Provides an overview of the field of lesbian studies. This work includes essays drawn primarily from Feminist Studies from 1980 to 1993 and traces lesbian studies from its beginnings, examining the difficulties of defining a lesbian perspective.

The growth in cultural studies has brought homosexuality to the center of work on gender and sexuality. The lesbian is now an accepted subject for scrutiny, she exists, but how do we define her history, whom do we include, and when did it begin? "Lesbian Subjects" includes essays drawn primarily from Feminist Studies from 1980 to 1993 and traces lesbian studies from its beginnings, examining the difficulties of defining a lesbian perspective and a lesbian past, a culture, social milieux, states of mind. The contributors are Susan K. Cahn, Tee A. Corinne, Heather Findlay, Karen V. Hansen, Anne Herrmann, Akasha (Gloria T.) Hull, Elizabeth Meese, Leisa D. Meyer, Lisa Moore, Makeda Silvera, Martha Vicinus, and Elizabeth Wilson.

1. Martha Vicinus Introduction
PART I: EXPLORATIONS
2. Gloria T. Hull OResearching Alice Dunbar-Nelson: A Personal and Literary PerspectiveO
3. Lisa Moore, OSomething more tender still than friendship: Romantic Friendship in Early Nineteenth-Century EnglandO
4. Susan Cahn, OFrom OMuscle MollO to the OButchO Ballplayer:
Mannishness, Lesbianism and Homophobia in US WomenOs SportsO
5. Leisa D. Meyer, OCreating G. I. Jane: The Regulation of Sexuality and Sexual Behavior in the WomenOs Army Corps During World War IIO
6. Elizabeth Meese, OWhen Virginia Looked at Vita, What Did She See
or Lesbian: Feminist: WomanNWhatOs the Differ(e/a)nce?O
7. Anne Harrmann, OImitations of Marriage: Crossdressed Couples in Contemporary Lesbian FictionO
INTERMISSION
8. Tessa Boffin and Jean Fraser, OStolen Glances: Lesbians Take PhotographsO
9. Tee Corinne, OOn Sexual ArtO
PART II: AFFIRMATIONS
10. Elizabeth Wilson, OForbidden LoveO
11. Heather Findlay, OFreudOs OFetishismO and the Lesbian Dildo DebatesO
12. Penelope Engelbrecht, OOLifting Belly is a LanguageO: The Postmodern Lesbian SubjectO
13. Makeda Silvera, OMan Royals and Sodomites: Some Thoughts on the Invisibility of Afro-Caribbean LesbiansO