 Re: Dear sirlicksalot
Public policy
In Western societies, explicit prohibitions on women's homosexual behavior have been markedly weaker than those on men's homosexual behavior.
In the United Kingdom, lesbianism has never been illegal. In contrast, sexual activity between males was not made legal in England and Wales until 1967. It is said that lesbianism was left out of the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885 because Queen Victoria did not believe sex between women was possible, but this story may be apocryphal.[3] A 1921 proposal, put forward by Frederick Macquisten MP to criminalize lesbianism was rejected by the House of Lords; during the debate, Lord Birkenhead, the then Lord Chancellor argued that 999 women out of a thousand had "never even heard a whisper of these practices."[4] In 1928, the lesbian novel The Well of Loneliness was banned for obscenity in a highly publicized trial, not for any explicit sexual content but because it made an argument for acceptance.[5] Meanwhile other, less political novels with lesbian themes continued to circulate freely.[6]
Jewish religious teachings condemn male homosexual behavior but say little about lesbian behavior. However, the approach in the modern State of Israel, with its largely secular Jewish majority, does not outlaw or persecute gay sexual orientation; marriage between gay couples is not sanctioned but common law status and official adoption of a gay person's child by his or her partner have been approved in precedent court rulings (after numerous high court appeals). There is also an annual Gay parade, usually held in Tel-Aviv; in 2006, the "World Pride" parade was scheduled to be held in Jerusalem.
Western-style homosexuality is rarely tolerated elsewhere in the Muslim world, with the exception of Turkey where there are no laws or discriminative policies against lesbianism. It is punishable by imprisonment, lashings, or death in Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Though the law against lesbianism in Iran has reportedly been revoked or eased, prohibition of male homosexuality remains.
Sexuality
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, In Bed
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, In Bed
Sexual activity between women is as diverse as sex between heterosexuals or gay men. Some women in same-sex relationships do not identify as lesbian, but as bisexual, queer, or another label. As with any interpersonal activity, sexual expression depends on the context of the relationship.
Recent cultural changes in Western and a few other societies have enabled lesbians to express their sexuality more freely, which has resulted in new studies on the nature of female sexuality. Research undertaken by the U.S. Government's National Center for Health Research in 2002 was released in a 2005 report called Sexual Behavior and Selected Health Measures: Men and Women 15-44 Years of Age, United States, 2002. The results indicated that among women aged 15-44, 4.4 percent reported having had a sexual experience with another woman during the previous 12 months. When women aged 1544 years of age were asked, "Have you ever had any sexual experience of any kind with another female?" 11 percent answered "yes".
There is a growing body of research and writing on lesbian sexuality, which has brought some debate about the control women have over their sexual lives, the fluidity of woman-to-woman sexuality, the redefinition of female sexual pleasure and the debunking of negative sexual stereotypes. One example of the latter is lesbian bed death, a term invented by sex researcher Pepper Schwartz to describe the supposedly inevitable diminution of sexual passion in long term lesbian relationships; this notion is rejected by many lesbians, who point out that passion tends to diminish in almost any relationship and many lesbian couples report happy and satisfying sex lives.
Culture
The Black Triangle was used to identify "socially unacceptable" women in concentration camps by the Nazis. Lesbians were included in this classification. Since then lesbians have appropriated the black triangle as a symbol of defiance against repression and discrimination in the same way that the pink triangle has been similarly appropriated by the LGBT community as a whole.
The Black Triangle was used to identify "socially unacceptable" women in concentration camps by the Nazis. Lesbians were included in this classification. Since then lesbians have appropriated the black triangle as a symbol of defiance against repression and discrimination in the same way that the pink triangle has been similarly appropriated by the LGBT community as a whole.
Throughout history hundreds of lesbians have been well-known figures in the arts and culture.
Before the influence of European sexology emerged at the turn of the Twentieth Century, in cultural terms female homosexuality remained almost invisible as compared to male homosexuality, which was subject to the law and thus more regulated and reported by the press. However with the publication of works by sexologists like Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, Richard von Krafft-Ebing, Havelock Ellis, Edward Carpenter, and Magnus Hirschfeld, the concept of active female homosexuality became better known.
As female homosexuality became more visible it was described as a medical condition. In Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality (1905), Sigmund Freud referred to female homosexuality as inversion or inverts and characterised female inverts as possessing male characteristics. Freud drew on the "third sex" ideas popularized by Magnus Hirschfeld and others. While Freud admitted he had not personally studied any such "aberrant" patients he placed a strong emphasis on psychological rather than biological causes. Freud's writings did not become well-known in English-speaking countries until the late 1920s.
This combination of sexology and psychoanalysis eventually had a lasting impact on the general tone of most lesbian cultural productions. A notable example is the 1928 novel The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall, in which these sexologists are mentioned along with the term invert, which later fell out of favour in common usage. Freud's interpretation of lesbian behavior has since been rejected by most psychiatrists and scholars, although recent biological research has provided findings that may bolster a Hirschfeld-ian "third sex" interpretation of same-sex attraction.
During the twentieth century lesbians such as Gertrude Stein and Barbara Hammer were noted in the US avant-garde art movements, along with figures such as Leontine Sagan in German pre-war cinema. Since the 1890s the underground classic The Songs of Bilitis has been influential on lesbian culture. This book provided a name for the first campaigning and cultural organization in the United States, the Daughters of Bilitis.
During the 1950s and 1960s lesbian pulp fiction was published in the US and UK, often under "coded" titles such as Odd Girl Out, The Evil Friendship by Vin Packer and the The Beebo Brinker Chronicles by Ann Bannon. British school stories also provided a haven for "coded" and sometimes outright lesbian fiction.
During the 1970s the second wave of feminist era lesbian novels became more politically oriented. Works often carried the explicit ideological messages of separatist feminism and the trend carried over to other lesbian arts. Rita Mae Brown's debut novel Rubyfruit Jungle was a milestone of this period. By the early 1990s lesbian culture was being influenced by a younger generation who had not taken part in the "Feminist Sex Wars" and this strongly informed post-feminist queer theory along with the new queer culture.
In 1972 the Berkeley, California lesbian journal Libera published a paper entitled Heterosexuality in Women: its Causes and Cure. Written in deadpan, academic prose, closely paralleling previous psychiatry-journal articles on homosexuality among women, this paper inverted prevailing assumptions about what is normal and deviant or pathological and was widely read by lesbian feminists.
Since the 1980s lesbians have been increasingly visible in mainstream cultural fields such as music (Melissa Etheridge, K.D. Lang and the Indigo Girls), television (Ellen DeGeneres, Rosie O'Donnell, and Portia de Rossi), sports (Martina Navrátilová and Billie Jean King) and in comic books (Alison Bechdel and Diane DiMassa). More recently lesbian eroticism has flowered in fine art photography and the writing of authors such as Pat Califia, Jeanette Winterson and Sarah Waters and Stella Duffy. There is an increasing body of lesbian films such as Desert Hearts, Go Fish, Loving Annabelle, Watermelon Woman, Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit, Everything Relative, and Better than Chocolate (see List of lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender-related films). Classic novels such as those by Jane Rule, Vin Packer, Ann Aldrich, and Ann Bannon have been reprinted. Moreover, prominent and controversial academic writers such as Camille Paglia and Germaine Greer also identify with lesbianism.
Media depictions
Lesbians often attract media attention, particularly in relation to feminism, love and sexual relationships, marriage and parenting. Some writers have asserted this trend can lead to exploitive and unjustified plot devices.[7]
Cinema
See also: List of lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender-related films
The first lesbian-themed feature film was Mädchen in Uniform (1931), based on a novel by Christa Winsloe and directed by Leontine Sagan, tracing the story of a schoolgirl called Manuela von Meinhardis and her passionate love for a teacher, Fräulein von Nordeck zur Nidden. It was written and mostly directed by women. The impact of the film in Germany's lesbian clubs was overshadowed, however, by the cult following for The Blue Angel (1930).
Until the early 1990s, any notion of lesbian love in a film almost always required audiences to infer the relationships. The lesbian aesthetic of Queen Christina (1933) with Greta Garbo has been widely noted, even though the film is not about lesbians. Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca (1940), based on the novel by Daphne du Maurier, referred more or less overtly to lesbianism, but the two characters involved were not presented positively: Mrs. Danvers was portrayed as obsessed, neurotic and murderous, while the never-seen Rebecca was described as having been selfish, spiteful and doomed to die. All About Eve (1950) was originally written with the title character as a lesbian but this was very subtle in the final version, with the hint and message apparent to alert viewers.
Playwright Lillian Hellman's first play, The Children's Hour (1934) was produced on Broadway. Set in a private girls' boarding school, the headmistress and a teacher are the targets of a malicious whispering campaign of insinuation by a disgruntled schoolgirl. They soon face public accusations of having a lesbian relationship.[8] The play was nominated for a Pulitzer prize, banned in Boston, London, and Chicago[9] and had a record-breaking run of 691 consecutive performances in New York.[10] A 1961 screen adaptation starred Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine. The play's deep and pervasively dark themes and lesbian undertones have been widely noted.[11]
Mainstream films with openly lesbian content, sympathetic lesbian characters and lesbian leads began appearing during the 1990s. By 2000 some films portrayed characters exploring issues beyond their sexual orientation, reflecting a wider sense that lesbianism has to do with more than sexual desire. Notable mainstream theatrical releases included Bound (1996), Chasing Amy (1997), Kissing Jessica Stein (2001), Mulholland Drive, Monster, D.E.B.S (2004), Rent (2005, based on the Jonathan Larson musical), My Summer of Love (2004), Loving Annabelle (2006) and
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2007-10-26, 04:25
