Presenter(s): Gracia Dodds—Sociology, Womens’, Gender & Sexuality Studies
Faculty Mentor(s): Judith Raiskin
Session 1: Oh, the Humanities!
The 1970s and 80s held tremendous significance in the history of women’s intentional living communities . In Southern Oregon, lesbian lands popped up along the rural portions of the I-5 corridor, running from Eugene to Northern California . These lands served as women’s-only communities that were largely self-sufficient and created an entire subculture of a lesbian network that spanned across the United States . The mid-late 1970s were a period of revolution due to the uptick in second- wave feminism and the gay liberation movement, and these lands served as an intersection right in the middle of these two issues . Lesbian separatism was a radical and controversial political strategy that deserves more thought than it’s been given in the academic sphere .
In this research project, I focus on understanding how women on these lands talked about and understood sexuality and the identification markers of women who loved women . The queer community as we know it is ever-evolving in its understanding of acceptable linguistic terminology, and it is worth understanding where that language began . The Southern Oregon lesbian lands gives insight into one of the first geographic spaces where same-gender attraction could be freely and candidly discussed . I aim to understand and better categorize how sexuality was understood and what linguistic terms meant in the context of their era . In my initial research, I have found that the term ‘lesbian’ is better understood as a catch-all word for all of women’s same-gender attraction– meaning that includes multi-gender attracted women . This research will give better insight into how umbrella terms, like lesbian, affect who is included (and excluded) in both the 1970s and 80s, and in current times . This linguistic evolution will give important context to why certain terms are used and what the implications of those uses are .