Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Lesbian'
To see the other types of publications on this topic, follow the link: Lesbian.
Create a spot-on reference in APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, and other styles
Consult the top 50 dissertations / theses for your research on the topic 'Lesbian.'
Next to every source in the list of references, there is an 'Add to bibliography' button. Press on it, and we will generate automatically the bibliographic reference to the chosen work in the citation style you need: APA, MLA, Harvard, Chicago, Vancouver, etc.
You can also download the full text of the academic publication as pdf and read online its abstract whenever available in the metadata.
Browse dissertations / theses on a wide variety of disciplines and organise your bibliography correctly.
1
LaBrie, Sharon L. "Forming Family: Lesbian Mothers in Rural Communities." Fogler Library, University of Maine, 2008. http://www.library.umaine.edu/theses/pdf/LaBrieSL2008.pdf.
2
Dempsey, Deborah. "Beyond choice : exploring the Australian lesbian and gay 'baby boom' /." Access full text, 2006. http://www.lib.latrobe.edu.au/thesis/public/adt-LTU20080530.164203/index.html.
Abstract:
Thesis (Ph.D.) -- La Trobe University, 2006.Research. "A thesis submitted in total fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy [to the] School of Public Health, (Australian Research Centre in Sex, health and Society), Faculty of health Science, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria". Title of digital version: Beyond Choice : Family and Kinship in the Australian lesbian and gay 'baby boom'. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 297-335). Also available via the World Wide Web.
3
Anderson, Carolyn A. "The voices of older lesbian women an oral history /." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 2001. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk3/ftp04/nq64850.pdf.
4
Noack, Andrea. "Building identities, building communities lesbian women and gaydar /." Connect to this title online via Theses Canada Portal Connect to this title online via UMI ProQuest, 1998. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/yorku/fullcit?pMQ39217.
Abstract:
Thesis (M.A.)--York University, 1998. Graduate Programme in Sociology.Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 116-120). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/yorku/fullcit?pMQ39217.
5
Williams, Carolyn, of Western Sydney Nepean University, and Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. "Identity, difference and the other : a genealogical investigation of lesbian feminism, the 'sex wars' and beyond." THESIS_FHSS_XXX_Williams_C.xml, 1996. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/187.
Abstract:
This thesis is an investigation into lesbian, and its primary focus is an analysis of the discursive conditions of the ?sex wars?: a moment in feminist politics in which contestations over sexuality became the central focus of feminist debate. In particular, the question is asked how it was possible for lesbian sadomasochism to be problematized as an ?anti-feminist? sexual practice. Lesbian feminism was committed to a modernist logic which compelled the production of ?regimes of truth?, which promoted a certain construction of ?lesbian? as a privileged form of feminist while problematizing lesbian sadomasochism. This problematization is traced to Enlightenment and humanist logics and precepts operative within feminist, lesbian feminist and gay liberationist discourses. The tendency of modernist discourses to produce singular, exclusionary identity categories and a hierarchical ordering of subject positions is also found to be present within the discourse of contemporary ?queer? theory. It is the contention of this thesis that the work of lesbian writers like Judith Butler, Shane Phelan and Teresa de Lauretis disrupts the modernist logic of the ?one? operative in both lesbian feminism and ?queer? theory and points to the theoretical and political work that needs to be done. The most urgent task facing current lesbian, gay and ?queer? theorists is the elaboration of an ethico-politics of difference, one that is attentive to the mutually constitutive multiple differences within and between subjects.Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
6
Dart, Kathleen Louise. "The invisible woman: The lesbian - scared straight." CSUSB ScholarWorks, 2007. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd-project/3307.
7
Conlin, Susan M. "The ongoing "coming out" process of lesbian parents." Online version, 2001. http://www.uwstout.edu/lib/thesis/2001/2001conlins.pdf.
8
Pepper, Shanti M. "Intimate lesbian relationships and the influence of role models and negative stereotypes." Virtual Press, 2004. http://liblink.bsu.edu/uhtbin/catkey/1292989.
Abstract:
This purpose of this study was fivefold: a)to examine the relationship between participants' reported number of positive lesbian and/or gay relationship role models their relationship outcomes (i.e., satisfaction, success, degree of closeness, and length of relationship); b) to explore the relationship between participants' level of internalized negative views of lesbian relationships and their own relationship outcomes; c) to investigate the relationship between participants' number of positive relationship role models and their level of internalized negative views of lesbian relationships; d) to examine whether participants who reported acceptance of negative stereotypes of lesbian relationships and had fewer role models also reported lower levels of interpersonal selfefficacy; e) and to investigate the relationship between participants' level of interpersonal self-efficacy and their relationship outcome (satisfaction, success, degree of closeness, and length of relationship). The study included 192 lesbian women (age 18-71 years; M = 30.6) who responded to five questionnaires: the Relationship Information Questionnaire, the Role Models Questionnaire, the Interpersonal Self-Efficacy Scale, the Internalized Negative Views of Lesbian Relationships Questionnaire, and a demographic information page. Results showed that there was no significant correlation between participants' reported number of role models and their relationship outcome (Hypothesis One). Similarly, the current study failed to find a relationship between participants' level of internalized of negative views of lesbian relationships and their own relationship outcomes (Hypothesis Two). In addition, there were no significant correlations between participants' number of positive relationship role models and their level internalized of negative views of lesbian relationships (Hypothesis Three). Furthermore, the correlation between role models and self-efficacy was not significant; however, there was a significant correlation between participants' self-efficacy and their level of internalized negative views of lesbian relationships (Hypothesis Four). The results indicated that participants' level of interpersonal self-efficacy is positively correlated with their relationship satisfaction, success, and degree of closeness. However, self-efficacy was unrelated to relationship length (Hypothesis Five). Possible explanations, limitations, and suggestions for future research are discussed.Department of Psychological Science
9
Powell, Jean W. "Older lesbian /." View online ; access limited to URI, 2005. http://0-wwlib.umi.com.helin.uri.edu/dissertations/dlnow/.
10
Neilson, Jacqueline A. "Recognizing a different other neo-Kleinian analysis of lesbian relationship violence /." Connect to this title online, 2004. http://etd1.library.duq.edu/theses/available/etd-06032004-153815/.
Abstract:
Thesis (Ph. D.)--Duquesne University, 2004.Title from PDF title page (viewed on Mar. 31, 2005). Abstract included in electronic submission form. Includes bibliographical references (p. 223-239) and abstract.
11
Siesing, Gina Michellle. "Fictional democracies : the formation of lesbian-feminist literary publics /." Digital version accessible at:, 1999. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/utexas/main.
12
Teoh, Simon. "Lesbian Tourism: ‘Perth W.A. as an attractive lesbian tourist destination’." Thesis, Teoh, Simon (2009) Lesbian Tourism: ‘Perth W.A. as an attractive lesbian tourist destination’. Honours thesis, Murdoch University, 2009. https://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/1654/.
Abstract:
In September 2008, the Lord Mayor of Perth announced her vision for Perth to be more ‘gayfriendly’. Her vision aroused some dissonance from the ultra conservatives. The aim of this thesis is to determine the attractiveness of Perth as a lesbian destination. The significance of this study is to understand local lesbian residents’ perceptions of Perth as a ‘lesbian-friendly’ destination, and to evaluate the motivation and satisfaction of lesbian-tourists to Perth. The methodology used included participation observation at the 2009 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade; a semi-structured focus group interview of 4 self-identified lesbian Perth residents, and a purposive sample, using snowball effect, of 112 self-identified lesbians for an on-line survey. The data was analysed using content and statistical analysis. The findings were interpreted using a social constructivist approach, within a male feminist framework.
The findings indicated that slightly over a quarter of lesbian Perth residents felt that Perth is ‘lesbian-friendly’ (27%). Whilst ‘culture and sights’ was the top motivator for a lesbian vacation (94%), ‘visiting friends and family’ was the top motivator for lesbian tourists visiting Perth (71%). Slightly over a tenth of lesbian tourists were satisfied with lesbian attractions in Perth (13%). Overall, only a small number of respondents found Perth to be their first-choice ‘lesbian-friendly’ destination (6%), with an overwhelming majority wanting to see more lesbian attractions (85%), and 5% agreeing that there are sufficient lesbian venues. These results strongly suggest that Perth is not ‘lesbian-friendly’, and lacks attractions and venues as an attractive lesbian tourist destination. Recommendations for further research arising from these findings include undertaking a comparison between Perth and other Australian cities in terms of lesbian tourism.
13
Stevens, Philippa Ann. "Negotiating lesbian parenthood." Thesis, University of Leeds, 1999. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.274356.
14
Cherasaro, Noël E. "Deaf Lesbian Identity." Scholar Commons, 2018. https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/7275.
Abstract:
Deaf lesbians are a population that is underrepresented in the academic literature. Through the use of narrative inquiry, the researcher conducted in-depth interviews with a woman who self-identified as Deaf and lesbian. She shared her experiences growing up as a woman who is Deaf and later in her life, realized she is lesbian. The researcher juxtaposed her experiences as a hearing, lesbian woman and an ally to the Deaf community to better illuminate the Deaf lesbian experiences. The research delved into how these dual minority identities have affected the Deaf lesbian participant as she makes her way in the world of the dual majority cultures of hearing and heteronormative.
15
Markowe, Laura Ann. "The 'coming out' process for lesbians : a comparison of lesbian and heterosexual perspectives." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 1992. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/1221/.
Abstract:
Coming out', defined in terms of identifying self as lesbian, as well as disclosure of this information to others, is seen as an issue only within a heterosexist society. Heterosexism serves to reflect and create social representations, containing inflexible conceptualizations of gender, and social identities, incorporating power inequalities. The study was based on content analysis of individual semi-structured depth interviews, with forty lesbians on perceptions and experiences of coming out; thirty heterosexual women and men on attitudes to homosexuality; and twenty women on communication with family and friends. Lesbian and heterosexual interviews were supplemented with stereotype tasks, including the Bem Sex-Role Inventory and the Personal Attributes Questionnaire. Coming out to self was shown to be based upon strong emotional feelings directed towards women, together with awareness of lesbianism as an option, and a level of emotional acceptance of homosexuality. Coming out to family, heterosexual friends etc. involved risks and benefits. The study revealed a social context reflecting lesbian 'invisibility', heterosexuals' lack of interest and minimal contact with lesbians; perceptions of threat and abnormality; and a masculine, abnormal, aggressive, lesbian stereotype. Heterosexual subjects defined 'lesbian' in terms of sex only, and perceived lesbians as masculine. Lesbian subjects perceived lesbianism as more than sex, and lesbians as androgynous. Communication issues most similar to coming out concerned identity, relationships, or a different way of life; threat, loss or stigma; or reactions of others. Case studies analysed within Breakwell's threatened identity model suggested extension of the theory to include additional identity principles of authenticity/integrity and affiliation. It is argued that changes, at the level of social representations, relating to gender conceptualization, and the consequent power inequalities, are necessary for aiding the coming out process.
16
Pustil, Judith Jude L. "Power in lesbian relationships." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1997. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/ftp01/MQ32676.pdf.
17
Green, Angela. "Lesbian identity and community." Thesis, University of Gloucestershire, 1999. http://eprints.glos.ac.uk/3349/.
Abstract:
This thesis is concerned with lesbian identity and community, with a specific focus on lesbians' own experiences, their accounts of the decision to identify as lesbian to themselves and possibly to other people, and their 'explanations'of their lesbianism. Studies of lesbians by feminist social scientists since the 1970s have provided a major corrective to the earlier medically-orientated literature which pathologised lesbianism. Challenging the demonisation of lesbians, they presented lesbianism as a politicised choice or as one of a range of equally valid sexual identities, and proposed typologies based on women's own accounts of their lives and experiences. However, as these studies were mostly based on a small number of informants,drawn from homogeneous social groups in terms of age, social class and education, their utility as generally applicable models or frameworks for understanding lesbians'experiences was compromised. Informed by feminist theory and methodology, this study seeks to test the validity or limitations of these earlier typologies, Focus groups were conducted with five groups of women in order to establish what lesbians themselves considered to be the key aspects of their identity. These topics were further explored in interviews with 65 self-identified lesbians from a wide range of backgrounds in terms of age, education, occupation and location,to examine the similarities and differences in the life-stories of women who wish to engage in relationships with other women, or who are doing so or have done so. Lesbians' accounts of their decisions about their 'sexual' identity and their own explanations of lesbianism demonstrate how both heterosexual hegemony and (ironically) also lesbian subcultural'norms' may restrict their choices in various aspects of their lives. The intention of this study was not only to provide an academic review of the accuracy and utility of earlier studies of lesbians' lives, but also to give lesbian women a voice, as a political act. It found that lesbians' accounts of their lives can indeed be classified into various categories on the basis of women's differing explanations of their lesbianism, as earlier studies had proposed. However, these studies were overly rigid and simplistic, doing scant justice to both the complexity of lesbians' experiences and their own explanations of their identity.
18
WONG, Yuk Ying Sonia. "Learning to be a lesbian : identity and sexuality formation among young Hong Kong lesbians." Digital Commons @ Lingnan University, 2017. https://commons.ln.edu.hk/cs_etd/32.
Abstract:
While the LGBT equal rights movements in Hong Kong have become increasingly visible and popular in recent years, and lesbians, when compared to homosexual male, seem to enjoy high visibility in the city’s public space and relevant safety from violent discrimination, their presence in the public sphere continue to be low. Writings by local queer activists and scholars such as Mary Kam Pui Wai (2001) and Denise Tang (2011) point out that instead of violent attacks, since the beginning of local LGBT activism, female have been facing systematic silencing and marginalizing within the community, their presence invisible, and their problems often ignored or trivialized. However, lesbians are not imagined to be, and do not perceive themselves as, the most oppressed and disadvantageous members within the larger LGBT community.
This study proposes that this seeming apolitical attitude and lack of acknowledgement of their marginalized position are the results of the unique “lesbian learning” taken place in the Hong Kong context that render their positions invisible and their problems unspeakable. I want not only to explore what these young women conceptualize as lesbian identity and sexuality, but through proposing the notion “lesbian learning”, offer a new framework to articulate and examine the formation and construction of the “field of sensible” that conditions their learning about lesbian(ism) in terms of perceptual equipment, information flow, as well as strategies of management and application, to see the meanings attributed to this identity, and the nuanced struggle for and negotiation of their lesbian identity formation, as both gender and sexual identity.
The findings of this study shows that their conceptualization of lesbian identity as gender and sexual identity is largely conditioned by how they have learned to be female, with normative gender social expectations having a huge influence on how they perceive their sexual identity and sexuality, and their priority. Through documenting and examining the process of their learning the lesbian identity and ways of managing it, I hope to shed light on the mechanisms behind the social construction of female subjectivity that conditioned the specific configuration of lesbian identity and sexuality in the Hong Kong context, and the close ties between the two.
To this end, 26 women between the ages of 20 - 30 were interviewed, additionally I spent 2 years conducting in-depth follow-up interviews and participant observation. With the help of social constructionist accounts of contextualization, interactionist accounts of meaning-making, the theory of sexual scripts, and Foucauldian notions of discourse and discipline, I seek to analyze how the Hong Kong lesbian subject is created, maintained, and regulated, both within different institutions operating at specific sites, namely family, school, and pornography, and by the lesbians themselves. By proposing the notion of “lesbian learning”, this study seeks to offer a new methodological tool of intervention, to examine the network of conditions of intersectional positions, and the negotiated agency of their understanding and imagination of identity, gender, and sexuality in the context of Hong Kong.
19
Nummerdor, Kristen. "Will the real lesbians please stand up? : butch/fem and creations of authentic lesbian identity." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1994. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/11680.
20
Bowles, Paula. "Barriers to Lesbian Health Care." TopSCHOLAR®, 2003. http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/581.
Abstract:
The primary purpose of this research was to examine a sample of sixteen lesbian women regarding the barriers to lesbian health-care. From this information several interpretive findings regarding lesbian health-care are made. Data were gathered via indepth interviews with each individual lesbian. The data suggest that most lesbian women do not reveal their sexual orientation to their primary-care physician for fear of reprisal. Most of the women interviewed do feel they receive adequate health-care from their physician. The women who participated in this project did so confidentially and were assigned pseudonyms. They were asked questions on a variety of topics, which included demographics, physical health-care, mental health-care, general health, dental care, social and political issues, and homophobia. It was assumed that participants from smaller, more rural areas would face more barriers to health-care than participants from larger cities. The data gathered indicate that only three of the participants had, in fact, informed their primary-care physicians of their sexual orientation. Erving Goffman's stigma and social identity theory, feminist standpoint theory, lesbian feminist theory, and feminist theory provided the theoretical framework utilized in the analysis of barriers to lesbian health care. Combining these three theories allows a discussion of how stigma and homophobia combine to make lesbians invisible in the medical community. Health-care systems, like other major institutions, are structured to support traditional society.
21
Schneider, Claire M. "Lesbian aging, an exploratory study." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1998. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/tape15/PQDD_0010/MQ36524.pdf.
22
Jiles, Jan. "Lesbian mothers : creating our families /." Thesis, Connect to this title online; UW restricted, 1999. http://hdl.handle.net/1773/7799.
23
Pai, Erh-Ya. "Making lesbian families in Taiwan." Thesis, University of York, 2013. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/5026/.
Abstract:
Benefitting from social changes in the last few decades, single Taiwanese women seem to have gained greater sexual autonomy and freer lifestyle choices. Single lesbians can now more easily pass as heterosexual; however, this is not an easy choice once they form a relationship. Despite increased freedoms, it is difficult for lesbian erotic relationships to be acknowledged in patriarchal families. I argue for an understanding of lesbian relationships that takes account of families of origin and lesbians’ negotiation of the wider social context of Taiwanese Confucian patriarchy. Drawing on a qualitative study of 15 lesbian couples, with data from couple interviews and individual interview for each (i.e. 45 interviews in total), this research explores how lesbians form their relationships and develop their notion of family. Participants were aged between 28 and 40 and most had attended higher education. At the time of the interviews, the length of relationships averaged at seven years and varied from six months to sixteen years. Most couples were living together while two were temporarily in long distance relationships. Individual interviews focused on personal sexual stories, how lesbians developed their sexual identities in various social settings and the ways they negotiated their sexuality with their families of origin. Couple interviews then focused on relationship histories, the ways they committed to and conducted their relationships. Four main areas of analysis emerged from accounts: how lesbians recognised same sex attraction, how that differed from identifying as lesbian and the ways they built up communities and group norms; negotiating sexuality in their families of origin and their relations with their partner’s families of origin; lesbian couples’ relationship practices and their varying experiences of commitment; lesbian couples’ domestic arrangements, including differing degrees of equality that they achieved and how gender role-playing influenced these decisions. By highlighting the specific issues in Taiwan, I argue that it is possible for lesbians to make their lives outside patriarchal families and this is understandable only in their situational contexts.
24
Hanmer, Rosalind Maria. "Understanding lesbian fandom : a case study of the Xena: Warrior Princess (XSTT) lesbian internet fans." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2011. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/1536/.
Abstract:
This thesis is written to promote and pursue an understanding of lesbian fandom and its function on the Internet. It will demonstrate how a particular television text Xena: Warrior Princess (X: WP) and a dedicated online fandom „xenasubtexttalk‟ (XSTT) of diverse lesbian fan membership gained empowerment and agency through their fan practices. Since the screening of the television fantasy series X: WP (1995-2001), there has been a marked increase in academic enquiry into lesbian fan culture on the Internet. This thesis contributes to the lesbian spectatorship of fandom with a specific interest in online fandom. This research suggests there are many readings of X: WP and the dedicated websites set up to discuss the series have increased during and post the series broadcast period. This study explores the contradictions, the gaps, and the differences between fan responses to the series, especially the lesbian discourse and fan fiction that developed during and after the television series ended. This investigation suggests that fan scholarship can obtain a new insight into lesbian Internet fan practices as a virtual space producing new lesbian fan online identities and discourses that challenge traditional forms of lesbian fandom. It does this by presenting three distinct, significant and interrelated layers of lesbian online textual engagement. While interrelated, these layers are separate and important as they each reveal new lesbian online fan performances of identity that challenge traditional performances of reading and writing habits of lesbian fans.
25
Gibson, Alexandra, and Catriona Macleod. "(Dis)allowances of lesbians’ sexual identities: Lesbian identity construction in racialised, classed, familial, and institutional spaces." SAGE Publications Ltd, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006536.
Abstract:
This article explores how lesbian identity construction is facilitated and constrained by the raced, classed, gendered, familial, and geographical spaces that women occupy. We present a narrative-discursive analysis of eight lesbians’ stories of sexuality, told within a historically white university in South Africa. Three interpretative repertoires that emerged in the narratives are discussed. The ‘disallowance of lesbian identity in particular racialised and class-based spaces’ repertoire, deployed by black lesbians only, was used to account for their de-emphasis of a lesbian identity through the invocation of a threat of danger and stereotyping. The ‘disjuncture of the (heterosexual) family and lesbian identity’ repertoire emphasised how the expectation of support and care within a family does not necessarily extend to acceptance of a lesbian identity.
26
True, Stephanie M. ""Living lavender" life in a women's community /." Oxford, Ohio : Miami University, 2007. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc%5Fnum=miami1185808602.
27
McKenna, Susan E. "Seeing Lesbian Queerly: Visibility, Community, and Audience in 1980s Northampton, Massachusetts." Amherst, Mass. : University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2009. http://scholarworks.umass.edu/open_access_dissertations/102/.
28
Williams, Carolyn. "Identity, difference and the other : a genealogical investigation of lesbian feminism, the 'sex wars' and beyond." Thesis, View thesis, 1996. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/187.
Abstract:
This thesis is an investigation into lesbian, and its primary focus is an analysis of the discursive conditions of the ?sex wars?: a moment in feminist politics in which contestations over sexuality became the central focus of feminist debate. In particular, the question is asked how it was possible for lesbian sadomasochism to be problematized as an ?anti-feminist? sexual practice. Lesbian feminism was committed to a modernist logic which compelled the production of ?regimes of truth?, which promoted a certain construction of ?lesbian? as a privileged form of feminist while problematizing lesbian sadomasochism. This problematization is traced to Enlightenment and humanist logics and precepts operative within feminist, lesbian feminist and gay liberationist discourses. The tendency of modernist discourses to produce singular, exclusionary identity categories and a hierarchical ordering of subject positions is also found to be present within the discourse of contemporary ?queer? theory. It is the contention of this thesis that the work of lesbian writers like Judith Butler, Shane Phelan and Teresa de Lauretis disrupts the modernist logic of the ?one? operative in both lesbian feminism and ?queer? theory and points to the theoretical and political work that needs to be done. The most urgent task facing current lesbian, gay and ?queer? theorists is the elaboration of an ethico-politics of difference, one that is attentive to the mutually constitutive multiple differences within and between subjects.
29
Collins, Jacqueline A. "From lavender menace to lesbian heroic : representations of lesbian identities in contemporary Spanish fiction and film." Thesis, University of Sunderland, 2011. http://sure.sunderland.ac.uk/3315/.
30
Lienert, Tania Marie, and Tlienert@latrobe edu au. "Relating Women : Lesbian Experience of Friendship." La Trobe University. Communication, Arts and Critical Enquiry, 2003. http://www.lib.latrobe.edu.au./thesis/public/adt-LTU20041006.114625.
Abstract:
Friends are of crucial importance to lesbians� lives, their significance heightened due to lack of acceptance from blood family, work colleagues and society. Despite a proliferation of literature on lesbians� love relationships, lesbians� friendships remain understudied. In the light of theorising about widespread shifts in intimacy patterns in modern industrial societies, this thesis examines the role of friendship for contemporary lesbians. It takes an interdisciplinary approach, using lesbian feminist, feminist psychological and mainstream sociological theories to interpret lesbians� negotiations of their friendships and preoccupations with their own continually developing sense of self. The study finds that firstly, the most significant issue in negotiating friendships is deciding on a lesbian identity despite socialisation to �compulsory heterosexuality�. Friends are expected to be accepting and supportive or they are lost. Discrimination, the fact that the lover is the �best friend�, struggles with difference in lesbian communities, time constraints and a more general shift to individualism mean that community and family contacts are replaced by small, supportive and affirming friendship networks. These meet needs and within them lesbians negotiate a sense of self, but for the most part with no template of political consciousness. Secondly, while friendships are important, they are also difficult. The fluidity of the friendship relationship, blurred boundaries between friends and lovers, and women�s moral �imperative to care� all provide barriers to communication. Thirdly, while lesbians value �the relational self�, a confident sense of self is challenged when close-connected relationships sit at odds both with mainstream, heterocentric culture, and with traditional models of psychology which promote independence and separateness. Lesbians who are confident communicators, who have access to alternative feminist discourses which value relatedness, and who, together with their friends, are open to change, are able to negotiate satisfactory friendships and relationships. The study demonstrates lesbians� complex subjectivities as changing selves are negotiated through friendships, love relationships and communities, particularly through experiences of loss.
31
Roberts, Marguerite. "HIV/AIDS in the lesbian community." Connect to resource, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/1811/28391.
Abstract:
Thesis (Honors)--Ohio State University, 2007.Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages: contains 24 p. Includes bibliographical references (p. 22-24). Available online via Ohio State University's Knowledge Bank.
32
Parham, Jennifer Rae. "AGGRESSION IN LESBIAN AND BISEXUAL RELATIONSHIPS." Master's thesis, University of Central Florida, 2004. http://digital.library.ucf.edu/cdm/ref/collection/ETD/id/4385.
Abstract:
For years, researchers, clinicians, and those working with victims/survivors of domestic abuse have overlooked the issue of same-sex partner aggression among lesbians and bisexual women. Through in-depth interviews with 19 women who identify themselves as either lesbian or bisexual, information was documented in this study demonstrating the severity of issues of power and control among some same-sex partners, as well as some if the dynamics that are unique to same-sex abusive relationships. Patterns of abuse within same-sex relationships often mirror those that are so commonly associated with partner aggression among heterosexual couples, and therefore demonstrate not only the need for further research on the topic of same-sex partner abuse, but also the urgency to provide more assistance to the victims/survivors of domestic violence.M.A.
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Arts and Sciences
Sociology and Anthropology
33
Held, Nina. "Racialised lesbian spaces : a Mancunian ethnography." Thesis, Lancaster University, 2011. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/63784/.
Abstract:
This thesis seeks to understand the relationship between sexuality, ‘race' and space within the context of urban night-time leisure spaces for women. It is informed by and draws on different fields: sexual geographies, critical ‘race' scholarship, feminist and queer theories, studies on whiteness, postmodern spatial theories. The intellectual roots of this thesis lie in black feminist theories of gender, ‘race' and sexuality (and class) as intersecting categories and fields of experience. The thesis draws on poststructuralist approaches that theorise sexuality and ‘race' as discursively and performatively produced. It argues that ‘race' and sexuality are mutually constitutive categories and that they can only be understood in relation to each other. The ethnographic fieldwork of this study is carried out in specific sexualised spaces, namely two lesbian bars in Manchester's Gay Village. Through participant observations in those bars and qualitative interviews with women who identify as lesbian and bisexual and white, mixed-race, black and East Asian, the thesis explores the role of ‘race' in the construction of lesbian bodies and spaces and how sexuality, ‘race' and space work together in shaping subjectivities. The aims of this study are manifold: to develop an understanding of how practices of inclusion and exclusion work in leisure spaces designed to meet the needs of a marginalised group; to find new ways of understanding ‘race' and sexuality by looking at their spatial relationship; to contribute to debates on sexuality and space by investigating how space is simultaneously sexualised and racialised; to contribute to existing research on whiteness through an exploration of how different forms of whiteness spatially intersect with sexuality.
34
Cohen, Rachael A. "Sexual Socializaton in Lesbian-Parent Families." Miami University / OhioLINK, 2009. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1251930298.
35
Lienert, Tania. "Relating women lesbian experience of friendship /." Connect to this title online, 2003. http://www.lib.latrobe.edu.au/thesis/public/adt-LTU20041006.114625/.
36
Funghi, Amelia Marie 1958. "FUSION AND SATISFACTION IN LESBIAN RELATIONSHIPS." Thesis, The University of Arizona, 1986. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/275544.
37
Reinert, Leah. "Lesbian academics: Negotiating career and family." OpenSIUC, 2011. https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/theses/588.
Abstract:
This study explores the experiences lesbian academics have in making decisions in the areas of family life and career. While the area of queer studies is a continuously growing field, the literature and discussions often group lesbians with gay men and as a result push them as a group to the side. Lesbian identified faculty members are in a unique position of being women and facing the pressures and expectations that all women academics face while also encountering additional obstacles and experiencing added advantages due to their sexuality. In exploring the consequences, advantages and choices lesbian academics make related to career development, expectations, decisions on family creation, and challenges with the public/private spheres through in-person interviews, several themes emerged. The goal of this study is to identify the decision-making process of lesbian identified academics within the higher education setting and how those decisions are related to the academic environment's specific pressures and expectations. The implications of this study could inform higher education policies in terms of inclusion, recruitment, and retention of lesbian identified faculty.
38
McWilliam, Kelly. "Girl Meets Girl: Lesbian Romantic Comedies." Thesis, University of Queensland, 2006. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/12503/1/12503.pdf.
Abstract:
Six decades after the romantic comedy emerged as a Hollywood genre in 1934, the first romantic comedies with a central lesbian couple, including Marita Giovanni’s Bar Girls and Rose Troche’s Go Fish, were released in 1994. This study argues that Bar Girls and Go Fish represent the first in a group of films whose numbers and similarities enable their consideration as a romantic comedy sub-genre, namely the ‘lesbian romantic comedy’. This study identifies and analyses this sub-genre. It contends that these films have emerged as the predominant (and perhaps only) form of mainstream lesbian feature film in the United States of America in the mid to late 1990s and early 2000s. Yet, despite their relative prominence for more than a decade, they remain vastly under-examined areas in scholarship on both film genre and lesbian culture. This project aims to contribute to these areas by producing the first full-length survey of the sub-genre and the first study of any length to focus exclusively on it.
This study concentrates on ten lesbian romantic comedies: Bar Girls (1994), Go Fish (1994), Maria Maggenti’s The Incredibly True Adventure of 2 Girls in Love (1995), Kelli Herd’s It’s in the Water (1996), Julia Dyer’s Late Bloomers (1996), Emma-Kate Croghan’s Love and Other Catastrophes (1996), Heidi Arnesen’s Some Prefer Cake (1997), Anne Wheeler’s Better than Chocolate (1999), Jamie Babbit’s But I’m a Cheerleader (1999), and Helen Lesnick’s A Family Affair (2001). While this project employs textual analysis as its primary methodology to examine these films, these analyses take place more broadly within a public sphere framework. Consistent with a wider shift in analyses of lesbian and gay cultural products, this framework allows a consideration of the larger public stakes of lesbian romantic comedies and, in particular, their introduction of lesbian content into a heterocentric genre. Specifically, this project argues that the introduction of lesbian content—or the replacement of ‘boy meets girl’ with ‘girl meets girl’—destabilises the genre in significant ways, but that the genre itself equally restricts the representation of lesbianism possible within it. Ultimately, this project proposes a reading of lesbian romantic comedies as conservative and progressive, conventional and subversive, but as nonetheless complex texts that offer a range of pleasures and readings to their audiences and a range of challenges to the genre itself. Such a reading reveals the complexity and negotiation inherent in these films’ position as independent films presenting culturally and politically marginal content in a mainstream genre.
39
Simpson, Inga Caroline. "Lesbian detective fiction : the outsider within." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2008. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/20120/1/Inga_Simpson_Exegesis.pdf.
Abstract:
Lesbian Detective Fiction: the outsider within is a creative writing thesis in two parts: a draft lesbian detective novel, titled Fatal Development (75%) and an exegesis containing a critical appraisal of the sub-genre of lesbian detective fiction, and of my own writing process (25%). Creative work: Fatal Development -- It wasn’t the first time I’d seen a dead body, but it didn’t seem to get any easier. -- When Dirk and Stacey discover a body in the courtyard of their Brisbane woolstore apartment, it is close friend and neighbour, Kersten Heller, they turn to for support. The police assume Stuart’s death was an accident, but when it emerges that he was about to take legal action against the woolstore’s developers, Bovine, Kersten decides there must be more to it. Her own apartment has flooded twice in a month and the builders are still in and out repairing defects. She discovers Stuart was not alone on the roof when he fell to his death and the evidence he had collected for his case against Bovine has gone missing. Armed with this knowledge, and fed up with the developer’s ongoing resistance to addressing the building’s structural issues, Kersten organises a class action against Bovine. Kersten draws on her past training as a spy to investigate Stuart’s death, hiding her activities, and details of her past, from her partner, Toni. Her actions bring her under increasing threat as her apartment is defaced, searched and bugged, and she is involved in a car chase across New Farm. Forced to fall back on old skills, old habits and memories return to the surface. When Toni discovers that Kersten has broken her promise to leave the investigation to the police, she walks out. The neighbouring – and heritage-listed – Riverside Coal development site burns to the ground, and Kersten and Dirk uncover evidence of a network of corruption involving developers and local government officials. After she is kidnapped in broad daylight, narrowly escaping from the boot of a moving car, Kersten is confident she is right, but with Toni not returning her calls, and many of the other residents selling up, including Dirk and Stacey, Kersten begins to question her judgment. In a desperate attempt to turn things around, Kersten calls on an old Agency contact to help prove Bovine was involved in Stuart’s death, her kidnapping, and ongoing corruption. To get the evidence she needs, Kersten plays a dangerous game: letting Bovine know she has uncovered their illegal operations in order to draw them into revealing themselves on tape. Hiding alone in a hotel room, Kersten is finally forced to confront her past: When Mirin didn’t come home that night, I was ready to go out and find her myself, disappear, and start a new life together somewhere far away. Instead they pulled me in before I could finish making arrangements, questioned me for hours, turned everything around. It was golden child to problem child in the space of a day. This time, she’s determined, things will turn out differently. Exegesis: The exegesis traces the development of lesbian detective fiction, including its dual origins in detective and lesbian fiction, to compare the current state of the sub-genre with the early texts and to establish the dominant themes and tropes. I focus particularly on Australian examples of the sub-genre, examining in detail Claire McNab’s Denise Cleever series and Jan McKemmish’s A Gap in the Records, in order to position my own lesbian detective novel between these two works. In drafting Fatal Development, I have attempted to include some of the political content and complexity of McKemmish’s work, but with a plot-driven narrative. I examine the dominant tropes and conventions of the sub-genre, such as: lesbian politics; the nature of the crime; method of investigation; sex and romance; and setting. In the final section, I explain the ways in which I have worked within and against the subgenre’s conventions in drafting a contemporary lesbian detective novel: drawing on tradition and subverting reader expectations. Throughout the thesis, I explore in detail the tradition of the fictional lesbian detective as an outsider on the margins of society, disrupting notions of power and gender. While the lesbian detective’s outsider status grants her moral agency and the capacity to achieve justice and generate change, she is never fully accepted. The lesbian detective remains an outsider within. For the lesbian detective, working within a system that ultimately discriminates against her involves conflict and compromise, and a sense of double-play in being part of two worlds but belonging to neither. I explore how this double-consciousness can be applied to the lesbian writer in choosing whether to write for a mainstream or lesbian audience.
40
Simpson, Inga Caroline. "Lesbian detective fiction : the outsider within." Queensland University of Technology, 2008. http://eprints.qut.edu.au/20120/.
Abstract:
Lesbian Detective Fiction: the outsider within is a creative writing thesis in two parts: a draft lesbian detective novel, titled Fatal Development (75%) and an exegesis containing a critical appraisal of the sub-genre of lesbian detective fiction, and of my own writing process (25%). Creative work: Fatal Development -- It wasn’t the first time I’d seen a dead body, but it didn’t seem to get any easier. -- When Dirk and Stacey discover a body in the courtyard of their Brisbane woolstore apartment, it is close friend and neighbour, Kersten Heller, they turn to for support. The police assume Stuart’s death was an accident, but when it emerges that he was about to take legal action against the woolstore’s developers, Bovine, Kersten decides there must be more to it. Her own apartment has flooded twice in a month and the builders are still in and out repairing defects. She discovers Stuart was not alone on the roof when he fell to his death and the evidence he had collected for his case against Bovine has gone missing. Armed with this knowledge, and fed up with the developer’s ongoing resistance to addressing the building’s structural issues, Kersten organises a class action against Bovine. Kersten draws on her past training as a spy to investigate Stuart’s death, hiding her activities, and details of her past, from her partner, Toni. Her actions bring her under increasing threat as her apartment is defaced, searched and bugged, and she is involved in a car chase across New Farm. Forced to fall back on old skills, old habits and memories return to the surface. When Toni discovers that Kersten has broken her promise to leave the investigation to the police, she walks out. The neighbouring – and heritage-listed – Riverside Coal development site burns to the ground, and Kersten and Dirk uncover evidence of a network of corruption involving developers and local government officials. After she is kidnapped in broad daylight, narrowly escaping from the boot of a moving car, Kersten is confident she is right, but with Toni not returning her calls, and many of the other residents selling up, including Dirk and Stacey, Kersten begins to question her judgment. In a desperate attempt to turn things around, Kersten calls on an old Agency contact to help prove Bovine was involved in Stuart’s death, her kidnapping, and ongoing corruption. To get the evidence she needs, Kersten plays a dangerous game: letting Bovine know she has uncovered their illegal operations in order to draw them into revealing themselves on tape. Hiding alone in a hotel room, Kersten is finally forced to confront her past: When Mirin didn’t come home that night, I was ready to go out and find her myself, disappear, and start a new life together somewhere far away. Instead they pulled me in before I could finish making arrangements, questioned me for hours, turned everything around. It was golden child to problem child in the space of a day. This time, she’s determined, things will turn out differently. Exegesis: The exegesis traces the development of lesbian detective fiction, including its dual origins in detective and lesbian fiction, to compare the current state of the sub-genre with the early texts and to establish the dominant themes and tropes. I focus particularly on Australian examples of the sub-genre, examining in detail Claire McNab’s Denise Cleever series and Jan McKemmish’s A Gap in the Records, in order to position my own lesbian detective novel between these two works. In drafting Fatal Development, I have attempted to include some of the political content and complexity of McKemmish’s work, but with a plot-driven narrative. I examine the dominant tropes and conventions of the sub-genre, such as: lesbian politics; the nature of the crime; method of investigation; sex and romance; and setting. In the final section, I explain the ways in which I have worked within and against the subgenre’s conventions in drafting a contemporary lesbian detective novel: drawing on tradition and subverting reader expectations. Throughout the thesis, I explore in detail the tradition of the fictional lesbian detective as an outsider on the margins of society, disrupting notions of power and gender. While the lesbian detective’s outsider status grants her moral agency and the capacity to achieve justice and generate change, she is never fully accepted. The lesbian detective remains an outsider within. For the lesbian detective, working within a system that ultimately discriminates against her involves conflict and compromise, and a sense of double-play in being part of two worlds but belonging to neither. I explore how this double-consciousness can be applied to the lesbian writer in choosing whether to write for a mainstream or lesbian audience.
41
Walsh, Clare F. "Narratives of lesbian transformation : coming out stories of women who transition from heterosexual marriage to lesbian identity." [Tampa, Fla] : University of South Florida, 2007. http://purl.fcla.edu/usf/dc/et/SFE0001897.
42
Stratton, Sarah Louise. "More than throw-away fiction : investigating lesbian pulp fiction through the lens of a lesbian textual community." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2018. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/8245/.
Abstract:
This thesis argues for, and conducts close reading on, lesbian pulp fiction published in the United States between 1950 and 1965. Though a thorough investigation of a lesbian textual community centred on the lesbian periodical, The Ladder (1956-1952), this thesis forms a lens through which to closely read lesbian pulp fiction novels. This thesis maintains that members of this textual community were invested in literary discussions, as evinced through the publication of book reviews. Moreover, the lesbian textual community of The Ladder actively participated in literary discussions through the ‘Readers Respond’ column. Spring Fire (1952) by Vin Packer and The Beebo Brinker Chronicles (1957 to 1962) by Ann Bannon are investigated for implicit and explicit criticisms of 1950s sexual politics and the politics surrounding lesbian representation in popular media. For the members of The Ladder’s lesbian textual community, pulp novels belonging to the ‘Golden Age of Paperbacks’ were more than cheaply produced reading materials.
43
Erwin, Terry McVannel. "For, By, and About Lesbians: A Qualitative Analysis of the Lesbian ConnectionDiscussion Forum 1974-2004." Ohio : Ohio University, 2007. http://www.ohiolink.edu/etd/view.cgi?ohiou1185390725.
44
Orr, Dannielle. "A sojourn in Paris 1824-25: sex and sociability in the manuscript writings of Anne Lister (1791-1840)." Thesis, Orr, Dannielle (2006) A sojourn in Paris 1824-25: sex and sociability in the manuscript writings of Anne Lister (1791-1840). PhD thesis, Murdoch University, 2006. https://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/235/.
Abstract:
This thesis examines the day to day practices that constituted Anne Lister's (1791-1840) sexuality and sociability within the range of her writings, as well as her society. Anne's writings were a detailed account, spanning her lifetime, of her own love and relationships with the 'fairer sex' (Whitbread 1988, 145). Anne's sociality, seen in her correspondence and plain handwritten journal entries, has been explored by Muriel Green in Miss Lister of Shibden Hall and Jill Liddington in Female Fortune and Nature's Domain (Green 1992; Liddington 1998; 2003). As a gentlewoman of adequate means, Anne has garnered some attention from women's historians interested in her agency within an early nineteenth century social and historical context. Anne's sexual identity has been extensively analysed over the past nearly twenty years by lesbian feminists, queer theorists, women's historians and historians of sexuality concerned with the history and development of modern Western female homosexuality and gender. The source for theorising Anne's sexuality has been the edited selections of the crypted journal entries, published by Helena Whitbread in I Know My Own Heart and No Priest but Love (Whitbread 1988; 1992). However, many analyses deal either with the theorisation of Anne's sexuality or her sociality; the theoretical difficulty with reconciling these categories has troubled the analysis of her complex subjectivity. Drawing upon the archival materials, I have used an interdisciplinary feminist approach to analyse the sexual and social processes of Anne's everyday interactions in her writings. Taking the seven month period of the sojourn to Paris in 1824-25, I have focused upon Anne's textual practices within her journal volume and letters during her residence in Paris, her social practices with the other guests at the guesthouse 24 Place Vendome and her sexual practices with her lover, the widow Mrs. Maria Barlow. The journal volumes and correspondence are a valuable historical record of one gentlewoman's engagement with early nineteenth century British culture.
45
Orr, Dannielle. "A Sojourn in Paris 182425 Sex and Sociability in the Manuscript Writings of Anne Lister(17911840)." Murdoch University, 2006. http://wwwlib.murdoch.edu.au/adt/browse/view/adt-MU20070329.132004.
Abstract:
This thesis examines the day to day practices that constituted Anne Listers (17911840) sexuality and sociability within the range of her writings, as well as her society. Annes writings were a detailed account, spanning her lifetime, of her own love and relationships with the fairer sex (Whitbread 1988, 145). Annes sociality, seen in her correspondence and plain handwritten journal entries, has been explored by Muriel Green in Miss Lister of Shibden Hall and Jill Liddington in Female Fortune and Natures Domain (Green 1992; Liddington 1998; 2003). As a gentlewoman of adequate means, Anne has garnered some attention from womens historians interested in her agency within an early nineteenth century social and historical context. Annes sexual identity has been extensively analysed over the past nearly twenty years by lesbian feminists, queer theorists, womens historians and historians of sexuality concerned with the history and development of modern Western female homosexuality and gender. The source for theorising Annes sexuality has been the edited selections of the crypted journal entries, published by Helena Whitbread in I Know My Own Heart and No Priest but Love (Whitbread 1988; 1992). However, many analyses deal either with the theorisation of Annes sexuality or her sociality; the theoretical difficulty with reconciling these categories has troubled the analysis of her complex subjectivity. Drawing upon the archival materials, I have used an interdisciplinary feminist approach to analyse the sexual and social processes of Annes everyday interactions in her writings. Taking the seven month period of the sojourn to Paris in 182425, I have focused upon Annes textual practices within her journal volume and letters during her residence in Paris, her social practices with the other guests at the guesthouse 24 Place Vendôme and her sexual practices with her lover, the widow Mrs. Maria Barlow. The journal volumes and correspondence are a valuable historical record of one gentlewomans engagement with early nineteenth century British culture.
46
Geller, Dawn Naomi. "How has legal marriage affected the experience of social supports for same-sex individuals who were married in Massachusetts a project based upon an independent investigation /." Click here for text online. Smith College School for Social Work website, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10090/1037.
Abstract:
Thesis (M.S.W.)--Smith College School for Social Work, Northampton, Mass., 2007Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment for the degree of Master of Social Work. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 60-62).
47
Barstad, Trenton A. "Lesbian family's developmental processes an extension of Carter and McGoldrick's model." CardinalScholar 1.0, 2009. http://liblink.bsu.edu/uhtbin/catkey/1536745.
Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to examine whether current literature on the stages
of family developmental life cycles accurately describes the family and developmental
tasks for lesbian families. Due to the lack of empirical literature on this topic it was
important to examine the experiences of families headed by two women related to
developmental tasks experienced versus those proposed. Several authors have suggested
there may be differences between same-sex and opposite-sex parents in relation to
parenting styles and some child outcomes. However, none of these differences have been
studied within the framework of family developmental tasks. The purpose of the present
investigation was to explore the diversity of family structures, goals, and strategies within
families headed by two women. The present study collected data, explored the themes
related to families headed by two women who have children in the home who have not
yet entered school. The goal was to develop a theory from this data using Grounded
Theory which was compared with existing family developmental tasks theory and
proposed changes to existing theory to take into account expected differences lesbian
families may present.Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services
48
Lynch, John Wiley. "The relationship of lesbian and gay identity development and involvement in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender student organizations." College Park, Md. : University of Maryland, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/1903/2667.
Abstract:
Thesis (M.A.) -- University of Maryland, College Park, 2005.Thesis research directed by: Counseling and Personnel Services. Title from t.p. of PDF. Includes bibliographical references. Published by UMI Dissertation Services, Ann Arbor, Mich. Also available in paper.
49
Kelly, Fiona Jane. "Transforming law's family: the legal recognition of planned lesbian families." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/371.
Abstract:
Lesbian families with children are greater in number and more visible today than ever before. In fact, social scientists have suggested that we may be in the midst of a lesbian "baby boom". Canada's Census figures support this assertion. Between 2001 and 2006 there was a forty-seven per cent increase in households made up of two lesbian mothers and their children. This dissertation addresses the legal issues raised by lesbian motherhood, focusing primarily on legal parentage. It considers the terms upon which parental recognition has been achieved thus far, and evaluates the efficacy of a reform agenda focused exclusively on gaining access to the existing legal framework.
To explore the legal and social dynamics of planned lesbian families, interviews were conducted with forty-nine lesbian mothers living in British Columbia and Alberta who conceived using assisted reproduction. Mothers were asked about the structure of their families, how they defined terms such as "parent" and "family", the extent to which they had engaged with law, and their recommendations for law reform. The interviews revealed that lesbian mothers define family and parenthood broadly, emphasizing intention and caregiving over a purely biological model of kinship. All of the mothers defined a "parent" as someone who intends to parent and, once a child is born, performs that intention through caregiving. Parental status was thus not limited to those who shared a biological relationship with a child, or even to two individuals.
The research suggests that lesbian mothers have little interest in being subsumed into the existing legal framework which tends to prioritize dyadic and biological parenting. In fact, only a tiny portion of the mothers felt that identical treatment would adequately respond to their needs. The vast majority supported law reform that would extend to them the benefits of the current system, while simultaneously expanding the existing framework to include a wider variety of parental and family configurations within it. The reform model chosen to achieve this aim combined parental presumptions in favour of the lesbian couple or a single lesbian mother, with opt-in mechanisms that allowed the family to extend beyond the two parent unit.
50
Cohen, Elissa. "Lesbian coaches: Personal perspectives on being out." Thesis, University of Ottawa (Canada), 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/28216.
Abstract:
This research project attempted to identify and describe the essence of the experience of being an out lesbian in elite coaching. Through the use of a feminist epistemology, a phenomenological methodology, and in-depth interviews with eight high performance coaches who identify as lesbian, it was possible to identify and describe the essence of their experiences being out lesbians in elite coaching. The data were analyzed using an inductive phenomenological analysis procedure. The six themes that emerged from the data were: sexism, lesbophobia, the old boys' club, acknowledgement and positive reinforcement, the supportive feminist network, and the nature of the job. Sport was identified as a domain rife with sexism, lesbophobia, and dominated by the old boys' club all of which negatively impacted the lesbian coaches' experiences and career advancement. However, with positive reinforcement of their lesbian identity and the supportive feminist network, the participants nevertheless experienced great personal and professional success.