Are bodies sexy? How, and in what sorts of ways? "Sexy Bodies" investigates the production of sexual bodies and sexual practices, sexualities of all kinds--dyke, bisexual, transracial, even heterosexual. While celebrating lesbian and queer sexualities, "Sexy Bodies" also explores what runs underneath and within "all" sexualities, discovering what is fundamentally strange about all bodies, all carnalities.
Looking at a pleasurable variety of cultural forms and texts, the contributors consider the particular charms of girls and horses, from "National Velvet" to "Marnie"; discuss figures of the lesbian body, from vampires to tomboys; uncover "virtual" lesbians in the fiction of Jeanette Winterson; track desire in the music of legendary Blues singers; and investigate the ever-scrutinized and celebrated body of Elizabeth Taylor. The collection also includes two important pieces of fiction byMary Fallon and Nicole Brossard.
"Sexy Bodies" makes new connections between and among bodies, cruising the borders of the obscene, the pleasurable, the desirable, and the unspoken, rethinking sexuality anew, as deeply and stangely sexy.
Contributors: Sue Best, Nicole Brossard, Dianne Chisholm, Barbara Creed, Angela Davis, Mary Fallon, Anna Gibbs, Sue Golding, Elizabeth Grosz, Melissa Jane Hardie, Lisa Moore, Chantal Nadeau, Elspeth Probyn, Sabina Sawhney, Catherine Waldby

"Immortal, Invisible: Lesbians and the Moving Image" is the first collection to bring together leading film-makers, academics and activists to discuss films by, for and about lesbians and queer women.
The contributors debate the practice of lesbian and queer film-making, from the queer cinema of Monika Treut to the work of lesbian film-makers Andrea Weiss and Greta Schiller. They explore the pleasures and problems of lesbian spectatorship, both in mainstream Hollywood films including "Aliens" and "Red Sonja," and in independent cinema from "She" "Must Be Seeing Things" to "Salmonberries" and "Desert Hearts."
The authors tackle tricky questions: Can a film such as "Strictly Ballroom" be both pleasurably camp and heterosexist? Is it OK to drool over dyke iconsw like Sigourney Weaver and kd lang? What makes a film lesbian, or queer, or even post-queer? What about showingsex on screen? And why do lesbian screen romances hardly ever have happy endings?
"Immortal, Invisible" is splendidly illustrated with a selection of images from film and television texts, and will a significant contribution to the areas of queer theory and film studies.

Contents:
List of Plates Contributors Acknowledgements Introduction: On Invisibility and Mortality 1. What is a Nice Lesbian Like You, Doing in a Film Like This? 2. The Meaning of Treut 3. Oranges are Not the Only Fruit: Reaching Audiences Other Texts Cannot Reach 4. Salmonberries: Consuming kd lang 5. Sex in the Summer of '88 6. `If You Don't Play, You Can't Win': Desert Hearts and the Lesbian Romance Film 7. Portrait of a Production 8. The Space Between: Daughters and Lovers in Anne Trister 9. On Not Being Lady Macbeth: Some (Troubled) Thoughts on Lesbian Spectatorship 10. Girl's Camp? The Politics of Parody 11. Looking at Pumping Iron II: The Women 12. Desire and Design - Ripley Undressed 13. Interview with Andrea Weiss and Greta Schiller

First published in 1993. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor and Francis, an informa company.

The National Lesbian and Gay Survey is a mass observation project set up in 1985 to record the experience of lesbians and gay men. Since that time, lesbian and gay volunteers have provided accounts on a wide range of issues pertinent to lesbian and gay life. "What a Lesbian Looks Like" draws on this material to provide an anthology of personal writings from lesbians nationwide. The volunteers come from all walks of life, from the unemployed to holders of high powered jobs, and represent all age groups. A ll aspects of lesbian experience are covered, including first sexual encounters, long term relationships, the difficulties of "coming out" and Clause 28 This book should be of interest to undergraduates, postgraduates and academics in the fields of women's studies, gender studies and cultural studies.

This book, first published in 2000, explores the intersections of race, gender and gay identities in writings by contemporary American lesbians of colour in order to show how this subject is sometimes ignored, sometimes brutalised and is very rarely able to survive on her own terms by constructing her own identity acts of cultural revision. The author places the lesbian of colour in the context of current identity theories showing the ever-present blind spots within current theoretical paradigms, she then reads a variety of writings by lesbians of colour describing the possibilities that exist for these subjects in textual and social realities. The author shows the varied communities that threaten the existence of this subject, as well as the limits that dictate the subject's ability to create her self. By bridging Judith Butler's Gender Trouble and Gloria Anzaldua's New Mestiza she describes how lesbians of colour can survive numerous sites of hostility by constructing a positive identity within her home community through revising cultural traditions and history. After considering the power of these acts of revision, the author calls for the empowered performance of the mestiza state - the state of contradiction wherein the lesbian of colour finds herself. This book is the first to analyse creative and theoretical works by African American, Asian American, Latina and Native American communities and writers through the lens of lesbian studies. Authors include recognised figures such as Audre Lorde, Ana Castillo and Paula Gunn Allen, as well as lesser known authors like Best Brant, Natashia Lopez and Willyce Kim. It provides a corrective to Butler's empowering but essentially white vision of performing identity, so that lesbians of colour can claim their identities and remain tied to their own cultural traditions. Ultimately, the author asks for a reconsideration of the value of identity studies that articulate monolithic identities and whose analyses perpetuate what they seek to disrupt.

This groundbreaking new book weaves personal portraits of lesbian and gay Southerners with interdisciplinary commentary about the impact of culture, race, and gender on the development of sexual identity. Growing Up Gay in the South is an important book that focuses on the distinct features of Southern life. It will enrich your understanding of the unique pressures faced by gay men and lesbians in this region--the pervasiveness of fundamental religious beliefs; the acceptance of racial, gender, and class community boundaries; the importance of family name and family honor; the unbending view of appropriate childhood behaviors; and the intensity of adolescent culture.You will learn what it is like to grow up gay in the South as these Southern lesbians and gay men candidly share their attitudes and feelings about themselves, their families, their schooling, and their search for a sexual identity. These insightful biographies illustrate the diversity of persons who identify themselves as gay or lesbian and depict the range of prejudice and problems they have encountered as sexual rebels. Not just a simple compilation of "coming out" stories, this landmark volume is a human testament to the process of social questioning in the search for psychological wholeness, examining the personal and social significance of acquiring a lesbian or gay identity within the Southern culture. Growing Up Gay in the South combines intriguing personal biographies with the extensive use of scholarship from lesbian and gay studies, Southern history and literature, and educational thought and practice. These features, together with an extensive bibliography and appendices of data, make this essential reading for educators and other professionals working with gay and lesbian youth.

This special issue of "Feminist Review" maps the field of contemporary lesbian politics and culture and highlights lesbians' special contribution to debates at the heart of feminism. This book should be of interest to wide general as well as students and lecturers in the fields of women's studies, history, cultural studies, sociology.

Taking lesbians in Singapore as a case study, this book explores the possibility of a modern gay identity in a postcolonial society, that is not dependent on Western queer norms. It looks at the core question of how this identity can be reconciled with local culture and how it relates to global modernities and dominant understandings of what it means to be queer. It engages with debates about globalization, post-colonialism and sexuality, while emphasising the specificity, diversity and interconnectedness of local lesbian sexualities.

A rich heritage that needs to be documented Beginning in 1869, when the study of homosexuality can be said to have begun with the establishment of sexology, this encyclopedia offers accounts of the most important international developments in an area that now occupies a critical place in many fields of academic endeavours. It covers a long history and a dynamic and ever changing present, while opening up the academic profession to new scholarship and new ways of thinking. A groundbreaking new approach While gays and lesbians have shared many aspects of life, their histories and cultures developed in profoundly different ways. To reflect this crucial fact, the encyclopedia has been prepared in two separate volumes assuring that both histories receive full, unbiased attention and that a broad range of human experience is covered. Written for and by a wide range of people Intended as a reference for students and scholars in all fields, as well as for the general public, the encyclopedia is written in user-friendly language. At the same time it maintains a high level of scholarship that incorporates both passion and objectivity. It is written by some of the most famous names in the field, as well as new scholars, whose research continues to advance gender studies into the future.

From Chastity Bono, daughter of Sonny and Cher, heroine of the gay community, comes the first comprehensive guide to the coming-out process, written from the perspective of both gays and lesbians and their parents.

Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold traces the evolution of the lesbian community in Buffalo, New York from the mid-1930s up to the early 1960s. Drawing upon the oral histories of 45 women, it is the first comprehensive history of a working-class lesbian community. These poignant and complex stories show how black and white working-class lesbians, although living under oppressive circumstances, nevertheless became powerful agents of historical change. Kennedy and Davis provide a unique insider's perspective on butch-fem culture and argue that the roots of gay and lesbian liberation are found specifically in the determined resistance of working-class lesbians. This 20th anniversary edition republishes the book for a new generation of readers. It includes a new preface in which the authors reflect on where the last 20 years have taken them, and reminisce about the process of creating Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold. For anyone interested in lesbian life during the 1950s, or in the dynamics of butch-fem culture, this study remains the one that set the highest standard for all oral histories and ethnographies of lesbian communities anywhere.

'My New Year's Eve Toast: to all the devils, lusts, passions, greeds, envies, loves, hates, strange desires, enemies ghostly and real, the army of memories, with which I do battle - may they never give me peace' - Patricia Highsmith (New Year's Eve, 1947). Made famous by the great success of her psychological thrillers, The Talented Mr Ripley and Strangers on a Train, Patricia Highsmith is renowned as one of the most influential and celebrated modern writers. However, there has never been a clear picture of the woman behind the books. The relationship between Highsmith's lesbianism, her fraught personality - by parts self-destructive and malicious - and her fiction, has been largely ignored by biographers in the past. As an openly homosexual writer, she wrote the seminal lesbian love story Carol for which she would be venerated, in modern times, as a radical exponent of the LGBTQ+ community. Alas, her status as an LGBTQ+ icon is undermined by her excessive cruelty towards and exploitation of her friends and many lovers. In this biography, Richard Bradford brings his sharp and incisive style to one of the greatest and most controversial writers of the twentieth century. He considers Highsmith's bestsellers in the context of her troubled personal life; her alcoholism, licentious sex life, racism, anti-Semitism, misogyny and abundant self-loathing.

Fixing Gender uses psychoanalysis to explore the theoretical implications for the gendering of the human subject that arise from the situation of lesbians raising children from birth. In the face of the powerful evidence of the ways gender operates, and in the deep structural ways the logic of gender perpetuates, both made visible by psychoanalysis, this book asks: Is gender always fixed? Can the system which is produced by, and which produces, gender be altered? Can gender be fixed? The work begins by sketching the implications of gender as elucidated by feminist thinkers in general and feminist psychoanalytic thinkers in particular. Moving to Freud's theory of the subject, the work examines the logic of the Oedipus complex, and from there it looks at what feminist object relations theorists have done with and to the logic of the Oedipus complex. The book then moves to the literature on lesbian family functioning; and finally the work ends with a radical interrogation into the possibilities enabled by paying attention to form, and highlighting its constitutive possibilities.

"A vivid analysis of how many Latin Americans have crafted alternative modes of understanding sexuality."
--"Hispanic American Historical Review"

From its sweaty beats to the pulsating music on the streets, Latin/o America is perceived in the United States as the land of heat, the toy store for Western sex. It is the territory of magical fantasy and of revolutionary threat, where topography is the travel guide of desire, directing imperial voyeurs to the exhibition of the flesh.

Jose Quiroga flips the stereotype upside down: he shows how Latin/o American lesbians and gay men have consistently eschewed notions of sexual identity for a politics of intervention. In Tropics of Desire, Quiroga reads hesitant Mexican poets as sex-positive voices, he questions how outing and identity politics can fall prey to the manipulations of the state, and explores how invisibility has been used as a tactical tool in opposition to the universal imperative to come out.

Drawing on diverse cultural examples such as the performance of bolero and salsa, film, literature, and correspondence, and influenced by masters like Roland Barthes, Walter Benjamin and a rich tradition of Latin American stylists, Quiroga argues for a politics that denies biological determinism and cannibalizes cultural stereotypes for the sake of political action.

What differences and similarities exist at work between lesbian women in various careers around the world? Lesbians and Work: The Advantages and Disadvantages of 'Comfortable Shoes' answers this crucial question, providing respected authorities presenting qualitative research methods to closely examine lesbian women's working lives. This insightful resource discusses the variability among lesbians in their experiences of and responses to workplace heteronormativity and cites the similarities among this population across geographical and national boundaries. Presented in their own words, these women's viewpoints reveal a wide spectrum of experiences-both advantages and disadvantages-of being a lesbian woman in the workplace. This book provides international perspectives on lesbians and work that can help readers making career choices to consider sexual orientation issues in choosing their career path. The book also can be used by human resource professionals as a resource to learn how to better manage sexual diversity in the workplace, provide effective training/development programs to address sexual prejudice, alter benefits requirements for employees, and avoid discrimination lawsuits. This book is a valuable resource for human resource managers, college professors in women's studies, lesbian studies, psychology and their students, and career counselors. The book was published as a special issue of the Journal of Lesbian Studies.

What differences and similarities exist at work between lesbian women in various careers around the world? Lesbians and Work: The Advantages and Disadvantages of 'Comfortable Shoes' answers this crucial question, providing respected authorities presenting qualitative research methods to closely examine lesbian women's working lives. This insightful resource discusses the variability among lesbians in their experiences of and responses to workplace heteronormativity and cites the similarities among this population across geographical and national boundaries. Presented in their own words, these women's viewpoints reveal a wide spectrum of experiences-both advantages and disadvantages-of being a lesbian woman in the workplace. This book provides international perspectives on lesbians and work that can help readers making career choices to consider sexual orientation issues in choosing their career path. The book also can be used by human resource professionals as a resource to learn how to better manage sexual diversity in the workplace, provide effective training/development programs to address sexual prejudice, alter benefits requirements for employees, and avoid discrimination lawsuits. This book is a valuable resource for human resource managers, college professors in women's studies, lesbian studies, psychology and their students, and career counselors. The book was published as a special issue of the Journal of Lesbian Studies.

Discover the courageous, vibrant similarities and differences of lesbians in East Asia How are same-sex relationships similar or different in the cultures of East Asia? Lesbians in East Asia: Diversity, Identities, and Resistance is a unique examination of research and vital issues involving lesbians and lesbianism in East Asia, using perspectives by academics and activists who typically are rarely published in English. Contributing experts from Hong Kong, mainland China, Japan, and Korea discuss a variety of topics, including solidarity and conflicts between lesbians and feminists, identities and identity politics, lesbian lives and families, and representation in mainstream culture. Asia, because of its inherent language and cultural differences from Western society, is a location of a vast unrealized fount of knowledge about same-sex relationships and the societies in which they interact. Lesbians in East Asia: Diversity, Identities, and Resistance begins to fill this gap in knowledge, going beyond East-West divisions by gathering in one volume studies in Asia lesbian/queer studies of both the West and Asia. The text's emphasis is on points of connection and cooperation across the cultures within Asia and between this region and other areas of the world. Diverse viewpoints and research on lesbians in China, Hong Kong, South Korea, and Japan are presented showing issues and concerns that may be differentand often are very similarto regions beyond those borders. Topics in Lesbians in East Asia: Diversity, Identities, and Resistance include: lesbian rights and feminism in Korea emotional damage suffered in family, work, and school contexts, including self-denial analysis of Internet exchanges in China, highlighting those feeling that they should maintain a low profile and others showing disdain toward the lesbian lifestyle gender inequality and discrimination and their effects on self-sufficiency the effects of expectations of marriage or remaining single on economics, legal standpoints, and in school ignorance and intolerance in Korean and Japanese societies identity politics conflicts of ideas between lesbians and feminists and much more! Lesbians in East Asia: Diversity, Identities, and Resistance is important, illuminating reading for academics and students in women's studies, gender studies, queer/sexuality studies, East Asian studies, and activists in feminist movements.

Discover the courageous, vibrant similarities and differences of lesbians in East Asia How are same-sex relationships similar or different in the cultures of East Asia? Lesbians in East Asia: Diversity, Identities, and Resistance is a unique examination of research and vital issues involving lesbians and lesbianism in East Asia, using perspectives by academics and activists who typically are rarely published in English. Contributing experts from Hong Kong, mainland China, Japan, and Korea discuss a variety of topics, including solidarity and conflicts between lesbians and feminists, identities and identity politics, lesbian lives and families, and representation in mainstream culture. Asia, because of its inherent language and cultural differences from Western society, is a location of a vast unrealized fount of knowledge about same-sex relationships and the societies in which they interact. Lesbians in East Asia: Diversity, Identities, and Resistance begins to fill this gap in knowledge, going beyond East-West divisions by gathering in one volume studies in Asia lesbian/queer studies of both the West and Asia. The text's emphasis is on points of connection and cooperation across the cultures within Asia and between this region and other areas of the world. Diverse viewpoints and research on lesbians in China, Hong Kong, South Korea, and Japan are presented showing issues and concerns that may be differentand often are very similarto regions beyond those borders. Topics in Lesbians in East Asia: Diversity, Identities, and Resistance include: lesbian rights and feminism in Korea emotional damage suffered in family, work, and school contexts, including self-denial analysis of Internet exchanges in China, highlighting those feeling that they should maintain a low profile and others showing disdain toward the lesbian lifestyle gender inequality and discrimination and their effects on self-sufficiency the effects of expectations of marriage or remaining single on economics, legal standpoints, and in school ignorance and intolerance in Korean and Japanese societies identity politics conflicts of ideas between lesbians and feminists and much more! Lesbians in East Asia: Diversity, Identities, and Resistance is important, illuminating reading for academics and students in women's studies, gender studies, queer/sexuality studies, East Asian studies, and activists in feminist movements.

What constitutes lesbian identity? The term homonormativity describes current prevailing idealized assumptions about lesbian identity. This concept, however, marginalizes subgroups within the greater lesbian population. Challenging Lesbian Norms: Intersex, Transgender, Intersectional, and Queer Perspectives dynamically confronts homonormativity in lesbian communities by presenting expert multidisciplinary discussion about what is a definable lesbian identity. This text sensitively explores difficult issues about gender policing and the viewpoints in lesbian communities that hold that transgender, intersectional, and queer individuals are considered to have 'false consciousness.' Consequences of lesbian normativity, both for lesbian communities and for marginalized groups are examined through literary criticism, lesbian, feminist, and queer theories, corporeal philosophy, film, television, cultural criticism, personal narratives, public health, and field research. The issue of the authenticity of lesbian identity causes rifts between some lesbian communities and the groups that strive to be included, yet are still marginalized. Challenging Lesbian Norms directly exposes practices and beliefs within lesbian communities that lead to the assumption of the prototypical lesbian. The book courageously reveals the similarities of lesbian normative stances with other views such as Christian conservative rhetoric, and reviews the health consequences of being marginalized within the lesbian communities. This text actively challenges the foundational notion within lesbian communities that a stable, immutable lesbian sex exists. Topics in Challenging Lesbian Norms include: human physiology, the flexibility of sexuality, and biologic determinism marginalization within lesbian communities transexualism and Lesbian Theory gender and sexual identity construction, partnering practices, and issues involving queer-identified youth demystification of the gay vibe from a femme queer woman's perspective lesbian feminism, gender policing, and casting butch, FTM, and transgendered subjectivities as false conciousness representations of lesbians in television movies Native-American two-spirit women teaching transgender, and its transformative effect identity modeling inclusion of transgender and intersex individuals within the lesbian communities transgender characters in film Latina lesbians and mental health Challenging Lesbian Norms is stimulating, eye-opening reading that is perfect for activists, educators and students in LGBT and women's studies, and public health professionals.

This indispensable book debunks common myths and misconceptions about the LGBTQ community while providing accurate information about LGBTQ people, their successes and shared history, and the current challenges they face in American society. This book provides readers with a clear and unbiased understanding of what it means to be LGBTQ in the United States in the 2020s. Beginning with the origins of LGBTQ identity and history, the book addresses the current status of the LGBTQ community; gender expectations and performance in American culture; transgender and non-binary identity; behaviors and outcomes associated with LGBTQ people; and, finally, diversity within the LGBTQ community. Utilizing authoritative sources and lay-friendly definitions and explanations, this work punctures myths, misconceptions, and incorrect assumptions about sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expectations and norms. In addition, it provides an illuminating record of the history of discrimination and mistreatment to which LGBTQ people have historically been subjected in the U.S. At a time when information itself is increasingly fraught in American political discourse, this book provides facts and context for the most important questions facing LGBTQ Americans, past, present, and future. Provides readers with factual, easy-to-understand information about sexuality, sexual orientation, and gender identity Confronts falsehoods, half-truths, and misconceptions about LGBTQ identity and life in the U.S. Bridges the divide between disparate sources of information about LGBTQ identity and rights in the U.S. Paints a broad narrative about sociopolitical change surrounding LGBTQ people and rights over time

The unseen issues of grief and discriminationlesbians becoming widows The death of a life partner poses unique challenges for lesbians. Lesbian Widows: Invisible Grief reveals the touching and very personal stories of twenty-five women, including the author, who were widowed at a young age and forced to create a new life without their life partners. The book follows the widows from the time the couple met, to the time when one of the partners died, and beyond, to show how the surviving partner coped with her loss. Many lesbians feel that the intimacy felt between two women in love goes deeper than what can be experienced by heterosexual partners. Lesbian Widows: Invisible Grief reveals themes common to all these women's experiences while offering practical advice about coping techniques and resources for support. The widows discuss their efforts to create funerals and memorial services, give their accounts of the overwhelming grief throughout the first two years, and explain the legal and financial discrimination they encountered. The author provides a chapter specifically for caring family and friends, another chapter for professionals working with this sensitive population, and a bibliography of helpful coping resources. Lesbian Widows: Invisible Grief explores the topics of: caregivers/caretaking death and dying grief journeys the similarities and differences between lesbian and married widows the lack of support services for lesbian widows the legal and financial discrimination against lesbian widows the effect of being in or out on grief recovery the issues faced by widows in starting new relationships spirituality gay marriage Lesbian Widows: Invisible Grief provides an insightful look into the grieving and recovery process, inspiring hope with the knowledge that others have survived this tragedy. This moving book is an essential resource for lesbians, friends and family of lesbians, mental health professionals, medical professionals, psychiatrists, LGBT health providers, feminist and lesbian organizations, and anyone involved with grief training programs such as hospice.

We have earned a certain place in each other's lives, and in the best of times we can rest on what we have made together. Lesbian Ex-Lovers: The Really Long-Term Relationships examines the need for the development of better understanding and more critical analysis of lesbian ex-lover relationships. This eye-opening look into the minds and hearts of women offers personal insight into the possibilities for and potential pitfalls of lesbian ex-lover relations. This book contains personal stories, fictional accounts, poetry, and theoretical analyses of the frequency and significance of ex-lovers at different stages in a relationship. Topics of interest in Lesbian Ex-Lovers include: the roles ex-lovers play in our lives ex-lovers as contexts for change and development how we continue to be influenced by ex-lovers letting go and moving on ex-lovers as current friends and family themes of betrayal and loss of faith reconstructing friendships and community the mystique of the ex-lover friend/family connections among lesbian ex-lovers Rather than totally scrap a relationship, we recycle itfrom lover to ex-lover to friend in a relatively short half-life. Lesbian Ex-Lovers is the only book in print that explores how a lesbian's ex-lovers impact her subsequent romances and lifestyle. This special collection adds a new dynamic to the current literature for and about the lesbian community. Lesbian Ex-Lovers offers advice, anecdotes, and interpretations from such authors, poetesses, and artists as: Michelle Gibson, PhDeducator and editor of Femme/Butch: New Considerations of the Way We Want to Go who says goodbye to her lover in a sad, passionate elegy Marny HallPsychotherapist, editor of the anthology Sexualities, and author of several books, including The Lavender Couch: A Consumer's Guide to Psychotherapy for Lesbians and Gay Menwho muses on the unique bonding between lesbians and their ex-lovers, lending a mystique that surrounds the lesbian lifestyle Alison Bechdelcreator of the comic strip Dykes to Watch Out Forwho presents a humorous comic strip thanking her former lovers for teaching her about herself Jane Futchernewspaper reporter and author of three novelswho uses a chapter in her novel to illustrate the tensions that can occur when ex-lovers choose to remain friends, especially when those bonds provoke jealousy in both current and ex-lovers Renny Christophereducator and award-winning poetesswho expresses her love, loss, and regret in three poems about her ex-lover and much more!

We have earned a certain place in each other's lives, and in the best of times we can rest on what we have made together. Lesbian Ex-Lovers: The Really Long-Term Relationships examines the need for the development of better understanding and more critical analysis of lesbian ex-lover relationships. This eye-opening look into the minds and hearts of women offers personal insight into the possibilities for and potential pitfalls of lesbian ex-lover relations. This book contains personal stories, fictional accounts, poetry, and theoretical analyses of the frequency and significance of ex-lovers at different stages in a relationship. Topics of interest in Lesbian Ex-Lovers include: the roles ex-lovers play in our lives ex-lovers as contexts for change and development how we continue to be influenced by ex-lovers letting go and moving on ex-lovers as current friends and family themes of betrayal and loss of faith reconstructing friendships and community the mystique of the ex-lover friend/family connections among lesbian ex-lovers Rather than totally scrap a relationship, we recycle itfrom lover to ex-lover to friend in a relatively short half-life. Lesbian Ex-Lovers is the only book in print that explores how a lesbian's ex-lovers impact her subsequent romances and lifestyle. This special collection adds a new dynamic to the current literature for and about the lesbian community. Lesbian Ex-Lovers offers advice, anecdotes, and interpretations from such authors, poetesses, and artists as: Michelle Gibson, PhDeducator and editor of Femme/Butch: New Considerations of the Way We Want to Go who says goodbye to her lover in a sad, passionate elegy Marny HallPsychotherapist, editor of the anthology Sexualities, and author of several books, including The Lavender Couch: A Consumer's Guide to Psychotherapy for Lesbians and Gay Menwho muses on the unique bonding between lesbians and their ex-lovers, lending a mystique that surrounds the lesbian lifestyle Alison Bechdelcreator of the comic strip Dykes to Watch Out Forwho presents a humorous comic strip thanking her former lovers for teaching her about herself Jane Futchernewspaper reporter and author of three novelswho uses a chapter in her novel to illustrate the tensions that can occur when ex-lovers choose to remain friends, especially when those bonds provoke jealousy in both current and ex-lovers Renny Christophereducator and award-winning poetesswho expresses her love, loss, and regret in three poems about her ex-lover and much more!