Articulations of Same-sex Desire: Lesbian and Gay Male Dating Advertisements

A survey of self and other categorisation in 200 lesbian and gay male dating advertisement texts, taken from current magazines and newspapers, reveals the discursive means by which homosexual advertisers in our corpus commodify and market sexual/self-gendered identities. Detailed analysis of a sub-sample of the advertisements allows us to trace the discourse processes and conventions used in formulating identity in such texts. We interpret these discourse practices in relation to a social critique of gay attitudes, beliefs and lifestyles. The different conventions for self-commodification followed by lesbians and gay men in this survey suggest generalisable differences in sexual stance and cultural identification     

From Invisibility to Integration: Lesbian Identity in the Workplace

This article represents a first step toward a vocational psychology of lesbians that incorporates scholarship in lesbian and women's identity development and that is considered within the larger framework of women's career development. First, literature in lesbian and women's identity development is reviewed, followed by a discussion of the vocational issues of lesbians as related both to identity development and to the literature in the vocational psychology of women. The article concludes with suggestions for research and practice.     

From Lesbian Nation to Transgender Liberation: A Bisexual Feminist Perspective

This paper begins by raising some questions about the relationship between transgenderism and bisexuality within queer politics and theory, centering on an interview with the curator of the Sexual Minorities Archives in Northampton, Massachusetts. The interview focuses on the changing body of the Archives from the New Alexandria Lesbian Archives to the Sexual Minorities Archives, in relation to the changing body of the curator, Bet Power, from lesbian to female-to-male nonoperative transsexual. These texts—interview, Archives, and body—are discussed from the perspective of a bisexual feminist interviewer and in the broader contexts of queer politics and theory. The aim is to highlight the interplay of gender, sexuality, and class in one particular context and through one interviewer’s eyes. What queer readings can be made of those “plays”? And how do those “plays” illuminate some of the issues and contradictions within queer politics and theory at present?     

Elder Transgender Lesbians: Exploring the Intersection of Age,Lesbian Sexual Identity,and Transgender Identity

This study is the first to examine the experiences and needs of an international sample of current, English-speaking, lesbian, transgender-identified (trans-lesbian) adults around a number of later life and end-of-life perceptions, preparations, and concerns. I analyzed a subset (n = 276) of the cross-sectional data collected from the online Trans MetLife Survey on Later-Life Preparedness and Perceptions in Transgender-Identified Individuals (N = 1,963). I assessed perceptions and fears around aging, preparation for later life, and end-of-life as well as numerous demographic and psycho-social variables. Despite the overall feeling that they have aged successfully, the respondent trans-lesbian population harbors significant fears about later life. I found that this population, while better-prepared than the overall respondent trans-identified population, is still ill-prepared for the major legalities and events that occur in the later to end-of-life time periods.     

Just Molly and Me,and Donor Makes Three: Lesbian Motherhood in the Age of Assisted Reproductive Technology

SUMMARY

The psychological experiences of lesbian mothers, both coupled and single, are compared and contrasted with heterosexual and gay parents who use assisted reproductive technology, focusing on issues of parental desire, fertility, babies conceived from science rather than sex, presence of an outside party in conception, genetic asymmetry, social anxieties, legal protections, disclosure, and gender. The psychological meaning of the donor or surrogate as an “extra” and “missing” piece of the family, along with the interactive effects of homophobia and “reproductive technophobia” are considered. Lesbian families are recognized to be constructing a new narrative of a bio-social family as they define and live their experience.     

Castration and Medusa: Orlan's Art on the Cutting Edge

French multimedia artist Orlan (b. 1947) literally altered her body and identity in the name of art by undergoing multiple cosmetic surgeries that replaced her features with those from art historical masterpieces. She transformed herself into an objet d'art as well as a site for public debate, thereby injecting a radical sensibility into Western art and its history. The provocative surgeries at the core of Orlan's “carnal art” both exemplify and expand Freud's notion of castration to include the wish to transcend gender and even the body itself. Like Medusa, Orlan confronts us with blinding images that compel us to question our assumptions about art, beauty, gender, identity, and technology. Her project shows us the fate of human embodiment in a posthuman age. In addition to elucidating her social, feminist, and aesthetic agenda, this paper clarifies her personal psychology and her work's effect on the audience.     

Ageism in the Lesbian Community

Ageist messages are everywhere. Lesbians of all ages must raise their awareness of the harm done by ageism and actively combat it.     

Challenges Experienced at Age 100: Findings From the Fordham Centenarian Study

ABSTRACT

This article examines the challenges experienced by very old individuals and their consequences for well-being and mental health. In order to capture unique issues experienced in very old age, 75 participants of the population-based Fordham Centenarian Study answered open-ended questions on everyday challenges. Theme-based coding was then used to categorize and quantify responses. The challenges mentioned most often were challenges faced in the functional (e.g., physical health/activities of daily living restrictions, mobility, sensory impairment), psychological (e.g., loss of well-liked activity, dependency, negative emotions, death), and social (e.g., family loss) life domains. Functional challenges were negatively associated with aging satisfaction and positively associated with loneliness. Psychological challenges were positively linked to aging satisfaction. Social challenges were marginally related to loneliness. Notably, challenges were not related to depression. In conclusion, the challenges experienced in very old age are multidimensional and multifaceted, unique in nature, and have differential relations to mental health. Functional, psychological, and social challenges affect very old individuals’ lives and therefore need to be better understood and addressed. Given their consequences, it is imperative for policy makers to develop an awareness for the different types of challenges faced by centenarians, as there may be unique policy implications related to each.     

Relighting the Fire: Visualizing the Lesbian in Contemporary India

This article revisits the controversy surrounding Deepa Mehta's Fire (1996), India's first publicly released film depicting female same-sex desire. The film has become a touchstone for discussions of the representation of queer and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) lives in India. While the majority of critical accounts of the film have rejected the use of “lesbian” on the basis of its Anglo-American specificity, this article seeks to recast lesbians at the heart of Fire by filtering them through the lens of transnational protest, and by offering a close reading of the film's own play on religious and cultural symbolism. Viewed almost two decades after its release, in the light of the Delhi rape case of December 2012 and subsequent events, including the upholding of a law criminalizing gay sex in November 2013, the film now more than ever seems to offer a fantasy of the future, rather than a viable reality in the present day. Within Fire, the circumnavigation of heteronormative power and desire is certainly queer, but the film's labeling as “lesbian” subsequent to its release in India opened up an important public forum for a debate about female desire and independence that continues to resonate today. This article does not attempt to offer a conclusive argument about the use of the term “lesbian” to label the relationship between women that is depicted within the film, but it does examine the way in which the film itself visualizes desire between women, and in particular the use of Hindu narratives, imagery and motifs. The film's interpellation into lesbian politics is facilitated by the strong emphasis on a female-centered desire that is not defined by motherhood, that cannot be contained, and that demands to be seen.     

From Head Start to Sure Start: Reflections on Policy Transfer

This article uses the history of debates over the US Head Start programme (1965), Early Head Start (1994) and the UK Sure Start initiative (1998), as a window on to policy transfer. In all the three, the aim was that early intervention could offer a means of boosting children’s educational attainment and of countering the wider effects of poverty on development. Nevertheless, there were also important differences between them. The first part of the article looks at UK responses to Head Start, the second at Early Head Start and the creation and subsequent direction taken by Sure Start. In the Conclusion, we sum up the arguments relating to Head Start and Sure Start and offer some broader reflections on policy transfer.     

Tasks in Acceptance: Mothers of Lesbian Daughters

Eleven mothers were interviewed to explore their processes of coming to accept their lesbian daughters’ sexual orientation. Qualitative research analysis yielded five domains: (1) What stayed the same after the daughter's coming out, (2) What changed after the daughter's coming out, (3) Ongoing tasks in the acceptance process, (4) Resources identified and utilized, and (5) Emotional struggles. The mothers’ ongoing tasks in acceptance were: respecting their daughters’ processes of coming to terms with their sexuality, not being concerned with other people's judgments, advocating for their daughters and the GLBT population, and regarding their daughters’ sexual orientation as only one part of them.     

Gay and Lesbian Faculty in Social Work:

Gay and lesbian students in schools of social work may experience discriminations and other forms of overt or subtle oppression, which is contrary to the NASW Code of Ethics and CSWE Curriculum Policy Statements. Gay and lesbian faculty in these schools must be encouraged to assume important roles and responsibilities in addressing the needs of these students. Primarily they must make sure that lesbians and gays, and their issues, do not remain invisible,. They should be open about thei9r sexual orientation and actively work toward creating an atmosphere that is truly committed to faculty must have explicit guarantees of nondiscrimination and other sources of support.     

Lesbians Define Themselves: Diversity in Lesbian Identification

Ninety-nine self-identified lesbians provided definitions of what being a lesbian meant to them. A content analysis revealed two major categories: politically-based definitions and nonpolitical definitions. The political definitions included two highly interrelated subgroups, one of definitions based on woman-identification and the other including a broader world view that included affiliations with other oppressed groups. Nonpolitical definitions included four subgroups; those who defined lesbianism as sex/love with women, lesbianism as a true essence, just happening to love a woman, and lesbianism as only one small aspect of the person. There were only a few differences between women who cited political definitions and those with nonpolitical definitions. Lesbians who provided political definitions were more likely to identify themselves as feminists, were more involved in political activities and slightly more of them had a history of depression and eating disorders. Lesbians who provided nonpolitical definitions were more likely to have children, to have been raised in a conservative religion, and to think that they were born as lesbians. Various interpretations of the categories of definitions are provided.     

Lesbian mothers in Japan: an insider's report

This report introduces Remaza-Kansai, a lesbian mother group in Japan based in the Kansai area, their activities, and the lives of some of the participants in the activities based on interviews by the author. Remaza-Kansai organizes activities and special events for lesbian mothers and their children. It also manages a website and operates a bulletin board for lesbian mothers. In the interviews, it is found that besides the lack of legal recognition of lesbian mothers not biologically connected to the children, they also experience difficulties relating to schools. Another issue requiring further inquiry is how lesbian mothers "come out" to their children. doi:10.1300/J155v10n03_07.     

Being a Lesbian and Being in Love:

Clinicians and laypeople alike have assumed that lesbian identity is a unitary phenomenon, a central component of which included involved in a romantic or sexual relationship with another women. This paper is an empirical examination of the ways in which lesbian women construct their identities and the role of relationships in lesbian identity construction. Based on a sample of 94 lesbian and bisexual women, three identity accounts, or the meanings that women attach to their lesbian identity, are described. The first emphasized the public, political meanings of lesbian identity; the second emphasized the importance of social and romantic relationships with other women; and the third emphasized bisexuality and relationships with men. A Final section discusses practical implications of the diversity of lesbian identities.     

Waking Up: LGBT in Old Age From a Provider's Front Lines Perspective

A startling and deeply unsettling question from a nursing home resident leads to self-reflection, questions about the fate of LGBT residents in nursing homes and other aging facilities, and a program to address their needs and educate service providers.     

Stranger to Desire: Entering the Erotic Field

Founded in infancy but continuing throughout adult life, subsymbolic body patterns form a crucial, unconscious element in the infrastructure of our intimate and erotic lives. Viewing the psychoanalytic relationship, at its foundation, as a somatic dyad, this essay explores the life of the body as well as that of the mind in a psychoanalytic exploration. Drawing from the clinical literature of body-centered psychotherapy and the work of Wilhelm Reich, this article presents a detailed case discussion to illustrate the use of body-centered interventions within a psychoanalytically informed psychotherapy.