Research Guides: Lesbian Studies: I D E N T I T Y

Defining "Lesbian Identity"

Below are suggested databases and article citation samples that discuss the development and definitions for the term "lesbian identity."

EBSCOhost
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Vicinus, Martha. "They wonder to which sex I belong; the historical roots of the modern lesbian identity." Feminist Studies; Fall '92, Vol. 18 Issue 3, p. 467, 31p.

Beals, Kristin P.; Peplau, Letitia Anne. "Identity support, identity devaluation, and well-being among lesbians." Psychology of Women Quarterly, Jun 2005, Vol. 29, Issue 2, pp. 140-148, 9p, 6 Charts.
Nexis Uni
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Reuters. "Island Greeks lose bid to keep term lesbian all to themselves." July 23, 2008, Wednesday, National Edition, NEWS; p. A3.
ProQuest Sociology Database
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Hammack, Phillip L; Cohler, Bertram J. "Narrative, identity, and the politics of exclusion: social change and the gay and lesbian life course." J. Sexuality Research & Social Policy8. 3 (Sep 2011): 162-182.
Sociological Abstracts
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Wakeman, Melanie A; Orleans, Myron. "A Party for Ellen's Coming Out: the mediated and situated reflexive legitimation of lesbian identity." Confrence Paper: American Sociological Association, 1998.
Sociological Collection
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Gilmore, Stephanie; Kaminski, Elizabeth. "A Part and apart: lesbian and straight feminist activists negotiate identity in a second-wave organization." Journal of the History of Sexuality; Jan2007, Vol. 16 Issue 1, p95-113, 19p.
Web of Science Core Collection
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Radic, Damir. "Identity games, sadomasochism and the secret of lesbian love in Fadil Hadzic's Alphabet of Fear." HRVATSKI FILMSKI LJETOPIS Volume: 17 Issue: 65-66 Pages: 61-+ Published: SUM 2011. Language: Croatian

Liddicoat, Anthony J. "Sexual identity as linguistic failure: trajectories of interaction in the heteronormative language classroom." JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE IDENTITY AND EDUCATION Volume: 8 Issue: 2-3 Pages: 191-202 Published: 2009.

Butches and Studs, in Their Own Words

Book Titles

InfoKat Discovery
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InfoKat Discovery allows you to quickly search multiple UK library resources simultaneously, including books, journal articles, dissertations, government documents, archives and special collections, images, maps, videos, music and open access content. InfoKat Discovery does NOT include all of the journal articles available through our databases.

Search the online catalog for book titles.

Use Interlibrary Loan (ILL) for titles not found at UK.

Heroic Desire: Lesbian Identity and Cultural Space by Sally Munt
Call Number: HQ75.5 .M85 1998b
Publication Date: 1998
Lesbian and Bisexual Identities: Constructing Communities, Constructing Selves by Kristin G Esterberg
Publication Date: 1997
Request via Interlibrary Loan
Lesbian Images in International Popular Culture by Sara E. Cooper
Publication Date: 2010
Request via Interlibrary Loan
Looking Like What You Are: Sexual Style, Race, and Lesbian Identity by Lisa Walker
Call Number: HQ75.5 .W35 2001
Publication Date: 2001
Making Girls into Women: American Women's Writing and the Rise of Lesbian Identity by Kathryn R. Kent
Call Number: PS228.L47 K46 2003
Publication Date: 2003
To Believe in Women: What Lesbians Have Done for America--a History by Lillian Faderman
Call Number: HQ75.6.U5 F35 1999
Publication Date: 1999
Coming on strong : gender and sexuality in women's sport by Susan K Cahn
Call Number: GV709 .C34 2015
Publication Date: 2015
Identities on the move : contemporary representations of new sexualities and gender identities by Silvia del Pilar Castro Borrego; María Isabel Romero Ruiz
Publication Date: 2015
Lesbian, queer, and bisexual women in heterosexual relationships : narratives of sexual identity by Ahoo Tabatabai
Call Number: HQ75.5 .T33 2016
Publication Date: 2016
Same-sex marriage, context, and lesbian identity : wedded but not always a wife by Julie Whitlow; Patricia Ould
Call Number: HQ1034.U5 W47 2015
Publication Date: 2015

Academic Websites - Sources

Dancing Across Borders: Women who Become Lesbians in Mid-Life, by Kristin Henry
Research Master thesis, Victoria University, 2003. Victoria University Institutional Repository, Melbourne, Australia
The Dynamics of Multiple Dimensions of Identity for Lesbian College Students, by Elisa S. Abes
OhioLINK ETD - Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Educational Policy and Leadership, 2004
Lesbian and Gay Parenting
The publication is provided for the use of clinicians, researchers, students, lawyers and parents involved in legal and policy issues related to lesbian and gay parenting.
Lesbian Identity in the Subculture of Women's Bars
by Nancy Lisagor, Scholarly Commons: Repository at University of Pennsylvania Libraries
Lesbian Veterans Experiences in the Military: A Case Study by Carolyn Gustason
Open Access Dissertation. UMass Amherst. Nursing 2017.
Queering the Terrain: Lesbian Identity and Rights in International Law by Loveday Hodson
feminists@law, Vol 7, No 1 (2017)
Loveday Hodson, Leicester Law School, University of Leicester, UK
Valuing a gay or lesbian self-Identity - Kansas State University
"We at the Counseling Services affirm the value and importance of gay and lesbian people in our community, neighborhood, campus, and world. This self-help brochure provides a starting point for information to develop and establish a positive view of gay or lesbian self-identity. "
‘Lesbian’ in a Post-Lesbian World?: policing identity, sex and image by Clare Farquhar [.pdf]
London, England - South Bank University

General Media Articles

Can Lesbian Identity Survive The Gender Revolution? by Shannon Keating
Maybe the future really can be female. That depends on how we define it.
Does the death of a lesbian icon mark the end of the lesbian era? by Sarah Prager
Phyllis Lyon was a U.S. lesbian pioneer. But with fewer self-identified lesbians than ever, what is the future of the term?
The Enlightened Woman by Renata Critton-Papp
Media Circulation and Lesbian Identity in Weimar Germany.
The gender-identity movement undermines lesbians by Pippa Fleming
Whether it be in feminist studies, gender studies or the history of gay pride, black lesbians often go without their names or sexual orientation being mentioned.
How I Learned To Love My Lesbian Identity by Andrea Ngeleka
"But as a kid in South Africa, I didn’t have the language for what she was — I only knew the word “gay.” I knew so little about what it meant that she dressed as she did, and she had short hair, and that those things had little to do with who she chose to love. I just understood that she wasn’t the norm."
The Renegades by Kerry Manders
Queer culture and the arts would be much poorer without the presence and contribution of butch and stud lesbians, whose identity is both its own aesthetic and a defiant repudiation of the male gaze.
Why I love my butch lesbian identity by Grace Walsh
It's so powerful for butch women to take that feeling of hate and being 'incorrect', and turn it into something amazing.
Why Lesbian Identity Matters by Mona Shattell
Today’s social movement toward equal civil rights for all LGBTQ people has unleashed a host of reactions from well-meaning folks who have yet to understand why sexual and gender identity matter.