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hrj(I explain the LHMP here and provide a cumulative index.)
I went into the Project with some specific ideas of what sorts of data I was looking for. How could I not? Aside from simply following the threads and paths from sources that explicitly addressed lesbians in history, I had to have some idea of what topics would be relevant. Relevant, that is, to me as a writer (and, by extension, as a reader) of lesbian historical fiction. So at this point it's worth reviewing some of those themes, both the ones I was deliberately looking for, and the ones that emerged from the research.
Women having sex with women
This might seem a bit of a no-brainer, given the topic. Whatever the other contributing features and diversity of experience, the organizing central characteristic of lesbian experience (and so, of lesbian fiction) is sexual desire between women. But this is sometimes the hardest topic for which to find objective historic evidence. Particularly in Western culture, the issue of sex is so tied up with other concerns and anxieties that it is rare--before the modern period--for writers to address it outside of some other social or political agenda. So the data must always be second-guessed to consider the author, the intended audience, the purpose, the hazards, and the gatekeepers of the transmission.
Women who have close emotional bonds with women
There is far more evidence--and often unselfconscious evidence--for emotional relationships between women. As we have seen in some of the long-range reviews of lesbian themes in the 16-19th centuries, societies may swing wildly in how they assess and accept these bonds in comparison to more physical relationships. And so we sometimes get the clearest view of the depth and intensity of women's emotional bonds precisely when they were viewed as most separate from erotic desire. Even historians have not been entirely free of this dichotomy. Particularly when observing reactions to the "claiming historic women for lesbianism" movement, it's not uncommon for a purportedly dispassionate historian to view the exact same behaviors as either praiseworthy or pathological depending on whether the women involved are believed to have had an erotic relationship.
As a historic novelist, the distinction is nearly meaningless. If certain emotional behaviors were socially acceptable when believed to be non-erotic, then characters may freely indulge in them as long as their public behavior remains within bounds. Knowing what would have been viewed as "out of bounds" during a particular era provides the details that anchor the story to its setting.
Women who live in domestic or economic partnership with women
Once we branch out from the subjective experience of our characters, we begin dealing more with the factors that will make a story more or less satisfying to the readers. And here the Project makes no apology for the assumption that its followers are likely to want to write within that subset of possible historic stories that validate and reflect modern readers' desires. Yes, many historic women with lesbian desires never had the opportunity to realize them, realized them in fleeting, tragic, or even disastrous ways, or made extensive personal compromises and sacrifices in order to realize them. And those stories, too, are worth telling. But it's just as important to know the spaces in history in which the stories could have been different.
Any historic context in which women had the social, economic, and legal opportunity to come together to form households is a context in which a lesbian relationship could have flourished "under the radar". Depending on the specifics, it might even have had some degree of social sanction as a partnership. From the point of view of the Project, whether or not the specific women studied under this heading had emotional or sexual relationships with each other is irrelevant, as long as the social structure could reasonably provide "cover".
Women who resist or live outside of heteronormative paradigms
Historically speaking, there were many reasons for women to resist the normative life-path of marriage and childbearing: religious chastity, economic circumstances, a desire for personal autonomy, political circumstances. As seen in the statistical studies of singlewomen in medieval and early modern Europe, this "normative" paradigm was sometimes a minority experience. Whether or not it would have been socially acceptable to resist marriage specifically in order to enjoy female partnership (and we see some circumstances where this motivation was remarked on and at least tolerated), any context where it was "normal" to live outside a heterosexual partnership is a context where there is scope for female partnerships.
Women who resist assigned gender roles
It is far from universal in history for desire between women to be associated with gender transgression or cross-gender behavior. And in a historic context where we have no access to the thoughts and understanding of the individuals involved, behavior alone can't distinguish between gender transgression and transgender identity. But there are three strong motivations for examining gender transgression motifs in the context of the Project. The first is simply that modern readers do associate gender transgression in women with same-sex desire. And therefore identifying historical forms and contexts for that transgression provides a toolbox for writing appealing characters. The second reason is that gender confusion and disguise is a common motif in historic literature for inspiring either the appearance or the reality of same-sex desire. Therefore, whether your characters are encountering gender-transgressive behavior, or simply aware of it as a literary motif, it provides an opportunity for reflection and insight.
But thirdly, there were a number of specific historic contexts where cross-gender behavior was accompanied by emotional and/or sexual relationships between persons considered by their society to both be female. And therefore, whatever the specific personal realities of those historic individuals, they provide a precedent for how two fictional female characters may have found a successful modus vivendi.
There may well be other themes that can be traced in the material covered by the project. As I move further into retrospective indexing, I may uncover more.
I went into the Project with some specific ideas of what sorts of data I was looking for. How could I not? Aside from simply following the threads and paths from sources that explicitly addressed lesbians in history, I had to have some idea of what topics would be relevant. Relevant, that is, to me as a writer (and, by extension, as a reader) of lesbian historical fiction. So at this point it's worth reviewing some of those themes, both the ones I was deliberately looking for, and the ones that emerged from the research.
Women having sex with women
This might seem a bit of a no-brainer, given the topic. Whatever the other contributing features and diversity of experience, the organizing central characteristic of lesbian experience (and so, of lesbian fiction) is sexual desire between women. But this is sometimes the hardest topic for which to find objective historic evidence. Particularly in Western culture, the issue of sex is so tied up with other concerns and anxieties that it is rare--before the modern period--for writers to address it outside of some other social or political agenda. So the data must always be second-guessed to consider the author, the intended audience, the purpose, the hazards, and the gatekeepers of the transmission.
Women who have close emotional bonds with women
There is far more evidence--and often unselfconscious evidence--for emotional relationships between women. As we have seen in some of the long-range reviews of lesbian themes in the 16-19th centuries, societies may swing wildly in how they assess and accept these bonds in comparison to more physical relationships. And so we sometimes get the clearest view of the depth and intensity of women's emotional bonds precisely when they were viewed as most separate from erotic desire. Even historians have not been entirely free of this dichotomy. Particularly when observing reactions to the "claiming historic women for lesbianism" movement, it's not uncommon for a purportedly dispassionate historian to view the exact same behaviors as either praiseworthy or pathological depending on whether the women involved are believed to have had an erotic relationship.
As a historic novelist, the distinction is nearly meaningless. If certain emotional behaviors were socially acceptable when believed to be non-erotic, then characters may freely indulge in them as long as their public behavior remains within bounds. Knowing what would have been viewed as "out of bounds" during a particular era provides the details that anchor the story to its setting.
Women who live in domestic or economic partnership with women
Once we branch out from the subjective experience of our characters, we begin dealing more with the factors that will make a story more or less satisfying to the readers. And here the Project makes no apology for the assumption that its followers are likely to want to write within that subset of possible historic stories that validate and reflect modern readers' desires. Yes, many historic women with lesbian desires never had the opportunity to realize them, realized them in fleeting, tragic, or even disastrous ways, or made extensive personal compromises and sacrifices in order to realize them. And those stories, too, are worth telling. But it's just as important to know the spaces in history in which the stories could have been different.
Any historic context in which women had the social, economic, and legal opportunity to come together to form households is a context in which a lesbian relationship could have flourished "under the radar". Depending on the specifics, it might even have had some degree of social sanction as a partnership. From the point of view of the Project, whether or not the specific women studied under this heading had emotional or sexual relationships with each other is irrelevant, as long as the social structure could reasonably provide "cover".
Women who resist or live outside of heteronormative paradigms
Historically speaking, there were many reasons for women to resist the normative life-path of marriage and childbearing: religious chastity, economic circumstances, a desire for personal autonomy, political circumstances. As seen in the statistical studies of singlewomen in medieval and early modern Europe, this "normative" paradigm was sometimes a minority experience. Whether or not it would have been socially acceptable to resist marriage specifically in order to enjoy female partnership (and we see some circumstances where this motivation was remarked on and at least tolerated), any context where it was "normal" to live outside a heterosexual partnership is a context where there is scope for female partnerships.
Women who resist assigned gender roles
It is far from universal in history for desire between women to be associated with gender transgression or cross-gender behavior. And in a historic context where we have no access to the thoughts and understanding of the individuals involved, behavior alone can't distinguish between gender transgression and transgender identity. But there are three strong motivations for examining gender transgression motifs in the context of the Project. The first is simply that modern readers do associate gender transgression in women with same-sex desire. And therefore identifying historical forms and contexts for that transgression provides a toolbox for writing appealing characters. The second reason is that gender confusion and disguise is a common motif in historic literature for inspiring either the appearance or the reality of same-sex desire. Therefore, whether your characters are encountering gender-transgressive behavior, or simply aware of it as a literary motif, it provides an opportunity for reflection and insight.
But thirdly, there were a number of specific historic contexts where cross-gender behavior was accompanied by emotional and/or sexual relationships between persons considered by their society to both be female. And therefore, whatever the specific personal realities of those historic individuals, they provide a precedent for how two fictional female characters may have found a successful modus vivendi.
There may well be other themes that can be traced in the material covered by the project. As I move further into retrospective indexing, I may uncover more.
