It Was a Hot Climate and It Was a Hot Time

Lesbian Migration and Transnational Networks in the Mid-Twentieth Century

Bibliographic Data

ID5809477
AuthorsRebecca Jennings (0000-0002-0094-3530)
Year2010
Volume25
Issue63
Pages31-45
Publication date2010-02-25
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAustralian Feminist Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1321-7568 • E-ISSN: 1465-3303
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/08164640903499877
OpenAlexW1508675258
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited25

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes 1. In the interests of clarity, I have used the term 'lesbian' throughout this article to refer to women who desired other women. Yet the identity category 'lesbian' was by no means stable or widely employed in the mid-twentieth century. The silence surrounding the subject of same-sex desire prompted many women to avoid using any word which explicitly defined their same-sex attraction (adopting instead multiple, less explicit identity categories, such as 'tomboy' or 'career woman'), while others were simply unaware of this and other analogous words. 2. National Sound Archive (NSA), British Library, HCC (C456), F1326-F1327, Pat Arrowsmith; NSA, HCC (C456), F2091-F2092, Elsa Beckett; NSA, HCC (C456), F2088, Diana Chapman; NSA, HCC (C456), F1359-F1360, Margaret Cranch; NSA, HCC (C456), F1607-F1612, Jackie Forster. Interview of C by Lucy Chesser, 19 April 1993, Cassette 248, courtesy ALGA oral history collection; interview of RH by Lucy Chesser, 29 March 1993, Cassette 210, courtesy ALGA oral history collection. Interview with Beverley Beverley (pseudonym) 2008 Interviewed with Rebecca Jennings 22 December [Google Scholar], 22 December 2008. Interview with Margaret Jones, 31 August, 12 September, 18 September 2007. Interview with Hazel Labka, 23 April 2008 Labka Hazel 2008 Interviewed with Rebecca Jennings 23 April [Google Scholar]. Interview with Vivienne Vivienne (pseudonym) 2008 Interview with Rebecca Jennings 20 May [Google Scholar], 20 May 2008. Interview with Chris Pearce, 6 November 2007 Pearce Chris 2007 Interview with Rebecca Jennings 6 November [Google Scholar]; Bell (1999 Bell Barbara 1999 Just take your frock off: A lesbian life Brighton Ourstory Books [Google Scholar]); Byrnes (1987 Byrnes Paddy 1987 'La vie en rose'. 1956 In Words from the same heart Bradstock Margaret Wakeling Louise Sydney Hale & Iremonger [Google Scholar]). 3. In most instances, interviewees have been referred to by their real names, in accordance with their stated wishes. However, where pseudonyms have been applied, this is indicated next to the relevant entry under 'works cited'. 4. See, for example, Fortier (2002 Fortier Anne-Marie 2002 Queer diaspora In Handbook of lesbian and gay studies Diane Richardson Steven Seidman London Sage [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]), Luibheid (2002 Luibheid Eithne 2002 Entry denied: Controlling sexuality at the border Minneapolis University of Minnesota Press [Google Scholar], 2008 Luibheid Eithne 2008 Queer/migration: An unruly body of scholarship GLQ 14 2-3 169 90 [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]), Luibheid and Cantu (2000 Luibheid Eithne Lionel Cantu Jr 2000 Queer migrations: Sexuality, US citizenship, and border crossings Minneapolis University of Minnesota Press [Google Scholar]), Patton and Sanchez-Eppler (2000 Patton Cindy Benigno Sanchez-Eppler 2000 Queer diasporas Durham, NC Duke University Press . [Google Scholar]), Gopinath (2005 Gopinath Gayatri 2005 Impossible desires: Queer diasporas and South Asian public cultures Durham, NC Duke University Press [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) and Manalansan (2003 Manalansan Martin F. 2003 Global divas: Filipino gay men in the diaspora Durham, NC Duke University Press [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). 5. This was the case with all the personal testimonies consulted. See also Martin (2001 Martin Sylvia 2001 Passionate friends London Onlywomen Press [Google Scholar]) for a discussion of the impact of familial ties on women's migration in relation to three Australian women-Mary Fullerton, Mabel Singleton and Miles Franklin-in the early twentieth century. 6. On the construction of lesbian identities in this period, see Ford (1996 Ford Ruth 1996 Speculating on scrapbooks, sex and desire: Issues in lesbian history Australian Historical Studies 106 111 26 [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar], 2000 Ford Ruth 2000 Contested desires: Narratives of passionate friends, married masqueraders and lesbian love in Australia, 1918-1945 PhD diss., School of Archaeological and Historical Studies, La Trobe University [Google Scholar]), Chesser (1993 Chesser Lucy 1993 Negotiating subjectivities: The construction of lesbian identities in Melbourne, 1960-1969 Honours diss., University of Melbourne [Google Scholar]) and Jennings (2007 Jennings Rebecca 2007 Tomboys and bachelor girls: A lesbian history of post-war Britain, 1945-71 Manchester Manchester University Press [Google Scholar]). 7. The ubiquity of this explanation for migration is illustrated by the wealth of historiography that emphasises women's economic motives for migration. See Bush (1994 Bush Julia 1994 'The right sort of woman': Female emigrators and emigration to the British Empire, 1890-1910 Women's History Review 3 3 385 409 [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]), Gothard (2001 Gothard Jan 2001 Blue china: Single female migration to colonial Australia Melbourne Melbourne University Press [Google Scholar]), Hammerton (1979 Hammerton A. James 1979 Emigrant gentlewomen: Genteel poverty and female emigration, 1830-1914 London Croom Helm [Google Scholar]), Roe (1995 Roe Michael 1995 Australia, Britain and migration 1915-1940 Cambridge Cambridge University Press [Google Scholar]) and Swaisland (1993 Swaisland Cecillie 1993 Servants and gentlewomen to the golden land: The emigration of single women from Britain to Southern Africa, 1820-1939 Oxford University of Natal Press [Google Scholar]). See Hammerton and Thomson (2005 Hammerton A. James Alistair Thomson 2005 Ten pound poms: Australia's invisible migrants Manchester Manchester University Press [Google Scholar]) for a discussion of more subjective motivations for migration. 8. See Jennings (2007 Jennings Rebecca 2007 Tomboys and bachelor girls: A lesbian history of post-war Britain, 1945-71 Manchester Manchester University Press [Google Scholar]), Chesser (1996 Chesser Lucy 1996 Australasian Lesbian Movement, 'Claudia's Group' and Lynx: 'Non political' lesbian organisation in Melbourne, 1969-1980 Hecate 22 1 69 91 [Google Scholar]) and Wills (1994 Wills Sue 1994 Inside the CWA-The other one Journal of Australian Lesbian Feminist Studies 4 43 50 [Google Scholar]). 9. See NSA, British Library, HCC (C456), F2158-F2163, Sharley McLean; NSA, HCC (C456), F2109, Cynthia Reid; interview with Margaret Jones, 18 September 2007. 10. See Ford (1995 Ford Ruth 1995 Lesbians and loose women: Female sexuality and the women's services during World War 2 In Gender and war Joy Damousi Marilyn Lake Cambridge Cambridge University Press [Google Scholar]) and Jennings (2007 Jennings Rebecca 2007 Tomboys and bachelor girls: A lesbian history of post-war Britain, 1945-71 Manchester Manchester University Press [Google Scholar], 60-71

Courtesy · Oral history · Pseudonym · Silence · Cultural History and Identity Formation · Latin American and Latino Studies · Music History and Culture

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