and was involved in another romantic friendship with Kate Scott Anthon. Anthon broke off their relationship the same month that Dickinson decided to isolate himself for the rest of his life. In Hartford, Connecticut, two freeborn black women, Addie Brown and Rebecca Primus, left traces of their love in letters: "No kisses like those yours." In Georgia, Alice Baldy wrote to Josie Varner in 1870, "Do you know that if you touch me or speak to me, there is not a nerve in my body that does not respond with a thrill of pleasure?"
Towards the beginning of the XX century, the development of higher education opened up many possibilities for women. In the UK, in all-female environments, a romance-seeking culture developed in girls' schools. The older students mentored the younger ones, paying them social visits, taking them to women's dances, and sending them flowers, cards, and poems declaring their undying love. These so-called smash were written about. (shock, hit) or spoon (spoon) quite frankly in stories for girls who aspire to enter university, in publications such as Ladies Home Journal, a children's magazine called St. Nicholas and the collection Smith College Stories, without any criticism. Loyalty, devotion and lasting love were part of these stories and sexual acts, beyond a kiss, were always absent. Women who had the possibility of pursuing a career instead of marriage called themselves new women and took this possibility very seriously. Faderman calls this period "the last breath of innocence" before 1920, when characterizations of female affect connect to sexuality, marking lesbians as a unique and often underserved group. Specifically, Faderman links the rise of women's independence and the beginning of a rejection of the strictly prescribed roles of the Victorian era with the scientific designation of lesbianism that implied a type of aberrant sexual behavior.
East, Africa and America
While female homosexual behavior may be present in all cultures, the concept of a lesbian as a woman who associates exclusively with other women is not. The attitude toward female homosexual behavior depends on the role of women in each society and the definition that each culture makes of sex.
Middle and Near East
Women in the Middle and Near East have historically been segregated from men. In the seventh and eighth centuries some extraordinary women dressed in masculine clothing, when the roles of each sex were less strict, but the sexual roles that accompanied European women were not associated with Islamic women. In the Caliphate court of Baghdad there were women who wore men's clothes, including false facial hair, although they competed with each other for the attention of men. Highly intelligent women, according to the writings of the century XII by Sharif al-Idrisi, were more likely to be lesbians; their intellectual power put them in a position more on a par with men. Some privileged women in al-Andalus had access to education and in two modern anthologies of women's poetry from that time, by Teresa Garulo and by Maḥmud Subḥ, love between women appears to be treated normally.
Relationships between women living in harems and fears of women having intimate relationships in Turkish baths were expressed in men's writings. The women, however, were mostly silent and the men rarely talked about lesbian relationships. It is not clear that the few times that lesbianism is mentioned in the literature is an accurate historical representation or if it was more of a fantasy for men.
A 1978 treatise on repression in Iran claimed that women were completely silenced: "In the entire history of Iran, [no woman] has been allowed to speak out about these tendencies [...] Admitting lesbian desires it would be an unacceptable crime." Although the authors of Islamic Homosexualities claimed that this does not imply that women could not have lesbian relationships, a lesbian anthropologist visited Yemen in 1991 and reported that in the city he visited the women were not able to understand his romantic relationship with another woman. Women in Pakistan are expected to marry a man; those who do not are socially marginalized and ignored. Women, however, may have intimate relationships with other women as long as they fulfill their conjugal duties, keep their private affairs discreet, and the woman they are involved with is logically related or family.
Indigenous and Pre-Columbian America
After the first encounter of the European conquerors with the American continent, a chronicle of the behavior of the natives begins, with sexuality being one of the most scandalous aspects. In these texts sodomia foeminarum is mentioned, which represents irrefutable proof of the existence of homosexual practices in various ethnic groups of the American continent. Specifically, the Jesuit Pêro Correa writes:
There are many women here who perform trades of men and have other women with whom they are marriedPêro Correa, 1551.
Circa 1576, Pêdro de Magalhães de Gândavo refers to homosexual relationships between Tupinambá women
Some Indians in this region swear and promise chastity and thus do not marry or know man of any quality, nor will they consent even if they kill them. They leave all women's activities and imitate men and perform their trades as if they were not women. They bring the hair cut like the males, they go to war and hunt with arches and arrows... and each one has a woman at his service and makes him eat as if they were married.Pêro de Magalhães de Gândavo, 1576.
During the 18th century, other Europeans, missionaries, and explorers described people of the third sex as berdaches, both male and female. For women specifically, it is reported that they wore men's clothing and participated in warfare, hunting and other activities that their culture considered masculine, such as making weapons; but they also had wives or long-term partners. Women who take on the male role are called katsotse by the Zuni and hwame by the Mojave. These transgender roles they have less to do with sexuality than with spirituality and occupation. Relationships between female "two-spirits" and non-transgender women are considered "hetero-gender".
Africa
Transgender roles and marriages between women have also been documented in more than thirty African societies. Women can marry other women, raise their children, and be generally considered male in societies in Nigeria, Cameroon, and Kenya. The Hausas of Sudan have a term similar to lesbian, kifi, which can also be applied to males, meaning "neither party insists on a particular sex role". Near the river Congo, among the Nkundo, a woman who is involved in an emotionally strong or sexual relationship with another woman is known as yaikya bonsángo ("a woman who presses against another woman"). Lesbian relationships are also known in Ghanaian matrilineal societies among the Akan peoples. In Lesotho, women engage in what is commonly considered in the West to be sex: they kiss, sleep together, rub their genitals and have exclusive relationships. But since people in Lesotho believe that a penis is necessary for sex to exist, they do not consider this sexual behavior, nor do women consider themselves lesbians.
The colonization of Africa resulted in a change in values; Aboriginal sexuality went from being seen as fluid and dynamic, to binary and fixed for life. After colonization, some women who identified as lesbians were subjected to rape with the idea that sex with men could "cure" lesbianism. Despite the paradigm shift, the South African government was the first in the world to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation in its constitution. Additionally, South Africa was the first African country (and fifth in the world) to legalize same-sex marriage.
Asian
China, before its westernization, was a society in which men and women lived separately. Historically, Chinese culture did not recognize the concept of sexual orientation, or a framework that divided people based on attraction to others of the same or opposite sex. Although there was a significant culture surrounding the homosexual male, there was none to the woman. Outside of their obligations to bear children to their husbands, women were considered to have no sexuality. This does not mean that women could not have relationships with other women, but rather that such relationships could not be put ahead of relationships with other women. with males. One of the few references to lesbianism has been transmitted by Ying Shao, who calls homosexual relations between women of the imperial court, who behaved like husband and wife, dui shi (couple eating). Golden orchid associations in southern China continued into the 20th century and performed marriages between women who were allowed them to adopt girls. Westernization brought new ideas, including that all sexual behavior that did not result in reproduction was aberrational. The freedom that came with employment in silk factories after 1865 allowed some women become tzu-shu nii (who never marry) and live in community with other women. Other Chinese called them sou-hei (self-combed) because they adopted the hairstyle of married women. These communes disappeared in the Great Depression and were discouraged by the communist government as a relic of feudal China. In contemporary Chinese society, tongzhi (same end or spirit) is the term used for refer to homosexuals; most Chinese women prefer not to further classify themselves as lesbians.
In Japan in the 1920s, the word rezubian was used as the equivalent of "lesbian." Westernization brought more freedom to women and allowed some Japanese women to wear pants. The word tomboy ("tomboy") is used in the Philippines, especially in Manila, to refer to women who are masculine. The virtuous women of Korea place their priorities on motherhood, chastity, and virginity; Outside of these aspects, very few women are free to express themselves through sexuality, although there is a growing lesbian organization called Kkirikkiri. The term pondan is used in Malaysia for denominate gay men, but, since there is no historical context of reference for lesbians, the term is also used for homosexual women. As in many Asian countries, public male homosexuality is repressed on many levels, in that Malaysians lead double lives. A mention from the 14th century of a lesbian couple who had a child after making love, collected in a text from India, is an exception to the general silence on female homosexuality. This invisibility disappeared with the release of the movie Fire in 1996, which led to attacks in some theaters by fans. Terms for homosexuals are often rejected by Indian activists as the result of imperialist influence, but most discourse on homosexuality centers on men. Women's rights groups in India continue to debate whether it is legitimate to include lesbian issues on their platforms, as information about female homosexuality is often suppressed.
Demographics
Kinsey Report
The largest of the early studies of female homosexuality was conducted by the Kinsey Institute for Sex Research, which published an in-depth report on women's sexual experiences in 1953. Alfred Kinsey and his collaborators interviewed more than 8000 women recording the results in the book Women's Sexual Behavior, second volume of the popularly known Kinsey Report. The report's objective treatment of homosexuality as just another form of human sexual behavior was revolutionary for the time. Before this study, only physicians and psychiatrists had studied sexual behavior, and the results had almost always been interpreted from a moral point of view.
Kinsey reported that 28% of women had been sexually attracted to another woman, and 19% had had some sexual contact with another woman. Of those who had had sexual contact with another woman, half and two-thirds had had an orgasm. Single women had a higher rate of sexual contact with other women, followed by widowed, divorced or separated women. The lowest rate was presented by married women; among these, those who had had previous homosexual experiences reported that they had married to end such activities. Most of the women who claimed to have had homosexual practices had experienced them less than ten times and 51% only with one partner. College-educated women had the highest rates of homosexual experiences, followed by high school-educated women; the lowest prevalence was in women with primary education (less than 8th grade).
Kinsey established a scale to represent the sexual orientation of people, in which 0 represented an exclusively heterosexual person, 6 an exclusively homosexual person, and the numbers in between corresponded to the different gradients in the prevalence of sexual practices with both sexes. 6% of the interviewees classified themselves as 6, exclusively homosexuals, and 71% were assigned to 0, exclusively heterosexuals. Of the other grades, the most common was 1 (15%), predominantly heterosexual women who had ever had some lesbian contact. Although the Kinsey report noted that the classification described a period of a person's life and that orientation could change. The sampling on which the report was based was criticized for overrepresenting women with homosexual behavior, so the figures exact figures are not accepted by all subsequent researchers.
Hite Report
In 1976, twenty-three years later, another report of a study conducted on a survey of 3,019 women was published by sexologist Shere Hite under the title The Hite Report. The questions in Hite's questionnaire differed from Kinsey's in that they focused more on how the women identified themselves, or what they preferred, rather than what they had experienced. Those surveyed by Hite indicated that 8% preferred sex with women, and 9% answered that they identified as bisexual or had had sexual experiences with both men and women and denied having a preference. Hite's conclusions are based more in the comments of the respondents than in the quantifiable data. He found it surprising that many women who had not had lesbian experiences indicated that they were interested in sex with other women, particularly since that question was not asked on the questionnaire. Hite found two significant differences between respondents with experiences with men, and those who did. they had them with women. The former highlighted the importance placed on clitoral stimulation, and the latter the greater emotional involvement and orgasmic responses. As Hite conducted her study during the rise of feminism in the 1970s, she herself admitted that some women might have identified as lesbians for political reasons.
Population surveys
In the US, lesbians are estimated to make up 2.6% of the population, according to a survey completed in 2000 by the National Opinion Research Centers.) on the sexual activity of adults who had had homosexual experiences in the past year. A survey of gay couples in the US shows that between 2000 and 2005, the number of people who claimed to have same-sex relationships had increased by 30%, five times the rate of population increase in the US. The study attributes this jump to people feeling more comfortable than before self-identifying as gay to the federal government. The UK government does not ask its citizens to define their sexuality, but estimates it to be between 5-7%. The estimate does not differentiate lesbians as the US Census does, including gays, lesbians, and bisexuals. Surveys in Australia record a rate of women self-identifying as lesbian or bisexual at between 1.3% and 2.2% of the total female population.
Lesbians and sexuality
The need for a physical or sentimental sexual relationship between women to define lesbianism continues to be debated. According to the feminist writer McCormick, female sexuality has been constructed by men, for whom the main indicator of lesbian sexual orientation is sexual experiences with other women, even though sexual practice with men is not required to define a woman as a woman. Heterosexual. McCormick affirms that the emotional, mental and ideological connections with other women are as important or more than the genital one. However, in the 80s a significant movement rejected the desexualization of lesbianism carried out by feminists, which caused a great controversy called " wars of sex". The butch and femme roles were resumed, although not as strictly as in the 1950s. From the 1990s, lesbianism became an optional way of expressing one's sexuality. Once again women felt safe to be more adventurous, and sexual flexibility became more acceptable.
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One of the topics that has focused the debate on lesbian sexuality is a phenomenon described by the sexologist Pepper Schwartz in 1983. Schwartz recorded in a study that long-term lesbian couples maintained sexual contacts less frequently than heterosexual couples or male homosexuals, calling this phenomenon the death of the lesbian bed. However, lesbians have disputed this theory because of the definition that is made in the study of sexual contact, and they point out that there are other factors that unite female couples beyond the mere repetition of sexual relations, such as deeper connections existing among women that make frequent sexual intercourse redundant, the greater sexual fluidity in women causing them to move between heterosexuality, bisexuality, and lesbianism numerous times during their lives—or even reject the labels. Later arguments point out that the study was flawed and did not accurately represent sexual contact between women, or that since 1983 the situation has changed and sexual contact between women has increased as many lesbians feel more free to express their sexuality.
Other debates about gender and sexual orientation concern what many women are called or look like. In Western cultures, it has been largely taken for granted that heterosexuality is an innate quality. When a woman puts her sexual or romantic attraction to other women into practice, she can experience an "existential crisis" and many go further and adopt the identity of lesbian, challenging homosexual stereotypes in society, and learn to function in the homosexual subculture. Lesbians in Western cultures generally share a sense of cultural identity similar to that of ethnic minorities, built on similar discriminatory experiences and which have led many lesbians to reject heterosexual principles. This identity is unique and different from that of gay men and heterosexual women, and often creates tension with bisexual women. Some sociological theorists have noted that behavior and identity do not always coincide, that there are women who are defined as heterosexuals who have sex with other women, women who call themselves lesbians may have sex with men, or others who believed they had an unchanging sexual orientation that has changed over time. A 2001 article on the identification of lesbians in medical studies suggests their recognition for both identity and sexual behavior. The article declines to include desire or attraction as a method as it has rarely been measurable as a health or psychological issue.
Health
Physics
Regarding medical issues, lesbians are known as women who sleep with other women (MAM) due to prejudices and beliefs about women's sexuality, and due to also to women's reluctance to accurately report their sexual history even to their own doctors. Many lesbians who self-identify as such do not go to the doctor because they do not have heterosexual relationships and do not require contraceptive methods, main factors to the time for sexually active women to seek consultation with a gynecologist. Consequently, many lesbians do not have regular Pap smears. In the United States, the government points out that some lesbians do not take this test because they lack health insurance because many companies do not offer it to common-law partners.
The lack of medical information in MAM stems from the perception by medical professionals and some lesbians that they are at lower risk of contracting a sexually transmitted infection or different types of cancer. When women come for consultation, medical professionals do not get to take a complete medical history. In a recent study of 2,345 lesbian and bisexual women, only 9.3% said they had been asked about their sexual orientation by their doctor. A third of them said they believed disclosing their sexual history would cause a negative reaction, and 30% had received a negative reaction from their doctor after identifying as lesbian or bisexual. A patient's complete history helps professionals physicians identify areas of greatest risk and corrects existing biases about women's personal histories. In a similar survey of 6,935 lesbians, 77% had had sexual contact with one or more men, and 6% had had such contact in the past year.
According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, heart disease is the number one cause of death for women. Risk factors for heart disease include obesity and smoking, both of which are more prevalent in lesbians. Studies show that lesbians have a higher body mass and are generally less concerned about weight problems than heterosexual women, and women with higher BMIs are more often considered more attractive. Lesbians tend to exercise more regularly than heterosexuals, and generally not for cosmetic reasons, like heterosexuals. More research is needed to determine the specific causes of obesity in lesbians.
Recommendations for safe sex among women:
-Sally A. Mravack |
The lack of differentiation between gay and straight women in medical studies dealing with women's health skews the results for lesbians and non-lesbians. Reports on the prevalence of breast cancer in lesbians are inconclusive. However, it has been determined that fewer lesbians getting Pap smears makes it more difficult to detect cervical cancer in its early stages. Risk factors for developing ovarian cancer are higher in lesbians than in heterosexuals, perhaps because many lesbians do not have protective factors such as pregnancy, abortion, contraception, or breastfeeding.
Some sexually transmitted diseases can be passed between women, such as human papillomavirus (HPV) (particularly genital warts), trichomoniasis, syphilis, and herpes simplex virus (HSV). The transmission of specific sexually transmitted infections between women depends on the type of sexual practices they have had. Any object that comes into contact with discharge from the cervix, vaginal mucus, or menstrual period, be it fingers or a penetrating object, can transmit sexually transmitted infections. Oral contact with the genitals may carry an increased risk of contracting HSV, even in women who have not had previous sexual relations with men. Bacterial vaginosis (BV) occurs more frequently in lesbians, but it is not clear whether BV is transmitted through sexual contact; it appears in celibate women and in sexually active women. BV frequently occurs in both women in a lesbian relationship; a recent study of women with BV found that 81% had partners with BV. Lesbians do not form a separate category in HIV transmission frequency data, although transmission is possible through vaginal and cervical secretions. The highest rate of HIV transmission in lesbians occurs in women who participate in intravenous drug use or who have sex with bisexual men.
Mental
Since the medical literature began to describe homosexuality, the pattern has often been to try to find an inherent psychopathology as its main cause, following the theories of Sigmund Freud. Although he believed that bisexuality was inherent in everyone, and that most go through phases of homosexual attraction or experimentation, Freud attributed exclusive same-sex attraction to arrested development due to trauma or parental conflicts. Much gay mental health literature focused on depression, substance abuse, and suicide. Although these problems occur in lesbians, the debate about their causes underwent a change when homosexuality was removed from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders in 1973. In its place, social ostracism, legal discrimination, internalization of negative stereotypes and limited support structures are factors that frequently adversely affect the mental health of homosexuals in Western societies. Women who self-identify as lesbians report feeling significantly different and isolated during adolescence; these women have been cited as Emotions appear on average at age 15 in lesbians and at age 18 in women who self-identify as bisexual. Overall, women tend to develop self-concept internally or with other women with whom they are intimate. Women also limit who they disclose their sexual identity to, and often view being lesbian as an option, unlike gay men, who are more open and view being gay as something out of their control.
Anxiety disorders and depression are the most common mental health problems for women. Depression rates in lesbians are similar to those in heterosexual women, although generalized anxiety disorder tends to occur in higher proportions in lesbians and bisexual women than in heterosexual women. Depression is a much more significant problem in women who think they should hide their sexual orientation from their friends or family, who jointly experience discrimination based on ethnicity or religion, or who endure relationship problems without a support system. It has been proven that male stereotypes about female sexuality affect to the way lesbians perceive their own bodies. Studies show that straight men and lesbians have different standards of feminine attractiveness. Lesbians who view themselves according to male models of feminine beauty may experience low self-esteem, eating disorders, and an increased incidence of depression. More than half of those surveyed in a 1994 study of mental health problems in lesbians responded that they had suicidal thoughts, and 18% had attempted suicide.
A population-based study conducted by the US National Alcohol Research Center (National Alcohol Research Center) found that women who identify as lesbian or bisexual have less likely to be teetotalers. Lesbian and bisexual women are more likely to report alcohol problems and dissatisfaction with treatment from drug abuse programs. Many lesbian communities are located in bars, and drinking alcohol is an activity that correlates with community participation by lesbians and bisexual women.
Families and politics
Although female homosexuality has occurred in many cultures throughout history, the creation of families between same-sex couples is a recent phenomenon. Before the 1970s, the idea of same-sex people forming long-term committed relationships was completely unknown to many people. The majority of lesbians (between 60% and 80%) report being in a long-term relationship. Sociologists associate the high number of female partners with gender role socialization: women's inclination to commit to a relationship is doubled in a lesbian union. Unlike heterosexual relationships, which tend to divide work based on gender roles, lesbian relationships divide tasks equally. Studies also indicate that emotional ties are stronger in lesbian and gay relationships than in heterosexual relationships.
Issues related to families were a major concern for lesbians when gay activism became more prominent in the 1960s and 1970s. Custody issues in particular were of concern, as courts frequently failed to grant custody. custody to openly homosexual women, even if they were the biological mothers. As a consequence of custody conflicts, several studies were carried out to compare the development of minors with their parents and with heterosexual single mothers. These investigations did not find differences in the minor's mental health, his happiness and his adaptation, in general. The sexual orientation, gender identity and sexual roles of minors who grow up with lesbian mothers do not suffer any effect. The differences found include the fact that divorced lesbians tend to live with a partner, that fathers visit divorced lesbian mothers more frequently than non-lesbian divorced mothers, and that lesbian mothers express a greater fear of losing their parents. children through legal means.
Improving family-building opportunities for same-sex couples has shaped the political landscape over the past decade. The same-sex marriage movement in Western countries has superseded other political goals. In 2012, eleven countries, ten jurisdictions in the US, two states in Mexico, and one jurisdiction in Brazil allowed same-sex marriage. In addition, civil unions are presented as an option in several European countries and US states and municipalities. The possibility of adopting or providing a home for minors is also a family and political priority for many lesbians, as is improving access to artificial insemination.
Culture
Lesbian culture has historically been included within the feminine tradition, and more specifically within feminist culture. For many years and in more difficult times than today, the culture of women has developed in different fields; In this way there have been musicians, poets, writers and artists, etc.
Since lesbians are considered a minority social group, we often speak of a lesbian subculture, which does not mean a situation of assumed inferiority, but something that is part of the very specificity of lesbians, with respect to the heterosexual world majority.
Literature
In addition to Sappho's work, literary historian Jeannette Howard Foster lists the Book of Ruth, and ancient mythological lore among the earliest examples of lesbianism in literature. In Greek stories about divinities there are often female figures whose virtue and virginity are intact, who engage in masculine activities, and who are accompanied by a devout group of maidens. Foster cites Camilla and Diana, Artemis, Callisto, Iphis, and Ianthe as examples of female mythological figures who display a penchant for women or challenge traditional female gender roles. The Greeks also owed the spread of the story of a mythological race of warrior women, the amazons. En-hedu-ana, a Mesopotamian priestess dedicated to the Sumerian goddess Inanna, is honored to have signed the first lesbian poetry in history, naming herself Inanna's wife.
During the ten centuries following the fall of the Roman Empire, lesbianism disappeared from literature. Foster points to the particularly strict view held of Eve, the representative of all women and the cause of the fall of humanity, for so original sin among women was a major concern, and they had to take care of their chastity especially since they were considered the source of life. During this period most women were illiterate and were not allowed access to culture, thus that men were the ones who were in charge of establishing ideas about sexuality., the erotic Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure by John Cleland from 1749 or The English Spy by various authors from 1778) present an attitude that ranges from surprised tolerance to excitement, although a male character had to participate to complete the act. Physical relationships between women, which were not perceived as a threat to men when they were not available, were often encouraged, considering that they would not be as satisfying as those of a man with a woman. a woman fell in love with another became a tragic figure. Physical and therefore emotional satisfaction was considered impossible without the intervention of a natural phallus. Male intervention in a relationship between women became necessary when they acted like men and demanded the same social privileges.
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In Europe, lesbianism became an almost exclusive subject of French literature in the 19th century, based on the masculine fantasy and the desire to enlighten bourgeois moral values. Honoré de Balzac, in The Girl with the Golden Eyes (1835), used lesbianism in his story about three people that depicted the degeneracy of Paris, and repeated it in Cousin Bette and Séraphîta. Her work influenced Théophile Gautier's novel Mademoiselle de Maupin, which has the first physical description of the type that would be associated with lesbians: "tall, broad-shouldered, narrow-hipped, and athletically inclined". Charles Baudelaire will use lesbianism as a recurring theme in his poems "Lesbos", "Femmes damnées 1" (Cursed Women), and "Femmes damnées 2". Criticizing French society, in addition to using them as shocking characters, many of the lesbian characters in 19th-century French literature were prostitutes and courtesans: personifications of vice who died early, with violent deaths and a final moral. Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem Christabel (1816) and the novel Carmilla (1872) present lesbianism associated with vampirism. These representations of female homosexuality were not the only ones that shaped European awareness of lesbianism, Krafft-Ebbing mentions the characters s of Gustave Flaubert in Salambó (1862) and Ernest Feydeau in The Count of Chalis (1867) as examples of lesbians since both novels show female protagonists who do not follow the norms social and express contradictory sexual feelings, although none of them display homosexual desires or behavior. Havelock Ellis used literary examples from Balzac and various French poets and writers to develop his major work on the reversal of sexual identity in women.
Gradually women began to devote themselves to literature, embodying their own thoughts on lesbian relationships in their works. Until the publication of The Well of Solitude, most works on lesbianism had been written by men. Foster suggests that women had been reluctant to write about their own lives or use the theme of homosexuality, and that some writers such as Louise Labé, Charlotte Charke, and Margaret Fuller may have masculinized characters in their literary works and portrayed relationships ambiguously. The writer George Sand was depicted as a character in several works of the 19th century. Writer Mario Praz credited the popularity of lesbianism as a theme with Sand's appearance in Parisian society in the 1830s. Charlotte Brontë's novel Villette (1853) initiated the genre of short stories. boarding schools with homoerotic themes.
At the beginning of the 20th century both in London and Paris, in a resplendent intellectual and artistic atmosphere and climate, the first communities of women poets, writers and artists were created. Some of the best-known Parisian women were: Marguerite Yourcenar (first woman elected to the French Academy), Natalie Clifford Barney, Gertrude Stein, Tamara de Lempicka, Colette and her friends Natalie Clifford Barney and Liane de Pougy; some of the best known London lesbian women at the time were Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield. In other countries, however, the subject was simply ignored: an exception to the rule would be, for example, Carmen de Burgos Colombine, a Spanish writer and journalist from the turn of the century XX, which unreservedly addressed the sexual life of a sexually alternative group in his works and favored the literary discovery of female homosexuality in Spain. The first Spanish work to deal with female homosexuality was Zezé (1909) by Ángeles Vicente. In 1929 the first play dealing with the subject was premiered, A dream of reason by Cipriano Rivas Cherif. dared to publish homoerotic verses was Lucía Sánchez Saornil.
Writers in the mid-1900s 20th century frequently used encrypted messages as a way to mask lesbian themes; characters that change sex as in Virginia Woolf's Orlando, many novels with stories between gay men, such as Marguerite Yourcenar; openly lesbian stories, but some of them written under a pseudonym, such as the case of Patricia Highsmith and her book The Price of Salt from 1951 signed as Claire Morgan, account for this situation.
Other writers such as Amy Lowell, H.D., Vita Sackville-West, and Gale Wilhelm have also addressed lesbian relationships or gender transformation as a theme in their works. Others like Mary Renault and Carson McCullers wrote or translated works of fiction that focused on gay men; Although both had lesbian relationships, their main friends were gay men.
When paperbacks came into fashion, lesbian themes were relegated to pulp fiction. Many of these pseudo-literature novels topically featured very unhappy women, or relationships that ended tragically. Marijane Meaker later wrote that she was advised to negatively end the Spring Fire story, because the publishers were concerned that otherwise the US Postal Service would seize the books.
After the Stonewall riots, lesbian themes became much more diverse and complex, and instead of being presented as erotica for heterosexual men, works began to be directed at lesbians. Feminist magazines such as The Furies and Sinister Wisdom replaced The Ladder. Several serious writers included lesbian characters and plots in their works, such as Rita Mae Brown in Rubyfruit Jungle (1973), which features a feminist heroine who chooses to be lesbian. Poet Audre Lorde confronted homophobia and racism in her works and Cherríe Moraga is the main person responsible for bringing the Latino perspective to lesbian literature. The shift in values is evident in the writings of Dorothy Allison, which focused on child sexual abuse and deliberately provocative topics such as lesbian sadomasochism.
In recent decades there has been a proliferation of female writers who touch on lesbian themes such as Jeanette Winterson, the fantastic world projected in the books of Marion Zimmer Bradley. Spanish-speaking writers such as Ana María Moix, Silvia Molloy, Ena Lucía Portela, Esther Tusquets, Rosamaría Roffiel, Susana Guzner, Zoé Valdés, Lola Vanguardia, Lucía Etxebarria, Isabel Franc, Thaís Morales, Odette Alonso, Isabel Prescolí and Cristina also joined. Peri Rossi.
Cinema
Explicit or suggested lesbianism appears very early in the filmography. The lesbians will be represented in the cinema in the same way as the literature of the time. Curiously, the arguments with women who challenged the feminine roles were more easily accepted by the audience than those of men who transgressed the masculine ones. Actresses dressed as men appear for various reasons as early as 1914 in A Florida enchantment with Edith Storey, in Morocco (1930) where Marlene Dietrich also kissed another woman on the lips, Katharine Hepburn pretends to be a boy in Christopher Strong from 1933 and Sylvia Scarlett (1936). The Hollywood of the time followed the fashion that led the public to see sophisticated and ambiguous shows in Harlem in which bisexuality was suggested. Although they did not dare to represent a female homosexual relationship explicitly until 1929 in the German film The Box of Pandora, among the characters played by Louise Brooks and Alice Roberts. But the first film whose main plot is a lesbian story is the also German Women in Uniform (1931), which deals with the love of a teenager for a teacher at a boarding school.
From 1930 the Hays code censored most references to homosexuality in films produced in Hollywood, prohibiting the representation of "sexual perversions", for which lesbianism will be eliminated from films and even adaptations of literary works with lesbian plots or characters who are outspoken lesbians. For example, in the adaptation of Lillian Hellman's play, The children's hour, the lesbian couple was transformed into a heterosexual love triangle, with the title These Three. The 1933 biographical film Queen Christina of Sweden, starring Greta Garbo, glossed over scenes suggesting the queen's dalliances with women. Homosexuality or lesbianism was never explicitly mentioned in the films. American movies while the Hays Code was in effect. The reasons given by the censors for removing a lesbian scene in Olivia (1951 French film) were that it was: "Immoral, it could induce to corrupt morality". Enforcement of the code was relaxed around 1961, when William Wyler returned to film The children's hour, with Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine. In it, after the character played by MacLaine admits his love for Hepburn's, he commits suicide by hanging, being one of the first examples of the custom that will settle for a long time of ending all homosexual stories unhappily. to the homosexual characters at the end of the film as in the case of the character of Sandy Dennis in the 1968 film The Fox (La zorra). When they are not unhappy victims, lesbians are portrayed as villains or morally corrupt characters, such as the brothel madams played by Barbara Stanwyck in Walk on the Wild Side ( The Black Cat) in 1962 and Shelley Winters in The balcony (1963). Lesbians are represented as predators in Rebeca (1940), in prison films such as Caged (No remission) 1950, or in characters such as Rosa Klebb in From Russia with Love (1963). The themes of lesbian vampires reappear in films such as Dracula's Daughter (1936), Et Mourir De Plaisir (France, 1960) and The Hunger (El ansia, 1983). played by Sharon Stone, one of many films that sparked protests over the portrayal of homosexuals as murderers.
Although it also does so in a rather negative way, the first film that tries to represent lesbianism in some depth is The Murder of Sister George in 1968, in which some of its scenes they were real London lesbian clubs. In it, for the first time, a character defines herself as a lesbian. Film historian Vito Russo sees the film as a complex depiction of a multi-faceted character forced into silence by other lesbians. In Personal Best (1982) and Lianna (1983) treats lesbians and lesbian relationships in a kinder way and there are scenes of lesbian sex, although neither depicts happy relationships. Personal Best was criticized for showing the cliché of a woman who, after being with women, returns to a relationship with a man, implying that lesbianism is a phase, in addition to treating the lesbian relationship with « manifest voyeurism". At this time, ambiguously represented lesbian characters and relationships also appeared, as in Silkwood (1983), The Color Purple (1985) and Fried Green Tomatoes (1991), in plots in which lesbianism was one of the main themes.
Independent filmmaking made it possible for new issues to be addressed. Barbara Hammer shot several experimental films with lesbian themes such as Dyketactics (1974), Superdyke (1975) and Nitrate kisses (1992). Desert Hearts from 1985 was one of the most successful. Directed by lesbian Donna Deitch, it is loosely based on Jane Rule's novel Desert of the heart. It did not receive very good reviews in its time but it has obtained them in the reviews of the gay press. gays and lesbians themselves, called New Queer Cinema. Films dealing with lesbians include Rose Troche's groundbreaking romantic comedy Go Fish (1994) and the first films about African-American lesbians The watermelon woman (1995) by Cheryl Dunye. The realism of films that depict lesbians gives way to other types of representations such as romantic stories such as The incredibly true adventure of two girls in love and When night falls, both from 1995, Better than chocolate (1999), social satires like But I'm a cheerleader from 2001, or even the magical realism of El niño pez (2009). Recurring themes have also reappeared such as the murderous lesbian and n films such as Celestial Creatures (1994) by Peter Jackson, Monster (2003) by Aileen Wuornos, or the exploration and discovery of sexual orientation and first love in films such as Fucking Åmål (1998), Kissing Jessica Stein (2001) and Chasing Amy (1997). Among today's most recognizable lesbian filmmakers are Jamie Babbit (But I'm a cheerleader), Patricia Rozema (When Night Falls), Léa Pool (Lost and Delirious), Rose Troche (The L Word) and Barbara Hammer. The film The Hours (2002) focuses on lesbianism and its social impact in three different periods of history, something similar to what the film If These Walls Could Talk 2 (2000) does. In 2004 the film D.E.B.S. tells the story of a thief and a spy who have a lesbian relationship. In 2015, the film Carol, based on the autobiographical novel The Price of Salt, by Patricia Highsmith, debuted at the Cannes Film Festival to excellent reviews. In 2019, the film Salir del closeto with Rosa Maria Sarda and Verónica Forqué, who died shortly after the premiere, deals with the life of a couple of elderly women.
Television
Homosexuality began to be discussed on television much later than in the movies. Some local television talk shows in the United States took up the issue by inviting teams of experts - usually none of them were homosexual - to discuss the problems of gay men in society. Lesbianism was rarely mentioned. The first time a lesbian was portrayed in a television series was in the NBC psychiatric drama The Eleventh Hour in the early 1960s. In the episode an actress feels persecuted by her director and the anguish leads her to go to the psychiatrist, who explains that she has repressed lesbian feelings that make her feel guilty. However, after making her see the treatment, she will orient herself so that she can maintain heterosexual relations.
The invisibility of lesbians will continue through the 1970s when the theme of homosexuality begins to be represented in series, initially in medical dramas (The bold ones, Marcus Welby, M.D. , Medical Center), which usually shows gay patients confessing to doctors or healthcare personnel. This allowed homosexuality to be discussed clinically: the protagonist would often lead troubled gay characters, or correct homophobic antagonists, while homosexuality was compared to psychosis, criminal behavior, or drug abuse.
Another type of plot that featured gay characters in the 1970s was police dramas. They could be victims of blackmail or homophobic violence, but more often they were criminals. It began in the late 1960s in series such as N.Y.P.D., Police story and Policewoman, and the use of homosexual stories gradually became more prevalent as LGBT activism grew. Lesbians were cast as murderous villains, prone to crime out of desire, internalized homophobia, or fear of being publicly exposed as gay. An episode of Police Woman sparked protests from the National Gay Task Force before it aired for depicting a trio of murderous lesbians who killed retirees to steal their money. Because of the protests, NBC edited the episode to modify it, which did not prevent a sit-in at NBC headquarters. In the mid-1970s, gays and lesbians began appearing as police officers and detectives, grappling with the issue of exit. from the closet. In 1991, a bisexual lawyer played by Amanda Donohoe appeared in Los Angeles Law, who would star in the first famous lesbian kiss of a prime-time series, along with Michele Greene, which caused controversy despite being described as "chaste" by The Hollywood Reporter.
Although TV series didn't start having gay characters among the permanent cast until the late 1980s, some earlier sitcoms had a character Stephen Tropiano calls "gay-straight". He was a quirky minor character who does not conform to gender norms or has an ambiguous personal life, who "for all intents and purposes should be gay" although it is not made explicit. These include Zelda from The many loves of Dobie Gillis, Miss Hathaway from The Beverly Hillbillies and Jo from The Facts of Life. Since the mid-1980s and into the 1990s, sitcoms often have a coming-out episode, where a friend of the main characters comes out as homosexual, causing the main characters to discuss the issue. Lesbians appeared in this way in Designing Women, The Golden Girls and Friends. Coming out lesbian characters were also used in Married with Children, Mad about you and Roseanne. In the latter, the episode Don't Ask, Don't Tell aroused fears among ABC executives that the kiss between Roseanne and Mariel Hemingway could lower viewership and cause advertisers to pull out. Instead that episode was the highest-rated episode of the week.
By far the American sitcom with the greatest impact on the image of lesbians was Ellen. The publicity that led to the protagonist's coming out of the closet in 1997, both in fiction and in reality, was enormous. Ellen DeGeneres graced the cover of Time magazine the week before the Puppy Episode aired with the headline "Yep, I'm Gay." I am gay). Gatherings were organized in many US cities to view the episode, and protests from conservative organizations were intense. The script won an Emmy, but when the series continued to feature Ellen Morgan as a lesbian every week, viewership dropped, and network executives became uncomfortable with the direction the show was taking and canceled it.
Drama, fantasy and science fiction series occasionally incorporate homosexual themes and some ongoing lesbian plot as in Relativity, Picket Fences, Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. In the latter two, the limits of sexual orientation and gender have been explored. Among these, the English series Torchwood stands out, where its two female protagonists, Gwen and Toshiko, have had sexual contacts with both women and with female characters as diverse as aliens or humanoid robots. The teen series Buffy the Vampire Slayer also had lesbian plots. In the fourth season Willow and Tara fall in love with each other and their relationship continues throughout the series until Tara is killed. This event upsets Willow so much that for a time she is drawn to evil and uses her magical powers. for revenge. After returning to normal, she will find solace in a new relationship with Kennedy.
These occasional appearances and subplots were followed by specifically gay-themed series. The British Queer as Folk (1999) started this genre, followed by its longer American version, with five seasons broadcast from 2000 to 2005. In both series, two of the main characters were a lesbian couple, called Lindsay and Melanie in the American version of Queer as Folk. Showtime, the producer of the latter, promoted the series with slogans such as "No Limits", and many topics about homosexuality were graphically addressed in the series. The quality of the series and its aggressive advertising achieved that after the first season its audience doubled that of any other program on the network. In 2004 Showtime premiered The L Word (La Palabra L in Latin America, L in Spain), a dramatic series starring a group of lesbian and bisexual women, which aired until 2009.
Medical series have continued to introduce lesbian characters and relationships, but not only among the patients who appear sporadically, but also among the staff of the permanent cast. Such is the case of ER, House, Grey's Anatomy and the Spanish Hospital Central. In the latter, the lesbian plot stands out because it involves two of the main characters, Maca and Esther. Later on, in the also Spanish series, Los hombres de Paco another lesbian relationship would be formed, with Pepa Miranda and Silvia Castro as protagonists.
In Japan, the presence of Yuri stands out, which shows love between women in manga and anime. Series like Maria-sama ga Miteru, Shōjo Kakumei Utena or Sasameki Koto use yuri as a central element, while others like Sailor Moon (with the well-known Haruka/Michiru couple) use it as a secondary element.
Latin America was not immune to these changes. In Argentina, during the year 2002, a police television series titled 099 Central was broadcast on channel 13 of Buenos Aires. In it, the characters of Marisa (represented by Carolina Peleritti), and Silvina (Eugenia Tobal), are two policewomen who are discovered to be lesbians. Marisa has assumed her lesbian identity for a long time, but Silvina has not. Both characters have to overcome many obstacles and support each other to stay together: the series was translated into English and sold to the Middle East.
Sports
For years, the struggle for recognition and entry into the world of sports and perseverance and success in sporting events has been an essential part of the history of lesbian culture. However, existing homophobia discouraged many athletes from disclosing their sexual orientation while active. The first athlete who publicly acknowledged being a lesbian was the tennis player Billie Jean King in 1981. Winner of the Australian Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon (six times) and the US Open (four times), she had to make her forced orientation public by the circumstances: she had had an extramarital affair with her assistant Marilyn Barnett, who was threatening to sue her and publish the love letters King had written to her. The courts would ultimately dismiss the claim. For King it was a difficult period, because her family was very homophobic and she was very concerned about her reaction to the news, which had a great impact in the media.
Later that year, tennis player Martina Navratilova also admitted to having a romantic relationship with writer Rita Mae Brown. Navratilova came to win the Australian Open three times, the Wimbledon tournament nine times, she won the US Open four times and managed to win twice at Roland Garros, making her one of the best tennis players in the history of this sport. Her coming out of the closet earned her a lot of respect, but at the same time she lost sponsors, who feared the possible commercial consequences of associating with an openly gay person.
In 1999, French tennis player Amélie Mauresmo came out as gay after beating Lindsay Davenport in the Australian Open semifinal at the age of 19. Both Davenport and Martina Hingis, who won the final, made negative comments about Mauresmo's "manly" appearance and play, which she celebrated as the first Frenchwoman to reach the final since 1922 by running to hug her girlfriend. The tennis player later received signs of support from the media and fans, who revolted against Hingis's attitude. She later won the silver medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics and the Fed Cup with France, and reached number 1 in the WTA that same year, to later win Wimbledon in 2005 and the Australian Open in 2006.
Since 1982, the Gay Games have been held every four years, a sporting and cultural event similar to the Olympic Games. The International Olympic Committee does not allow the use of the term Gay Olympics, which has generated controversy. The main objective of the Gay Games is to "promote and increase the self-respect of lesbians and gay men around the world, and generate respect and understanding of the non-gay world".
Music
Canadian pop and country singer k.d. lang, winner of four Grammy Awards, came out in 1992 in an interview in The Advocate magazine. Later in 1993, she starred in a transgressive cover alongside Cindy Crawford in Vanity Fair magazine, showing the butch side of her. In 2008 she admitted that she received some pressure from her record company not to come out of the closet, but she believes that thanks to that decision her career ended up taking off.
Melissa Etheridge, rock singer who won two Grammy Awards in 1992 and 1994, and an Oscar in 2006 for the song I need to wake up (from the documentary An Inconvenient Truth), came out of the closet in 1993 during the presidential gala of Bill Clinton's first term. A staunch homosexual rights activist, she declared after the approval of proposition 8 that she was prevented from marrying her partner Tammy Lynn Michaels —with the that she has twins—that, as a measure of protest, she would refuse to pay her taxes as she was not "a full citizen".
The Spanish group Mecano wrote the famous song Mujer contra mujer about female homosexuality. The song Sol, noche y luna by Chenoa also refers to this topic. Likewise, the Russian duo t.A.T.u. He referenced lesbianism in her public statements and in several of her songs, most notably her hit All the things she said.
Magazines
The first LGBT magazine in the world was Uranus, published in 1870 by the German Karl Heinrich Ulrichs. It only had one edition. The first recorded exclusively lesbian magazine was Die Freundin (1924-1933; "The Friend"), edited in Germany by Friedrich Radszuweit. There were five magazines for lesbians in Germany during the Weimar Republic, as well as Die Freundin, Ledige Frauen (1928-1929), Frauenliebe (1926-1930), Frauen, Liebe und Leben (1938), Garçonne-Junggesellin (1930-1932), the only one published exclusively by women, and Blätter idealer Frauenfreundschaft (1924-1927).
In the United States, the pioneer was Vice Versa, published in 1947 by Lisa Ben (anagram of Lesbian, Lesbian in English). The Ladder was the first nationally distributed in that country. In Spain, on the other hand, the first lesbian magazine was Femme fatal, published in 2004.
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