'She gave me that look' : a history of lesbian (feminist) community in Canberra 1965-1984

Abstract

In Australia, the advent of gay and women's liberation in the 1970s provided the right milieu for lesbian feminist organising and community to emerge. Canberra's lesbian feminist community took longer to develop than many of its larger urban counterparts, not fully emerging until the late 1970s. "'She Gave Me That Look": a history of lesbian (feminism) in Canberra, 1965-84' traces the origins of that community and explores what it was like to come out as a lesbian during that period. This history draws on documentary sources and a series of interviews I conducted in 1994 with eight women about their lesbian experiences between 1965 and 1984. These women were not involved in the formative years of either women's liberation or gay liberation, coming to feminism well after the emergence of both movements. Their journeys towards, and experiences of, lesbian feminist community in Canberra offer a different perspective to our understanding of this unique period in the history of twentieth-century Australia. 'She Gave Me That Look' builds on existing gay, lesbian and feminist histories; explores the different methodological approaches employed in the production of such histories; and focuses in particular on the implications involved in including oral testimony in the writing of lesbian history in Australia. Show more