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Blue Rinse Blues? Older Lesbians’ Experiences of Domestic Violence

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Mapping Intimacies

Part of the book series: Palgrave Macmillan Studies in Family and Intimate Life ((PSFL))

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Abstract

Pervasive public stories about intimate relationships, as Jamieson (2002) has suggested, have a significant impact on both public and private lives. The dominant story about domestic violence has placed the phenomenon within heterosexual relationships, rendering the experiences of same-sex couples, especially partnerships involving older women, silent (Todd, 2011). The intimate relationships of lesbians, however, have undergone significant changes in recent years. The introduction of the Civil Partnership Act (2004) has created the first legitimate lesbian couples in the UK, and with that have come the first ‘legitimate’ victims of lesbian domestic violence. As dominant discourses about same-sex domestic violence emerge, I explore whose story is left untold. Based on interviews from Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)-funded research into community responses to lesbian domestic violence, I argue that cultural stereotypes about age, gender and class have a significant impact on whose story is listened to.

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Authors
  1. Megan Todd
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Independent academic, UK

    Tam Sanger

  2. London South Bank University, UK

    Yvette Taylor

Copyright information

© 2013 Megan Todd

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Cite this chapter

Todd, M. (2013). Blue Rinse Blues? Older Lesbians’ Experiences of Domestic Violence. In: Sanger, T., Taylor, Y. (eds) Mapping Intimacies. Palgrave Macmillan Studies in Family and Intimate Life. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137313423_9

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