‘We’re not Living on Planet Lesbian’

Constructions of Male Role Models in Debates about Lesbian Families

Bibliographic Data

ID18973232
AuthorsVictoria Clarke (0000-0001-9405-7363, University of the West of England, Bristol, UK,, corresponding author), C Kitzinger (0000-0002-7552-7275, University of York)
Year2005
Volume8
Issue2
Pages137-152
Publication date2005-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSexualities (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1363-4607 • E-ISSN: 1461-7382
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1363460705050851
OpenAlexW2039330873
LanguageEN
Citations received34
References cited14

The notion that children (especially boys) need male role models has been used in the past to attack lesbian parents in custody cases, and more recently in debates about donor insemination, adoption and fostering. We are interested in how lesbian parents and their supporters respond to arguments about the necessity of male role models. We analyse data from popular television talk shows and television documentaries using a discursive approach and identify common strategies used by lesbian parents to deal with the argument that their children are ‘missing out’ because of a deficit in their family structure. We then consider the responses of opponents of lesbian parenting to these strategies. What these responses reveal is that lesbian parents and their opponents construct and work with very different definitions of male role models. We show that the contributions both of opponents of lesbian parenting and of lesbian parents themselves to media debates attend to and sustain traditional understandings of gender and sexual development

Donor insemination · Lesbian · Sociology · Gender Roles and Identity Studies · Gender Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy · Medicine · Psychology · Social Psychology

Tools

Open DOISci-HubOpen Access