While gay male and lesbian spatialisation has been historicised in some of the
literature, and it has been determined that distinct gay male and lesbian neighbourhoods do
exist i n our inner cities, the processes that are at work i n each case have seldom been
compared. In the case of Vancouver, British Columbia, the two neighbourhoods in
question are the West End (for men) and Grandview-Woodland, or 'The Drive' (for
women). Such a comparative analysis yields a number of useful insights, particularly as
concerns cultural differences between gay men and lesbians. For instance, historical gay
male sexual marketplaces form the kernel of gay male ghettoisation, while lesbians' feminist
politics (an early lesbian cultural signifier) orient them more towards countercultural
enclaves. Similarities are also encountered, especially with respect to the central role of
housing availability i n determining permanent gay identification. Specifically, the presence
of a large number of single-occupancy apartments is a determining factor i n gay male
spatialisation, while gay women typically need low-rent, family-oriented housing.
A longitudinal perspective on the production of these gay-identified spaces reveals
that their reinscription on Vancouver's landscape is also determined by different processes.
The gay West End emerges as a landscape that reflects much more openly a gay presence,
with gay-specific institutions and businesses, events, and several visual, cultural cues that
inform passers-by of its gay identity. By contrast, The Drive is more subtly gay, and
spaces are more likely to be lesbian-friendly or semi-lesbian: unable to support lesbian-only
institutions, the women carve their own (sometimes fleeting) spaces out of the existing
landscape. Changes are perceived, however, that indicate that boundaries — both between these
two districts, and between these and 'straight' spaces more generally — are shifting and
even blurring. Gay male and lesbian politics and culture are being transformed, and the
spaces with which they have historically identified may no longer reflect these changes.
Consequently, not only is there increasing fluidity between the West End and The Drive
(with men and women moving from one to the other), but many gay households are
openly foregoing these spaces altogether, opting instead for traditionally straight-identified
spaces such as the suburbs. These spatial changes are seen as being indicative of the
emergence of a 'queer' politics, which seeks to expose the constructedness of sexuality, and
thus de-privilege heteronormativity.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/4136 |
| Date | 05 1900 |
| Creators | Bouthillette, Ann-Marie |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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