What do you think?
Rate this book
Finding the Lesbians: Personal Accounts from Around the World
Book by
Paperback
Published January 1, 1990
About the author
Julia Penelope
15 books14 followersJulia Penelope was a lesbian feminist author, linguist, and philosopher.
Early in her publishing career she used the name Julia Penelope Stanley.
Early in her publishing career she used the name Julia Penelope Stanley.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 25, 2017
First of all, it's way less international than it pretends to be. It's also important to note that it features a bunch of lesbian separatists authors, accompanied with the racism that usually goes hand in hand with that movement. There's also some antisemite and transphobic history revisionism in one text, that i think deserves a warning too.
As usual with a book featuring many different authors, it's pretty hit or miss, ranging from very bad to pretty pleasant. Overall, I still think it's a pretty forgettable book and probably not a necessary read for the average reader, unless, like me, you like to absorb every single piece of knowledge about lesbian history that you can get your hands onto. I did learn a thing or two reading this book, but it's not that great and the only reason i gave it two stars and not one is because I've read worse, but I've also read much better.
As usual with a book featuring many different authors, it's pretty hit or miss, ranging from very bad to pretty pleasant. Overall, I still think it's a pretty forgettable book and probably not a necessary read for the average reader, unless, like me, you like to absorb every single piece of knowledge about lesbian history that you can get your hands onto. I did learn a thing or two reading this book, but it's not that great and the only reason i gave it two stars and not one is because I've read worse, but I've also read much better.
October 31, 2023
This 1990 collection of essays has historical value, but its quality is a mixed bag. A handful of contributions are really great: recollections of movements and subcultures, playful entries about honing your gaydar, moving personal testimonies, and practical listings of lesbian publications, organizations, etc. Other entries in Finding the Lesbians are generic, boring, irritating, or even cringe. There is a lack of curatorial focus-- I don't understand why short fiction is included in this collection-- and a few contributors don't end up saying much. Though one or two of the fiction entries spoke to me I was bemused that mediocre short stories make up somewhere between a third to half of the book. At minimum the editors should have clearly noted which entries were fiction.
Most of the essays contain garden variety 1960s-1980s-era dyke talk-- fairly benign for the most part, though a subset of the politics is openly bad (Bev Jo for example, lol). Most of the authors are older, at least in their mid-30s, which is nice. Like the cover says, the book features essayists from "around the world" but they're all native English speakers, so expect the far-flung entries to be from New Zealand, London, Australia, Alaska, and an American in Japan. This is still an impressive selection of Anglophones, and given the localized nature of queer culture pre-Internet there are a lot of differences to soak in.
I liked that there isn't a specific focus on coming out narratives in this one, as most essays are about making connections once you know you are a dyke. However, Opening the Door by Sheila Anne captures a series of specific coming out experiences so well that her narrative helped me detangle some negative emotions about my sexuality that I've delicately avoided confronting for many years. That essay alone is well worth the ten dollars I spent on this book.
Some worthwhile essays and quotes:
Life on the Rock - Laura Davis
A wonderfully written essay about moving to Alaska and trying to find other lesbians.
Turning the Glass Corner: Southern Sensibilities and Dykey Connectedness - Janelle M. Lavelle
Notes on being a dyke and finding community in North Carolina.
An excerpt: "A fact of life in the Carolinas is that most gay organizations involved in useful, as opposed to merely social, activities are sexually integrated. This is always a horrific shock to women who have come here from Smith College demanding female-only groups. We natives have learned to explain patiently, as often as necessary, that the transplants are going to have to learn to appreciate gay men's particular virtues on some level, or their lives will be sadly limited. Gay men love to matchmake, are often better at spotting dykes themselves... and will feed a person when she's broke if she will exhert herself to be moderately entertaining. In the south, at least, gay men are an all-around useful concept."
Looking for Lesbians - Marilyn Murphy
Funny short essay about dyke-watching at American campsites.
An excerpt: "I thought they were lesbians because they were two women over thirty, seated together while flying a kite. They were not amusing a child. They were not holding a kite for a husband. They were flying a kite for their own pleasure, an unlikely activity for non-lesbians... Irene was sure they were lesbians when the woman with the kite, wanting to stand up, handed the kite-string holder to the other woman without asking AND without looking to see if she was taking it."
NOW is the Time, but Not the Place - Cathy Avila
How Avila's lesbian awakening coincided with her political involvement, and later disillusion, with NOW.
Breaking the Mormon Mold - Linda M. Peterson
A detailed description of the lesbian Mormon and ex-Mormon community, the methods they used to connect, and the issues they encountered along the way.
From Kamp Girls to Political Dykes: Finding the Others Through Thirty-Odd Years as a Lesbian from Aotearoa/New Zealand - Alison J. Laurie
Not just about 1950s New Zealand butch-femme culture (there butch-bitch), but Laurie's journey to Europe and the subsequent 1970s lesbian feminist wave. Laurie even discusses some of her eventual displeasure with the lesbianism-as-feminist-praxis fad. There's a lot here!
An excerpt: "It seemed to be more prestigious to be butch, so I opted for this role socially and remained largely bitch in bed with my older lovers. I kept this a secret. It was frowned upon-- called "turning." There were a lot of rules in the subculture. Breaking any of them meant you got beaten up. I learned to fight-- the instruction was very similar to a modern women's self-defense course, except that it was free, informal, and for real. As squares were always trying to bash up kamps, it was vitally necessary too. Some of the Sydney butches were amazingly good fighters."
The Antidote - Janet Aalfs
One of the more autobiographical and compellingly written creative entries, about Aalfs' lesbian mother.
Rezubian in Tokyo - Linda M. Peterson
Title aside, this essay contains a very practical listing of organizations, publications, and meetings foreign English-speaking lesbians used to meet each other in Japan. Peterson also discusses the relationship between foreign and Japanese lesbian communities with some care.
An excerpt: "In a way the existence of a foreign community has smoothed relations between Japanese and foreign dykes here; the Japanese no longer have to take care of or get rid of the sometimes persistent and insensitive tourist dykes, who think "finding out about Japanese lesbians" is their right, regardless of the trouble they may be to Japanese women who have enough difficulty finding time for their own projects... After a while it becomes clear that we have our community and they have theirs... but that links are possible between individual dykes who have sufficient language skills and the inclination."
Opening the Door - Sheila Anne
Excerpt: "My wanting was not an act I could be held responsible for. I did not want any "accountable" or undeniable action to upset the fragility of these intimate sessions of barely touching. I would not risk these friendships by shoving them to a point where I or my beloved would have to acknowledge a sexual identity or have my love rejected with ingrained repulsion. The women I was loving would have to take the risk first and I was not enough beyond my own ingrained lesbophobia to know whether or not I would be repulsed by another woman's more "serious" physical explorations. Now I know that wanting, and that desire was very sensual and sexual in itself."
Most of the essays contain garden variety 1960s-1980s-era dyke talk-- fairly benign for the most part, though a subset of the politics is openly bad (Bev Jo for example, lol). Most of the authors are older, at least in their mid-30s, which is nice. Like the cover says, the book features essayists from "around the world" but they're all native English speakers, so expect the far-flung entries to be from New Zealand, London, Australia, Alaska, and an American in Japan. This is still an impressive selection of Anglophones, and given the localized nature of queer culture pre-Internet there are a lot of differences to soak in.
I liked that there isn't a specific focus on coming out narratives in this one, as most essays are about making connections once you know you are a dyke. However, Opening the Door by Sheila Anne captures a series of specific coming out experiences so well that her narrative helped me detangle some negative emotions about my sexuality that I've delicately avoided confronting for many years. That essay alone is well worth the ten dollars I spent on this book.
Some worthwhile essays and quotes:
Life on the Rock - Laura Davis
A wonderfully written essay about moving to Alaska and trying to find other lesbians.
Turning the Glass Corner: Southern Sensibilities and Dykey Connectedness - Janelle M. Lavelle
Notes on being a dyke and finding community in North Carolina.
An excerpt: "A fact of life in the Carolinas is that most gay organizations involved in useful, as opposed to merely social, activities are sexually integrated. This is always a horrific shock to women who have come here from Smith College demanding female-only groups. We natives have learned to explain patiently, as often as necessary, that the transplants are going to have to learn to appreciate gay men's particular virtues on some level, or their lives will be sadly limited. Gay men love to matchmake, are often better at spotting dykes themselves... and will feed a person when she's broke if she will exhert herself to be moderately entertaining. In the south, at least, gay men are an all-around useful concept."
Looking for Lesbians - Marilyn Murphy
Funny short essay about dyke-watching at American campsites.
An excerpt: "I thought they were lesbians because they were two women over thirty, seated together while flying a kite. They were not amusing a child. They were not holding a kite for a husband. They were flying a kite for their own pleasure, an unlikely activity for non-lesbians... Irene was sure they were lesbians when the woman with the kite, wanting to stand up, handed the kite-string holder to the other woman without asking AND without looking to see if she was taking it."
NOW is the Time, but Not the Place - Cathy Avila
How Avila's lesbian awakening coincided with her political involvement, and later disillusion, with NOW.
Breaking the Mormon Mold - Linda M. Peterson
A detailed description of the lesbian Mormon and ex-Mormon community, the methods they used to connect, and the issues they encountered along the way.
From Kamp Girls to Political Dykes: Finding the Others Through Thirty-Odd Years as a Lesbian from Aotearoa/New Zealand - Alison J. Laurie
Not just about 1950s New Zealand butch-femme culture (there butch-bitch), but Laurie's journey to Europe and the subsequent 1970s lesbian feminist wave. Laurie even discusses some of her eventual displeasure with the lesbianism-as-feminist-praxis fad. There's a lot here!
An excerpt: "It seemed to be more prestigious to be butch, so I opted for this role socially and remained largely bitch in bed with my older lovers. I kept this a secret. It was frowned upon-- called "turning." There were a lot of rules in the subculture. Breaking any of them meant you got beaten up. I learned to fight-- the instruction was very similar to a modern women's self-defense course, except that it was free, informal, and for real. As squares were always trying to bash up kamps, it was vitally necessary too. Some of the Sydney butches were amazingly good fighters."
The Antidote - Janet Aalfs
One of the more autobiographical and compellingly written creative entries, about Aalfs' lesbian mother.
Rezubian in Tokyo - Linda M. Peterson
Title aside, this essay contains a very practical listing of organizations, publications, and meetings foreign English-speaking lesbians used to meet each other in Japan. Peterson also discusses the relationship between foreign and Japanese lesbian communities with some care.
An excerpt: "In a way the existence of a foreign community has smoothed relations between Japanese and foreign dykes here; the Japanese no longer have to take care of or get rid of the sometimes persistent and insensitive tourist dykes, who think "finding out about Japanese lesbians" is their right, regardless of the trouble they may be to Japanese women who have enough difficulty finding time for their own projects... After a while it becomes clear that we have our community and they have theirs... but that links are possible between individual dykes who have sufficient language skills and the inclination."
Opening the Door - Sheila Anne
Excerpt: "My wanting was not an act I could be held responsible for. I did not want any "accountable" or undeniable action to upset the fragility of these intimate sessions of barely touching. I would not risk these friendships by shoving them to a point where I or my beloved would have to acknowledge a sexual identity or have my love rejected with ingrained repulsion. The women I was loving would have to take the risk first and I was not enough beyond my own ingrained lesbophobia to know whether or not I would be repulsed by another woman's more "serious" physical explorations. Now I know that wanting, and that desire was very sensual and sexual in itself."
January 6, 2014
Interesting - sometimes endearing, sometimes annoying, sometimes distasteful, sometimes surprising. I like knowing more about what it was like for the generations of dykes before me. Turns out Bev Jo has been writing hateful things since well before she had social media platforms for that purpose.
September 24, 2024
LOVED the non fiction, especially ‘From Kamp Girls to Political Dykes’ but way too much fiction, especially towards the end.
July 5, 2008
Great follow up to Original Coming Out Stories.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews