The Lesbian Menace: Ideology, Identity and the Representation of Lesbian Life

Author:   Sherrie A. Inness
Publisher:   University of Massachusetts Press
Edition:   New ed.
ISBN:  

9781558490918


Pages:   232
Publication Date:   31 July 1997
Format:   Paperback
Availability:   Out of stock   Availability explained
The supplier is temporarily out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you on backorder and shipped when it becomes available.

Our Price $65.87 Quantity:  
Add to Cart

Share |

The Lesbian Menace: Ideology, Identity and the Representation of Lesbian Life


Add your own review!

Overview

"Electroshock. Hysterectomy. Lobotomy. These are only three of the many ""cures"" to which lesbians have been subjected in this century. How does a society develop such a profound aversion to a particular minority? In what ways do images in the popular media perpetuate cultural stereotypes about lesbians, and to what extent have lesbians been able to subvert and revise those images? This book addresses these and other questions by examining how lesbianism has been represented in American popular culture in the twentieth century and how conflicting ideologies have shaped lesbian experiences and identity. In the first section, ""Inventing the Lesbian,"" Sherrie A. Inness explores depictions of lesbians in popular texts aimed primarily at heterosexual consumers. She moves from novels of the 1920s to books about life at women's colleges and boarding schools, to such contemporary women's magazines as Cosmopolitan, Glamour, and Vogue. In the next section, ""Forms of Resistance,"" Inness probes the ways in which lesbians have refashioned texts intended for a heterosexual audience or created their own narratives. One chapter shows how lesbian readers have reinterpreted the Nancy Drew mysteries, looking at them from a distinctly ""queer"" perspective. Another chapter addresses the changing portrayal of lesbians in children's books over the past two decades. The last section, ""Writing in the Margins,"" scrutinizes the extent to which lesbians, themselves a marginalized group, have created a society that relegates some of its own members to the outskirts. Topics include the geographic politics of lesbianism, the complex issue of ""passing,"" and the meaning of butch identity in twentieth-century lesbian culture."

Full Product Details

Author:   Sherrie A. Inness
Publisher:   University of Massachusetts Press
Imprint:   University of Massachusetts Press
Edition:   New ed.
Dimensions:   Width: 15.30cm , Height: 2.10cm , Length: 23.00cm
Weight:   0.390kg
ISBN:  

9781558490918


ISBN 10:   1558490914
Pages:   232
Publication Date:   31 July 1997
Audience:   College/higher education ,  General/trade ,  Undergraduate ,  General
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Out of stock   Availability explained
The supplier is temporarily out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you on backorder and shipped when it becomes available.

Table of Contents

Reviews

Author Information

Sherrie A. Inness is assistant professor of English at Miami University and author of Intimate Communities: Representation and Social Transformation in Women's College Fiction, 1895-1910.

Tab Content 6

Author Website:  

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

No review item found!

Add your own review!

Countries Available

All regions
Latest Reading Guide

Aorrng

Shopping Cart
Your cart is empty
Shopping cart
Mailing List