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Encapsulating a vibrant spectrum of love, desire, and identity, the term “lesbian” expands beyond sexuality as a representation of women embracing their authentic selves and forging profound connections. From ancient tales of Sappho’s poetic expressions to contemporary narratives of liberation, the term lesbian carries a rich historical tapestry that continues to evolve today.
The terms “lesbian” and “sapphic “ both find their origin in the Ancient Greek poet, Sappho of Lesbos. A renowned and respected poet in the Greek world, much of her work has not survived, but one of her few surviving pieces, Ode to Aphrodite, spoke of Sappho herself in pursuit of a lover. Yet, in 1835, it was discovered that Sappho’s lover was mistranslated to be male, making her work a piece celebrating female sexuality and emotional intimacy. While it was not accepted that her lover was indeed female until the 1960s, Sappho has since been the idea of the quintessential lesbian. Until the 19th century, the word lesbian only described things from the island of Lesbos or applied to close female friendship and comradeship - relationships that were perceived as inconceivably non-erotic. Yet, the term “lesbian” as a sexual identity is ironically rooted in a male-centric erotic fantasy of women and the development of the male anxiety over women’s sexuality that emerged in the 18th to 19th Centuries.
The socialized perception and emphasis on women’s inherent sexuality has dramatically varied throughout human existence, yet prior to the 18th Century, gendered segregation of men and women allowed intimate relationships to flourish. Vast evidence of women finding alternatives to traditional unions with men are found extensively in the lives of the ‘lesbians’ (of the island of Lesbos) of the 7th Century women’s school that Sappho attended, the secret sororities and economic networks reported among African women to the ancient Chinese marriage-resistance sisterhoods that have hinted at the existence of women preferring relationships with each other for centuries. (1) Their resistance to entering a marriage with a man is inherently a radical one, as their effort to escape this fate comes with a severe economic disadvantage and potential violent danger. Yet, some women found ways to live without the financial support of men. In the 12th and 15th centuries, women known as Beguines, shared houses, rented to one another and practiced ‘Christian virtues’ without the association of men. These women were a rare example of financial independence, until the Church forced their dispersal. (2) Despite their financial obligation for marriage, Renaissance men and women believed that they could not be honest and vulnerable with the opposite sex, pushing them to seek out emotionally intimate relationships with members of the same sex. (3) These close relationships were generally socially condoned as non-heterosexual physical intimacy was not seen as possible and therefore not a threat to the status-quo of men’s sexually oppressive power over women.
By the 18th century, romantic relationships between English women were documented in their own writings, but attempts to live alternatively to the heteronormative expectation were often limited by social critique. These emotionally intimate relationships with between women were considered “fashionable”, as their passionate and supposedly “non-gential” love was believed to be pure and otherworldly. (4) These letters to each other reference the passionate male writers of the Renaissance, Greek and Roman eras - depicting their intense relationships together as a “union of souls, marriage of hearts, and a harmony of design and affection.” (5) Due to the popularity of these intense female relationships, unless the pair were suspected “transvestites” or considered ‘unwomanly’ there was little chance their relationship would be considered “lesbian”. (6) Yet, a more modern perspective by a 20th century commentator on the written letters between 18th century English women, Mary Pierrepont and Anne Wortley, acknowledges that the emotional intensity of the letter might make a reader “fancy [themselves] in Lesbos”. (7) Despite the commentator reassuring their readers that Mary was undoubtedly writing through Anne to her brother, the reference to Lesbos solidifies female sexuality and the emotionally intense relationships between women to be associated with the physical sexuality of “lesbianism”. Few women in the 18th century were able to successfully live together. To live financially independently of men and relatively free of social scrutiny was a privilege reserved for a select few. One of the few great success stories of 18th century romantic friendships was the relationship between Sarah Ponsonby and Eleanor Butler, “The Ladies of Llangollen.” Later references refer to them as “the Irish Ladies who have settled [here] in so romantic a manner,” their relationship together was only socially permissible due to their wealth and status. (8) But their adherence to other class norms and ideologies hardly made their relationship radical, their class morality hid any suspicion of sexual aspects in their relationship. (9) Yet, these fashionable romantic relationships between women were only perceived as ‘lesbian’ when the male fantasy of women’s sexuality threatened their sexual power over women.
The perception of women’s relationships as non-genital and spiritually virtuous sparked a dichotomic male obsession with the nature of female sexuality. In an 18th century memoir written by Jacques Cassanova about the provocative nature of European social life, he writes of a convent where a nun initiates a young girl in the “mysteries of Sappho.” (10) Interestingly, Casanova sent these writings to his fiancee to remind her that sexual love between women is illegitimate. However, indication that his fiancee might have had a female lover herself suggests that his writings were aimed to solidify his sexual dominance as a male. In other 18th century writings, male authors attempted to disway expressions of female sexuality in supposedly detailed case histories of female masturbators - citing these acts as a sexual and physical sin that was medicalized as a cause of pain, vomiting, infertility and even death. (11) Yet, despite the author’s recognition of female masturbation as sexual, the author never made the connection of mutual masturbation as a form of “lesbianism”. The first extensive writings about lesbian sex by an 18th century French writer, sparked a male desire for pornographic material of women’s relationships that is credited for sexualizing lesbians in later centuries. (12) Yet, despite the ‘protagonist’ character of Sapho engaging in sex with other women, she is ultimately won over by a man - ultimately satisfying the male fantasy and assuring men of their dominion over women. These writings were cited for “creating” lesbian history for 20th century writers who took them as truth. (13) Male-written erotic depictions of 18th century lesbians opened a window into the imagination of female pleasure that would later contend with a socialized misogyny that felt threatened by female love.
By the 19th Century, male poets and french aesthetes crafted the image of the ‘lesbian’ as sexually indulgent and promiscuous - a supposed stark contrast from the gentile women in their own lives. These poems used the term “Lesbos” as not only a reference to Sappho and the island of Lesbos, but to specifically refer to women’s physical sexuality as a “sterile ecstasy”. (14) The male-centric portrayal of lesbians as sexually insatiable, framed these women as both victims and monsters to their “wild sexuality”. This exotified image of lesbians as ‘tormentors and seducers of the innocent’ was furthered by the ambivalent attitudes of French aesthetes. They were drawn to the dichotomy of the lesbian as a “demon to their bourgeois Catholic side and rebel and martyr to the artist side of themselves”. (15) Yet, beyond women’s sexuality, the male fantasy is reliant upon the preservation of the masculine sexual dominion over women. In a 19th Century poem titled, “Sappho” the Greek poet is uncharacteristically “sick with passion” for a man, in which she turns away from lesbianism and ultimately seeks refuge in death. (16) This masculine anxiety of female sexual independence is reassured by delegitimizing lesbianism as subpar compared to heterosexuality. These men fear not that women’s sexual appetites will be forced upon them, but that women could be indifferent to men altogether - men would only be allowed sexual, emotional and economic access to women only on women’s terms. (17) To protect their dominance as men, the portrayal of lesbianism as a threat to “good moral women” and depicting lesbians as sexual prostitutes that introduce sin reflects the male interest in controlling women. (18) Yet, the limited definition of love between women as merely lesbian sex accompanied with frustration and sorrow (or even death) is born in male fantasy. Even for actual women whose love for other women likely had a sexual component, “lesbian love is a good deal more than lesbain sex.” (19)
As the United States entered the Civil War in the 1860s, the depletion of three million marriageable men left single women searching for forms of financial independence outside of a husband. These new aged women found independence where they could, but their independence raised concerns of lesbianism as “an inevitable consequence of [their] independent spirit”. (20) The radical idea of the 19th Century ‘New Woman’ resonated with women and feminists searching for alternatives outside of the expectation of marriage. A literary ideal marks a woman who is driven by “improving the lot of the masses” and that her mission cannot be distracted by heterosexual relationships with men. (21) These ‘New Women’ were observed by writers and early feminists as an alternative companionship where women were equal to each other, according to Edith Somerville, these were “women who live by their brains”. (22) Women such as early 19th Century feminist Margret Fuller even described love between women as superior to heterosexual relationships due to their intellectual and spiritual nature that is unburdened by “temporal interests. (23) However, not all ‘New Women’ agreed with the association with lesbianism. Elizabeth Dauthendey’s 1900s writings in “Of the New Woman and her Love: A Book for Mature Minds” distinguishes that a “sapphist or lesbian” cannot be applied to the health of normal looking women - or more specifically, white upper class women. (24) The early feminist movement headed by these New Women allowed more women to enter the labor market, generate financial independence and form a new middle-class of women. Their revolutionary potential drew them to higher education with the opening of coeducation at Oberlin College in 1830 and the first women’s college in 1837 at Mt. Holyoke. By 1880 forty thousand women had enrolled and the association of ‘women’s’ with lesbian popularized. (25) Perhaps same-sex relationships between 19th century women were permitted socially (to an extent) because their potential for forming a permanent bond with another woman had not been widely spread among popular imagination until after WWII.
To circumvent the social limitations of living independently from men, 19th century women found ways to live together that were relatively tolerated. Like other heterosexual couples, many ‘romantic friends’ and lesbians desired to establish a home together; willing to make great sacrifices for this ideal, they were devastated if their hopes were disappointed. In a 19th century English lawsuit, two mistresses of a girl’s boarding school were accused of improper and criminal conduct by a student who claimed to overhear sexual acts between the women. Yet, despite the legal unfavorability of same-sex couples, the verdict ruled in favor of the two women on the basis of the belief that respectable women were not sexual creatures. (26) This discrepancy between the social perception of these women, reinforced the segregation of sexuality from the emotional intimacy of romantic friendships; ultimately the judicial incentive to not perceive female sexuality aimed to protect the moral reputation of white English women. Across the sea, New-England women who wanted to live without men found solace in “Boston Marriages”. Mark DeWolfe Howe, editor of the Atlantic Monthly in the late 19th century, referred to the Boston Marriage as “a union - there is no truer word for it”. (27) Later 20th century historians would write of their suspicion of a “lesbian nature” in these ‘marriages’; exhibiting a “perverse sexuality”. (28) Like the ‘Ladies of Llangollen a hundred years prior to these Boston Marriages, the assumption that love between women was asexual, a sex-hating society in the 19th century could perceive these relationships with admiration and envy of an ideal. (29) But, the perception that these romantic friendships were widely approved of and idealized obscures the wariness and prohibition that often restricted women’s relationships. (30) Later biographers and historians from the 20th century would censor the lives and letters of these women under the heavy influence of a stigma towards the “sexual deviancy of lesbianism” - erasing the existence of lesbians from history and obscuring the detailed history of many lesbian women. (31) But as the New Women and feminists of the 19th century made gains in achieving any form of independence from men, as did the fear of men losing domestic and financial power over women. Women who chose to share their lives together now had to contend not only with social critique, but a new wave psycho-medicalized mass denunciation.
As male writers and French aesthetes were obsessed with female sexuality in the 19th century, the rapid medicalization of society branded non-heteronormative behaviors such as lesbianism as not only morally sinful but medically degenerate. In 1890, Allan McLane Hamilton offered a distinct medicalized definition of a lesbian as “a masculine type, subject of a pelvic disorder, with scanty menstruation, and was more or less hysterical or insane.” (32) Like the poems and literary suggestions of lesbianism, the male-centric perception of lesbians socialized a definition that was inaccurate and benefited male dominance. Based on the writings of French aesthetes, German Sexologists also defined ‘lesbianism’ - “as two women holding one another in bed breast to breast, and loving each other more than a woman loves a man”. (33) Yet, the late 19th century rise of sexologists and psychoanalysis generated theories about sexuality that enabled a heteronormative standard that labeled the lesbian as a person outside the traditional role of a woman that is a distinct 3rd sex - disassociating lesbianism as a sexuality separate from ‘womanhood’. (34) German Psychiatrist, Carl von Westphal, published a study on masculine women claiming them to be “congenital inverts” whose sexual ‘abnormalities’ should be medicalized and investigated by male doctors. (35) As sexual relationships between women could not reproductively fulfill the expectation of heterosexual marriage, men with supposed modern ‘medical knowledge’ could direct the public’s sexual anxieties towards those on the fringes of society. Sexual love between women was described as a form of “sexual inversion” with signs of “a diseased central nervous system” and an exhibit of “degeneration”. (36) While some sexologists believed this ‘degeneracy’ could be reversed through ‘proper socialization’, it is important to note that some women in these romantic relationships did not consider gentital sex as a component of love in their own relationships. While some women accepted the label of a “sapphist” as a reference to Sappho’s infamous love for other women, they adamantly refused to allow the idea of genital sex to interfere with the intensity of their “most exalted feelings”. (37)
By the 20th century, the new-wave feminist movement and the Gay Liberation movement coincided with new opportunities for lesbian women to build communities with each other, share interests and advocate for their own rights as self-identifying Lesbians. There is evidence of women in every culture and throughout history that have pursued an independent, nonheterosexual, woman-connected existence to the extent possible, often in the belief they were the only ones ever to have done so. (38) On lesbianism, female sociologist Nancy Chodorow states that “men are emotionally secondary in women’s lives”, but ultimately dismisses the lesbian existence as a recreation of the emotional intensity of a mother-daughter relationship and that most women must be heterosexual. (39) Like the male-directed erasure of lesbianism that came before her, Chodorow ignores the already covert socialization that has channeled women into marriages and heterosexual romance that benefits that male gender. If women are supposedly naturally heterosexual, why are such violent structures found necessary to enforce their total emotional and erotic loyalty in subservience to men? (40) The lesbian existence comprises both the breaking of social taboo and the rejection of a compulsory way of life - to be a lesbian is ultimately a direct and indirect attack on the male access to women. In 1976, the Brussels International Tribunal on Crimes Against Women named forced compulsory heterosexuality as a crime against all women, but socialized animosity towards same-sex relationships have violently forced women and men to assimilate to a heteronormative expectation out of fear. (41) However, the lesbian existence is more than a mere refuge from male abuses, rather lesbianism is a powerful and empowering charge between women.
In conclusion, the term "lesbian" has undergone a significant process of reclamation, evolving from a historically derogatory label to one that carries a sense of empowerment and identity. Through the efforts of lesbian communities and activists, the word has been embraced and redefined to encompass the experiences, desires, and relationships of women who love women. This reclamation represents a powerful act of self-affirmation and visibility, challenging societal norms and stereotypes. By reclaiming the term, lesbians have not only reshaped their own narratives but also contributed to a broader movement of LGBTQ+ empowerment and inclusivity. The process of reclaiming "lesbian" serves as a testament to the resilience and strength of individuals and communities in asserting their identities and rewriting their own stories.
Footnotes:
(1) Rich, Adrienne. Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence. (Denver CO: Antelope Publications,1982)
(2) Building Feminist Theory: Essays from Quest (New York, N.Y.: Longman,1981)
(3) Lillian Faderman, Surpassing the Love of Men (New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc. 1981)
(4) loch, Iwan. Sexual Life in England : Past and Present. Royston: Oracle, 1996
(5) Lillian, Faderman. Page 45
(6) Lillian, Faderman. Page 84
(7) Barry, Iris. Portrait of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. London: E. Benn, 1928.
(8) Mavor, Elizabeth. The Ladies of Llangollen: A Study in Romantic Friendship. London: Joseph, 1971.
(9) Lillian, Faderman. Page 123.
(10) Casanova, Jacques. The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova De Seingalt; N.Y.: Putnam, 19AD.
(11) LADIES. The Ladies Dispensatory: Or Every Woman Her Own Physician. Treating of the Nature, Causes, and Various Symptoms, of All the Diseases, Infirmities, and Disorders ... That Most Peculiarly Affect the Fair Sex ... with Variety of Proper Remedies ... Also, a Compleat Index, Etc. London: James Hodges, 1739.
(12) Mairobert Mathieu François Pidanzat de. L' Espion Anglois, Ou Correspondance Secrète Entre Milord All'eye Et Milord All'ear. 6 /. Vol. 6 /. Londres: Adamson, 1783
(13) Lillian, Faderman. Page 45.
(14) Baudelaire, Charles, Philip Willoughby-Higson, and Elliot R Ashe. Baudelaire, the Flowers of Evil, and All Other Authenticated Poems. Chester: Cestrian Press, 1975.
(15) Lillian, Faderman. Page 277
(16) Verlaine, Paul. Oeuvres Libres : Les Amis, Femmes, Hombres. Collection Le Cabinet Rose Et Noir. Paris: Au cercle du livre precieux, 1961.
(17) Rich, Adrienne.
(18) Daudet, Alphonse. Sappho. Translated by Graham Anderson. Dedalus European Classics. Sawtry, Cambs: Dedalus Limited, 2018.
(19) Lillian, Faderman. Page 275
(20) Swinburne, Algernon Charles, and Edmund Wilson. The Novels of A.c. Swinburne : Love's Cross-Currents ; Lesbia Brandon. New York: Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, 1962.
(21) Converse, Florence. Diana Victrix. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1897.
(22) Somerville, Edith Anna Oenone, and Martin Ross. Irish Memories, by E. Oe. Somerville and Martin Ross. New-York, 1917.
(23) Fuller, Margaret, Horace Greeley, John Plumbe, R. Babson, Joseph Andrews, John P. Jewett and Company (Boston, Mass.), Jewett, Proctor, and Worthington, et al., Woman in the Nineteenth Century: And Kindred Papers Relating to the Sphere, Condition and Duties of Woman, ed. Arthur B. Fuller, 1st ed. (Boston: John P. Jewett & Company, 1855).
(24) Elisabeth Dauthendey, Vom Neuen Weibe Und Seiner Liebe: Ein Buch Für Reife Geister (Of the New Woman and her Love: A Book for Mature Minds) (Berlin: Schuster & Loeffler, 1922).
(25) Lillian, Faderman. Page 179.
(26) Woods, Marianne, Jane Pirie, and Helen Cumming Gordon. Miss Marianne Woods and Miss Jane Pirie against Dame Helen Cumming Gordon. Homosexuality. New York: Arno Press, 1975
(27) Howe, Helen. The Gentle Americans, 1864-1960 : Biography of a Breed. 1st ed. New York: Harper & Row, 1965.
(28) Faderman, Lillian, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Oliver Wandell Holmes, and Henry James. “Female Same-Sex Relationships in Novels by Longfellow, Holmes, and James.” The New England Quarterly 51, no. 3 (1978): 309–32.
(29) Lillian, Faderman. Page 201.
(30) Lisa Moore, "Something More Tender Still than Friendship: Romantic Friendship in Early-Nineteenth-Century England," Feminist Studies 18, no. 3 (1992): 499.
(31) Lillian, Faderman. Page 142.
(32) Allan McLane Hamilton, The Connection of Autotoxis with Certain Common Forms of Insanity (London: Harrison & Sons, printers), May 11th, 1896
(33) Lillian, Faderman. Page 173.
(34) Lillian, Faderman. Page 238.
(35) "Die Konträre Sexualempfindung. Von Albert Moll. Dritte Auflage." (Berlin: Fischer, 1899), 652, Journal of Mental Science 45, no. 191 (1899): 790–90.
(36) Krafft-Ebing, Richard von, Albert Moll, Lobstein René, and Pierre Janet. Psychopathia Sexualis: Étude Médico-Légale À L'usage Des Médecins Et Des Juristes. 1 /. Vol. 1 /. Agora, 204. Paris: Presses pocket, 1999
(37) Ellis, Havelock. Studies in the Psychology of Sex. A Random House Wartime Book. New York: Random House, 1937.
(38) Rich, Adrienne.
(39) Chodorow, Nancy. The Reproduction of Mothering : Psychoanalysis and the Sociology of Gender. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978.
(40) Rich, Adrienne.
(41) Yaron, Joanne, and International Tribunal on Crimes Against Women, Brussels, 1976. The Brussels Papers: A Collection of the Material Prepared by Joanne Yaron for and About the International Tribunal on Crimes against Women Held in Brussels, March 4-8, 1976. Tel Aviv, 1976
About the Author
About the Author
Catherine Zoe Marsiglia is a Junior at Boston University, majoring in Political Science with a minor in Public Health. In 2001, Zoe was born on Thanksgiving Day, forcing her parents to miss the Thanksgiving Meal. This lack of coordination may be a factor in her parents' subsequent divorce.
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