I intend to review this book myself. However, I have not done so yet. I am currently reading "
From Liberty to Magnolia," which is the autobiography of Janice Ellis and details her struggles both as a black girl growing up in the racist Southern United States prior to the Civil Rights Movement and her work within both the Civil Rights and Feminist movements.
A lot of people don't remember or don't realize just how difficult it was for gay people in times past. The 1990s was when I first started seeing acceptance by the general public and the idea that homosexuality was not deviant or a form of mental illness began to take hold.
As both women and homosexuals, lesbians have faced extreme backlash. There is an unspoken expectation that women will become wives and mothers, the organizers of the husband's household and the producers of the next generation. Like all women, lesbians are objectified in pornographic scenarios. Stereotypes still exist that all lesbian couples consist of a butch "husband" and a femme "wife". Lesbians still struggle with not being seen as people.
I feel very passionate about the subject matter in this book. Although I am not a lesbian myself, I am a feminist and an ally. Lesbians continue to be scapegoated today in many of the same ways they were scapegoated in the past.
Thank you for this well-written review of an important scholarly work which is likely to be overlooked by the general public.
This was my comment on the
Book of the Day's Facebook page:
A lot of people don't remember that homosexuality was once widely considered to be "deviant" and a form of mental illness. Lesbians faced double the backlash from both homophobia and sexism.
Women are expected to bear and care for the next generation. Although a lesbian couple is certainly capable of raising a child, the expectation of the general population is that girls will grow up to find and marry their Prince Charming, have 2.5 children with him, and will manage the household. Lesbians receive backlash for disrupting that stereotype.
Further, lesbians are objectified by male pornography, and there continues to be a pervasive idea that all lesbian couples have a butch "husband" and a femme "wife." Books like this are very necessary for breaking down those stereotypes.
Note: some brain trust actually commented that he was "not a fan of lesbians." I refrained from getting into a flame war. I wanted to tell him that I'm not a fan of closed-minded, homophobic bigots.
This was my comment on
the book club president's Linked In page:
Although homosexuals overall face less backlash in Western society than they did in times past, lesbians face not only homophobic but sexist backlash.
Lesbians are objectified in pornography which is made for men. They are stereotyped by the belief that a lesbian couple is supposed to have a butch "husband" and a femme "wife." Further, although a lesbian couple is perfectly capable of raising a child, lesbians defy the expectation that little girls are supposed to grow up, find their Prince Charming, have 2.5 children with him, and manage the family's household in the suburbs. "Are you sure you just haven't met the right man yet" is a phrase that many lesbians are still subjected to.
I'm always pleased when books like this one are featured. It has historical value and also addresses a problem which continues to plague society, although it is less prevalent and more covert than it was in the past.
~Sly Has Spoken~
Image copyright juliahenze @123rf.com
