1. Empowerment Versus Control: Historical Accounts of Lesbian and Gay Lives.
- Author
-
Minton, Henry L.
- Abstract
This paper analyzes the textual data produced by both the participants and the interpreter in George W. Henry's two-volume monograph, "Sex Variants" (1941), a study of homosexuality based on a sample of 80 socially well-adjusted homosexuals from New York City's lesbian and gay community. It is stated that the Henry volumes provide a rich source of data regarding the subjective experiences and sensibilities of a group of marginalized people within a particular historical period and how these people were objectified and marginalized by the medical and scientific community of their day. Three contexts are used in analyzing the monograph: the background of the study; sex research; and the lesbian and gay community. Significant features of the lesbian subculture in the 1920s and 1930s are examined. Two discourses are analyzed: heterosexual adjustment and lesbian emancipation. These conclusions are stated: (1) the life experiences, outlooks, concerns, and goals of the four women's accounts which were examined reveal considerable variability; (2) the women were all struggling with their subjugation to heterosexual adjustment, while at the same time, through being a part of the lesbian/gay community, and through their own life experiences, they were also attempting to empower themselves; (3) heterosexual adjustment prevailed; and (4) to Henry's credit he did record the voices of lesbians and gay men, though unfortunately, at the time, he did not hear them. (ABL)
- Published
- 1992