Lesbian Friendships

by Weinstock, Jacqueline S.; Rothblum, Esther D.

• ISBN13: 9780814774731
• ISBN10: 0814774733
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1996-08-01
• Publisher: New York Univ Pr

Summary

Friends as lovers; lovers as friends; ex-lovers as friends; ex-lovers as family; friends as family; communities of friends; lesbian community. These are just a few of the phrases heard often in the daily discourse of lesbian life. What significance do they have for lesbians? Do lesbians view friends as family and what does this analogy mean? What sorts of friendships exist between lesbians? What sorts of friendships do lesbians form with non-lesbian women, or with men?These and other questions regarding the kinds of friendships lesbians imagine and experience have rarely been addressed. Lesbian Friendships focuses on actual accounts of friendships involving lesbians and examines a number of issues, including the transition from friends to lovers and/or lovers to friends, erotic attraction in friendship, diverse identities among lesbians, and friendships across sexuality and/or gender lines.

Table of Contents

Foreword
Acknowledgments
What We Can Be Together: Contemplating Lesbians' Friendships	p. 3
Eco de una Amistad/Echo of a Friendship	p. 31
The Lesbian's Experience of Friendship	p. 39
Heart like a Wheel: A Friendship in Two Voices	p. 65
Ruth Benedict and Margaret Mead: Portrait of an Extraordinary Friendship	p. 80
Namaste	p. 98
On the Other Side of Silence	p. 107
Guided Journey: The Road to Myself	p. 117
Celebrating Wild Erotic Friendship: Martha and Marcia	p. 125
Going against the Fold	p. 135
Lesbian-Meets-Christian-Heterosexual-Woman-in-the-Midwest-a nd-They-Become-Lifelong-Friends	p. 151
Friendships between African-American and White Lesbians	p. 165
Well-Worn Conversations	p. 192
Negotiating Difference: The Friendship of a Lesbian-Identified Woman and a Heterosexual Man	p. 205
Uncommon Kin	p. 225
Friendships between Lesbian and Heterosexual Women	p. 249
Pat T. Bunny Meets Lynnepig	p. 251
Deeper than Biology	p. 255
Portrait of Skinny and Me	p. 259
Cindy	p. 266
A Significant Friend	p. 273
A Lesbian Love Story	p. 277
Lesbian Friendships Create Lesbian Community	p. 288
Toward a Politics of Lesbian Friendship	p. 295
Contributors	p. 301
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.