Woman and Her Maid by Giovanni Antonio da Brescia, 1500.Statue of two ancient Egyptian women, Idet and Ruiu, depicted in a form typical of married couples, Museo Egizio.
Lesbianism is sexual and romantic desire or relationships between women. Women have typically been underrepresented in history as both writers and subjects, and lesbianism has been correspondingly under-recorded. Since the 1970s, efforts have been made to gather together and preserve lesbian history.[2][3]
There has been extensive debate as to what qualifies a historic relationship as 'lesbian'. In 1989, an academic cohort named the Lesbian History Group wrote:
Because of society's reluctance to admit that lesbians exist, a high degree of certainty is expected before historians or biographers are allowed to use the label. Evidence that would suffice in any other situation is inadequate here... A woman who never married, who lived with another woman, whose friends were mostly women, or who moved in known lesbian or mixed gay circles, may well have been a lesbian. ... But this sort of evidence is not 'proof'. What our critics want is incontrovertible evidence of sexual activity between women. This is almost impossible to find.[4]:184
Female sexuality is often not adequately represented in historical texts and documents. Until very recently, much of what has been documented about women's sexuality has been written by men, in the context of male understanding, and relevant to women's associations to men—as their wives, daughters, or mothers, for example.[5]
Ancient Mesopotamia
Women's sexuality in ancient Mesopotamia is not well documented. Stephanie Lynn Budin, writing on love magic, argues that "there remains no evidence for lesbianism in this regard (or any other from Mesopotamia)."[6] However, there are at least two pieces of textual evidence for Mesopotamian lesbianism.[7] One is a divinatory text which mentions female same-sex activity,[8] while another, more explicit text remains unpublished.[9]
In addition, an Old Assyrian text writes of two women, Ewanika and Adi-matum, who had a betrothal contract for their "daughter." It is possible that the father died, leaving the two women as widows.[10]
Egypt
Ancient Egypt
The Dream Book of the Carlsberg papyrus XIII claims that "If a woman dreams that a woman has intercourse with her, she will come to a bad end".[11][12] Depictions of women during the New Kingdom suggest they enjoyed, in a relaxed and intimate atmosphere, the company of other women who were scantily clad or naked. Some cosmetics-related items, which may have been owned and used by women, feature nude and suggestive depictions of women.[12]
In the fifth century CE, women at the White Monastery in Upper Egypt sometimes pursued same-sex relationships. A letter from Shenoute chastises two women, ⲧⲁⲏⲥⲉ, Taêse and ⲧⲥⲁⲛⲥⲛⲱ, Tsansnô, for running after each other "in friendship and physical desire".[13] This phrase referred to homosexual advances, which were not uncommon.[14] It is unknown if the corporal punishment Shenoute prescribed for the women was administered.[15]
Modern
Sara Hegazi, an Egyptian arrested in 2017 for flying a rainbow flag
In 2017, the Egyptian government arrested and tortured out lesbian and activist Sarah Hegazi after she flew a rainbow flag at a concert.[16]
China
In early Chinese history sexual activity between women was accepted, and sometimes actively encouraged.[17][18] Female same-sex relationships were described with a special term (traditional Chinese:對食; simplified Chinese:对食; pinyin:duìshí), literally 'paired eating', possibly referring to cunnilingus. In the second or third century AD Ying Shao defined it as "when palace women attach themselves as husband and wife".[19] Such relationships sometimes formed between government slaves or members of the emperor's harem. For example, under Emperor Cheng's rule (33–7BC) the slave Dào Fáng (Chinese:道房) had a homosexual relationship with Cáo Gōng (traditional Chinese:曹宮; simplified Chinese:曹宫), the daughter of a slave.[20] The sex handbook Dongxuanzi (Chinese:洞玄子; pinyin:Dòng Xuán Zǐ, possibly dating to the fifth century AD[21]) also contains examples of female same-sex contact. In the position called The Paired Dance of the Female Blue Phoenixes, two women practice scissoring.[22]
China before westernization was another society that segregated men from women. Historical Chinese culture has not recognized a concept of sexual orientation, or a framework to divide people based on their same-sex or opposite-sex attractions.[23]:29 Although there was a significant culture surrounding homosexual men, there was none for women. Outside their duties to bear sons to their husbands, women were perceived as having no sexuality at all.[24]:311
This did not mean that women could not pursue sexual relationships with other women, but that such associations could not impose upon women's relationships to men. Rare references to lesbianism were written by Ying Shao, who identified same-sex relationships between women in imperial courts who behaved as husband and wife as dui shi (paired eating). "Golden Orchid Associations" in Southern China existed into the 20th century and promoted formal marriages between women, who were then allowed to adopt children.[4]:187 Westernization brought new ideas that all sexual behavior not resulting in reproduction was aberrant.[23]:30–31
The liberty of being employed in silk factories starting in 1865 allowed some women to style themselves tzu-shu nii (never to marry) and live in communes with other women. Other Chinese called them sou-hei (self-combers) for adopting hairstyles of married women. These communes passed because of the Great Depression and were subsequently discouraged by the communist government for being a relic of feudal China.[4]:195 In contemporary Chinese society, tongzhi (same goal or spirit) is the term used to refer to homosexuals; most Chinese are reluctant to divide this classification further to identify lesbians.[23]:28
Greece
Ancient Greece
Sappho and Influence
The lives of ancient Greek women were in general little-documented.[5] In a notable exception, in the 500s BC, Sappho of Lesbos wrote extensive poetry regarding her love for other women, fragments of which survive.[25]
The poet Sappho (c.630– c.570 BC)'s poems discuss her love for women, and she is the most often mentioned example of an ancient Greek woman who may have actually engaged in sexual relationships with women. For instance, in Sappho's Ode to Aphrodite, the poet asks Aphrodite for aid in wooing another woman.[26] One fragment of Sappho's poetry, Sappho 94, contains a clear mention of lesbian sexual acts:[27]
I'm not pretending; I wish I were dead." She was leaving me in tears,
and over and over she said to me: "Sappho, it hurts; what's happened to us is just so grim; it isn't my choice, I swear it, to leave like this.."
These were the words that I answered her: "Go and be happy; remember me, for you know how we have paid court to you:
and if not, then I want to remind you ... and the good things we have enjoyed:
for at my side, many the crowns of violets and roses ... you have put on yourself,
and many the garlands woven from flowers you have cast round your delicate neck,
and with quantities of ... flowery perfume ... fit for a queen even, you anointed yourself all over,
and on soft beds ... delicate ... you have satisfied desire ...
Sappho's sexuality has been debated by historians. Some, such as Denys Page, argue that Sappho was attracted to women. Others, such as Eva Stigers, argue that the descriptions of love between women in Sappho's writings are not necessarily evidence of her own sexuality.[29] Yet other historians claim that Sappho's circle were involved in female homosexuality as a kind of initiation ritual.[30] The earliest evidence of Sappho's reputation for homosexual desire comes from the Hellenistic period, with a fragment of a biography found in the Oxyrhynchus Papyri which criticizes Sappho for being "gynaikerastria."[note 1][31]There are at least two other women poets who wrote in the style of Sappho: Erinna of Teos or Telos (c.late 400s BC) and Nossis of Locri (c.300 BC).[32]
Other Greek Works
Among the Athenians, the discussion and depiction of female homosexual activity seems to have been taboo.[33]Kenneth Dover suggests that, due to the role played by the phallus in ancient Greek men's conceptions of sexuality, female homosexual love was not explicitly defined as a sexuality or category by the authors of surviving sources.[34]
Some male-written works reference lesbianism. One example, from the 300s BC, is the tale of the four-legged humans told by Aristophanes in Plato's Symposium.[35][note 2] Another example, from the 100s CE, is the Dialogues of the Courtesans, where a female character talks about being seduced by two lesbian characters.[36]
Later references to female homosexuality in Greek literature include an epigram by Asclepiades, which describes two women who reject Aphrodite's "rules" but instead do "other things which are not seemly".[37] Dover comments on the "striking" hostility shown in the epigram to female homosexuality, contrasting it with Asclepiades' willingness to discuss his own homosexual desire in other works, suggesting that this apparent male anxiety about female homosexuality in ancient Greece is the reason for our paucity of sources discussing it.[38]
The poet Alcman (fl. 7th century BC) wrote hymns known as partheneia,[note 3] which discuss attraction between young women. Though these hymns are ambiguous, historians have posited that they are erotic or sexual.[39][40]
A red-figure kylix depicting two women in an intimate setting. Attributed to the painter Apollodorus, c. 490–480 BCE. (Tarquinia National Museum)
Similarly, some find evidence in Plutarch that Spartan women engaged in homosexual activities, although Plutarch wrote many centuries after classical Greece. In Plutarch's biography of Lycurgus of Sparta, part of his Parallel Lives, the author claims that older Spartan women formed relationships with girls that were similar to the erastes/eromenos relationships that existed between some older and younger male Greeks.[41] Historian Sarah B. Pomeroy believes that Plutarch's depiction of homosexual relationships between Spartan women is plausible. For instance, Pomeroy argues that homosexual relationships between the girls would have "flourished" in the girls' choirs that performed the partheneia of Alcman.[42]
In Greek mythology, the story of Callisto has been interpreted as implying that Artemis and Callisto were lovers.[43] The myth of the Amazons has also been interpreted as referring to female homosexual activities.[44]
In visual culture, some ancient Greek red vase images portray women in affectionate or erotic scenes.[45]:27–28[5] For example, a plate from ArchaicThera appears to show two women courting.[41] An Atticred figure vase in the collection of the Tarquinia National Museum in Italy shows a kneeling woman fingering the genitals of another woman in a rare explicit portrayal of sexual activity between women in Greek art,[41] although it has also been interpreted as depicting one prostitute shaving or otherwise grooming the other in a non-sexual fashion.[46]
India
Ancient India
The Arthashastra, an ancient Indian treatise on statecraft likely edited and compiled between the second and third centuries CE,[47] describes the fines individuals must pay for engaging in ayoni, non-vaginal sex. This category includes both heterosexual and homosexual sex, and the fine for two women is lower than the fine for heterosexual sex. Overall, lesbian sex is "unsanctioned" in the Arthashastra, but is also "treated as a minor offense."[48]
The Manusmriti, a first century legal text, places a very small fine upon sex between nonvirgin women; however, one who "manually deflowers a virgin" is sentenced to the loss of two fingers.[48] If two virgins are caught, the 'doer' "has to pay double the girl's dowry and is given ten whiplashes".[49] The Manusmriti fails to provide a punishment for mutualoral or non-penetrative sex.[49]
Sanskrit medical texts mention "sexual act[s] in which both the parties are female".[50] The Sushruta Samhita and Charaka Samhita both classify lesbianism as a disease resulting from an atypical conception.[51] The latter describes it as incurable, and states that a lesbian is "a woman who has an aversion for man and who has no breasts."[52] The term used for a lesbian in these texts is nārīṣaṇḍha.[53]
The Kama Sutra mentions phallus-shaped bulbs, roots, and fruits used as dildos in lesbian sex, and also records cunnilingus between women.[54]
Medieval India
In India, a 14th-century Indian text mentioning a lesbian couple who had a child as a result of their lovemaking is an exception to the general silence about female homosexuality. According to Ruth Vanita, this invisibility disappeared with the release of a film titled Fire in 1996, prompting some theaters in India to be attacked by religious extremists. Terms used to label homosexuals are often rejected by Indian activists for being the result of imperialist influence, but most discourse on homosexuality centers on men. Women's rights groups in India continue to debate the legitimacy of including lesbian issues in their platforms, as lesbians and material focusing on female homosexuality are frequently suppressed.[55]
In first century sources, accounts of lesbian characters include the story of Iphis and Ianthe, related in the Metamorphoses;[56]:79–86 a story, related by the fabulist Phaedrus, about Prometheus exchanging the genitals of different men and women;[57] and a satirical figure of a masculine woman who has sex with women, named Philaenis, related in the epigrams of Martial.[58][56]:98–99
Records of magic spells from Roman Egypt, 2nd-4th centuries CE, include women commissioning love spells to make other women fall in love with them.[59] These spells are unusual because they were likely commissioned by women from lower social classes rather than the elite, and because they contain the names of ancient women with homoerotic desires.[60] For example, Herais cast a love spell on Sarapias,[59] and the following quotation is from Sophia's love spell for Gorgonia:[61]
Burn, set on fire, inflame the heart, the liver, the spirit of Gorgonia, whom Nilogenia bore, with love and affection for Sophia, whom Isara bore, for a good end.... Force Gorgonia, whom Nilogenia bore, to cast herself into the bath-house for the sake of Sophia, whom Isara bore, for her, so that she love her with passion, longing, unceasing love.
The lesbian love story between Iphis and Ianthe, in Book IX of Ovid's the Metamorphoses, is most vivid. When Iphis' mother becomes pregnant, her husband declares that he will kill the child if it is a girl. She bears a girl and attempts to conceal her sex by giving her a name that is of ambiguous gender: Iphis. When the "son" is thirteen, the father chooses a golden-haired maiden named Ianthe as the "boy's" bride. The love of the two girls is written sympathetically:[62]
They were of equal age, they both were lovely, Had learned the ABC from the same teachers, And so love came to both of them together In simple innocence, and filled their hearts With equal longing.
However, as the marriage draws ever closer, Iphis recoils, calling her love "monstrous and unheard of". The goddess Isis hears the girl's moans and turns her into a boy.
The Roman fabulist Phaedrus attempted to explain lesbianism through a myth: the Titan Prometheus, coming home drunk from a party, had mistakenly exchanged the genitals of some women and some men. Phaedrus remarks: "Lust now enjoys perverted pleasure."[63]
Roman writer Seneca the Elder used the hypothetical of a husband who killed his wife and her female lover as an example of a legal case where the facts were too obscene to discuss openly.[64]
In the ruins of Pompeii, a Roman town destroyed in 79 CE, archaeologists discovered a love poem graffitied onto a wall.[56] The poem is written with feminine declensions for both speaker and addressee, and identified archivally as Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum 4.5296.[65]
Iamblichus, a Greek novelist from the first century AD, is best known for his Babylonaica, or Babylonian Tales.[66] The Babylonaica contains a side story about "Berenice, who was daughter of the king of Egypt, and about her wild and lawless passions: and how she had relations with Mesopotamia." According to an ancient summary of the episode, Berenice and Mesopotamia (a woman) are wed.[67] Although the Babylonaica mainly deals with a heterosexual couple, Sinonis and Rhodanes, Berenice and Mesopotamia exist as foils for the pair.[68] Classicist Helen Morales cautions that this tale ought not to be treated as "certain evidence...that lesbian marriages were performed in the Roman imperial period," but the mere fact that it exists and survives is remarkable.[68]
Lucian's Dialogues of the Courtesans contain an episode in which a woman named Megilla renames herself Megillus and wears a wig to cover her shaved head. She marries Demonassa of Corinth, although Megillus is from Lesbos. Her friend Leaena comments that "They say there are women like that in Lesbos, with faces like men, and unwilling to consort with men, but only with women, as though they themselves were men".[69] Megillus seduces Leaena, who feels that the experience is too disgusting to describe in detail. Leila J. Rupp writes in Sapphistries: A Global History of Love Between Women: "Two things are significant in this depiction: the connection of an aggressive woman from Lesbos with masculinity and the portrayal of the seduced as a prostitute".[70]
In another dialogue ascribed to Lucian, two men debate over which is better, male love or heterosexuality. One man protested that if male affairs were legitimized, then lesbianism would soon be condoned as well, an unthinkable notion.[71]
In early Christianity in the Roman Empire, one work of note was the Apocalypse of Peter. It seems to have been most prominent in the 2nd–3rd centuries when Christians were still a tiny minority, and was not ultimately included in the canon of the New Testament. It is one of the earliest depictions of hell, and suggests lesbians are one category of sinners to be tormented by punishments after the Second Coming of Jesus, although the passage phrases it as secondary to a condemnation of male homoeroticism, and possibly was added by a later editor or scribe:[72]
And other men and women being thrown down from a great precipice fell to the bottom and again were driven by those who were set over them to go up upon the precipice, and thence were thrown down again, and thus they had no rest from this punishment. These were the ones who defiled their bodies acting as women. And the women who were with them were those who lay with one another as a man with a woman.
The Florentine Codex, an encyclopedic work on the Aztec and other peoples of Central America finished in 1577,[74] contains a section on Aztec homosexuality. Book ten of the Codex covers both male and female sexuality.[75]
The context of the Classical Nahuatl term xōchihuah ("owner of flowers") seems to denote a "homosexual of either sex."[76] Another word, patlācheh, seems to refer specifically to a lesbian in the Florentine Codex,[77] and is defined as a "woman who had carnal pleasures with another woman" by Juan de Torquemada.[78]Alonso de Molina uses a grammatically related verb to refer to having lesbian sex.[79]
Kimball's translation includes the following excerpt:[80]
She is a possessor of arrows; an owner of darts.
She is a possessor of companions, one who pairs off with women,
she is one who makes friends with women, one who provides herself with various young women,
one who possesses various young women.
Although the text goes on to include other unflattering descriptions of a woman who has sex with other women, "the invective against the homosexual woman is much less strident against the homosexual man".[81] Kimball adds that the first line of this excerpt "may refer to a woman who violates the sex-role stereotype, or it may have some other reference, at present not yet understood".[82]
There is no evidence that homosexuality was actively suppressed until after the Spanish Conquest.[75] Female homosexuality is described in the Florentine Codex, a 16th-century study of the Aztec world written by the Spanish Franciscan friarBernardino de Sahagún. It describes Aztec lesbians as masculine in appearance and behavior and never wishing to be married.[75] The book Monarquía indiana by Fray Juan de Torquemada, published in 1615, briefly mentions the persecution of Aztec lesbians: "The woman, who with another woman had carnal pleasures, for which they were called Patlache, which means: female incubus, they both died for it."[75][note 4]
Japan
Relationships between women are described in The Princess in Search of Herself,[83] a piece of literature from either the Heian[84] or Kamakura period.[85] In it Chūjō is a lady-in-waiting for the High Priestess at Ise, and the two are romantically involved. Chūjō becomes angry and jealous when the high priestess abandons her to pursue a relationship with Kozaishō, another lady-in-waiting.[83][86] The text describes physical intimacy between women clearly, casting doubt on claims that female homosexuality was not present in early Japanese literature.[83]
A historic shunga woodblock printing (c. 1500) from Japan depicting two women having sex
It has been suggested that the famous Heian period writer Murasaki Shikibu loved women,[87] a reading which has been called bold, and which is based on potentially homoerotic poems exchanged with other women.[88] One section of her diary reads:[89]
In particular I missed Lady Dainagon...I sent her the following: How I long for those waters on which we lay, A longing keener than the frost on a duck's wing. To which she replied: Awakening to find no friend to brush away the frost, The mandarin duck longs for her mate at night.
Bowring notes that the mandarin duck was a firmly established metaphor for lovers at the time, but states that the relationship was only platonic.[90] Some work has been criticized for ignoring lesbian readings of poems like these, in "an explaining away of the simplest interpretation of a text in favor of a more complicated, but heterosexually normative, reading."[91] Examples come from the poetic exchanges between Senshi and Kodaifu, and between Ukon and Taifu, both in the Heian period. Edward Kamens notes the erotically charged nature of the poems, but says only that they "would readily be read as explicit tropes of sexual desire" if they had not been exchanged between two women.[92]
Other references to same-sex practices between women before the Edo period are more ambiguous. In the Kojiki the sun goddess Amaterasu is lured out of a cave by Ame no Uzume dancing and removing her clothes.[93][94] Dildos dating from as early as the Nara period may have been used for masturbation rather than lesbian sex.[87]
In Japan, the term rezubian, a Japanese pronunciation of "lesbian", was used during the 1920s. Westernization brought more independence for women and allowed some Japanese women to wear pants.[24]:246 The cognate tomboy is used in the Philippines, and particularly in Manila, to denote women who are more masculine.[23]:122 Virtuous women in Korea prioritize motherhood, chastity, and virginity; outside this scope, very few women are free to express themselves through sexuality, although there is a growing organization for lesbians named Kkirikkiri.[23]:75 The term pondan is used in Malaysia to refer to gay men, but since there is no historical context to reference lesbians, the term is used for female homosexuals as well.[23]:145 As in many Asian countries, open homosexuality is discouraged in many social levels, so many Malaysians lead double lives.[23]:148–150
Switzerland
The Swiss woman Anne Grandjean, disguised as male, married and relocated with her wife to Lyons, but was exposed by a woman with whom she had had a previous affair and sentenced to time in the stocks and prison.[95]:51–54
Ireland and Wales
A poem by Flann Mainistrech claims that the goddess Áine died of love for Banba,[96] but rather than representing a lesbian lover, Banba may be a personification of Ireland in this story.[97]St. Brigid of Kildare, who died in the 6th century, may have had a lesbian relationship with Darlughdacha, a nun with whom she shared a bed.[98]
An early story about Irish lesbianism involves the 8th-century king Niall Frossach and is recorded in the Book of Leinster.[99] A woman has given birth to a child without having had sex with a man, and the king must explain how this has happened:[100]
The king was silent then. 'Have you had playful mating with another woman?', said he, 'and do not conceal it if you have'. 'I will not conceal it', said she; 'I have'. 'It is true...', said the king. 'That woman had mated with a man just before, and the semen which he left with her, she put into your womb in the tumbling, so that it was begotten in your womb. That man is the father of your child, and let it be found out who he is'.
The story uses the term lánamnas rebartha 'playful mating' to refer to lesbian sex.[101]
The Old Irish Penitential is a penitential written in Old Irish from before the end of the 8th century.[102] It specified the same punishment for men who have intercrural or anal sex as for "women or girls who do the same thing among themselves".[96] The punishment was two years of penance.[103]
The Irish Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby were nicknamed the Ladies of Llangollen. Butler and Ponsonby eloped in 1778, to the relief of Ponsonby's family (concerned about their reputation had she run away with a man)[104]:75 to live together in Wales for 51 years and be thought of as eccentrics.[24]:227–229 Their story was considered "the epitome of virtuous romantic friendship" and inspired poetry by Anna Seward and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.[105]:45–46
The Ladies of Llangollen, Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby. The two women had a relationship that was hailed as devoted and virtuous, after eloping and living 51 years together in Wales.
In the 1800s, Edward De Lacy Evans was born female in Ireland, but took a male name during the voyage to Australia and lived as a man for 23 years in Victoria, marrying three times.[24]:224
Medieval Britain and continental Europe
The earliest law against female homosexuality appeared in France in 1270.[4]:191 In Spain, Italy, and the Holy Roman Empire, sodomy between women was included in acts considered unnatural and punishable by burning to death, although few instances are recorded of this taking place.[24]:130 The earliest such execution occurred in Speier, Germany, in 1477.[4]:190 Forty days' penance was demanded of nuns who "rode" each other or were discovered to have touched each other's breasts. An Italian nun named Sister Benedetta Carlini seduced other nuns when possessed by a Divine spirit named "Splenditello"; as punishment, she was placed in solitary confinement for the last 40 years of her life.[4]:190
Thus I pray you, if it please you that true love And celebration and sweet humility should bring me such relief with you, if it please you, lovely woman, then give me that which most hope and joy promises for in you lie my desire and my heart
The canso is the genre in which love poems were written, but it is possible that Maria was not a lover but a "female acquaintance, friend, confidante, or close relative."[107] Clearer evidence for lesbian relationships is found in a manuscript from Tegernsee; dating from the 12th century, it contains lesbian love poems which were likely composed at a local monastery for women.[108] The quote below, which "seems to presuppose a passionate physical relationship",[109] is from A.'s poem to G.[110]
When I recall the kisses you gave me, And how with tender words you caressed my little breasts, I want to die Because I cannot see you.
In medieval Europe, the Christian Church took a stricter view of same-sex relations between women. Penitentials, developed by Celtic monks in Ireland, were unofficial guidebooks which became popular, especially in the British Isles. These books listed crimes and the penances that must be done for them. For example, "...he who commits the male crime of the Sodomites shall do penance for four years". The several versions of the Paenitentiale Theodori, attributed to Theodore of Tarsus, who became archbishop of Canterbury in the 7th century, make special references to lesbianism. The Paenitentiale states, "If a woman practices vice with a woman she shall do penance for three years".[111] Penitentials soon spread from the British Isles to mainland Europe. The authors of most medieval penitentials either did not explicitly discuss lesbian activities at all, or treated them as a less serious sin than male homosexuality.[112]
The Old French legal treatise Li livres de jostice et de plet (c.1260) is the earliest reference to legal punishment for lesbianism akin to that for male homosexuality. It prescribed dismemberment for the first two offences and death by burning for the third: a near exact parallel to the penalty for a man, although what "dismemberment" could mean for a medieval woman is unknown.[113][114] In Spain, Italy, and the Holy Roman Empire, sodomy between women was included in acts considered unnatural and punishable by burning to death, although few instances are recorded of this taking place.[citation needed] In the Holy Roman Empire under Charles V, a law on sexual offences specifically prohibits sex acts between women.[115]
Catharine Linck and other women who were accused of using dildos, such as two nuns in 16th century Spain executed for using "material instruments", were punished more severely than those who did not.[4]:191[95]:51–54 Linck was executed in Prussia in 1721.[95]:51–54
There exist records of about a dozen women in the medieval period who were involved in lesbian sex, as defined by historian Judith Bennett as same-sex genital contact. All of these women are known through their involvement with the courts, and were imprisoned or executed.[116] An early example of a woman executed for homosexual acts occurred in 1477, when a girl in Speier, Germany, was drowned.[117] The 16th-century writings of Spanish jurist Antonio Gomez mentions the burning of two nuns for the use of "material instruments".[118]
Not all women were so harshly punished, though. In the early fifteenth century, a Frenchwoman, Laurence, wife of Colin Poitevin, was imprisoned for her affair with another woman, Jehanne. She pleaded for clemency on the grounds that Jehanne had been the instigator and she regretted her sins, and was freed to return home after six months imprisonment.[119] A later example, from Pescia in Italy, involved an abbess, Sister Benedetta Carlini, who was documented in inquests between 1619 and 1623 as having committed grave offences including a passionately erotic love affair with another nun when possessed by a Divine male spirit named "Splenditello". She was declared the victim of a "diabolical obsession" and placed in the convent's prison for the last 35 years of her life.[120]
However, an Italian surgeon, William of Bologna, attributed lesbianism to a "growth emanating from the mouth of the womb and appearing outside the vagina as a pseudopenis."[121]
Lesbianism results when a nursing woman eats celery, rocket, melilot leaves and the flowers of a bitter orange tree. When she eats these plants and suckles her child, they will affect the labia of her suckling and generate an itch which the suckling will carry through her future life.
Lesbianism is due to a vapor which, condensed, generates in the labia heat and an itch which only dissolve and become cold through friction and orgasm. When friction and orgasm take place, the heat turns into coldness because the liquid that a woman ejaculates in lesbian intercourse is cold whereas the same liquid that results from sexual union with men is hot. Heat, however, cannot be extinguished by heat; rather, it will increase since it needs to be treated by its opposite. As coldness is repelled by heat, so heat is also repelled by coldness.
Ali ibn Nasr al-Katib's Encyclopedia of Pleasure contains a story about what is said to be the first lesbian couple in Arab history: the seventh-century Hind bint al-Nuʿmān, a Christian poet who fell in love with the legendary Arabic poet Hind bint al-Khuss. When Hind Bint al-Khuss died, her faithful lover "cropped her hair, wore black clothes, rejected worldly pleasures, vowed to God that she would lead an ascetic life until she passed away", and even built a monastery to commemorate her love.[124] The tenth-century work al-Fihrist gives the titles of books about twelve other lesbian couples, but nothing other than the women's names has survived.[125]Wallada bint al-Mustakfi, sometimes called the Arab Sappho, was an Andalusian poet whose love poetry to her student Muhja bint al-Tayyani has been lost since later authors refused to cite its sexually explicit content.[126]
However, other sources of medieval Arabic literature do preserve lesbian poetry. For example, Al-Jahiz cites the couplet "I drank wine for love of flirting/and I shifted towards lesbianism for fear of pregnancy." In A Promenade of the Hearts, Ahmad al-Tifashi cites several poems by lesbians where massage is used as a pretext for lesbian sex,[127][128] as well as the same-sex philosophy of Rose, the head of one such lesbian massage group.[129]Leo Africanus describes with disgust the practices of female diviners in Fez who cure illnesses, saying that they are in fact sahacat, his rendition of the Arabic word for lesbians (Arabic: سحاقيات, romanized:siḥāqiyyāt).[129][130] He describes how lesbians pretend to be sick so that the diviners will come to them. They then claim that the woman is possessed and that the only cure is to join the diviners, enabling her to leave her husband and become part of a lesbian community.[130]
Some fictional women from Arabic folk epics can be viewed as lesbian, like Alûf from Delhemma who says "I do neither long for marriage nor for men, but my heart has an inclination for the ladies."[131] Rumors of harem lesbianism in the Arab world, like those reported by Allen Edwardes, tend to come from male Orientalist writers and have not been verified.[132]
Judaism
Between 1170 and 1180 Maimonides, one of the foremost rabbis in Jewish history, compiled his magnum opus, the Mishneh Torah. It is the only Medieval-era work that details all of Jewish observance, and as regarding lesbianism states:[133]
For women to be mesollelot [women rubbing genitals against each other] with one another is forbidden, as this is the practice of Egypt, which we were warned against: "Like the practice of the land of Egypt ... you shall not do" (Leviticus 18:3). The Sages said [in the midrash of Sifra Aharei Mot 8:8–9], "What did they do? A man married a man, and a woman married a woman, and a woman married two men." Even though this practice is forbidden, one is not lashed [as for a Torah prohibition] on account of it, since there is no specific prohibition against it, and there is no real intercourse. Therefore, [one who does this] is not forbidden to the priesthood because of harlotry, and a woman is not prohibited to her husband by this, since it is not harlotry. But it is appropriate to administer to them lashings of rebellion [i.e., those given for violation of rabbinic prohibitions], since they did something forbidden. And a man should be strict with his wife in this matter, and should prevent women known to do this from coming to her or from her going to them.
Thailand
Sources on female homosexuality in Thai history primarily discuss royal harems, using the label เล่นเพื่อนlen-phuean which literally means 'to play [with] friends'.[134] One of the earliest references is a law from King Borommatrailokkanat (who reigned 1448–1488), which penalizes lesbian relationships between palace women with whipping and which survives as part of the Three Seals Law.[135][136][137] There is no evidence of this punishment ever being used, and an American ambassador in the 19th century wrote that homosexuality was very common, and that only monks had been punished for it.[138]
Another source of evidence for female same-sex relationships is poetry and fiction based partly on real royal harems.[139] The earliest such literature, from the Rattanakosin Kingdom, is unusual in focusing more on female homosexuality than male homosexuality.[137] However, many of the literary sources are critical, and describe lesbianism as something to be avoided.[140][141][137] A mural at Wat Khongkharam depicts women surreptitiously touching each other's breasts, but also depicts women being punished for lesbianism.[142]
Postcolonial Latin America
Juana Inés de la Cruz (1648–1695)[143] was a prolific scholar, poet, writer, and protofeminist known for her searing critiques of misogyny. She also "addressed to three vicereines more than forty passionate, often playful, love poems".[144] The romantic nature of these poems has been debated by scholars for decades, but Amanda Powell argues that nonromantic readings of de la Cruz's work stem from historical and modern assumptions of heterosexuality.[144] For example, De la Cruz's Redondilla 87, which rapturously extols the qualities of a woman named "Feliciana," could be read in a homoerotic manner.[145]
Leona Florentino was born in the Philippines during the Spanish colonial regime in 1849. She is the mother of Philippine women's literature and the pioneer in Philippine lesbian literature, known for kickstarting her homeland's feminist movement, which also led her to be honored as the mother of feminist literature in the country.[146][147][148]
England
In England, female homoeroticism was so common in literature and theater that historians suggest it was fashionable for a period during the Renaissance.[105]:1 Englishwoman Mary Frith has been described as lesbian.[149]
Lesbianism and hermaphroditism, depicted here in an engraving c.1690, were very similar concepts during the Renaissance.
Ideas about women's sexuality were linked to contemporary understanding of female physiology. The vagina was considered an inward version of the penis; in lesbians, nature was thought to be trying to right itself by prolapsing the vagina to form a penis.[105]:12 The idea of hermaphroditism became synonymous with lesbianism. A longer, engorged clitoris was thought to be used in lesbian sex. Penetration was the focus of concern in all sexual acts, and a woman who was thought to have uncontrollable desires because of her engorged clitoris was called a "tribade" (literally, one who rubs).[105]:14–16 For a while, masturbation and lesbian sex carried the same meaning.[24]:129
Tribades were simultaneously considered members of the lower class trying to ruin virtuous women, and representatives of an aristocracy corrupt with debauchery. Satirical writers began to suggest that political rivals (or more often, their wives) engaged in tribadism in order to harm their reputations. Queen Anne was rumored to have a passionate relationship with her close advisor Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough. When Churchill was ousted as the queen's favorite, she purportedly spread allegations of the queen having affairs with her bedchamberwomen.[24]:137Marie Antoinette was also the subject of such speculation between 1795 and 1796.[105]:17–18
Some historians, such as Valerie Traub, have argued that a period of acceptance led to increasing cultural sanctions against lesbian behaviors.[150] For instance, in 1709, Delariviere Manley published The New Atlantis, attacking lesbian activities.[151] However, others, such as Friedli and Lillian Faderman have played down the cultural opposition to female homosexuality, pointing out that it was better tolerated than male homosexual activities.[152] Additionally, despite the social stigma, English courts did not prosecute homosexual activities between women, and lesbianism was largely ignored by the law in England.[152] Although Charles Hamilton (female husband), according to Henry Fielding, was whipped for fraud, the courts and the press of the time do not seem to have believed she committed any crimes.[153]Terry Castle contends that English law in the eighteenth century ignored female homosexual activity not out of indifference, but out of male fears about acknowledging and reifying lesbianism.[150]
The literature of the time attempted to rationalize some lesbian activities, commonly searching for visible indications of sapphic tendencies.[154] In The New Atlantis, the "real" lesbians are depicted as being masculine.[154] However, Catherine Craft-Fairchild argues in "Sexual and Textual Indeterminacy: Eighteenth-Century English Representations of Sapphism" (2006) that Delariviere Manley fails to establish a coherent narrative of lesbians as anatomically distinct from other women,[155] whereas Fielding in The Female Husband focuses on the corruption of Hamilton's mind.[156]Jonathan Swift, writing for The Tatler in 1711, acknowledges the difficulty inherent in establishing such a narrative framework, where he describes a woman having her virginity tested by a lion. Despite the onlookers' failure to detect anything amiss, the lion identified her as "no true Virgin."[157][158] At the same time, positive—or potentially positive writings—concerning female homosexuality drew on the languages of both female same-sex friendship and heterosexual romance. At the time, there were no widespread cultural motifs of homosexuality.[151] Only among the less respectable members of society does it seem that there was any sort of a lesbian subculture. Academics find it likely that there was such a subculture amongst dancers and prostitutes in 18th- and early-19th-century Paris as well as in 18th-century Amsterdam.[159]
Homoerotic elements in early literature were pervasive, specifically the masquerade of one gender for another to seduce an unsuspecting woman. Such plot devices were used in Twelfth Night (1601), The Faerie Queene (1590), and The Bird in a Cage (1633).[105]:1–11,22–24 During the Renaissance, some women put on male personae and went undetected for years or decades. These women have been described as transvestite lesbians.[160][161] Some historians view cases of cross-dressing women to be manifestations of women seizing social power, or their way of making sense out of their desire for women.[95]:51–54
1700s England
Two marriages between women were recorded in Cheshire, England, in 1707 (between Hannah Wright and Anne Gaskill) and 1708 (between Ane Norton and Alice Pickford) with no comment about both parties being female.[105]:30[24]:136
In 1709, English aristocrat Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, wrote to Anne Wortley: "Nobody was so entirely, so faithfully yours ... I put in your lovers, for I don't allow it possible for a man to be so sincere as I am."[104]:119
In the 1700s, English poet Anna Seward had a devoted friendship with Honora Sneyd. Sneyd was the subject of many of Seward's poems. When Sneyd married despite Seward's protest, Seward's poems became angry, and she continued to write about Sneyd long after her death.[104]:132–136
Also in the 1700s, English writer and philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft was attached to a woman named Fanny Blood. Writing to another woman, Wollstonecraft declared, "The roses will bloom when there's peace in the breast, and the prospect of living with my Fanny gladdens my heart:—You know not how I love her."[104]:139[note 6]
Henry Fielding wrote a pamphlet titled The Female Husband in 1746, based on the life of Mary Hamilton, who was arrested after marrying a woman while masquerading as a man, and was sentenced to public whipping and six months in jail.[95]:51–54
1800s England
In the 1800s, English Diarist Anne Lister, captivated by Butler and Ponsonby, recorded her affairs with women between 1817 and 1840. Some of it was written in code, detailing her sexual relationships with Marianna Belcombe and Maria Barlow.[163]:390
France
The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries also saw an increase in lesbian visibility in France, both in the public sphere and in art and literature. Fin de siecle society in Paris included bars, restaurants and cafes frequented and owned by lesbians, such as Le Hanneton, La Souris and Le Rat Mort. Private salons, like the one hosted by the American expatriate Nathalie Barney, drew many lesbian and bisexual artists and writers, including Julie d'Aubigny, Romaine Brooks, Renee Vivien, Colette, Djuna Barnes, Gertrude Stein, and Radclyffe Hall. One of Barney's lovers, the courtesan Liane de Pougy, published a best-selling novel based on their romance called l'Idylle Saphique (1901). Many publicly acknowledged lesbians and bisexual women were entertainers and actresses. Some, like the writer Colette and her lover Mathilde de Morny, performed lesbian theatrical scenes in cabarets; these drew outrage and censorship. Descriptions of lesbian salons, cafes and restaurants were included in tourist guides and journalism of the era. These guides and articles also mentioned houses of prostitution that were uniquely for lesbians. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec created paintings of many of the lesbians he met, some of whom frequented or worked at the famed Moulin Rouge.[164][165]
Lady Frances Brudenell, Countess of Newburgh, was an Irish aristocrat known as the subject of a satire in which she was portrayed as the leader of a society of lesbians.[168]
The "Ladies of Llangollen", Eleanor Butler (1739–1829) and Sarah Ponsonby (1755–1831), were two upper-class Irish women whose relationship scandalised and fascinated their contemporaries. The pair moved to a Gothic house in Llangollen, North Wales, in 1780 after leaving Ireland to escape the social pressures of conventional marriages.
Lady Catherine Jones' decision not to marry, and her close relationships and cohabitation with women throughout her life and into her death, merit speculation that she was a lesbian. The frustratingly minimal surviving documentation of her life makes this difficult to assert with confidence, but readers can read her 'close unions' with Kendall, and with Astell, as not entirely platonic.[170]
Germany
Catharina Margaretha Linck was a Prussian woman who for most of her adult life presented herself as a man. She married a woman and, based on their sexual activity together, was convicted of sodomy and executed by order of King Frederick William I in 1721. Linck's execution was the last for lesbian sexual activity in Europe and an anomaly for its time.[171][172]
Sweden
Queen Christina of Sweden (b. 1626) had a tendency to dress as a man, abdicated the throne in 1654 to avoid marriage, and was known to pursue romantic relationships with women.[104]:54–55 Her relationships were noted during her lifetime. She never married. Christina seems to have written passionate letters to and slept in the same bed with Ebba Sparre.[173] According to Veronica Buckley, Christina was a "dabbler" who was "painted a lesbian, a prostitute, a hermaphrodite, and an atheist" by her contemporaries, though "in that tumultuous age, it is hard to determine which was the most damning label".[citation needed]
Italy
Laudomia Forteguerri was an accomplished Italian poet and a member of one of the most powerful families in the sixteenth-century Republic of Siena. She has been called Italy's earliest lesbian writer, and she was famous for her beauty, wit, and intelligence.[174]
Spain
Eleno de Céspedes, was a Spanish surgeon born into slavery who married a man and later a woman, and was tried by the Spanish Inquisition. Céspedes may have been an intersex person, as different doctors' accounts portray her as having either female anatomy or both sets of genitals. If a woman, Céspedes may have been a lesbian and/or the first female surgeon known in Spain and perhaps in Europe.[175]
In colonial American history, laws against lesbianism were suggested but not created or enforced. In 1636, John Cotton proposed a law which would make sex between two women (or two men) in Massachusetts Bay a capital offense, but the law was not enacted.[177] It would have read, "Unnatural filthiness, to be punished with death, whether sodomy, which is carnal fellowship of man with man, or woman with woman, or buggery, which is carnal fellowship of man or woman with beasts or fowls".[178] In 1655, the Connecticut Colony suggested a law against sodomy between women (as well as between men), but it did not take effect.[179]
However, Sarah White Norman and Mary Vincent Hammon in 1649 in Plymouth Colony were prosecuted for "lewd behavior with each other upon a bed". Their trial documents are the only known record of sex between female English colonists in North America in the seventeenth century.[180] Hammon was only admonished, perhaps because she was under sixteen,[180] but in 1650 Norman was convicted and required to publicly acknowledge her "unchaste behavior" with Hammon. She was also warned against future offenses.[181] This is the only known example of the prosecution of female homosexual activities in United States history.[182]
In 1779, Thomas Jefferson proposed a law stating that "Whosoever shall be guilty of rape, polygamy, or sodomy with man or woman shall be punished, if a man, by castration, if a woman, by cutting thro' the cartilage of her nose a hole of one half inch diameter at the least",[184][185][186] but the proposal failed.
In Paris in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, lesbians became more visible in art and in the public sphere. A painting by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec of entertainer Cha-U-Kao at the Moulin Rouge.
Close intimate relationships were common among women in the mid-nineteenth century. This was attributed to strict gender roles that led women to expand their social circle to other women for emotional support. These relationships were expected to form close between women with similar socioeconomic status.[187] Since there was not defined language in regards to lesbianism at the time, these relationships were seen as merely homosocial. Though women developed very close emotional relationships with one another, marriage to men was still the norm. However, there is evidence of possible sexual relationships beyond an emotional level. Documents from two African-American women describe practices known as "bosom sex." While these women practiced heterosexuality with their husbands, it is still believed their relationship was romantic and sexual.[188]
The late nineteenth century and early twentieth century saw the flourishing of "Boston marriages" in New England. The term describes romantic friendship between two women, living together without any financial support from men. Many lasting romantic friendships began at women's colleges. This kind of relationship actually predates the New England custom, as there have been examples of this in the United Kingdom and continental Europe since the seventeenth century.[189] Belief in the platonic nature of Boston marriages began to dissipate after followers of Freud cast suspicion on the supposed innocent friendships of the "marriages".[190]
American poet Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) wrote over 300 letters and poems to Susan Gilbert, who later became her sister-in-law, and later engaged in another romantic correspondence with Kate Scott Anthon.[162]:145–148
American freeborn Black women Addie Brown and Rebecca Primus left evidence of their passion in letters: "No kisses is like youres".[24]:234 They wrote openly about their sexual affection for one another, and despite their working-class economic status their writings survived, both of which are unusual for the time.
In 1870, American Alice Baldy wrote to Josie Varner, "Do you know that if you touch me, or speak to me there is not a nerve of fibre in my body that does not respond with a thrill of delight?"[24]:232
In the early 1900s, the unmarried professor Jeannette Augustus Marks at Mount Holyoke College, lived with the college president, Mary Woolley, for 36 years. Even while unmarried and living with a woman, Marks discouraged young women from "abnormal" friendships and insisted happiness could only be attained with a man.[24]:239[note 7]
Later 20th and early 21st centuries (1969–present)
Political lesbianism originated in the late 1960s among second waveradical feminists as a way to fight sexism and compulsory heterosexuality (see Adrienne Rich's essay "Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence"). Sheila Jeffreys, a lesbian, helped to develop the concept when she co-wrote "Love Your Enemy? The Debate Between Heterosexual Feminism and Political Lesbianism"[196] with the Leeds Revolutionary Feminist Group. They argued that women should abandon support of heterosexuality and stop sleeping with men, encouraging women to rid men "from your beds and your heads."[197] While the main idea of political lesbianism is to be separate from men, this does not necessarily mean that political lesbians have to sleep with women; some choose to be celibate or identify as asexual. The Leeds Revolutionary Feminist Group definition of a political lesbian is "a woman identified woman who does not fuck men". They proclaimed men the enemy and women who were in relationships with them collaborators and complicit in their own oppression. Heterosexual behavior was seen as the basic unit of the patriarchy's political structure, with lesbians who reject heterosexual behavior therefore disrupting the established political system.[198] Lesbian women who have identified themselves as "political lesbians" include Ti-Grace Atkinson, Julie Bindel, Charlotte Bunch, Yvonne Rainer, and Sheila Jeffreys. Some key thinkers and activists in lesbian feminism are Charlotte Bunch, Rita Mae Brown, Adrienne Rich, Audre Lorde, Marilyn Frye, Mary Daly, Sheila Jeffreys and Monique Wittig (although the latter is more commonly associated with the emergence of queer theory).
On December 15, 1973, the American Psychiatric Association voted almost unanimously to remove "homosexuality" from the list of psychiatric disorders that are included in the group's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. This reversal came after three years of protests from gay and lesbian liberation activists and major disruption at the group's panel on homosexuality in 1970.[199]
The Lesbian Avengers began in New York City in 1992 as "a direct action group focused on issues vital to lesbian survival and visibility."[200][201] Dozens of other chapters quickly emerged worldwide, a few expanding their mission to include questions of gender, race, and class. Newsweek reporter Eloise Salholz, covering the 1993 March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation, believed the Lesbian Avengers were so popular because they were founded at a moment when lesbians were increasingly tired of working on issues, like AIDS and abortion, while their own problems went unsolved.[202] Most importantly, lesbians were frustrated with invisibility in society at large, and invisibility and misogyny in the LGBT community.[202]
United Kingdom
In 1974, Maureen Colquhoun came out as the first lesbian MP for the Labour Party in the UK. When elected she was in a heterosexual marriage.[203]
Into the mid-1970s, lesbians around the world were publishing their personal coming out stories, as these came few and far between at the time. In addition to coming out stories, lesbians were publishing biographies of lesbian writers who were misplaced in history, looking for examples of who they were and how their community came to be. As with Gay Liberation, the lesbian feminist understanding of the lesbian potential in all women was at odds with the minority-rights framework of the Gay Rights movement. Many women of the Gay Liberation movement felt frustrated at the domination of the movement by men and formed separate organizations; some who felt gender differences between men and women could not be resolved developed "lesbian separatism", influenced by writings such as Jill Johnston's 1973 book Lesbian Nation. Disagreements between different political philosophies were, at times, extremely heated, and became known as the lesbian sex wars,[204] clashing in particular over views on sadomasochism, prostitution and transgenderism. The "Sex Wars" was a time in feminist history that divided "anti-pornography" and "pro-sex" feminists. The common belief among pro-sex feminists was that there needed to be a new way for female desire to be advertised and demonstrated. General photography of women in this manner was debated among feminists everywhere.[205]
Eastern Bloc
In the Eastern Bloc, although there were no standard laws regarding discrimination against gays and lesbians, self-expression was discouraged as it encouraged people toward actions that were outside the accepted norms of a harmonious socialist society. As such, state police often used blackmail and kept dossiers on homosexual people as a way for them to be manipulated by the state.[206] Activists in Eastern Europe were not unaware of events in the West, but generally forming associations for any type of special interest group was forbidden until the 1980s.[207][208] Because state sanction was not given, many support systems for lesbians operated clandestinely. For example, in East Germany, Ursula Sillge formed the Sunday Club in 1986 to offer both a means for lesbians to gather outside the state-sanctioned churches but as a way for them to provide educational materials about homosexuality to each other and press authorities to acknowledge the discrimination faced by lesbians and gays.[209][210] The Sunday Club would not gain official sanction and the ability to register as an organization until 1990.[211] In Hungary, the first legally recognized organization to represent the LGBT community was Homéros[hu].[212] It was organized in 1988 at the Ipoly Cinema, a venue where Ildikó Juhász operated an after-hours safe space for lesbians to come together to create social networks.[213][214]
Two women belonging to the US Navy who are in a relationship kiss in public upon meeting after a long time.
New Zealand
Auckland, New Zealand is home to what is noted as the only museum in the world dedicated to Lesbian history, The Charlotte Museum.[215] The museum aims to preserve collect and exhibit the histories, cultures and experiences of Lesbian Sapphic communities in New Zealand.[216]
In 1909, Percy Redwood created a scandal in New Zealand when she was found to be Amy Bock, who had married a woman from Port Molyneaux; newspapers argued whether it was a sign of insanity or an inherent character flaw.[217]
Western Civilization in General
Re-examining romantic friendships
During the 17th through 19th centuries in the West, a woman expressing passionate love for another woman was fashionable, accepted, and encouraged.[24]:136 These relationships were termed romantic friendships, Boston marriages, or "sentimental friends".[218] These relationships were documented by large volumes of letters written between women. Any sexual components of the relationships were not publicly discussed. Romantic friendships were promoted as alternatives to and practice for a woman's marriage to a man.[104]:74–77
In a rare instance of sexuality being the focus of a romantic friendship, two Scottish schoolteachers in the early 19th century were accused by a student of visiting in the same bed, kissing, and making the bed shake. The student's grandmother reported the teachers to the authorities, who were skeptical that their actions were sexual in nature, or that they extended beyond the bounds of normal friendship: "Are we to say that every woman who has formed an intimate friendship and has slept in the same bed with another is guilty? Where is the innocent woman in Scotland?"[24]:233
Around the turn of the 20th century, the development of higher education provided opportunities for women. In all-female surroundings, a culture of romantic pursuit was fostered in women's colleges. Older students mentored younger ones, called on them socially, took them to all-women dances, and sent them flowers, cards, and poems that declared their undying love for each other.[104]:297–313 These were called "smashes" or "spoons", and they were written about quite frankly in stories for girls aspiring to attend college in publications such as Ladies Home Journal, a children's magazine titled St. Nicholas, and a collection called Smith College Stories, without negative views.[162]:255 Enduring loyalty, devotion, and love were major components to these stories, and sexual acts beyond kissing were consistently undescribed.[104]:297–313
Faderman calls this period "the last breath of innocence" before 1920 when characterizations of female affection were connected to sexuality, marking lesbians as a unique and often unflatteringly portrayed group.[104]:297–313 Specifically, Faderman connects the growth of women's independence and their beginning to reject strictly prescribed roles in the Victorian era to the scientific designation of lesbianism as a type of aberrant sexual behavior.[95]:45–49
History of sexology (late 1800s-early 1900s)
In research on "inversion", German sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld categorized what was normal sexual behavior for men and women, and therefore categorized to what extent men and women deviated from these "ideal types".[24]:168 Sexologists Richard von Krafft-Ebing from Germany and Britain's Havelock Ellis wrote some of the earliest and more enduring categorizations of female same-sex attraction, approaching it as a form of insanity and debating whether change was possible.[104]:241–242
The work of Krafft-Ebing and Ellis was widely read and helped to create public consciousness of female homosexuality.[note 8] In the absence of any other material to describe their emotions, homosexuals accepted the designation of different or perverted, and used their outlaw status to form social circles in Paris and Berlin. Lesbian began to describe elements of a subculture.[24]:178–179
Early 1900s
Berlin's thriving lesbian community in the 1920s published Die Freundin magazine between 1924 and 1933.
From the 1890s to the 1930s, American heiress Natalie Clifford Barney held a weekly salon of artistic celebrities in Paris, where lesbian topics were the focus. Combining Greek influences with contemporary French eroticism, she attempted to create an updated and idealized version of Lesbos in her salon.[220]:234 Salon attendees included prominent lesbian artists such as novelist Radclyffe Hall,[221]:48 artist Romaine Brooks; writer Colette, writer Djuna Barnes, and social host Gertrude Stein.[222]:153–167
Berlin had a vibrant homosexual culture in the 1920s, and about 50 clubs catered to lesbians. Die Freundin Magazines like (The Girlfriend) and Garçonne (aka Frauenliebe (Woman Love)) were aimed at lesbians and male transvestites.[24]:241–244 These publications were controlled by men as owners, publishers, and writers. Around 1926, Selli Engler founded Die BIF – Blätter Idealer Frauenfreundschaften (The BIF – Papers on Ideal Women Friendships), the first lesbian publication owned, published and written by women. In 1928, the lesbian bar and nightclub guide Berlins lesbische Frauen (The Lesbians of Berlin) by Ruth Margarite Röllig[223] further popularized the German capital as a center of lesbian activity. Clubs varied between large tourist attractions to small neighborhood cafes. The cabaret song "Das lila Lied" ("The Lavender Song") became an anthem to the lesbians of Berlin. Although it was sometimes tolerated, homosexuality was illegal in Germany and law enforcement used permitted gatherings as an opportunity to register the names of homosexuals for future reference.[224] Magnus Hirschfeld's Scientific-Humanitarian Committee, which promoted tolerance for homosexuals in Germany, welcomed lesbian participation, and a surge of lesbian-themed writing and political activism in the German feminist movement became evident.[220]:230–231
In 1928, Radclyffe Hall published the novel The Well of Loneliness. The novel's plot centers around Stephen Gordon, an invert woman. The novel was intended to be a call for tolerance for inverts by publicizing their disadvantages and lack of control over the condition.[104]:320 The novel's trial for obscenity was described as "the crystallizing moment in the construction of a visible modern English lesbian subculture" by professor Laura Doan.[225]
Newspaper stories frankly divulged that the book's content includes "sexual relations between Lesbian women", and photographs of Hall often accompanied details about lesbians in most major print outlets within a span of six months.[225] Hall reflected the appearance of a "mannish" woman in the 1920s: short cropped hair, tailored suits (often with pants), and monocle that became widely recognized as a "uniform".[225]
In the United States, the 1920s was a decade of social experimentation, particularly with sex. This was heavily influenced by the writings of Sigmund Freud, who theorized that sexual desire would be sated unconsciously, despite an individual's wish to ignore it.[95]:63–67 Freud said that while most people have phases of homosexual attraction or experimentation, he attributed exclusive same-sex attraction to stunted development resulting from trauma or parental conflicts.[220]:242[note 9] Freud's theories were much more pervasive in the U.S. than in Europe. Large cities that provided a nightlife were immensely popular, and women began to seek out sexual adventure. Bisexuality became chic, particularly in America's first gay neighborhoods.[95]:63–67
No location saw more visitors for its possibilities of homosexual nightlife than Harlem, the predominantly African American section of New York City. White "slummers" enjoyed jazz and nightclubs. Blues singers Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Ethel Waters, and Gladys Bentley openly sang about affairs with women.[95]:71[227] Homosexuals began to draw comparisons between their newly recognized minority status and that of African Americans.[95]:68 Among African American residents of Harlem, lesbian relationships were common and tolerated, though not overtly embraced. Some women staged lavish wedding ceremonies, even filing licenses using masculine names with New York City.[95]:73 Most homosexual women were married to men and participated in affairs with women regularly.[227]
Across town, Greenwich Village also saw a growing homosexual community; both Harlem and Greenwich Village provided furnished rooms for single men and women, which was a major factor in their development as centers for homosexual communities.[4]:181 The Village attracted Bohemian intellectuals who rejected Victorian ideals. Homosexuals were predominantly male, although figures such as poet Edna St. Vincent Millay and social host Mabel Dodge were known for their affairs with women and promotion of tolerance of homosexuality.[104]:82–83 Women in the U.S. who could not visit Harlem or live in Greenwich Village were first able to visit saloons in the 1920s without being considered prostitutes. The existence of a public space for women to socialize in bars that catered to lesbians "became the single most important public manifestation of the subculture for many decades", according to historian Lillian Faderman.[95]:79–80
Great Depression
The primary component necessary to encourage lesbians to be public and seek other women was economic independence, which virtually disappeared in the 1930s with the Great Depression. Independent women in the 1930s were generally seen as holding jobs that men should have. Most lesbians in the U.S. found it necessary to marry, engaging either in traditional marriages or "front" marriages to a gay man where both could discreetly pursue homosexual relationships.[95]:94–96
The hostile social attitude led to the formation of small, close-knit, bar-centric communities in large cities. Women in other locales typically remained isolated. Speaking of homosexuality in any context was socially forbidden. Slang terms referred to openly gay people as "in the Life".[95]:105–112[note 10]
Homosexual subculture disappeared in Germany with the rise of the Nazis in 1933.[24]:191–193
American First Lady from 1933 to 1945, Eleanor Roosevelt, exchanged rings with and wrote daily letters to journalist Lorena Hickok, expressing her love for Hickok, using endearments, and expressing a desire to kiss her.[104]:297–313
World War II
Women's experiences in the work force and the military during World War II gave them economic and social options that helped to shape lesbian subculture.People who did not conform to Nazi ideals were considered asocial, imprisoned, and identified with a black triangle. Lesbians were deemed asocial.Many lesbians reclaimed the symbolism of the pink triangle, though the Nazis only applied it to gay men.
The onset of World War II caused a massive upheaval in people's lives as military mobilization engaged millions of men. Women were also accepted into the military in the U.S. Women's Army Corps (WACs) and U.S. Navy's Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES). Unlike processes to screen out male homosexuals, which had been in place since the creation of the American military, there were no methods to identify or screen for lesbians; they were put into place gradually during World War II. Despite common attitudes regarding women's traditional roles in the 1930s, independent and masculine women were directly recruited by the military in the 1940s, and frailty discouraged.[229]:28–33
Some women arrived at the recruiting station in a man's suit, denied ever being in love with another woman, and were easily inducted.[229]:28–33 Sexual activity was forbidden and blue discharge was almost certain if one identified oneself as a lesbian. As women found each other, they formed into tight groups on base, socialized at service clubs, and began to use code words. Historian Allan Bérubé documented that homosexuals in the armed forces either consciously or subconsciously refused to identify themselves as homosexual or lesbian, and also never spoke about others' orientation.[229]:104
The most masculine women were not necessarily common, though they were visible, so they tended to attract women interested in finding other lesbians. Women had to broach the subject about their interest in other women carefully, sometimes taking days to develop a common understanding without asking or stating anything outright.[229]:100
Women who did not enter the military were aggressively called upon to take industrial jobs left by men, in order to continue national productivity. The increased mobility, sophistication, and independence of many women during and after the war made it possible for women to live without husbands, something that would not have been feasible under different economic and social circumstances, further shaping lesbian networks and environments.[95]:129–130
In Germany, there was no explicit law against lesbianism. Lesbians who were Jewish, Roma, or politically dissident, were persecuted primarily for these other characteristics.[230] Prior to 1939, lesbians were imprisoned as 'asocials', which was "a broad category applied to all people who evaded Nazi rule."[231] Asocials were identified with an inverted black triangle.[230] In the 1990s in the U.S., some lesbians used the black triangle symbol as an identifier, and the pink triangle was also used for the combined lesbian-gay movement.[231]
Postwar
The 1957 first edition of The Ladder, mailed to hundreds of women in the San Francisco area, urged women to take off their masks.
Following World War II, a nationwide movement pressed to return to pre-war society as quickly as possible in the U.S.[232] Partially due to the increasing national paranoia about communism and the pervasiveness of psychoanalytic theory, the U.S. government began persecuting homosexuals around 1950. The government fired open homosexuals and began a widespread effort to gather intelligence about employees' private lives.[220]:277 The U.S. military and government conducted interrogations of women's sexual histories.[95]:150–155 State and local governments followed suit, arresting people for congregating in bars and parks, and enacting laws against cross-dressing for both sexes.[232]
Postwar practices to eliminate homosexuals from public service positions also began to Australia,[233] Canada,[234] and the UK.[105]:109–114 A section to create an offence of "gross indecency" between females was added to a bill in the United Kingdom House of Commons and passed there in 1921, but was rejected in the House of Lords, apparently because they were concerned any attention paid to sexual misconduct would also promote it.[105]:109–114
Concurrently with government persecution, in 1952, homosexuality was listed as a pathological emotional disturbance in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual.[220]:247 The view that homosexuality was a curable sickness was widely believed in the medical community, general population, and among many lesbians themselves.[235]
Very little information was available about homosexuality beyond medical and psychiatric texts. Community meeting places consisted of bars that were commonly raided by police, with those arrested exposed in newspapers. In response, eight women in San Francisco met in their living rooms in 1955 to socialize and have a safe place to dance. When they decided to make it a regular meeting, they became the first organization for lesbians in the U.S., titled the Daughters of Bilitis (DOB). In 1956, the DOB began publishing a magazine titled The Ladder.[236]The Ladder was mailed to hundreds—eventually thousands—of DOB members discussing the nature of homosexuality, sometimes challenging the idea that it was a sickness, with readers offering their own reasons why they were lesbians and suggesting ways to cope with the condition or society's response to it.[235] British lesbians followed with the publication of Arena Three beginning in 1964, with a similar mission.[105]:153–158
Though marketed to heterosexual men, lesbian pulp fiction provided an identity to isolated women in the 1950s.
Early working-class lesbian subculture in the U.S. and Canada developed rigid gender roles. These roles dated back to Harlem and Greenwich Village in the 1920s.[105] In this subculture, a couple was defined as "dichotomous individuals, if not male and female, then butch and femme".[95]:167–168 Although many municipalities enacted laws against cross-dressing, some women (butches) would socialize in bars dressed in men's clothing and mirroring traditional masculine behavior. Others (femmes) wore traditionally feminine clothing. Butch and femme modes of socialization were so integral within lesbian bars that women who refused to choose between the two would be ignored, or at least unable to date anyone, and butch/butch or femme/femme romantic relationships were unacceptable.[95]:167–168
By the 1950s and 1960s, the roles were pervasive and not limited to North America: from 1940 to 1970, butch/femme bar culture flourished in Britain, though there were fewer class distinctions than in lesbian communities in the U.S.[105]:141–143[95]:170–174 Butch and femme were considered coarse by American lesbians of higher social standing during this period.[95]:175–178
Regardless of the lack of information about homosexuality in scholarly texts, another forum for learning about lesbianism was growing. A paperback book titled Women's Barracks describing a woman's experiences in the Free French Forces was published in 1950. It told of a lesbian relationship the author had witnessed. After 4.5 million copies were sold, it was consequently named in the House Select Committee on Current Pornographic Materials in 1952.[237] Its publisher, Gold Medal Books, followed with the novel Spring Fire in 1952, which sold 1.5 million copies. Gold Medal Books was overwhelmed with mail from women writing about the subject matter, and followed with more books, creating the genre of lesbian pulp fiction.[237]
Between 1955 and 1969, over 2,000 books were published using lesbianism as a topic, and they were sold in corner drugstores, train stations, bus stops, and newsstands all over the U.S. and Canada. Literary scholar, Yvonne Keller created several subclasses for lesbian pulp fiction, to help highlight the differences between the types of pulp fiction being released.[238] Virile adventures were written by authors using male pseudonyms, and almost all were marketed to heterosexual men. During this time, another subclass emerged called "Pro-Lesbian". The emergence of pro-lesbian fiction began with authors seeing the voyeuristic and homophobic nature of virile adventures. With only a handful of lesbian pulp fiction authors were women writing for lesbians, including Ann Bannon, Valerie Taylor, Paula Christian, and Vin Packer/Ann Aldrich. These authors focused on the relationship between the women instead of writing sexually explicit material, defying the standards of the "virile adventure" model.[238]
The differences between virile adventures and pro-lesbian covers and titles were distinct enough that Bannon, who also purchased lesbian pulp fiction, later stated that women identified the material iconically by the cover art.[239] Pro-lesbian covers were innocuous and hinted at their lesbian themes, and virile adventures ranged from having one woman partially undressed to sexually explicit covers, to demonstrate the invariably salacious material inside.[238] In addition to this, coded words and images were used on the covers. Instead of "lesbian", terms such as "strange", "twilight", "queer", and "third sex", were used in the titles.[240] Many of the books used cultural references: naming places, terms, describing modes of dress and other codes to isolated women. As a result, pulp fiction helped to proliferate a lesbian identity simultaneously to lesbians and heterosexual readers.[241]
Second-wave feminism / Late 1960s-1980s
The social rigidity of the 1950s and early 1960s encountered a backlash as social movements to improve the standing of African Americans, the poor, women, and gays all became prominent. The gay rights movement and the feminist movement connected after a violent confrontation occurred in New York City in the 1969 Stonewall riots.[24]:212–216
From the late 1950s to the 1970s, the sexual revolution took place, and many women took advantage of their new social freedom to try new experiences. Women who previously identified as heterosexual tried sex with women, though many maintained their heterosexual identity.[95]:203
From the 1960s to the 1980s, the movement of second-wave feminism developed. Lesbianism as a political identity grew to describe a social philosophy among women, often overshadowing sexual desire as a defining trait. Different groups and authors defined "lesbian" as "the rage of all women condensed to the point of explosion".,[242]:70 "a woman-identified woman who does not fuck men. It does not mean compulsory sexual activity with women.",[105]:177 or "a woman whose primary erotic, psychological, emotional and social interest is in a member of her own sex[...].".[243]:7 Women who subscribed to this philosophy dubbed themselves lesbian-feminists. In the ideal society, named Lesbian Nation, "woman" and "lesbian" were interchangeable.[95]:218–219
Separatist feminists expressed their disdain with an inherently sexist and patriarchal society, and concluded the most effective way to overcome sexism and attain the equality of women would be to deny men any power or pleasure from women. Many believers strove to separate themselves physically and economically from traditional male-centered culture.[95]:218–219 As equality was a priority for lesbian-feminists, disparity of roles between men and women or butch and femme were viewed as patriarchal. Lesbian-feminists also eschewed the perceived chauvinism of gay men; many lesbian-feminists refused to work with men, or take up their causes.[95]:210–211
Although lesbian-feminism was a significant shift, not all lesbians agreed with it. Lesbian-feminism was a youth-oriented movement: its members were primarily college educated, with experience in New Left and radical causes, but they had not seen any success in persuading radical organizations to take up women's issues.[242]:11 Many older lesbians who had acknowledged their sexuality in more conservative times felt maintaining their ways of coping in a homophobic world was more appropriate.[244] Lesbians who believed they were born homosexual, and used the descriptor "lesbian" to define sexual attraction, often considered the separatist opinions of lesbian-feminists to be detrimental to the cause of gay rights.[95]:217–218
In 1970, the Daughters of Bilitis folded over which direction to focus on: feminism or gay rights issues.[244]
From 1974 to 1993, the organization Salsa Soul Sisters, today known as the African Ancestral Lesbians United for Societal Change, was a lesbian womanist organization operating in New York City.[245]:55
In the 1980s, a significant movement rejected the desexualization of lesbianism by cultural feminists, causing a heated controversy called the feminist sex wars.[95]:246–252 Butch and femme roles returned, although not as strictly followed as they were in the 1950s. They became a mode of chosen sexual self-expression for some women in the 1990s. Once again, women felt safer claiming to be more sexually adventurous, and sexual flexibility became more accepted.[248]
In 1997, Marxist political activist Angela Davis came out a lesbian in an interview with Out magazine.[249]
"Lesbians of color" is an umbrella term for Black, Latina, Asian, Arab, Native American, and other non-white lesbians. Lesbians of color have often been a marginalized group,[250] and experienced racism in addition to homophobia and misogyny.[251][pageneeded]
Some scholars have noted that past lesbian communities were primarily white and American, and that some lesbians of color had difficulties integrating into these communities at large. Many lesbians of color have stated that they were often systematically excluded from lesbian spaces based on the fact that they are women of color.[252] The early lesbian feminist movement was criticized for excluding race and class issues from their spaces and for a lack of focus on issues that did not benefit white women.[250]
Additionally, lesbians of color face unique sets of challenges within their respective racial communities, as communities of color often view homosexuality as a "white" lifestyle and see the acceptance of homosexuality as a setback in achieving equality.[251][pageneeded] Lesbians of color, especially those of immigrant populations, often hold the sentiment that their orientation adversely affects assimilation into the dominant culture.[250] Within racial communities, the decision to come out can be costly, as the threat of loss of support from family, friends, and the community at large is probable. Lesbians of color are often exposed to a range of adverse consequences, including microaggression, discrimination, menace, and violence.[252]
Audre Lorde, Barbara Smith, and Cherrie Moraga are cited as major theorists within the various lesbians of color movements for their insistence on inclusion and equality, from both racial communities and white lesbian communities.[250]
The many intersections surrounding lesbians of color can often contribute to an increased need for mental health resources. Lesbians of color are more likely to experience a number of psychological issues due to the various experiences of sexism, racism, and homophobia.[253] Mental health providers often use heteronormative standards to gauge the health of lesbian relationships, and the relationships of lesbian women of color are often subjects of judgment because they are seen as the most deviant.[253]
==Native North America Some Indigenous peoples of the Americas conceptualize a third gender for women who dress as, and fulfill the roles usually filled by, men in their cultures.[254][255] In other cases they may use different terms for feminine women and masculine women.[256] These identities are rooted in the context of the ceremonial and cultural lives of the particular Indigenous cultures, and "simply being gay and Indian does not make someone a Two-Spirit."[257] These ceremonial and social roles, which are conferred and confirmed by the person's elders, "do not make sense" when defined by non-Native concepts of sexual orientation and gender identity.[255] Rather, they must be understood in an Indigenous context, as traditional spiritual and social roles held by the person in their Indigenous community.[257][255][258]
Tribal law can differ from colonial law. For example, the Navajo Nation's Diné Marriage Act of 2005, which bans recognition of specifically same-sex marriages performed outside the Nation, remains in place as of 2025 despite ongoing disputes.[259][260][261]
In Latin America, lesbian subcultures increased as several countries transitioned to or reformed democratic governments. However, social harassment has been common even in places where homosexuality is legal. Laws against child corruption, morality, or "the good ways" (faltas a la moral o las buenas costumbres) have been used to persecute homosexuals.[262][when?] Lesbian groups and advocacy have faced repression in many countries where dictators have seized power,[when?] including Argentina.[262]
The meetings of feminist lesbians of Latin America and the Caribbean, sometimes shortened to "Lesbian meetings", have been an important forum for the exchange of ideas for Latin American lesbians since the late 1980s. With rotating hosts and biannual gatherings, its main aims are the creation of communication networks, to change the situation of lesbians in Latin America (both legally and socially), to increase solidarity between lesbians and to destroy the existing myths about them.[263]
Argentina
Argentina was the first Latin American country with a gay rights group, Nuestro Mundo (NM, or Our World), created in 1969. Six mostly secret organizations concentrating on gay or lesbian issues were founded around this time, but persecution and harassment were continuous and grew worse with the dictatorship of Jorge Rafael Videla in 1976, when all groups were dissolved in the Dirty War. Lesbian rights groups have gradually formed since 1986 to build a cohesive community that works to overcome philosophical differences with heterosexual women.[262]
Mexico
In 1977, Lesbos, the first lesbian organization for Mexicans, was formed. Several incarnations of political groups promoting lesbian issues have evolved; 13 lesbian organizations were active in Mexico City in 1997. Ultimately, lesbian associations had little influence on the homosexual and feminist movements.[262]
Chile
In Chile, the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet forbade the creation of lesbian groups until 1984, when laws changed. In 1984, Ayuquelén ("joy of being" in Mapuche) was first founded, prompted in part by the very public beating death of a woman, Mónica Briones, amid shouts of "Damned lesbian!" from her attacker.[262]
The lesbian movement has been closely associated with the feminist movement in Chile, although the relationship has been sometimes strained. Ayuquelén worked with the International Lesbian Information Service, the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association, and the Chilean gay rights group Movimiento de Integración y Liberación Homosexual (Movement to Integrate and Liberate Homosexuals) to remove the sodomy law still in force in Chile.[262]
Nicaragua
Lesbian consciousness became more visible in Nicaragua in 1986, when the Sandinista National Liberation Front expelled gay men and lesbians from its midst. State persecution prevented the formation of associations until AIDS became a concern, when educational efforts forced sexual minorities to band together. The first lesbian organization was Nosotras, founded in 1989. An effort to promote visibility from 1991 to 1992 provoked the government to declare homosexuality illegal in 1994, effectively ending the movement, until 2004, when Grupo Safo– Grupo de Mujeres Lesbianas de Nicaragua was created, four years before homosexuality became legal again.[262]
South Africa
In South Africa, men sometimes rape lesbians with a goal of punishment of "abnormal" behavior and reinforcement of societal norms.[264] The crime was first identified in South Africa[265] where it is sometimes supervised by members of the woman's family or local community,[266] and is a major contributor to HIV infection in South African lesbians.[264] "Corrective rape" is not recognized by the South African legal system as a hate crime despite the fact that the South African Constitution states that no person shall be discriminated against based on their social status and identity, including sexual orientation.[267][268][269] Legally, South Africa protects gay rights extensively, but the government has not taken proactive action to prevent corrective rape, and women do not have much faith in the police and their investigations.[270][271]
Corrective rape is reported to be on the rise in South Africa. The South African nonprofit "Luleki Sizwe" estimates that more than 10 lesbians are raped or gang-raped on a weekly basis.[272] As made public by the Triangle Project in 2008, at least 500 lesbians become victims of corrective rape every year and 86% of black lesbians in the Western Cape live in fear of being sexually assaulted.[270] Victims of corrective rape are less likely to report the crime because of their society's negative beliefs about homosexuality.[270]
Arabic-language historical records have used various terms to describe sexual practices between women.[273] A common one is "sahq", which refers to rubbing. Lesbian practices and identities are largely absent from the historical record. The common term to describe lesbianism in Arabic today is essentially the same term used to describe men, and thus the distinction between male and female homosexuality is to a certain extent linguistically obscured in contemporary queer discourse.[273] Overall, the study of contemporary lesbian experience in the region is complicated by power dynamics in the postcolonial context, shaped even by what some scholars refer to as "homonationalism", the use of politicized understanding of sexual categories to advance specific national interests on the domestic and international stage.[274]
Women in the Middle East have been historically segregated from men. In the 7th and 8th centuries, some extraordinary women dressed in male attire when gender roles were less strict. The Caliphal court in Baghdad featured women who dressed as men, including false facial hair, but they competed with other women for the attentions of men.[275][273]
In the ninth century, the Muslim philosopher al-Kindi, who was born and educated in modern-day Iraq, explicitly discusses lesbianism: "Lesbianism is due to a vapor which, condensed, generates in the labia heat and an itch which only dissolve and become cold through friction and orgasm. When friction and orgasm take place, the heat turns into coldness because the liquid that a woman ejaculates in lesbian intercourse is cold whereas..."[273]
In the tenth century, the erotic writings Jawami ` al-ladhdha (Encyclopedia of Pleasure), by Abul Hasan Ali ibn Nasr al-Katib, was written also in modern-day Iraq. It describes a committed relationship between a Christian woman and an Arab woman in pre-Islamic Iraq, and the mourning process one went through when the other died.[273]
According to the 12th-century writings of Sharif al-Idrisi, highly intelligent women were more likely to be lesbians; their intellectual prowess put them on a more even par with men.[275]
While male-written accounts of lesbianism in the Middle East exist, a 1978 treatise about repression in Iran asserted that women were completely silenced: "In the whole of Iranian history, [no woman] has been allowed to speak out for such tendencies ... To attest to lesbian desires would be an unforgivable crime."[275]
A lesbian anthropologist in 1991 visited Yemen and reported that women in the town she visited were unable to comprehend her romantic relationship to another woman. Women in Pakistan are expected to marry men; those who do not are ostracized. Women may have intimate relations with other women as long as their wifely duties are met, their private matters are kept quiet, and the woman with whom they are involved is somehow related by family or logical interest to her lover.[275]
Individuals identifying with or otherwise engaging in lesbian practices in the region can face family violence and societal persecution, including "honor killings". The justifications provided by murderers relate to a person's perceived sexual immorality, loss of virginity (outside of acceptable frames of marriage), and target female victims primarily.[276]
Lesbians also face government persecution in the Middle East. In Yemen, homosexuality is criminalized, and women can face lashings, up to three years in prison or the death penalty for consensual lesbian sex.[277][278]
Africa
Founded in 2004 in Namibia, the Coalition of African Lesbians is a pan-Africanist, radical feminist network of fourteen nonprofits across ten African countries, working to eradicate stigma, legal discrimination, and violence against lesbians.[279]
Cross-gender roles and marriage between women has also been recorded in over 30 traditional African societies.[24]:262 Women may marry other women, raise their children, and be generally thought of as men in societies in Nigeria, Cameroon, and Kenya. The Hausa people of Sudan have a term equivalent to lesbian, kifi, that may also be applied to males to mean "neither party insists on a particular sexual role".[24]:259
Near the Congo River, a female who participates in strong emotional or sexual relationships with another female among the Nkundo people is known as yaikya bonsángo (a woman who presses against another woman). Lesbian relationships are also known in matrilineal societies in Ghana among the Akan people. In Lesotho, females engage in what is commonly considered sexual behavior to the Western world: they kiss, sleep together, rub genitals, participate in cunnilingus, and maintain their relationships with other females vigilantly. Since the people of Lesotho believe sex requires a penis, they do not consider their behavior sexual, nor label themselves lesbians.[24]:237–238
In Tanzania, lesbians are known as or called "Msagaji" (singular), "Wasagaji" (plural), which in Swahili means grinder or grinding because of the perceived nature of lesbian sex that would involve the mutual rubbing of vulvas.[280]
Corrective rape is reported to be on the rise in South Africa.[when?][264] The crime is sometimes supervised by members of the woman's family or local community,[266] and is a major contributor to HIV infection in South African lesbians.[264] "Corrective rape" is not recognized by the South African legal system as a hate crime despite the fact that the South African Constitution states that no person shall be discriminated against based on their social status and identity, including sexual orientation.[267][268][269] Legally, South Africa protects gay rights extensively, but the government has not taken proactive action to prevent corrective rape, and women do not have much faith in the police and their investigations.[270][271] Local South African organizations including nonprofit "Luleki Sizwe" and The Triangle Project, between 500 (per Triangle Project) and 3600 (Luleki Sizwe) South Africans suffer from corrective rape every year,[272][270] the vast majority of lesbians live in fear of corrective rape, and victims are less likely to report the crime because of their society's homophobia.[270]
↑"[H]e begins by treating of the origin of human nature. The sexes were originally three, men, women, and the union of the two; and they were made round—having four hands, four feet, two faces on a round neck, and the rest to correspond. Terrible was their strength and swiftness; and they were essaying to scale heaven and attack the gods. Doubt reigned in the celestial councils; the gods were divided between the desire of quelling the pride of man and the fear of losing the sacrifices. At last Zeus hit upon an expedient. Let us cut them in two, he said; then they will only have half their strength, and we shall have twice as many sacrifices. He spake, and split them as you might split an egg with an hair; and when this was done, he told Apollo to give their faces a twist and re-arrange their persons, taking out the wrinkles and tying the skin in a knot about the navel. The two halves went about looking for one another, and were ready to die of hunger in one another's arms. Then Zeus invented an adjustment of the sexes, which enabled them to marry and go their way to the business of life. Now the characters of men differ accordingly as they are derived from the original man or the original woman, or the original man-woman. Those who come from the man-woman are lascivious and adulterous; those who come from the woman form female attachments; those who are a section of the male follow the male and embrace him, and in him all their desires centre."
↑"Maiden-songs", so-called because they were apparently composed for choruses of young girls to sing as part of religious celebrations.
↑"La muger, que con otra muger tenía deleitaciones carnales, a las quales llamaban Patlache, que quiere decir: incuba, morían ambas por ello." (Monarquía indiana, transl.)
↑Unlike contemporary European languages, medieval Arabic had terms meaning "lesbian" and "lesbianism": "sihaqa" and "sahq" respectively.
↑Wollstonecraft and Blood set up a girls' boarding school so they could live and work together, and Wollstonecraft named her first child after Blood. Wollstonecraft's first novel Mary: A Fiction, in part, addressed her relationship with Fanny Blood.[162]:55–60
↑Other historical figures rejected being labeled as lesbians despite their behavior: Djuna Barnes, author of Nightwood, a novel about an affair Barnes had with Thelma Wood, earned the label "lesbian writer", which she protested by saying, "I am not a lesbian. I just loved Thelma." Virginia Woolf, who modeled the hero/ine in Orlando on Vita Sackville-West, with whom she was having an affair, set herself apart from women who pursued relationships with other women by writing, "These Sapphists love women; friendship is never untinged with amorosity."[163]:4–5
↑In Germany between 1898 and 1908 over a thousand articles were published regarding the topic of homosexuality.[104]:248 Between 1896 and 1916, 566 articles on women's "perversions" were published in the United States.[95]:49
↑A 1966 survey of psychological literature on homosexuality began with Freud's 1924 theory that it is a fixation on the opposite sex parent. As Freud's views were the foundation of psychotherapy, further articles agreed with this, including one in 1951 that asserted that homosexuals are actually heterosexuals that play both gender roles, and homosexuals are attempting to perpetuate "infantile, incestuous fixation(s)" on relationships that are forbidden.[226]
↑Historian Vern Bullough published a paper based on an unfinished study of mental and physical traits performed by a lesbian in Salt Lake City during the 1920s and 1930s. The compiler of the study reported on 23 of her colleagues, indicating there was an underground lesbian community in the conservative city. Bullough remarked that the information was being used to support the attitude that lesbians were not abnormal or maladjusted, but it also reflected that women included in the study strove in every way to conform to social gender expectations, viewing anyone who pushed the boundaries of respectability with hostility. Bullough wrote, "In fact, their very success in disguising their sexual orientation to the outside world leads us to hypothesize that lesbianism in the past was more prevalent than the sources might indicate, since society was so unsuspecting."[228]
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