In 2009, 713,220 new cases of cancer were diagnosed for women in the United States with more than a quarter million deaths. African American women and lesbians exhibit behavioral risk factors as well as diminished access to and utilization of breast cancer screening that reduces opportunities for early detection. This secondary analysis of a national convenience-based study examined screening compliance among 647 African American lesbian and bisexual women. Barriers to accessing screening represented the theoretical framework for this study. Bivariate chi square analysis was used to assess the association between independent variables: sociodemographic characteristics; participation in wellness activities; sexual orientation/gender identity; and experience with health care providers and the three dependent breast cancer screening compliance variables: breast self-examination (BSE), clinical breast examination (CBE), and mammography screening. Statistically significant associations between dependent and independent variables at the .05 level were further analyzed with logistic regression. Results of the ten regression models found that BSE was predicted by socioeconomic characteristics and participation in wellness activities. Compliance with CBE guidelines was predicted by sociodemographic characteristics, wellness activities, sexual orientation/gender identity and provider experience. Sociodemographic variables and provider experience also predicted mammography screening. Overall compliance was predicted by sociodemographic characteristics, namely insurance status. The social change implications of this research are an improved understanding of African American lesbian and bisexual women's screening behavior and guidance toward interventions that can improve and breast cancer screening compliance with guidelines.

The traditional notion of the Male Gaze, first conceptualized by feminist film critic Laura Mulvey in 1975, focused on the objectification of women through depictions structured to gratify a male heterosexual perspective. In this chapter we will revisit this concept and investigate how that gaze may have shifted away from a primarily heterosexual perspective to a socially dominant male perspective (maleness here referring to dominance rather than specific gender, just as “whiteness” might refer to privilege rather than race). With gender roles in an increasingly global and mobile society becoming more fluid and complex, opening up visibility to LGBTQ communities, along with a substantial post-feminist backlash, we will consider how the male gaze is shifting and how subsets of objectifying “gazes” might overlap. I will explore whether the traditional heterosexual male gaze has shifted due to power backlashes and other developments. New gaze developments may take the form of the “bromance” as well as athletics and advertising. Included in an investigation of this “dominant gaze” will be an exploration into the possibility of a lesbian and transgender gaze – does each subculture have the propensity to fall into this pattern of objectified looking and if so, where is the evidence and what are the implications? That evidence will be explored through photography, film, dance, and other visual media as this subject is expanded through the emergence of variant sexualities and gender identities.

From the dumpster-diving spiky haired dykes of the 1990s to the land-loving political lesbian folkies of the 1970s, queer women in Portland, OR have a long history of non-consumer-driven culture making, separatism and guitars. Remember Who You Are: The Story of Portland Dykecore explores the roots of the all-ages dyke-made music scene that exploded between 1990 and 2000.

Out of the politically charged atmosphere of the 1960s and 1970s emerged a migration to "the land" and communes, which popularly became known as the back-to-the-land movement. This migration occurred throughout the United States, as well as many other countries, and included clusters of land based communities in southern Oregon. Within these clusters, lesbian feminist women created lesbian separatist lands and communes. These women were well educated, and politically active in movements such as the New Left, Civil Rights, Women's Liberation, and Gay Liberation. These lands or communes functioned together as a community network that developed and commodified lesbian art, which impacted and influenced the development of lesbian art over time. In Oregon, as of 2011, at least ten known lesbian lands still existed. This cluster belonged to an extended community that stretched down into California and over into New Mexico. Over a two-year period I collected, transcribed, and studied the oral histories of eight of the elders of the women's land movement in southern Oregon. The purpose of this study is to better understand this movement of lesbian feminists the development of lesbian art and culture over time. The lesbian feminist back-to-the-land movement made the conscious choice to disengage from the patriarchal mainstream rather than continue participation in their own oppression. They viewed lesbian feminist separatism and the creation of safe lesbian land as a way to reconstruct their self-identity and influence the continued self-perception of lesbians the world over through art and literature. Based on these oral histories and archival materials, it became evident that the women within the lesbian land communities developed and maintained land on which they could re-examine who they were, re-educate themselves and each other, learn practical skills, construct new identities, create art, and broadcast their creations out into the world through organized media networks. One of the key features of this construction of lesbian land culture was the desire to share--share power, share money, share responsibilities, share knowledge, share land, share lovers. On the one hand, ownership was eschewed as elitist and patriarchal, while simultaneously important to the continuity of women's land and its protection from what could be described as patriarchal profit motives. They developed infrastructure, altered language, created a spiritual practice, and made art. The material and artistic culture was created in concert with modes or mediums of transmission, casting it out to a much wider audience. These creative activities influenced and impacted women beyond Oregon, beyond the lesbian land communities, and beyond the 1970s. By examining the lesbian land movement in southern Oregon, we can better understand the impact on LGBTQ culture, and the continued albeit unintentional impact on the questioning of the gender binary and sexual identity. In other words, the feminist and queer questioning of identity construction and symbolic language began here.

This dissertation traces lesbian portrayals on network television from the 1960s through the 1990s. A focus on episodic dramas and situation comedies reveals a concise representation of the mediated lesbian image. Building on existing research on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender images on television, this work focuses exclusively on the lesbian image broadcast free of charge over the air during prime-time on commercial networks in the United States. Using a postmodern feminist framework, this textual analysis examines the images and texts portraying lesbian characters in episodic dramas and situation comedies. Furthermore, applying a semiotic lens to the analysis dissects the voice and actions of lesbian characters illustrating the ways production techniques and narrative scripting work together to represent a lesbian image on television.

The aim of this thesis is to study representations of identity and (in)visibility in Swedish lesbian novels written in the 1930s, and to provide a summary of Swedish lesbian literature up to the early 21st century. This study has been done through a close reading primarily of Charlie by Margareta Suber (1932), Fröknarna von Pahlen by Agnes von Krusenstjerna (1930–1935) and Kris by Karin Boye (1934). Lesbian literature is discussed as a loose category, a construction which can be used as an analytical tool in a conscious and reflexive way, with its basis in the categories of author, text and reader. In short, I define lesbian literature as novels written by women, about lesbian figures and/or relationships, and for lesbian readers in the sense that the literature depicts lesbians from an insider’s perspective. As regards the period before 1930, the focus is on romantic friendship and the excitement zone when the romantic friendship becomes a sexual one, as seen in the fictitious case of Sin fars dotter (1920) by Lydia Wahlström. Sexological theories, the image of “the new woman” and changes to the law all colour the first half of the 20th century. This is seen in Charlie by Margareta Suber, where the author makes use of many such explanations in her creation of a lesbian figure. A reading of Fröknarna von Pahlen by Agnes von Krusenstjerna shows an intricate pattern of relationships at its heart. My analysis charts several same-sex couples, a lesbian single woman and two collectives; that is to say, the female collective and the male homosexual collective. The relationships between women are many-faceted and include everything from romantic friendship, kinship and sensualism to eroticism and shared parenthood. In my analysis of Kris by Karin Boye, I focus on Malin, the main character, and the development of her sense of identity, in which the struggle between the language of the world around her and her own emotional experience of love for a woman is a central theme. After the 1930s, the historical context changed in terms of everything from decriminalisation in 1944 via the homophobic panic of the 1950s to the impact of queer theory in the 1990s. Swedish lesbian literature addresses everything from crime of passion (murder) to the coming out process of young women. There exists in all novels from the 1930s an interplay that is (in)visible: the characters or lesbian relationships depicted are both visible and invisible at the same time. The characters are more or less aware of the potential risks attached to being visible as a lesbian, and often they do not notice themselves when this occurs. During the course of the 20th century, (in)visibility becomes replaced by openness and secrecy, and the visibility of the lesbian characters is politicised. / The abstract is translated by Janet French.

Title from second page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 56-58).

Denna forskning genomfördes under åren 2000–2004. Forskningssammanhanget är både Lesbiska studier och IMER forskning. I avhandlingen studeras livserfarenheter som 21 lesbiska informanter från 15 olika länder, alla invandrare i Sverige, berättar om. Utgångspunkten för forskningen är sexualitet och migration. De övergripande forskningsfrågorna är: Genom vilka processer blir kvinnor medvetna om sin sexuella dragning till kvinnor? Hur ”lär” de sig att leva lesbiskt, samt inom vilket socialt sammanhang sker dessa processer? Forskningsfrågorna belyses genom de livserfarenheter som de 21 lesbiska informanterna berättar om. Analysen görs genom fokusering på det samband och den växelverkan som fi nns mellan lesbiskhet och migration i datamaterialet. Studien är etnografi sk och kvalitativ. Den narrativa metoden används för inhämtning av det empiriska materialet, vilket består av utskrivna intervjuer och anteckningar från deltagande observation. Analysen görs med hjälp av teorier om sociala relationer, heteronormativitet, stigmatisering, aktörskap och migration. Studien visar att informanternas erfarenheter av stigmatisering och marginalisering liknar varandra oavsett i vilket samhälle de växt upp. Marginaliseringen av lesbiska kvinnor hänger till stor del samman med en samhällsstruktur som förtrycker kvinnlig sexualitet. Det är genom komma-ut-processen som den lesbiska kvinnan ”lär” sig att ”vara” lesbisk. Stigmatisering är det sociala sammanhang i vilket den lesbiska kvinnan blir medveten om sin sexuella orientering. Genom sitt aktörskap ändrar den lesbiska kvinnan sin sociala position i marginalen och växer som ett självständigt och stolt lesbiskt subjekt. Detta leder henne till att söka sig till andra homosexuella (kvinnor och män). Känslan av grupptillhörighet baserad på likartade livserfarenheter, som har sin grund i samhällets attityd till deras lesbiskhet är centralt för informanternas liv och avgörande för bygget av ett lesbiskt samhälle, oavsett etnisk och nationell bakgrund. Det lesbiska samhället (och gaysamhället) är internationellt. / This research was carried out during the years 200-2004. The theoretical basis of the thesis is found within the fields of Lesbian Studies and IMER-studies (studies of International Migration and Ethnic Relations). In the thesis the life experiences of 21 informants, originating from 15 different countries are studied. The 21 informants are all immigrant women living in Sweden. The point of departure of the research is that of sexuality and migration. The main questions of the research are: through which processes do women obtain consciousness about their lesbian orientation, how do they “learn “to “be” lesbians and within which social context do these processes take place? Answers to these questions are given through an analysis of the life experiences of the 21 informants. The analysis is focuses on the connection and the interaction between lesbianism and migration. The study is ethnographic and qualitative. The narrative method is applied to obtain the empirical material containing transcribed interviews and notes from participant observation. Theories of social relationship, heteronormativity, stigmatization, agency, and migration are applied. The study shows that the informants’ experience of stigmatization and marginalization are very similar irrespective of which society they grew up in. Marginalization of lesbian women is very much a consequence of social structure, which oppresses female sexuality. It is through the coming out process that lesbian women “learn” to “be” lesbian. Stigmatization is the social context in which the lesbian women becomes aware of her sexual orientation and grows into conscious lesbian. It is through conscious action (agency) that she alters her social position in the margin and becomes an independent and proud lesbian subject. In the course of this process she seeks contact with other homosexuals (women and men) and she develops a sense of belonging to a group of people who share similar life experiences of stigmatization on the grounds of their homosexuality. This feeling is crucial for the establishment of a lesbian community, irrespective of ethnic and national background. The lesbian community (and gay community as a whole) is international.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Technology, Sydney, 2005. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on Feb. 5, 2008). Includes bibliographical references (p. 365-391).

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Toronto, 2009. / Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 48-02, page: .