Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers (70 page)

12
. J. Lee Lehman, “Lust is Just a Four-Letter Word,”
Heresies: The Sex Issue
(1981), 12:80–81.

13
. Jo Ann Loulan, “Good News About Lesbian Sex,”
Out/Look: National Lesbian and Gay Quarterly,
Spring 1988, pp. 90–93. Statistics on lesbians’ similarity to heterosexual women in Blumstein and Schwartz pp. 272–73. Survey among Boulder, Col. lesbians,
On Our Backs
(Summer 1987), 4(1): 12–13.

14
. Samois, ed.,
What Color Is Your Handkerchief: A Lesbian S/M Sexuality Reader
(Berkeley: Samois, 1979). Personal interview with Kathy Andrew of Stormy Leather, San Francisco, August 10, 1987.

15
. For discussion of a brief 1970s attempt to open a gay bathhouse to lesbians see Arthur Bell, “The Bath Life Gets Respectability,” in Karla Jay and Allen Young, eds.,
Lavender Culture
(New York: Harcourt Brace, 1978). Rita Mae Brown, “Queen for a Day: A Stranger in Paradise,”
The Real Paper,
October 8, 1975.

16
. Personal interview with JoAnna, age 38, San Francisco, September 12, 1987. Personal interview with Clare, age 35, San Francisco, August 5, 1987.

17
. Personal interview with Rainbeau, age 29, San Francisco, August 7, 1987. Tatoo Blue, interview in
On Our Backs
(Spring 1986), 2(4): 22–26 +.

18
. Personal interview with Susie Bright, San Francisco, August 11, 1987. For fantasy fiction that reflects the influence of gay male sexual patterns see, for example, Vera Goeglein, “Sunday Strangers,”
On Our Backs,
Winter 1986, p. 21 +; Leatherwing Bat, “Out for the Evening,”
Bad Attitude,
Summer 1987, pp. 20–23. A melange of sexual adventurism and traditional female values of concern, gentleness, and romance similar to that prevalent in the porno magazines may be found in recent pornographic novels written by and for lesbians. See, for example, the volumes produced by the Denver-based Lace Publications in the mid-1980s, such as Artemis Oakgrove’s trilogy
The Raging Peace
(1984),
Dreams of Vengeance
(1985), and
Throne of Council
(1986), as well as Lady Winston, ed.,
The Leading Edge: An Anthology of Lesbian Sexual Fiction
(Denver: Lace Publications, 1987).

19
. Mary Riege Laner, “‘Personals’ Advertisements of Lesbian Women,”
Journal of Homosexuality
(Fall 1978), 4(1):41–61. Sex ads quoted are from
On Our Backs
(Spring 1986), 2(4).

20
. Kinsey-statistics cited in
The Report of the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography
(Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, September 1970). Julia R. Heiman, “The Physiology of Erotica: Women’s Sexual Arousal,”
Psychology Today
(November 1975), 8: 90–94.

21
. Personal interview with Kathy, age 36, San Francisco, August 10, 1987.

22
. For descriptions of the procedures of lesbian s/m see Samois, ed.,
Coming to Power: Writings and Graphics on Lesbian S/M,
2d rev. ed. (Boston: Alyson, 1982) and Pat Califia,
Sapphistry: The Book of Lesbian Sexuality,
2d rev. ed. (Tallahassee, Fla.: Naiad Press, 1983). Karen Winter, “Lesbian Limerick,”
Commmon Lives/ Lesbian Lives
(Summer 1986), 20: 85.

23
. “Samois: Who We Are,” in
Coming to Power,
p. 288. Gayle Rubin quoted in Carole S. Vance, “Gender Systems, Ideology, and Sex Research,” in Ann Sitow et al. eds.,
Powers of Desire
(New York: Monthly Review Press, 1983), p. 372. Sarah Zoftig, “Coming Out,” in
Coming to Power,
pp. 86–94. I am grateful to Gayle Rubin for sharing with me the history of the lesbian s/m movement, in a personal interview, San Francisco, August 14, 1987. For a concise discussion of the lesbian s/m movement in San Francisco, which has been a leader in the lesbian sexual revolution, see Pat Califia, “A Personal View of the History of the Lesbian S/M Community and Movement in San Francisco,” in Samois,
Coming to Power,
pp. 243–81.

24
. Personal interview with Corona, age 41, San Francisco, August 17, 1987. Gayle Rubin, “The Leather Menace,”
Body Politic
(April 1982), 82: 33–35

25
. For lesbian therapists as proponents of s/m see, e.g., Carol Stack, “Lesbian Sexual Problems,”
Bad Attitudes
(Spring 1985), 1(4): 20–21; Nichols; River Malcolm, “Passing Through,”
Thursday’s Child
(San Diego), September 1979.

26
. Personal interview with Karen, age 37, and LuAnna, age 35, Austin, Tex., April 1, 1988.

27
. Personal interview with Karyn, age 32, Fresno, December 12, 1987. Personal interview with Dr. Sharon Young, San Diego, July 31, 1987.

28
. The poignant essays of Joan Nestle, which created cultural heroes out of 1950s butches and femmes, were central to the reexamination of butch/ femme roles for the 1980s. See, for example, “Butch/Fern Relationships: Sexual Courage in the 1950s,”
Heresies: The Sex Issue
(1981), 12(3): 21–24. Several of the essays are reprinted in Joan Nestle,
A Restricted Country
(Ithaca, N.Y.: Firebrand Books, 1987). Donna Allegra, “Butch on the Streets,” in
Fight Back: Feminist Resistence to Male Violence
(Cleis Press, 1981), pp. 44–45. Paula Mariedaughter, “Too Butch for Straights, Too Femme for Dykes,”
Lesbian Ethics,
(Spring 1986), 2(1): 96–100. Norma, “Butch/Fern Relationships Revisited,”
Hartford Women’s Center Newletter
(Dec. 1982), 5(12): 1–2.

29
. Joan Nestle, “The Fern Question,” in Carol Vance, ed.,
Pleasure and Danger: Exploring Female Sexuality
(Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1984), pp. 232–41. Personal interview with Neva, age 46, Lincoln, Neb., October 12, 1988.
Random House Dictionary of the English Language
(New York: Random House, 1966).

30
. Jean Lynch and Mary Ellen Reilly, “Role Relationships: Lesbian Perspectives,”
Journal of Homosexuality
(Winter 1985/86), 12(2): 53–69. See also the attempt by Esther Newton and Shirley Walton to refine our understanding of concepts such as butch/femme through a more precise sexual vocabulary that distinguishes between sexual preference, erotic identity, erotic role, and erotic acts: “The Misunderstanding: Towards a More Precise Sexual Vocabulary,” in Vance, pp. 242–50.

31
. Personal interview with Sally, age 29, San Francisco, September 12, 1987.

32
. Ellen Frye,
Look Under the Hawthorne
(Norwich, Vt.: New Victoria, 1987), p. 108. Lee Lynch,
The Swashbuckler
(Tallahassee, Fla.: Naiad Press, 1985), p.
66.
Bonnie Zimmerman, in
The Safe Sea of Women: Lesbian Fiction, 1969–1989
(Boston: Beacon Press, 1990), pp. 113–14, discusses the metamorphosis if the butch figure.

33
. Amber Hollibaugh and Cherrie Moraga, “What We’re Rollin’ Around in Bed With: Sexual Silences in Feminism,” (1981; reprinted in Ann Snitow et al., eds.,
Powers of Desire: The Politics of Sexuality
(New York: Monthly Review Press, 1983), pp. 396, 400.

34
. Hollibaughand Moraga, p. 398.

35
. Jess Wells, “The Dress,”
Common Lives/ Lesbian Lives,
(Summer 1983), 8.

36
. Personal interview with Phyllis Lyon, San Francisco, August 14, 1987. Karen Cameron in “Femme and Butch: A Readers’ Forum,”
Lesbian Ethics
(Fall 1986), 2(2): 96–99. Norma, “Butch/Fern Relationships Revisited.”

37
. Personal interview with Susie Bright, cited above.

38
. Michael Bronski,
Culture Clash: The Making of Gay Sensibility
(Boston: South End Press, 1984), p. 214.

11. From Tower of Babel to Community

1
.  
New York Times,
August 18, 1984, p. 2.

2
.  Jean Swallow,
Leave a Light On for Me
(San Francisco: Spinters/Aunt Lute, 1986).

3
.  K. D. Lang quoted in Burt Kearns, “Canadian Cowpie,”
Spin Magazine,
September 1988.

4
.  Lori Ryan, “The Razor Edge of Truth—A Conversation with Robin Tyler,”
Visibilities,
November/ December 1988, pp. 8–11.

5
.  Personal interview with Frederika, age 37, Kansas City, Mo., October 14, 1988.

6
.  Personal interview with Lois, age 48, Omaha, Neb., October 11, 1988.

7
.  Personal interview with Nora, age 36, San Diego, July 30, 1987.

8
.  “Politics of accommodation” phrase in paper by Marilee Lindemann, panel: “Changing (Re)Presentations of Lesbian Sexuality in the Lesbian Novel Since 1945,” Berkshire History of Women Conference, Wellesley College, Mass., June 22, 1987. Personal interview with Sandy, age 39, Fresno, May 7, 1987.

9
.  Personal interview with Nicole Shapiro, founder of Bay Area Career Women, San Francisco, August 12, 1988.

10
. Personal interview with Phyllis Lyon, San Francisco, August 14, 1987.  List of luxuries culled from Georgia Cotrell,
Shoulders
(Ithaca, N.Y.: Firebrand Books, 1987); Ann Allen Shockley,
Say Jesus and Come to Me
(1982; reprint, Tallahassee, Fla: Naiad Press, 1987); Mary Wings,
She Came Too Late
(Freedom, Calif: Crossing Press, 1987); Artemis Oakgrove,
The Raging Peace
(Denver: Lace Publications, 1984).

11
. Personal interview with Matile, San Francisco, September 26, 1988.

12
. Personal interview with Kasey, age 42, Austin, Tex., April 1, 1988.

13
. Noretta Koertge,
Valley of the Amazons
(New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1984), p. 58. See also Bonnie Zimmerman’s discussion of this work in
The Safe Sea of Women: Lesbian Fiction, 1969–1989
(Boston: Beacon Press, 1990), p. 136.

14
. Maureen Brady,
Folly
(Trumansburg, N.Y.: Crossing Press, 1982); Barbara Wilson,
Ambitious Women
(Seattle: Seal Press, 1982); Chris South,
Clenched Fists, Burning Crosses
(Trumansburg, N.Y.: Crossing Press, 1984).

15
. Paula Culbreth, “A Personal Reading of
This Bridge Called My Back,” Sinister Wisdom
(1982), 21:15–28. Barbara Epstein, “Direct Action: Lesbians Lead the Movement,”
Out/Look
(Summer 1988), 1(2):27–32.

16
. Ellen Herman, “Getting to Serenity: Do Addiction Programs Sap Our Political Vitality?”
Out/Look
(Summer 1988), 1(2): 10–21. Personal interview with Nancy, age 38, San Diego, July 30, 1987. Peg Byron, “Say It Ain’t So: Is the Lesbian Sex Revolt Dead?,”
On Our Backs,
Winter 1986, pp. 10–11.  Eleanor Lord, “The Heart Connection,” unpublished study of 100 lesbians, Berkshire County, 1986. Panel on lesbian lifestyles, Sociology of Women in Contemporary Society class, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, October 12,  1988.