Title:
The lesbian menace : ideology, identity, and the representation of lesbian life
JLCTITLE245:
Sherrie A. Inness.
Personal Author:
Publication Information:
Amherst, Mass. : University of Massachusetts Press, ©1997.
Physical Description:
xi, 256 pages ; 24 cm
ISBN:
9781558490901
9781558490918
Abstract:
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.
Reading Level:
1450 L Lexile
Bibliography Note:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 225-245) and index.
Subject Term:
Geographic Term:
Contents:
1. Who's Afraid of Stephen Gordon?: The Lesbian in the United States Popular Imagination of the 1920s -- 2. "Malevolent, neurotic, and tainted": The Lesbian Menace in Popular Women's College Fiction -- 3. "They're here, they're flouncy, don't worry about them": Depicting Lesbians in Popular Women's Magazines, 1965-1995 -- 4. Is Nancy Drew Queer?: Popular Reading Strategies for the Lesbian Reader -- 5. "Candy-coated cyanide": Children's Books and Lesbian Images -- 6. Lost in Space: Queer Geography and the Politics of Location -- 7. To Pass or Not to Pass: Thoughts on Passing and Lesbian Identities -- 8. GI Joes in Barbie Land: Recontextualizing the Meaning of Butch in Twentieth-Century Lesbian Culture / Sherrie A. Inness and Michele E. Lloyd.