Free for All Lesbians: Lesbian Cultural Production and Consumption in the United States during the 1970s

Abstract

Th e 1 9 7 0 s m a r k e d a m O m e n t when the meaning of being a lesbian took on a broader feminist significance, referring to more than simply a homoerotic attraction but a distinctive sensibility and culture. Some lesbian writers and activists had been part of an emerging gay culture expressed within the auspices of the gay liberation movement and its offshoots during the late 1960s and early 1970s that attempted to represent both gay men and lesbians. But many lesbians would come to feel that the gay liberation movement was dominated by the interests and needs of gay men, just as the feminist movement seemed dominated by the interests and needs of heterosexual women. 1