hrj

We've come to the largest and most diverse set of LHMP tags: "People/Works/Events." It's taken me a while just to start organizing how I'm going to present these, and I've only barely started writing up the brief descriptions to accompany each one. So today's post is just a high-level overview. (I.e., I don't have anything else to post on LHMP day, so this is what you get.)

Overall, there are three major types of information in these tags: historic individuals who had some sort of lesbian-like characteristic (remember that this doesn't necessarily mean anything about their specific desires or orientation); authors who wrote non-fictional (at least, purportedly non-fictional) works addressing some sort of lesbian-like characteristic or who wrote relevant literature falling into a variety of specific sub-groups; and works of literature that include lesbian-like themes or characters.

When I went through to assign sub-groupings based on emergent themes, here's what I came up with. Some of these are going to get merged with other sub-groupings as I work through them. My analysis style always goes through this sort of evaluation as I start categorizing and grouping data. In order to make the number of tags more manageable, I've taken a few different approaches. For example, if an author wrote a large number of relevant works, I may tag those discussions with the author's name alone, whereas if they only wrote one or a few, each work may have a tag that includes the title.

Historic Individuals

Communities - Intended to identify specific institutions that have relevance to the project, e.g., specific women's communities. With only one item currently, I'll find a different way to categorize this.
Court Case - In most cases, trials that concerned lesbian activity include a personal name that can be used as a tag. But this sub-group also includes more anonymous descriptions. As I have a "court case" tag in the Topics tag-set, this has been something of a fall-back grouping and many examples are located elsewhere.
Crossdressing
- General - Examples of crossdressing (including partial or overt use of gendered clothing without the intent to pass as the other gender) that don't fall in a more specific category.
- Female Husband - Examples of either passing women or trans men who married (or attempted to marry) women.
- Military Crossdressing - Examples of women who crossdressed as men specifically in order to enter the military. Includes some examples where the clothing was simply functional and there was no attempt to conceal gender.
- Passing/Trans - Non-military, non-marital examples of crossdressing where the intent was to live as the presented gender. Includes some cases that are best interpreted as transgender identity.
Passionate Friendship - Women whose lives are relevant due to their participation in, or opinions about passionate/romantic friendships between women. In general, if there is a specific identifiable partnership involved that is presented to the world as a romantic couple, the sub-group "Romantic Pair" is used instead. The dividing line is fuzzy.
Romantic Pair - Women involved in a committed long-term partnership with each other, or a relationship that is presented as marriage-like or is clearly a sexual relationship. While examples in this group overlap with a number of other sub-groups, the emphasis here is on identifying specific known "couples".
Reputed Lesbian - Women who were accused of, rumored to be, or provide tangential evidence of having been involved in lesbian sexual relationships. In general, this sub-group is used when no specific partnership is identifiable (or when there are multiple), or when the accusation may not have been true.
Sex Between Women - I may merge these few examples into other categories, but it was set up as covering women where there is clear evidence of sexual activity but where there isn't a specific relationship and/or there's good reason not to interpret it as deriving from sexual orientation.

Authors

Descriptive Work - Covers non-fiction texts that intend to describe aspects of the world and society, e.g., medical texts, descriptions of cultural practices, records of specific events if I don't have a personal name associated with the event. The concept of "non-fiction" here is from the point of view of the author and intended readership, so it includes things like astrology.
Gender/Feminism - Authors (of literature or non-fiction) whose work addresses broad general themes of feminism or gender issues. I see that I've used this mostly for a separate author tag when that author's specific works are numerous and may also be listed individually.
Philosophy - Works addressing theoretical issues of gender and sexuality that don't really fall in the "description of the world as it is" category. Includes religious commentary on issues of sexuality.
Sex Between Women - Literary authors (usually when listed apart from specific works) whose work centers around depictions of lesbian sexual activity.
*Gender Transgression - I only have a couple of items tagged with this and will probably find a different grouping they fit into. It was intended to identify works concerning perceptions of gender categories that don't necessarily directly address sexuality.

Works of Literature

Crossdressing - A large body of works involving women disguised (to some degree of success) as men. See also "Gender Confusion" for a more specific subset.
Military Crossdressing - I may merge this small category with the general crossdressing group. In general, literary women who enter the military in disguise also fall in a more salient group (e.g., Gender Confusion).
Gender Confusion - This covers works where gender disguise (either by women as men or by men as women) creates the appearance or (temporary) understanding of romantic or erotic attraction between women. Note that this isn't meant to indicate that the characters are confused about their gender.
Erotic Flirtation - Works where women engage in erotic interactions or banter that are not presented in context as actual sexual encounters.
Communities - The sole example of a fictional community organized around lesbian sexual activity will probably be merged into some other relevant grouping.
Passionate/Romantic Friendship - Literary themes of passionate friendship between women. This sub-group covers a wide range of context and degrees of intensity, from devoted platonic friendship through erotic desire. In general, if a specific established couple is involved or if a sexual relationship is indicated, the characters will fall under "Same-sex Love" instead.
Predatory Erotics - Literary themes of erotic desire where it is portrayed as predatory, disfunctional, or pathological.
Same-Sex Love - Literary depictions of romantic/sexual couples covering a broad range of expressions but where the relationship is clearly distinct from platonic friendship.
Sexual Education - Depictions (generally pornographic) of women engaging in sex together where the activity is presented as sexual initiation in preparation for heterosex, rather than as being driven by lesbian erotic desire.
Sexual Innuendo - Literary depictions of an understanding of the potential for sexual activity between women, but where no specific characters are engaging in it.
Poetry: Love Between Women - Poems in the voice of a woman expressing love for another woman, or that make reference to romantic love between women. In general, I have only included examples where the language of romantic attraction is unmistakable, rather than all expressions of admiration or affection.
Poetry: Sex Between Women - Poems that reference or describe sexual activity between women.

Other - These are sub-groups that don't fit clearly into the above three categories. They're scheduled for re-analysis and merging with other sub-groups.

Transvestite Saints - This sub-group awkwardly straddles the historical and literary categories as many of the relevant biographies are almost certainly fictional. I'll probably move them under the historical group anyway.
Visual Art - While I have a "visual arts" tag in the Topics group, this is meant to tag specific artists who created lesbian-relevant work. Although I currently have only one tag here, in part that's because I haven't focused much on this topic.

So stay tuned for the actual tag-lists in this set as I write the up!