When Jill jacks in

Abstract

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes Use of the QLBT acronym does not imply a naïve assumption about any kind of straightforward relationship between such arbitrary markers of identification and universal aspects of being, ontology, or essence. Rather, as Gail Mason () argues in her analysis of identity and homophobic violence, these deeply problematic, spatially and temporally situated, and contested signifiers discursively mediate the visibility of groups and have both subjugatory and liberatory effects. In this exploratory work, my goals and assumptions are in line with Frigga Haug's () representation of the circulation of women's stories about sexualization as a political project that takes as its primary aim the foregrounding of agency on the part of women at‐risk of marginalization. Interview segments are framed by the multiple axes of participants' self‐identifications, as follows: Paula (pseudonym), 51 (age), dyke (sexuality), white (race), working class (class of origin), secondary education (completed formal education). To protect anonymity, details that could permit identification of the participant were changed (e.g., location).