Until the past 20 years, most lesbians have lived in social isolation from one another, knowing only slightly what the richness and variability of our experiences may be (Adleman, 1986; Sang, Warshaw, & Smith, 1991). The available social constructions of lesbian sexuality have often arisen from discourses of the dominant culture, in which lesbians were […]

In the initial period of White second-wave feminism, some lesbians reacted against prior negative images in a manner that has had the unin­tended consequences of referring back to the lesbian/woman as impotent trope. This seems to underscore my contention that the current discourse allows women to be good only when they are nonsexual, regardless of […]

At times, however, it has not been enough for the images of the heterosexist narrative to denigrate lesbian sexuality as impotent in order to convey to women that their sexual place was one of silence, receptivity, and response to the desires of men. When it has been necessary in the social discourse to convey the […]

The story is told that when the British legislators of Queen Victoria’s era were preparing laws to criminalize sexual behaviors between adults of the same gender, they had originally planned to outlaw both male and female homosexuality. However, or so goes the story, when the Queen was apprised of these plans, she was shocked and […]

LAURA S. BROWN Although the phenomenology of sexuality is experienced in the body, the ways we label and define that sexual experience are heavily socially defined. What is shameful, what is acceptable, how one describes one’s sexual identity to self and others, are all derived from the social discourse in general, and the discourse on […]

We believe that a changed consciousness will occur when the current constructions of sexuality are recognized as relatively arbitrary and derived from oppression, an oppression that has been normalized and made invis­ible. An important basis for a changed consciousness is to recognize the meaning and significance of patterns that are based on status and control. […]

Another profound effect of the social construction of sexuality and beauty is a fragmented sense of identity for both girls and women. Frag­mentation occurs in part because society encourages women to be desirable according to certain beauty ideals while simultaneously encouraging them to deny their sexuality. Women are expected to be sexually attractive while at […]

The fundamental dilemma conveyed to adolescent girls is that if they develop their own autonomy and agency—and thus refuse to participate in the quest for beauty—they may risk their social acceptance and even­tually jeopardize future social roles as wives and mothers. In general, these roles depend on the affirmation of a man who finds them […]

To the extent that beauty ideals are internalized, women themselves are likely to see beauty work as a personal preference and to feel badly about themselves when they do not quite meet the standard. Women reg­ularly report an ideal body image that is thinner, lighter, taller, more mus­cular, with larger breasts and longer hair compared […]

Racism also is evident in beauty ideals and body politics; beauty stan­dards tend to demand “whiteness” (Trepagnier, 1994). Ethnic women have had difficulty approximating the Caucasian ideal with differences in skin color, eye color, hair, facial features, and body shape (Lakoff &. Scherr, 1984). Although these beauty imperatives punish all women, they espe­cially hurt marginalized […]