Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Murray, Jessica

Titel

Is the closet door no more? Critical engagements with lesbianism in the South African context

Ist Teil von

• Scrutiny 2, 2012-05, Vol.17 (1), p.87-99

Ort / Verlag

Pretoria: Taylor & Francis Group

Erscheinungsjahr

2012

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• While a number of researchers have produced important work on same-sex sexualities in a South African context, the focus has disproportionately been on the experiences of gay men, with lesbians often being relegated to the margins of the discussion. The review essay will focus on three recent publications with explicit emphases on South African lesbians' experiences, namely The cultural politics of female sexuality in South Africa by Henriette Gunkel (2011), Reclaiming the L-word: Sappho's daughters out in Africa, edited by Alleyn Diesel (2011) and The country we want to live in: hate crimes and homophobia in the lives of black lesbian South Africans by Nonhlanhla Mkhize, Jane Bennett, Vasu Reddy and Relebohile Moletsane (2010). I will place these texts in the context of the valuable work that has emerged on same-sex sexualities in South Africa since 1994 while illustrating the urgent gaps in scholarly engagement with lesbianism that these three texts seek to fill.