This research examines how women who experience a change to a partner of a different gender make sense of this shift both to themselves and to others. Specifically, the study draws on 32 interviews conducted with self-identified lesbian, bisexual and queer women who have moved from relationships with female partners to relationships with male partners. None of the women interviewed sought to identify themselves as straight or heterosexual. Many, instead, tried to negotiate non-straight identities. We conclude that women, in doing their non-straight identities, mainly rely upon a strategy of narrative, including narratives of attraction, choice of men and challenging homophobia.
A year into the 2003 US–Iraq war, how were adolescents in Baghdad faring? Conflict‐related events typically lower psychological well‐being; in contrast, investment in and protection of threatened identities should lead to self‐esteem striving and, presumably, better well‐being. How threatened do Iraqi adolescents feel? Is their self‐esteem related to their sense of threat? Do age, religion, ethnicity, and gender alter the link between perceived threat and self‐esteem?We use data from 1000 randomly selected adolescents living in Baghdad during July 2004. Iraqi adolescents reported high levels of threat; those feeling more threatened reported higher levels of self‐esteem. Social background correlates with both self‐esteem and perceived threat, but controlling for social background does not eliminate the relationship between self‐esteem and perceived threat. We interpret our results in light of theory and research concerning social identity, mortality threats, and war trauma.
Far from considering sexuality a dichotomous system of classification, with exclusive categories such as heterosexual and homosexual, scholars are paying closer attention to the ways in which individuals navigate sexual identity categories and engage in behavior that makes a single classification problematic. The focus of this article is on the experience of self-identified lesbian, bisexual and queer women who have moved from relationships with female partners to relationships with male partners. After 14 interviews, this research shows that the women in question reject some labels, such as straight and bisexual, but become protective of other labels, such as lesbian. The women themselves begin to serve as a sort of boundary police, protective of who exactly fits into the lesbian category.
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