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The Lives of Older Lesbians pp 1–40Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Introduction: Finding Older Lesbians

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Abstract

Traies introduces her study of older lesbian lives in the UK by discussing the ‘triple invisibility’ of older lesbians in popular culture, showing how a combination of ageism, sexism and heteronormative assumptions render older lesbians ‘un-seeable’. She goes on to demonstrate how this cultural invisibility is replicated in academic research, where studies of LGBT lifestyles have often ignored ageing, and LGBT studies have frequently marginalised older women. Traies then introduces the older lesbians who were her research participants, first by means of a demographic analysis of the sample and then with some observations about generational differences, before concluding with an outline of the remaining chapters in the book.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The first official attempt to quantify this demographic, the UK Integrated Household Survey (Office for National Statistics 2011), identified 1.5 per cent of the population as lesbian, gay or bisexual. Twice that proportion refused to answer the question. The use of face-to-face research that asks people to self-identify is problematic and has been shown substantially to underestimate the size of the LGBT population (Coffman et al. 2013). It seems reasonable to assume, therefore, that the actual proportion of lesbians and gay men is considerably higher than 1.5 per cent.

  2. 2.

    Cruikshank (1991: 82–3) gives a comprehensive list of these. Robinson (1979, cited in Kehoe 1988: 7) interviewed 20 lesbian women over 50, seven of whom were over 60. Adelman (1986) carried out research with older lesbians throughout the 1970s and published a collection of life stories based on her interviews. Almvig’s (1982) descriptive study of 25 lesbians over 60, Aging and Lesbianism: The Invisible Minority (1982), was originally a thesis. Meyer and Raphael (1988) studied a group of lesbians over 50, observing the ways in which they adjusted to ageing.

  3. 3.

    This Section of the Act stated that a local authority ‘shall not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality’ or ‘promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship’. It was repealed in Scotland in 2000 and in the rest of the UK in 2003 (except in Kent, where the County Council decided to retain the effect of the now obsolete law in their schools).

  4. 4.

    The tone of television documentaries about lesbians in this period—such as Lesbians ( 1965 ) and Consenting Adults: The Women (1967)—is one of fascinated but slightly pitying curiosity. By contrast, following the change in the law on male homosexuality in 1968, Robert Kitts’ film The Important Thing is Love (1971) marks a shift in attitude, presenting lesbians not as pitiable misfits but as the victims of social injustice.

  5. 5.

    Women Like Us was first broadcast on 10 April 1990, in the second season of the Channel 4 series Out On Tuesday. It was repeated two years later, together with the sequel, Women Like That.

  6. 6.

    This shorthand way of referencing alternative sexualities has taken different forms at different times and is still changing, e.g. LGBTQ, LGBTQI, LGBTQI2SA. I use different forms of the acronym in different places in this book according to the historical and political context being discussed or the writers quoted.

  7. 7.

    I am grateful to James Taylor, Senior Health Officer at Stonewall, for these figures (personal communication, 24 September 2012).

  8. 8.

    Although older people are less likely than others to be computer users (Goodman et al. 2003), and old women are even less likely than old men to use or own a computer (Morris et al. 2005, cited in Wagner et al. 2010: 876; Selwyn et al. 2003), the older lesbians in this study recorded a high level of computer use. Nine out of ten questionnaires were completed online; 97 per cent of respondents (and 75 per cent of those over 75) said they regularly used a computer.

  9. 9.

    For a fuller account of some older lesbians’ health narratives, see Traies and Munt (2014).

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  1. Centre for Cultural Studies, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK

    Jane Traies

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  1. Jane Traies
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Traies, J. (2016). Introduction: Finding Older Lesbians. In: The Lives of Older Lesbians. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55643-1_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55643-1_1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-55642-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-55643-1

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