Lesbian & Bisexual Identities: Constructing Communities, Constructing Selves

Description

Acknowledgments; Introduction; 1. Theorizing Identity: Lesbian and Bisexual Accounts; 2. Cover Stories; 3. Changing Selves; 4. Essentially Lesbian? Performing Lesbian Identity; 5. Race, Class, Identity; 6. Twelve Steppers, Feminists, and Softball Dykes; 7. Rule Making and Rule Breaking; 8. Bisexual Accounts and the Limits of Lesbian Community; 9. Beyond Identity and Community?; Appendix: Methodology; Notes; References; Index.;This book examines the stories of lesbian and bisexual women in a Northeast community who share who they are, how they have come to see themselves as lesbian or bisexual, and what those identities mean to them. Drawing on social constructionist approaches to identity, Kristin G. Esterberg argues that identities are multiple and contingent. Created within the context of specific communities and within specific relationships, lesbian and bisexual identities are ways of sorting through experiences of desires and attractions, relationships, and politics. Their meanings change over time as w. Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Theorizing Identity: Lesbian and Bisexual Accounts 2. Cover Stories 3. Changing Selves 4. Essentially Lesbian? Performing Lesbian Identity 5. Race, Class, Identity 6. Twelve Steppers, Feminists, and Softball Dykes 7. Rule Making and Rule Breaking 8. Bisexual Accounts and the Limits of Lesbian Community 9. Beyond Identity and Community? Appendix: Methodology Notes References Index.