Lesbian Friendships explores the particular kinds of friendships lesbians have with one another and with their nonlesbian friends. It looks at the continuum of relationships as friends, lovers, the gray area between the two, and as former-lovers-but-still-good-friends.
In response to their call for submissions, Jacqueline Weinstock and Esther Rothblum received essays, letters, anecdotes, poems, and photos from published and first-time writers. Teri de la Pena's essay recalls the sweetness of her friendship with Elisa, the first other Latina lesbian writer she'd ever met. Anndee Hochman writes about sharing a house with her best friend Rachael, and Rachael's male lover, John, despite the raised eyebrows of some disapproving anti-male lesbians. These essays both celebrate the joys and acknowledge the complications of lesbian friendships.
Product Description
Friends as lovers; lovers as friends; ex-lovers as friends; ex-lovers as family; friends as family; communities of friends; lesbian community. These are just a few of the phrases heard often in the daily discourse of lesbian life. What significance do they have for lesbians? Do lesbians view friends as family and what does this analogy mean? What sorts of friendships exist between lesbians? What sorts of friendships do lesbians form with non-lesbian women, or with men?
These and other questions regarding the kinds of friendships lesbians imagine and experience have rarely been addressed. Lesbian Friendships focuses on actual accounts of friendships involving lesbians and examines a number of issues, including the transition from friends to lovers and/or lovers to friends, erotic attraction in friendship, diverse identities among lesbians, and friendships across sexuality and/or gender lines.
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