| Title: |
Space, Agency, and the Transfiguring of Lesbian/Queer Desire |
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Author |
Corie Hammers. |
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Impressum |
Journal of Homosexuality, 56 (2009) 6 (aug), p. 757-785.
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Summary |
In this study, the author uses ethnographic and interview data from Pussy Palace, a lesbian/queer bathhouse in Toronto, Canada, to examine the ways in which the bathhouse space impacted participants' sexuality, behaviors, and notions of self. The Toronto Women's Bathhouse Committee (TWBC), an explicitly feminist and queer organization, is responsible for putting on Pussy Palace events and in creating an atmosphere that is simultaneously sexual and safe. Findings indicate elements of both spatial praxis and sexual agency, wherein individuals expressed being able to 'take risks,' 'find their sexuality,' and 'discover who they are' in a safe space, where nonnormative bodies and sexualities are to be celebrated. Although participants expressed feeling 'liberated,' many also described feeling anxious, awkward, and insecure. Within a sexual space where bodies are exposed and highly salient, these anxieties worked to inhibit and curtail bodily expression. The author concludes by discussing the significance of spaces like Pussy Palace for lesbian/queer individuals when it comes to sexual expression and the need for further research when it comes to examining lesbian/queer sexualities and public sexual cultures. [ Copies are available at http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/haworth-journals.asp ] |
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Location |
Homodok: ts.
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| Title: |
The Politics of Lesbian Specificity |
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Author |
Agnes Bolsø. |
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Impressum |
Journal of Homosexuality, 54 (2008) 1/2 , p. 49-67.
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Summary |
The notion of lesbian specificity must be understood in the context of heteronormative society. Heterosexual norms affect negotiations of power and sexual desire in lesbian relationships. But this investigation into woman-to-woman sexual practices also views the possibility of lesbian specificity as potentially subversive, in the sense that it poses fundamental questions about conventional discourses on sexuality and eroticism. [ Copies are available at http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/haworth-journals.asp ] |
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Location |
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| Title: |
The Relationship Between Anxiety and Sexual Functioning in Lesbians and Heterosexual Women |
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Author |
Tera E. Beaber, Paul D. Werner. |
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Impressum |
Journal of Homosexuality, 56 (2009) 5 (july), p. 639-654.
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Summary |
The association between anxiety and sexual functioning was studied in relation to women's sexual orientation. Participants in lesbian relationships (n = 42) and heterosexual relationships (n = 78) completed the Multidimensional Anxiety Questionnaire and Female Sexual Function Index. No difference was found between groups on the anxiety measure, but lesbians scored higher than heterosexuals on sexual functioning scales for arousal and orgasm. Intercorrelations among sexual functioning scales were dissimilar for lesbians and heterosexuals. Among heterosexuals, anxiety was negatively correlated with overall sexual functioning, lubrication, orgasm, and pain, but among lesbians anxiety was uncorrelated with all sexual functioning variables. [ Copies are available at http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/haworth-journals.asp ] |
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Location |
Homodok: ts.
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