(Dis)allowances of lesbians’ sexual identities: Lesbian identity construction in racialised, classed, familial, and institutional spaces

Abstract

This article explores how lesbian identity construction is facilitated and constrained by the raced, classed, gendered, familial, and geographical spaces that women occupy. We present a narrative-discursive analysis of eight lesbians’ stories of sexuality, told within a historically white university in South Africa. Three interpretative repertoires that emerged in the narratives are discussed. The ‘disallowance of lesbian identity in particular racialised and class-based spaces’ repertoire, deployed by black lesbians only, was used to account for their de-emphasis of a lesbian identity through the invocation of a threat of danger and stereotyping. The ‘disjuncture of the (heterosexual) family and lesbian identity’ repertoire emphasised how the expectation of support and care within a family does not necessarily extend to acceptance of a lesbian identity. This repertoire was used to justify emphasis on familial rather than lesbian identity and how participants managed their emotions in relation to the family and timing their disclosure to relatives. The ‘expectation of routinisation of homosexuality within a liberal university’ repertoire emphasised the support and acceptance of lesbian identity within the university in which the study was conducted, while simultaneously rendering heteronormative policies and heterosexism visible.