“You never see lesbians”: Reading ‘lesbian’ through Channel 4 TV’s Brookside

Paper presented at Women’s Studies Network (UK) Conference, University of Portsmouth, 8-10 July 1994

In the last two years it has become possible to read “lesbian” in seemingly more places than ever before. Apparently lesbians are now “fashionable” and “lesbian chic” is debated throughout a range of popular texts, from the August 1993 Vanity Fair front cover featuring Cindy Crawford and k d lang to Joanna Briscoe’s recent article in the Sunday Times (“Lipstick on her collar” 5 June 1994). To read “lesbian” here is to read a story of our popularity, but it is also to become involved in an orchestrated spectacle. more …

Celebrating Self Help

Opening presentation at Women’s Health 2000: a Celebration of Self Help event, London Voluntary Sector Resource Centre, 6 May 2000

I have been involved in women’s health promotion and community projects for the last 12 years. Some of these operated as self help groups and support networks in which I participated because of my own experiences and support needs. My involvement in other projects has been as a paid worker employed to support and service similar groups. My personal experience of self help has everything to do with being a woman and, more specifically for me, being a lesbian. more …