'That's Not Really My Scene': Working-Class Lesbians In (and Out of) Place

Abstract

In this article I consider working-class lesbians' views and experiences of commercialized scene space as these venues change in light of social, economic and political developments. Working-class lesbians both participated in and felt excluded from scene spaces, often criticizing them as 'pretentious' and 'unreal' for their cosmopolitan gloss. In this upgrading a politicized perspective was believed to have been sacrificed or in jeopardy, threatened by gendered and classed consumer-based expectations and inhabitations. The reproduction of such space via regeneration and sophistication mediates the construction of lesbian styles, appearances and identities, demarcating boundaries of inclusion across time and place. Interviewees spoke of scene developments and changes with a sense of loss, even nostalgia; their descriptions frequently conjured up binaries of now/then, political/apolitical, marginal/mainstream, metropolitan/provincial — producing an uneasy situation in and out of place. Such positionings illustrate material, embodied and felt exclusions, and tenuous inclusions, as this space is negotiated, contested and rejected.

Queering the birthing space: Phenomenological interpretations of the relationships between lesbian couples and perinatal nurses in the context of birthing care

“…Our feminist and phenomenological frameworks were helpful in allowing us to respond to the characteristics and group profile of the participants -overall, a minimally diverse group on axes of race and class -in large part by understanding the sample to instructively complement other analyses of how lesbians' possibilities for conception, births, childcare and supportive parenting environments are still dramatically bettered by more privileged class and educational backgrounds (Gabb, 2004;Taylor, 2008Taylor, , 2009). Young helps to show how anti-oppressive research can combat the selective privileging of certain perspectives both by highlighting underrepresented experiences (e.g.…”

“…2. Many nuanced accounts focus on individuals' access to and experiences of conception, and/or the ongoing interactions of lesbian-parent families within the home (Almack, 2005;Gabb, 2004;Taylor, 2008Taylor, , 2009). 3.…”

Sexualities and class

“…This call, however, arguably effaces the economics of (changing) culture, equality, legality and employability, via the education system, as substantively discussed here by Heaphy, McDermott, Nixon and Browne. In asking if queer lives are classed based, Seidman turns back to the USA to provide an analysis of 'class mixed' queer cultures and scenes; the middle-classes are positioned as inspiring this 'mix' ('the queer middle-class came out'), moving from the bar to the spaces of culture and politics. This inspires reflection on what exactly constitutes a 'mix' and who benefits from this: many have highlighted renewed classed and racial divisions within 'new', 'mixed' spaces as amounting to more than a caveat against a 'good mix' but as actually re-embedding classed, gendered and racial inequalities in, on and across scene spaces (Held, 2009;Taylor, 2008;Ward, 2008).…”

‘Seedy bars and grotty pints’: close encounters in queer leisure spaces

“…This is an affect that alienates Hannah from the scene, but also affords her no place for her sexual identity, where an alternate working-class space is often not a viable substitute (Taylor, 2007a(Taylor, , 2007b(Taylor, , 2008. Getting closer, the disconnection with pretentious and alienating spaces is felt and embodied through the cold material of the chrome bar top, and this reopens multiple meanings and associated flows.…”

“…Many have interrogated investments in the 'gay as now' model of 'valued added queer' cityscapes (Oswin, 2005), offering increased visibility for a limited number of commercially attractive identities (Binnie & Bell, 2000;Binnie & Skeggs, 2004;Taylor, 2008Taylor, , 2013a. A key focus of this paper is to question how these queer spaces are perceived, sensed, tasted and felt, and how they produce embodied emotions of attraction, disgust, arousal, identity, (dis)connectivity and belonging in the specific locale of the north-east of England.…”