This thesis examines the menopausal experiences of a non-clinical sample of lesbians living in Australia. Research on menopause to date has largely been conducted from a medicalised and heterosexual perspective: thus lesbians’ experiences remain unknown and invisible. Using a qualitative feminist multiple method research methodology combining content analysis and questionnaire/interview research, two hundred questionnaires were posted upon request to self-identified lesbians living in every Australian state and territory. Follow up in-depth interviews were conducted with twenty lesbians. Responses were grouped into four major themes: body image, sex and sexuality, hormone replacement therapy and health services and homophobia. The findings show that lesbians at menopause face some different and additional issues from those experienced by heterosexual midlife women. For many of the study participants, commonly discussed concerns at menopause such as weight gain and other physical signs of ageing, decreased fertility, lack of libido, sexual difficulties and hormone replacement therapy were of little relevance and importance. Lesbians in this study frequently raised other issues such as the universal assumption of heterosexuality and homophobia experienced when interacting with health professionals, which led to less than satisfactory health care and reinforced feelings of invisibility. In the Conclusion I argue that the study participants' views and experiences challenge negative, stereotypical views of both lesbians and menopause. The data thus add a new dimension to the presently narrow, heterosexist and medicalised view of women at midlife and contribute new knowledge to the body of literature on menopause. This thesis is a first important step in recording the experiences of lesbians regarding menopause in Australia. I include recommendations for further research in the area of lesbian health and improved practice, and discuss old and new obstacles lesbians face in a heteropatriarchal society in which lesbians continue to be invisible.

The primary purpose of this research was to examine a sample of sixteen lesbian women regarding the barriers to lesbian health-care. From this information several interpretive findings regarding lesbian health-care are made. Data were gathered via indepth interviews with each individual lesbian. The data suggest that most lesbian women do not reveal their sexual orientation to their primary-care physician for fear of reprisal. Most of the women interviewed do feel they receive adequate health-care from their physician. The women who participated in this project did so confidentially and were assigned pseudonyms. They were asked questions on a variety of topics, which included demographics, physical health-care, mental health-care, general health, dental care, social and political issues, and homophobia. It was assumed that participants from smaller, more rural areas would face more barriers to health-care than participants from larger cities. The data gathered indicate that only three of the participants had, in fact, informed their primary-care physicians of their sexual orientation. Erving Goffman's stigma and social identity theory, feminist standpoint theory, lesbian feminist theory, and feminist theory provided the theoretical framework utilized in the analysis of barriers to lesbian health care. Combining these three theories allows a discussion of how stigma and homophobia combine to make lesbians invisible in the medical community. Health-care systems, like other major institutions, are structured to support traditional society.

Japanese GLBT appear to have always held a place in national media. From the the Edo period to the modern age, the Japanese people have constantly been exposed to different types of GLBT society, whether or not they realized it at the time. In this paper, I explore the representations of lesbians and transgenders during the Edo period (1600 to 1860) and in the modern and post-modern era (1868 to the present). I look at ukiyo-e from the Edo period and then Western-style theatre and newspaper stories from the modern era to grasp how lesbians have been portrayed through the years. Then I look at onnagata of Kabuki and modern-day new half in order to show how the concept of a transgender has changed over time in the media. Just how has the Japanese perspective changed after the mass introduction of Western culture and ideals during the Meiji period?

Using a grounded theory approach (Strauss & Corbin, 1990), I explored the strategies that eight lesbians used in dealing with heterosexism, or the belief that a heterosexual orientation is superior to a homosexual or bisexual one. Participants were between the ages of 25 and 40, and had reached a comfortable acceptance of their sexual identity. In a l l cases, the women's ways of responding to and counteracting heterosexism appear to have become more effective over time. Collaboration with the women enabled me to present three models of "lesbian transformations in dealing with heterosexism," each of which builds on features from the preceding one. In addition, the information offered by participants has illuminated the nature of heterosexism, its impact on lesbians' lives, and some of the factors that make the experience of heterosexist oppression different for individual lesbians. Finally, the interview material helped me to draw implications with regard to counselling lesbians and training counsellors.

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Universiteit van Amsterdam, 2004. / Title from ebook title screen (viewed Mar. 15, 2004). Includes bibliographical references.

Project (Ed.S.)--James Madison University, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--Western Washington University, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 40-44). Also issued online.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Deakin University, 2003. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on Dec. 15, 2005). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 202-225).

Thesis (Honors)--Ohio State University, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages: contains 24 p. Includes bibliographical references (p. 22-24). Available online via Ohio State University's Knowledge Bank.