The politics of lesbian invisibility : a Nova Scotia study

Abstract

Within the context of the Nova Scotia women's movement of the 1980s, this thesis examines the relationship between Lesbian and heterosexual women, the processes of Lesbian invisibility, and the paradox of Lesbian visibility and invisibility. From a Lesbian-feminist perspective the study offers insights into dynamics of a pattern that partially accounts for the disappearance of Lesbian sensibility in present women's studies and feminist movement. The phenomena of Lesbians acting as a buffer and scapegoat for the movement as well as the role of complicity Lesbians engaged is explored.

Methodology consisted of interviewing "second wave" feminist leaders in semi-formal and casual situations, examining gray literature of that era, and probing four grassroots organizations and groups that were prominent during that decade. The results found that relations between the two constituents on an individual-social basis were supportive. Lesbian invisibility occurred only at the apex of public identification with Lesbian concerns and identified issues. The extent that Lesbianism was consistently strategized from visibility in organizations and in feminist theory played a significant part in the disappearance of Lesbians as a force within the women's movement in Nova Scotia.