Discrimination against lesbians

{{Short description|Irrational fear of, and aversion to, lesbians}}

File:Justice For Sizakhele & Salome (8036300204).jpg 2012 participants remember lesbians raped and murdered in 2007.]]

Discrimination against lesbians, sometimes called lesbophobia, comprises various forms of prejudice and negativity towards lesbians as individuals, as couples, as a social group, or lesbianism in general. Based on the categories of sex, sexual orientation, identity, and gender expression, this negativity encompasses prejudice, discrimination, hatred, and abuse; with attitudes and feelings ranging from disdain to hostility. It is analogous to gayphobia.

Terminology

The first usage of the term lesbophobia listed in the Oxford English Dictionary is in The Erotic Life of the American Wife (1972), a book by Harper's Bazaar editor Natalie Gittelson.{{cite OED|lesbophobia}}{{cite book|title=The Great American Housewife: From Helpmate to Wage Earner, 1776–1986|last=Ogden|first=Annegret S.|date=1986|publisher=Greenwood Press|publication-place=Westport, Connecticut|page=206|isbn=0-313-24752-8}} While some people use only the more general term homophobia to describe this sort of prejudice or behavior, others believe that the terms homosexual and homophobia do not adequately reflect the specific concerns of lesbians, because they experience the double discrimination of both homophobia and sexism.{{cite web |date=18 December 2006 |title=What is "Lesbophobia"? |publisher=ILGA |url=http://www.ilga.org/news_results.asp?LanguageID=1&FileCategory=1&FileID=997 |access-date=7 August 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120220192524/http://ilga.org/ilga/en/article/997 |archive-date=20 February 2012 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all }}{{cite news|last=Czyzselska|first=Jane|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jul/09/lesbophobia-homophobia-side-order-sexism|title=Lesbophobia is homophobia with a side-order of sexism|work=The Guardian|date=9 July 2013|access-date=2 February 2016}}

Extent

The idea that lesbians are dangerous—while heterosexual interactions are natural, normal, and spontaneous—is a common example of beliefs which are lesbophobic. Like homophobia, this belief is classed as heteronormative, as it assumes that heterosexuality is dominant, presumed, and normal, and that other sexual or relationship arrangements are abnormal and unnatural.Jillian Todd Weiss, [http://phobos.ramapo.edu/~jweiss/tulane.pdf "The Gender Caste System – Identity, Privacy, and Heteronormativity"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151013193044/http://phobos.ramapo.edu/~jweiss/tulane.pdf |date=13 October 2015 }} 10 Law & Sexuality 123 (Tulane Law School, 2001) A stereotype that has been identified as lesbophobic is that female athletes are always or predominantly lesbians.Peper, Karen, "Female athlete=Lesbian: a complex myth constructed from gender role expectations and lesbiphobia", Queer words, queer images: communications and the construction of homosexuality, pages 193–208 (New York University Press, 1994)Darcy Plymire and Pamela Forman, "Breaking the Silence: Lesbian Fans, the Internet, and the Sexual Politics of Women's Sport", International Journal of Sexuality and Gender Studies, pages 1566–1768 (Springer Netherlands, April 2000) Lesbians encounter lesbophobic attitudes not only in straight men and women, but also gay men.Megan Radclyffe, Lesbophobia!: Gay Men and Misogyny (Continuum, October 2005) Lesbophobia in gay men is regarded as manifest in the perceived subordination of lesbian issues in the campaign for gay rights.{{cite journal|last1=Raizada |first1=Kristen |title=An Interview with the Guerrilla Girls, Dyke Action Machine (DAM!), and the Toxic Titties |journal=NWSA Journal |date=2007 |volume=19 |issue=1 |pages=39–58 |doi=10.2979/NWS.2007.19.1.39 |doi-broken-date=1 November 2024 |jstor=4317230 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4317230 |issn=1040-0656|url-access=subscription }}

Lesbians have been stereotyped in often contradictory ways. Kim Emery, in discussing lesbians in the United States during the late-19th century, says:

{{Blockquote|text=It is a truism […] that lesbian existence is inflected and afflicted by apparently incompatible social stereotypes. Lesbians are assumed to be both men in women's bodies and women marked as masculine by physical anomaly. Lesbians are accused of hating men and of wanting to be men, of being both sexually predatory and essentially asexual [sic], of committing unspeakable sexual acts and of lacking the endowments necessary to perform any [sexual acts].{{Cite journal |last=Emery |first=Kim |date=1994 |title=Steers, Queers, and Manifest Destiny: Representing the Lesbian Subject in Turn-of-the-Century Texas |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3704079 |journal=Journal of the History of Sexuality |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=26–57 |jstor=3704079 |issn=1043-4070}}}}

=Anti-lesbian violence=

Lesbophobia is sometimes demonstrated through crimes of violence, including corrective rape and even murder. In the late 2000s, several rape/murders of lesbians occurred in South Africa.{{cite news|title=Lesbian killers in South Africa get 18-year jail terms |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-16835653 |work=BBC News |date=1 February 2012 |access-date=22 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140404114413/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-16835653 |archive-date=4 April 2014}}{{cite web|last=Pithouse |first=Richard |title=Only Protected on Paper |url=http://sacsis.org.za/site/article/644.1 |website=The South African Civil Society Information Service |date=29 March 2011 |access-date=22 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141218131905/http://sacsis.org.za/site/article/644.1 |archive-date=18 December 2014 |url-status=dead}} The victims included Sizakele Sigasa (a lesbian activist living in Soweto) and her partner Salome Masooa, who were raped, tortured, and murdered in an attack that South African lesbian-gay rights organizations, including the umbrella-group Joint Working Group, said were driven by lesbophobia.{{cite web|last=Ndaba |first=Baldwin |title='Hate crime' against lesbians slated |url=http://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/hate-crime-against-lesbians-slated-1.361821 |website=IOL News |date=July 13, 2007 |access-date=22 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140329025903/http://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/hate-crime-against-lesbians-slated-1.361821 |archive-date=29 March 2014 |url-status=live}}{{cite news|last1=Bridgland|first1=Fred|title=Lesbian couple killed in execution-style murder: Hate crimes increase despite equal rights law|url=http://www.sundayherald.com/international/shinternational/display.var.1546316.0.0.php|access-date=11 August 2007|work=Sunday Herald|date=14 July 2007|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070717032359/http://www.sundayherald.com/international/shinternational/display.var.1546316.0.0.php|archive-date=17 July 2007|df=dmy-all}} In the Gauteng township of KwaThema, soccer player Eudy Simelane was gang-raped, beaten and stabbed to death, and LGBT activist Noxolo Nogwaza was raped and stoned before being stabbed to death.{{cite news|last=Kelly |first=Annie |title=Raped and killed for being a lesbian: South Africa ignores 'corrective' attacks |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/mar/12/eudy-simelane-corrective-rape-south-africa |work=The Guardian |access-date=22 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140621232447/http://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/mar/12/eudy-simelane-corrective-rape-south-africa |archive-date=21 June 2014 |url-status=live }}{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13265300 |title=South Africa killing of lesbian Nogwaza 'a hate crime' |date=3 May 2011 |publisher=BBC News |access-date=28 November 2012 |archive-date=28 January 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120128183653/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13265300 |url-status=live }}

Zanele Muholi, community relations director of a lesbian rights group, reports having recorded 50 rape cases over the past decade involving black lesbians in townships, stating: "The problem is largely that of patriarchy. The men who perpetrate such crimes see rape as curative and as an attempt to show women their place in society."{{cite news|last1=Cogswell |first1=Kelly Jean |title=Cut It Off – And Stop AIDS |url=http://www.gaycitynews.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18630253&BRD=2729&PAG=461&dept_id=585504&rfi=6 |access-date=11 August 2007 |work=Gay City News |date=26 July 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927200546/http://www.gaycitynews.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18630253&BRD=2729&PAG=461&dept_id=585504&rfi=6 |archive-date=27 September 2007 |url-status=dead }}{{cite news|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna29676829|title=S. Africa gangs using rape to 'cure' lesbians|date=13 March 2009|work=MSN|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090315234648/http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29676829|archive-date=15 March 2009}}

In its 2019 annual report, SOS Homophobie found that anti-lesbian violence increased 42 percent in France in 2018, with 365 attacks reported.{{cite web|title=Rapport sur l'homophobie 2019 : 2018, une année noire pour les personnes LGBT|url=https://www.sos-homophobie.org/article/rapport-sur-l-homophobie-2019-2018-une-annee-noire-pour-les-personnes-lgbt|website=SOS Homophobie|language=fr|date=May 14, 2019|access-date=14 August 2019|trans-title=Report on Homophobia 2019: 2018, a dark year for LGBT people}}{{cite web|title=Insultes, coups de poing, interdiction d'entrer : des lesbiennes racontent les agressions qu'elles ont subies|url=https://www.franceinter.fr/societe/insultes-coups-de-poing-interdiction-d-entrer-des-lesbiennes-racontent-les-agressions-qu-elles-ont-subi?xtmc=lesbophobes&xtnp=1&xtcr=2|website=France Inter|language=fr|date=14 May 2019|access-date=14 August 2019|trans-title=Insults, punches, prohibition to enter: lesbians tell the assaults they have suffered}}{{cite web|last1=Wilkins|first1=Anna|title=Anti-Lesbian Hate Crimes Are On The Rise|url=https://www.gentside.co.uk/news/anti-lesbian-hate-crimes-are-on-the-rise_art3568.html|website=Gentside|date=August 13, 2019|access-date=14 August 2019}}

Lesbian erasure

Lesbian erasure references the process of ignoring or discarding the history and problems of lesbians.{{Cite web|last=Morris |first=Bonnie J. |title=Dyke Culture and the Disappearing L |url=http://www.slate.com/blogs/outward/2016/12/22/disappearing_lesbians_and_the_need_to_preserve_dyke_culture.html |website=Slate |date=December 22, 2016 |access-date=20 March 2024 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240320160643/https://slate.com/human-interest/2016/12/disappearing-lesbians-and-the-need-to-preserve-dyke-culture.html |archive-date=20 March 2024}} The term demonstrates the ways in which the contributions of notable lesbian women are diminished by making their lesbianism no longer a part of their story; some examples being Stormé DeLarverie, Audre Lorde, or Angela Davis.{{Cite news|last=Fleming |first=Pippa |title=The gender-identity movement undermines lesbians |url=https://www.economist.com/open-future/2018/07/03/the-gender-identity-movement-undermines-lesbians |newspaper=The Economist |date=3 July 2018 |access-date=20 March 2024 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240320162508/https://www.economist.com/open-future/2018/07/03/the-gender-identity-movement-undermines-lesbians |archive-date=20 March 2024 }}

Erotic plasticity and lesbianism

Some suggest that the notion of female erotic plasticity is wishful thinking on the part of men who want to have sex with lesbians, and should be criticized for not being objective;{{cite book|last1=Clarke|first1=Victoria|last2=Peel|first2=Elizabeth|title=Out in Psychology: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Queer Perspectives|date=2007|edition=1st|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|location=Chichester, West Sussex, England|isbn=978-0470012871}}{{Better source needed|reason=Search of Clarke book not provide support for "sexual orientation change efforts aimed at women often include rape" and "female erotic plasticity"|date=April 2020}}{{cite book|last1=Radclyffe|first1=Megan |title=Lesbophobia: Gay Men and Misogyny |date=1995 |publisher=Cassell |oclc=231667896 |isbn=978-0304333264}} while some hypothesize that lesbian relationships exist because of male sexual desires,{{cite journal|last1=Apostolou |first1=Menelaos |last2=Shialos |first2=Marios |last3=Khalil |first3=Michalis |last4=Paschali |first4=Vana |title=The evolution of female same-sex attraction: The male choice hypothesis |journal=Personality and Individual Differences |date=2017 |volume=116 |pages=372–378 |doi=10.1016/j.paid.2017.05.020 |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0191886917303422 |issn=0191-8869|url-access=subscription }} and that females are more sexually fluid.{{cite journal|last1=Baumeister |first1=Roy F. |title=Gender Differences in Erotic Plasticity: The Female Sex Drive as Socially Flexible and Responsive |journal=Psychological Bulletin |date=2000 |volume=126 |issue=3 |pages=347–374 |url=https://www.academia.edu/81361658 |doi=10.1037/0033-2909.126.3.347 |pmid=10825779 |lccn=05019164 |issn=0033-2909}}

References

External links

[https://eige.europa.eu/taxonomy/term/1274 Lesbophobia] definition by the European Institute for Gender Equality
[https://ec.europa.eu/justice/grants/results/daphne-toolkit/content/violence-against-lesbians-education-research-public-campaigns_en Violence against lesbians: education, research, public campaigns (Project Number: 2000-021-W)]. DAPHNE project. European Commission, 2000.
[https://ec.europa.eu/justice/grants/results/daphne-toolkit/sites/default/files/projects/documents/final_report_2000_021.pdf Violence Against Lesbians: Education – Research – Public Relation (Final Report)]. DAPHNE Programme. European Commission, 31 December 2001.
[https://www.sos-homophobie.org/sites/default/files/plaquette_enquete_lesbophobie_english.pdf Lesbians visibility and lesbophobia in France] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210520023221/https://www.sos-homophobie.org/sites/default/files/plaquette_enquete_lesbophobie_english.pdf |date=20 May 2021 }}. SOS Homophobie, 2014.
[https://www.humandignitytrust.org/wp-content/uploads/resources/Breaking-the-Silence-Criminalisation-of-LB-Women-and-its-Impacts-FINAL.pdf Breaking the Silence: Criminalisation of Lesbians and Bisexual Women and its Impacts]. Human Dignity Trust, May 2016.
[https://www.rferl.org/a/in-some-countries-being-gay-or-lesbian/30612062.html In Some Countries, Being Gay Or Lesbian Can Land You In Prison...Or Worse]. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 2020.