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SUNY Series in Queer Politics and Cultures
The Disappearing L: Erasure of Lesbian Spaces and Culture
A 2018 Over the Rainbow Selection presented by the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered Round Table (GLBTRT) of the American Library Association
LGBT Americans now enjoy the right to marry—but what will we remember about the vibrant cultural spaces that lesbian activists created in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s? Most are vanishing from the calendar—and from recent memory. The Disappearing L explores the rise and fall of the hugely popular women-only concerts, festivals, bookstores, and support spaces built by and for lesbians in the era of woman-identified activism. Through the stories unfolding in these chapters, anyone unfamiliar with the Michigan festival, Olivia Records, or the women's bookstores once dotting the urban landscape will gain a better understanding of the era in which artists and activists first dared to celebrate lesbian lives. This book offers the backstory to the culture we are losing to mainstreaming and assimilation. Through interviews with older activists, it also responds to recent attacks on lesbian feminists who are being made to feel that they've hit their cultural expiration date.
LGBT Americans now enjoy the right to marry—but what will we remember about the vibrant cultural spaces that lesbian activists created in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s? Most are vanishing from the calendar—and from recent memory. The Disappearing L explores the rise and fall of the hugely popular women-only concerts, festivals, bookstores, and support spaces built by and for lesbians in the era of woman-identified activism. Through the stories unfolding in these chapters, anyone unfamiliar with the Michigan festival, Olivia Records, or the women's bookstores once dotting the urban landscape will gain a better understanding of the era in which artists and activists first dared to celebrate lesbian lives. This book offers the backstory to the culture we are losing to mainstreaming and assimilation. Through interviews with older activists, it also responds to recent attacks on lesbian feminists who are being made to feel that they've hit their cultural expiration date.
224 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 1, 2016
24 people are currently reading
1181 people want to read
About the author
Bonnie J. Morris
19 books38 followersBonnie J. Morris grew up in Los Angeles and North Carolina. She earned a B.A. in Jewish history from American University, the first student there to minor in women’s studies. She completed her Ph.D. in women’s history at Binghamton University in New York in 1989.
Dr. Morris taught at both George Washington University and Georgetown for almost 25 years, becoming professor emeritus and Professor of the Year at GWU and Vicennial Medalist at Georgetown. In 2017 she joined the history faculty at the University of California-Berkeley, earning a nomination for its Excellence in Teaching Prize.
She is the author of 16 books, including three Lambda Literary Finalists, two national first-prize chapbooks, and the critical feminist texts Women’s History for Beginners, The Disappearing L, and The Feminist Revolution. She may be found lecturing on C-Span, Olivia Cruises, Semester at Sea, the National Women’s Music Festival, and on Pacifica Radio KPFK.
Dr. Morris taught at both George Washington University and Georgetown for almost 25 years, becoming professor emeritus and Professor of the Year at GWU and Vicennial Medalist at Georgetown. In 2017 she joined the history faculty at the University of California-Berkeley, earning a nomination for its Excellence in Teaching Prize.
She is the author of 16 books, including three Lambda Literary Finalists, two national first-prize chapbooks, and the critical feminist texts Women’s History for Beginners, The Disappearing L, and The Feminist Revolution. She may be found lecturing on C-Span, Olivia Cruises, Semester at Sea, the National Women’s Music Festival, and on Pacifica Radio KPFK.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
April 6, 2025
2025 edit. I know more now, I've tried more now, CR groups have risen and fallen, I've dreamed big and failed and gone away to lick my wounds and come back again. Nothing can stop lesbians from trying again and again.
If you've read this book, and you're all alone, and it seems like a party you missed, it's not true. It's still happening. You can still get there. Check out @walktheamazontrail on instagram. I don't want to be part of the problem Dr. Morris so frankly outlines in the last chapters - passive, apathetic, withdrawn, addicted to the convenience of a life path that I struggle to walk parallel to or intersecting with separatism. It's lonelier now, we have to do it different ways, we don't have the mass of women. I don't want to fuck myself out of what's good and beautiful now miring myself in grief and nostalgia for something I wasn't there for. There's something here now, and we have to come to it, and work with it, and try our best, because that's what we have. Lesbians together are not lesbians alone and we are everywhere.
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This book makes me feel the way Dykes to Watch Out For does - homesick. As a young lesbian who's never known any thriving real life lesbian community, I ache. This book is just what young lesbians wanting our community are hungry for. I heard Dr. Bonnie had been blacklisted from running workshops on this book. I understand why. A lesbian who knows her history and can identify how it was taken away from her (and by who) is a most undesirable thing.
If you're not a lesbian and/or identify as queer and want to know what all of the dykes you obsessively scapegoat are all worked up over - read this.
"Right now, many female activists in their forties, fifties, sixties, seventies, and eighties are gazing thoughtfully into the glowing embers of lesbian culture. For us, this is still an active campfire where we gather and warm ourselves; one which, we hope, will not fade away into forgotten ash, but instead retain hot coals to stoke new fires."
We are the coals, and we will rise again. 😇🌈
If you've read this book, and you're all alone, and it seems like a party you missed, it's not true. It's still happening. You can still get there. Check out @walktheamazontrail on instagram. I don't want to be part of the problem Dr. Morris so frankly outlines in the last chapters - passive, apathetic, withdrawn, addicted to the convenience of a life path that I struggle to walk parallel to or intersecting with separatism. It's lonelier now, we have to do it different ways, we don't have the mass of women. I don't want to fuck myself out of what's good and beautiful now miring myself in grief and nostalgia for something I wasn't there for. There's something here now, and we have to come to it, and work with it, and try our best, because that's what we have. Lesbians together are not lesbians alone and we are everywhere.
----------------------------
This book makes me feel the way Dykes to Watch Out For does - homesick. As a young lesbian who's never known any thriving real life lesbian community, I ache. This book is just what young lesbians wanting our community are hungry for. I heard Dr. Bonnie had been blacklisted from running workshops on this book. I understand why. A lesbian who knows her history and can identify how it was taken away from her (and by who) is a most undesirable thing.
If you're not a lesbian and/or identify as queer and want to know what all of the dykes you obsessively scapegoat are all worked up over - read this.
"Right now, many female activists in their forties, fifties, sixties, seventies, and eighties are gazing thoughtfully into the glowing embers of lesbian culture. For us, this is still an active campfire where we gather and warm ourselves; one which, we hope, will not fade away into forgotten ash, but instead retain hot coals to stoke new fires."
We are the coals, and we will rise again. 😇🌈
December 18, 2017
This book is a piece of living history, representative of the current state of lesbian culture. It quotes Autostraddle, the Advocate, and a host of other blogs, indie publications, and mainstream LGBT news sites. Bonnie Morris does not paint a very hopeful picture of the future of lesbian spaces, and I can't say I disagree with her. Any attempt to make a space for lesbians, be it a blog, Facebook group, or social gathering, is viewed with extreme suspicion. I can look around and guess how we got here, but Morris outlines the rise and perceived fall of lesbian spaces and publications with comprehensive research and primary source experiences. She does not tiptoe around major controversies, and I wonder if she ever thought that publishing this would harm her academic reputation. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the lesbian concerts and festivals of the 70s and 80s. It makes my heart ache for places I've never been, and I know other young lesbians feel the same way. I wish she would have extended some advice concerning where we might go from here. What can the young lesbian "torch bearers" do to help preserve our history and keep creating our own culture?
September 17, 2017
Before you start talking about mean exclusionary terf altright lesbians, please read this.
ETA: if you call the author a terf or refer to evil terfs in your review, you've missed the point lmao
ETA: if you call the author a terf or refer to evil terfs in your review, you've missed the point lmao
February 1, 2019
I'll probably add to this later, I just wanted to address comments in other reviews that Bonnie Morris blames trans women or the queer movement as the main culprit for the disappearance of lesbian physical spaces. It just is not true. Trans women are mentioned a total of four times in this 200+ page book, and the majority of her argument is that lesbians ourselves have abandoned our own cultural spaces in part due to pressure from inside the house so to speak to not be no-fun dykes, but more importantly because the mainstream acceptance of LGBT people has allowed us to buy our books at Barnes & Noble instead of women's bookstores and to go anywhere we want to have drinks, dates, or vacations instead of patronizing lesbian owned alternatives. When our only options were lesbian owned, they thrived. Now that we have more options, the majority of us have chosen to not make the effort (or spend the additional money that comes with buying books full price, for example) on keeping lesbian spaces alive. She is so clear that it is on us to change this, I can't imagine having actually read this book and come away with anything else. This is just one excerpt of many on this point:
Strangely enough, the same argument made by Michael Hobbes last year in his gorgeous article on "The Epidemic of Gay Loneliness," which focuses squarely on the experiences of gay men with this same trend, was met with acclaim, not teeth gnashing.
Finally, it must be asked: Do lesbians value lesbian culture and history? In quite a few cases, lesbian businesses, bookstores, presses, and festivals went under when lesbian consumers stopped supporting them—not deliberately or vindictively, but in significant enough numbers to break the bank. This exodus felt keenly disloyal to those who had provided, for years, uniquely lesbian services or environments that lifted the spirits of an oppressed community As lesbians gained rights and more opportunities opened up for them in the mainstream, a combination of factors led the exodus from festivals and bookstores. Bookstores of all kinds were affected by the shift to reading onscreen, digital media, and mobile devices, including Kindle. Festivals were affected by some women’s growing resistance to paying for a vacation that lacked hotel amenities, yet dared to require a workshift.
...
We’ve seen how the disappearance of women’s community spaces, institutions, and events resulted from varied factors: economic loss, aging elders, more lesbian-friendly vacation and business options, and the next generation’s reliance on social media and Kindle rather than their local women’s bookstore. Perhaps the greatest changes are due to the LGBT community’s rapid normalizing in just one decade, beginning with the 2003 Lawrence v. Texas decision overturning state sodomy laws (thus decriminalizing same-sex relationships) and continuing throughout the two Obama administrations. This still-ongoing shift from felon and pariah to mainstream status includes legal protections many activists never thought we’d see in our lifetimes, from gay marriage to open military service to anti-bullying statutes in schools. While such hard-won steps have of course been celebrated by most gay men and lesbians, the sudden possibility of full citizenship contrasts starkly with the underground culture of the recent past, when two women risked their lives, jobs, and child custody simply by attending an Alix Dobkin concert. Victory and loss almost come hand in hand, as seen in the news headlines following the June 26, 2015, Supreme Court decision in favor of same-sex marriage: the front page of the June 27 New York Times declared “EQUAL DIGNITY,” but beneath the fold was “Historic Day for Gay Rights, but a Twinge of Loss for Gay Culture.” Jodi Kantor’s front-page analysis quoted filmmaker John Waters’s commencement speech at the Rhode Island School of Design: “Refuse to isolate yourself. Separatism is for losers. … Gay is not enough anymore.”
It’s important to distinguish between false nostalgia for actual and brutal inequality, and nostalgia for creative ways we risked being out and proud in homophobic society. Our olden days are marked by the inevitable separatism that stemmed from being unable to vacation as a lesbian couple anywhere but at a lesbian festival or lesbian-owned bed and breakfast; from being unable to find books on lesbian lives and history anywhere but on the shelves of an independently run feminist bookstore. Shut out of mainstream institutions, we formed our own. There are obvious benefits that come with full legal protection—health coverage for one’s partner, school libraries that include books like Heather Has Two Mommies—but how best to honor those independent lesbian institutions that served our community in an era lacking any other pride-based services? Once Heather Has Two Mommies landed at Barnes & Noble, lesbian moms no longer had to trek to Lammas Books, my D.C. women’s bookstore, which closed forever. As of this writing, my local Barnes & Noble has also closed.
Strangely enough, the same argument made by Michael Hobbes last year in his gorgeous article on "The Epidemic of Gay Loneliness," which focuses squarely on the experiences of gay men with this same trend, was met with acclaim, not teeth gnashing.
July 28, 2018
I read this book months ago, but didn’t get around to writing a review. Probably because I was concerned.
Reading it, I found myself coming up against the author’s attitude towards trans women. Trans women are women. But Bonnie Morris doesn't believe that. That is not the only problem I had with this book, but it was the issue the kept coming up again and again. It's incredibly irritating, because the overall topic of this book is one of interest to me. Particularly women’s music, the history of which I am no stranger to. Though I’m not of that generation, The Changer and the Changed was my first lesbian album! (A fact never mentioned in this book is that this Iconic Lesbian record that only had women listed in its credits was mixed by... Sandy Stone, a trans woman! And that she and Olivia Records were threatened by lesbians to the point where Sandy had to leave!)
So the reason I was concerned reading this book was... it was next up in a book club I was new to. I didn’t know how the members (mostly lesbians over 40 years of age) would react to author's view of trans women. The answer is.... Yikes. The day of the meeting, conversation turned to indignation at the author being called a TERF in reviews of this book. Okay, she might not be a TERF, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t exhibit a worrying amount of transmisogynist ideas. I couldn’t bear the conversation that arose at that, and I said my piece about trans women being, well, women. This was met with varying degrees of.... disagreement. But also some interest and, from a blessed few, SUPPORT.
That's why I wanted to write this review, because this story does have a happy ending. Me speaking out in book club (despite my great fear) is how I made my first local lesbian friend. Something I’ve wanted for ages. AND I LOVE HER.
Those who loved this book seem to think others are focusing too much on the author’s attitude towards trans women, but I don’t think so. Cis lesbian and bi women can’t keep excluding trans women. They’ve always been a part of our community, and we need to get over ourselves and get rid of many ingrained conceptions of what makes a woman.
Reading it, I found myself coming up against the author’s attitude towards trans women. Trans women are women. But Bonnie Morris doesn't believe that. That is not the only problem I had with this book, but it was the issue the kept coming up again and again. It's incredibly irritating, because the overall topic of this book is one of interest to me. Particularly women’s music, the history of which I am no stranger to. Though I’m not of that generation, The Changer and the Changed was my first lesbian album! (A fact never mentioned in this book is that this Iconic Lesbian record that only had women listed in its credits was mixed by... Sandy Stone, a trans woman! And that she and Olivia Records were threatened by lesbians to the point where Sandy had to leave!)
So the reason I was concerned reading this book was... it was next up in a book club I was new to. I didn’t know how the members (mostly lesbians over 40 years of age) would react to author's view of trans women. The answer is.... Yikes. The day of the meeting, conversation turned to indignation at the author being called a TERF in reviews of this book. Okay, she might not be a TERF, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t exhibit a worrying amount of transmisogynist ideas. I couldn’t bear the conversation that arose at that, and I said my piece about trans women being, well, women. This was met with varying degrees of.... disagreement. But also some interest and, from a blessed few, SUPPORT.
That's why I wanted to write this review, because this story does have a happy ending. Me speaking out in book club (despite my great fear) is how I made my first local lesbian friend. Something I’ve wanted for ages. AND I LOVE HER.
Those who loved this book seem to think others are focusing too much on the author’s attitude towards trans women, but I don’t think so. Cis lesbian and bi women can’t keep excluding trans women. They’ve always been a part of our community, and we need to get over ourselves and get rid of many ingrained conceptions of what makes a woman.
September 16, 2017
As a young lesbian who never got to be a part of women's culture and mourns it every day, this book was like stepping into another time, one where people like me had community and purpose. Reading about women like me and what we are capable of was salve for my soul. I absolutely loved it. We need more books talking about the value of the lesbian experience specifically.
In the book she discusses the three pronged explanation for the degradation of lesbian spaces--financial hardship and gentrification, modern queer/trans politics, and gay assimilation. I liked how she discussed each of these factors at length rather than focusing only on queer politics, as many people tend to. She painted a full picture of what's going on. I am saddened by Morris's lack of optimism about the state of the lesbian community going forward, but I think young people like me are waking up and realizing we need to save our culture, that it is more important than ever. Loved the book, I'd give it 10 stars if I could.
In the book she discusses the three pronged explanation for the degradation of lesbian spaces--financial hardship and gentrification, modern queer/trans politics, and gay assimilation. I liked how she discussed each of these factors at length rather than focusing only on queer politics, as many people tend to. She painted a full picture of what's going on. I am saddened by Morris's lack of optimism about the state of the lesbian community going forward, but I think young people like me are waking up and realizing we need to save our culture, that it is more important than ever. Loved the book, I'd give it 10 stars if I could.
August 9, 2017
DNF--The introduction and its terfy language was too much for me. It's possible that she spent the rest of the book being non-terfy, but I honestly did not want to waste my time finding out.
March 24, 2019
Bonnie Morris is simply stuning! The book is the history of the rise and fall of lesbian-feminist culture in the US. Morris is such an incredible scholar of lesbian culture, and in a very readeable way introduces the reader to the history and development of women's music and musical festivals (a theme she fully developed in "Eden Built by Eves"), women's bookstores and presses and the revelance of jewish lesbians in all of that. As other scholars like Sheila Jeffreys had pointed out, lesbian-feminists created a whole new culture (world?) with--also--women's coffe houses, women's bars, workshops, women's land/communes, lesbian visual art, women´s spirituality (like dianic wicca), lesbian ethics and philosophy, etc, etc, etc.
I really, really recommend to read this gem. It can also be accompanied with Myriam Fougerè's documentary "LESBIANA. A Parallel Revolution", Diana Shugar's book "Separatism and Women's Community" and Sheila Jeffrey's book "The Lesbian Heresy"
I really, really recommend to read this gem. It can also be accompanied with Myriam Fougerè's documentary "LESBIANA. A Parallel Revolution", Diana Shugar's book "Separatism and Women's Community" and Sheila Jeffrey's book "The Lesbian Heresy"
September 30, 2021
based mostly on the artists morris mentioned, I've just compiled a playlist that (hopefully) gives a glimpse of "women's music" that arose from and led by lesbian separatist culture in the 70s. available on spotify and youtube. (most of the albums and/or artists are basically nonexistent on spotify, the playlist on youtube is a bit more comprehensive).
November 24, 2021
THIS BOOK IS AMAZING!! EVERYONE SHOULD READ IT! I learned so much about lesbian culture, particularly the music scene, but just the expansive nature of the lesbian identity and community. There is so much life and love and passion within. I wish I had been introduced sooner but am very grateful that I have now. I can't say it enough, read this book. Now, I need to go write my essay while I still am running off creative juices :)
December 12, 2019
Quite interesting and I'm left wanting to know more especially about Black and PoC spaces and point of views. There was much more focus on the music scene than other scenes/spaces which was fascinating to learn about but as the title mentions; this part of history is not written about a lot and even now the narrative surrounding lesbians is minimal, so finding books like this makes me want more out of it. I do wish though that author spent more time critically discussing the section of trans women and separatism within the lesbian community and reflect on whether progress has been made or not. I thought that section in particular ended rather quickly but maybe it's just me.
May 7, 2017
I learned so much and would've given it five stars if the author could've refrained from trans misogyny, especially as blaming trans women for the various problems she identifies is just factually incorrect. I want to recommend it to everybody I know but I can't because of that, and that's too bad, because her stories these stories need to be told and heard. There isn't a ton of trans misogyny in here but any is too much in this day and age. Still glad I read it though because it definitely woke something up in me that I hope to hold onto and make use of.
April 5, 2020
This book alternatively made me cry, rage, and smile, all while feeding my passion for museum/archival work and feminism. What this book did not do was bore me. I learned so much information that had been left out of all my women's history courses. To anyone with a passion for women's history, please read this. I cannot recommend it enough.
April 28, 2023
Priceless and life changing. I emailed the author to her know how to book impacted me and she was really friendly!
July 6, 2023
I found this book a to be a very engaging and informative read. Not to mention, the writing style is excellent. I would give it five stars, but I find it a bit narrow in its scope and unfortunately at times, it can lean towards painting a negative picture of trans women and feeding into the myopic, simplistic narrative of "lesbians v. transwomen," despite some overlap and historic solidarity among these two groups. I also think Morris can be a bit reactionary at times. I certainly see a lot of truth in what she's saying: lesbophobia is very real and despite LGBT progress and advancements, the first letter seems to also be the least represented and the least "cool," if that makes sense. But Morris seems to imply that lesbian culture is on the verge of extinction and that's hardly the case. Lesbians have always existed and will always exist. Words may change over time too, but women who love women exclusively will always be here. Regardless of the flaws, this book is a very significant work of lesbian scholarship. If you're a lesbian and/or interested in lesbian history and culture, this is a must-read.
March 13, 2020
So I thought this was a great book because it is me. I went to those festivals, those bookstores, those bars. It is my lost culture which I have tried to explain to my younger friends. They do not, nor cannot understand and this book does a good job explaining some of the reasons why. Losing one's cultural history is sad. And that doesn't mean I am anti-progress nor anti-grateful. The book explains that unfortunate assumption which others often jump to. But saying, oh look how we have been assimilated, does not mean equal, let alone fair representation nor opportunity for women, let alone lesbians. The interview statement by Holly Near, reproduced on pages 201/202 states in part: "...The sixties was really when things were happening and then the seventies and eighties were dead. And I think that's because women rose to a sense of self-value and appreciation in the seventies and developed a cultural phenomenon that men weren't in the middle of, so they don't think it happened. If they didn't lead it, direct it, own it, profit from it, and control it, they think it didn't exist..."
March 12, 2017
I used to identify as queer. I knew what I was; I had no doubts about my feelings, but to me, "lesbian" sounded like an insult, or something that brought to mind terrible porn for straight men. I used to think that if I could choose my orientation, I wouldn't choose this. But learning the "herstory", in this book and others, has really changed my mind and opened my eyes. I've seen how much I was wrong about and learned a lot and I'm really grateful for all the women like Morris, who put in the effort to write all of this down. I love the journal entries. I just wish I knew what to do, to find a space for myself. It's strange having such a big internet but feeling more lost and alone than the lesbians who came before me. This isn't much of a review, but I'm glad I was able to buy and read this book.
January 28, 2021
Very mixed feelings about this book. Includes wonderful firsthand accounts of women's music festivals and other lesbian spaces, and interesting points about all the ways that the "L" (lesbian) has been ignored, subsumed, and overwhelmed by other identities. HOWEVER, she blames a mixture of trans people, young people, and essentially "The Internet" for this erasure in ways that read as bigoted at worst and crotchety at best. Unfortunately, this underlying theme cannot be redeemed by stories from women's bookstores or music festivals.
April 7, 2021
There is so much excellent research here about early lesbian spaces, most of which are no longer available to women coming out today. Certainly a trip down memory lane for me, but so much more than that. Thought provoking and very validating for anyone who has been wondering where all the lesbian spaces have gone.
June 2, 2022
Such a great read! Morris makes a well-rounded argument that spans a wide range of topics, and she provides interesting connections that I would never have made myself by including her Jewish identity. While the book doesn't offer much of a hopeful conclusion, it definitely motivated me even more to continue connecting with older lesbians and to really work to keep our history alive and known.
January 16, 2018
I struggled with this book and how to review it. Educationally, this book was a good read. It was filled with so much good first-hand information, and was fantastic for my research. I learned a lot about many many things I did not know before. It helped give me some insight into the generational divide that plagues the community. That being said, this book sometimes relies *too* much on first hand account; I would liked to have seem more sources cited throughout the text. It seems like the book struggled on whether or not it wanted to be a primary or secondary source.
While educationally, this book was great, some things rubbed me the wrong way personally. There was a lot of millennial blaming and questioning how the younger generation could not know things that a) they were not there to experience and b) do not have ready access to after the fact. Much of the discussion around trans women and their inclusion/exclusion came across as transphobic, and there was such an emphasis on genitalia that it actually made it's way into my notes at one point. The book also contradicts itself and the arguments Morris makes several times, which left me confused as to what the actual point was.
So TL;DR: As a lesbian from the ~younger generation~ I disagree with some of the points the author made, but believe it is valuable as a primary/secondary source hybrid. Read at your own discretion.
While educationally, this book was great, some things rubbed me the wrong way personally. There was a lot of millennial blaming and questioning how the younger generation could not know things that a) they were not there to experience and b) do not have ready access to after the fact. Much of the discussion around trans women and their inclusion/exclusion came across as transphobic, and there was such an emphasis on genitalia that it actually made it's way into my notes at one point. The book also contradicts itself and the arguments Morris makes several times, which left me confused as to what the actual point was.
So TL;DR: As a lesbian from the ~younger generation~ I disagree with some of the points the author made, but believe it is valuable as a primary/secondary source hybrid. Read at your own discretion.
July 7, 2019
I'm straight and knew basically nothing about any of the lesbian history covered in this book. I enjoyed the content of this book, but not the way it was written. In addition to its many typos, the book couldn't decide what it was trying to be. Some of it was memoir, some of it was scholarly. It felt like Morris grabbed a bunch of disparate topics that she cared about and this, the book lacked cohesion.
While I appreciated Morris' perspective, it felt like she made gratuitous digs at millennials. For example, the last paragraph of chapter 1 talks about how the women's music movement has attracted few scholars. The paragraphs ends, "More than a temporary high school musical, this was a high-fidelity broadcast of lesbian existence." The reference to High School Musical has nothing to do with the paragraph and does not even make sense.
While I appreciated Morris' perspective, it felt like she made gratuitous digs at millennials. For example, the last paragraph of chapter 1 talks about how the women's music movement has attracted few scholars. The paragraphs ends, "More than a temporary high school musical, this was a high-fidelity broadcast of lesbian existence." The reference to High School Musical has nothing to do with the paragraph and does not even make sense.
September 15, 2017
An excellent resource book for an overview of lesbian and women's culture and how it is disappearing. As noted in the book, I feel like a Shaker, part of a tribe that I cherish, but is fading away. Unfortunately, the book is not very readable. She obviously know and loves the material and it brought back memories for me. But it lacks editing and a coherent trajectory.
March 12, 2024
This was a beautiful, touching, and well-researched book, but it was also devastating, bittersweet, and made me cry. I think the fact that I was listening to Cris Williamson's gorgeous, soulful croon in her Portrait LP on my record player (bought precisely due to Morris' references to her in this book) didn't help. My local record store had several LPs by Williamson, as well as two by Teresa Trull. Next time I go there, I'll keep an eye out for Alix Dobkin - I was only looking for the two names this time.
In any case--
All that community and history lost to the ravages of time - or not yet lost but quickly being erased, written over, and dismissed! It makes me furious but also tremendously sad, and the sadness overweighs the anger this time. To think of all the things I could have been a part of! All of a sudden, I'm incredibly jealous of my parents, because, had I been in their generation, I could have attended these women's music festivals, I could have gone to these feminist bookstores, I could have been a part of lesbian feminist community in its hey-day. How enormously frustrating and tragic - and I'm not saying that in hyperbole!
I recommend this book to everyone interested in women, lesbianism, feminism, and LGBT community - it's vitally important. And, it's also a great reference for those, like me, scrounging around for the culture left behind that was created by this era of women. My university library actually has Cris Williamson's The Changer and the Changed and several other LPs by Olivia Records, which I found exciting.
Read this! Especially if you are a lesbian or a woman who identifies as something adjacent.
In any case--
All that community and history lost to the ravages of time - or not yet lost but quickly being erased, written over, and dismissed! It makes me furious but also tremendously sad, and the sadness overweighs the anger this time. To think of all the things I could have been a part of! All of a sudden, I'm incredibly jealous of my parents, because, had I been in their generation, I could have attended these women's music festivals, I could have gone to these feminist bookstores, I could have been a part of lesbian feminist community in its hey-day. How enormously frustrating and tragic - and I'm not saying that in hyperbole!
I recommend this book to everyone interested in women, lesbianism, feminism, and LGBT community - it's vitally important. And, it's also a great reference for those, like me, scrounging around for the culture left behind that was created by this era of women. My university library actually has Cris Williamson's The Changer and the Changed and several other LPs by Olivia Records, which I found exciting.
Read this! Especially if you are a lesbian or a woman who identifies as something adjacent.
July 21, 2024
This book is ten years old but still as relevant as when it was written.
Bonnie Morris combines research with first-hand experience to relate and analyze lesbian culture, primarily at (the disappeared) music festivals and bookstores in the United States since the 1970s.
I personally related to this material, having myself attended the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival 7 times in the 1990s. I had stopped attending (for various logistical reasons, much regretted) by 1998 when the controversy about women's spaces versus admitting transgender women flared. I found it very interesting to compare my feelings about it then, as a person who seriously valued women's space and did not know any transgender women personally, to my feelings now. At this point, sadly, I have learned to live without the joy of one week a year on women's land, and I do know several transgender women personally. I still feel ambivalent about "excluding" them, but I would hope they would respect the concept of women's space for one week of the year. But as the song says, "I was so much older then; I'm younger than that now."
The exposition about how "liberated" lesbians of the '70s perceived the butch-femme generation (specifically an old-school bar in London) had some equivalence to the current crop of "queer" women and how they perceive the tofu/Birkenstock generation of '70s lesbians. I found that interesting.
Bonnie makes many profound points about the erasure of lesbians in the current world that sees "queer" where we once saw "women." Her perspectives on being a Jewish lesbian also are quite illuminating.
All in all, I was delighted to discover this book. Better late than never.
Bonnie Morris combines research with first-hand experience to relate and analyze lesbian culture, primarily at (the disappeared) music festivals and bookstores in the United States since the 1970s.
I personally related to this material, having myself attended the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival 7 times in the 1990s. I had stopped attending (for various logistical reasons, much regretted) by 1998 when the controversy about women's spaces versus admitting transgender women flared. I found it very interesting to compare my feelings about it then, as a person who seriously valued women's space and did not know any transgender women personally, to my feelings now. At this point, sadly, I have learned to live without the joy of one week a year on women's land, and I do know several transgender women personally. I still feel ambivalent about "excluding" them, but I would hope they would respect the concept of women's space for one week of the year. But as the song says, "I was so much older then; I'm younger than that now."
The exposition about how "liberated" lesbians of the '70s perceived the butch-femme generation (specifically an old-school bar in London) had some equivalence to the current crop of "queer" women and how they perceive the tofu/Birkenstock generation of '70s lesbians. I found that interesting.
Bonnie makes many profound points about the erasure of lesbians in the current world that sees "queer" where we once saw "women." Her perspectives on being a Jewish lesbian also are quite illuminating.
All in all, I was delighted to discover this book. Better late than never.
January 14, 2024
Oh god, this book... Reading it was both intriguing and infuriating. I loved the personal accounts of women who attended music festivals, and I appreciated how clearly passionate the author is about lesbian culture. It made the book engaging to read, unlike many other "scholarly" books. As a baby dyke, it gave me some precious knowledge about lesbian history (albeit only focused on America).
Now, let's address the elephant in the room - the TERFiness of it all. Because there's a lot of it. The author believes that one of the reasons lesbian culture is supposedly disappearing is the existence of "queers". Why are women calling themselves queer instead of lesbian? And what's with these gosh-darn trans people and alphabet soup activists that caused the amazing "womyn-born-womyn-only" Michfest to end? Like with many TERFs, Morris doesn't EXPLICITLY voice out her transphobia, but it's clear she doesn't see trans women as real women (since she condones Michfest's transphobic policy).
And I'm sorry, but this is giving too much of a "boomer complaining about the younger generation" vibe. The notion that the growing LGBTQ acceptance causes assimilation into the majority society which causes the end of some aspects of queer culture is worth thinking about... but it seems like the author is making it a bigger problem than it should be. Lesbians aren't going extinct. Trans women and women who simply identify as queer instead of lesbian are not a threat to lesbian culture.
Now, let's address the elephant in the room - the TERFiness of it all. Because there's a lot of it. The author believes that one of the reasons lesbian culture is supposedly disappearing is the existence of "queers". Why are women calling themselves queer instead of lesbian? And what's with these gosh-darn trans people and alphabet soup activists that caused the amazing "womyn-born-womyn-only" Michfest to end? Like with many TERFs, Morris doesn't EXPLICITLY voice out her transphobia, but it's clear she doesn't see trans women as real women (since she condones Michfest's transphobic policy).
And I'm sorry, but this is giving too much of a "boomer complaining about the younger generation" vibe. The notion that the growing LGBTQ acceptance causes assimilation into the majority society which causes the end of some aspects of queer culture is worth thinking about... but it seems like the author is making it a bigger problem than it should be. Lesbians aren't going extinct. Trans women and women who simply identify as queer instead of lesbian are not a threat to lesbian culture.
March 20, 2023
SUNY Series in Queer Politics and Cultures: The Disappearing L: Erasure of Lesbian Spaces and Culture by Bonnie J. Morris
I can be very accepting of almost anything. I find it just wrong when a minority culture can turn its back on a separate counterculture. As I in some segments of society am considered a pariah I find it difficult to point fingers at others who are different than me.
All of my life I have been securitized judged and hated by others. I can’t think of a good reason to do the same thing to another human. I am not certain about the book. I did not finish. Some may find this an interesting part of queer cultural history. Lesbian, Sapphic, queer, and transwomen all fall into the horrid viewpoint of the Heteronormative perspective. I can’t go there. I DNF. What I read seemed well written but not my cup of tea. This is 2 stars because I can’t give something 1 star when it is material not suited to me.
I can be very accepting of almost anything. I find it just wrong when a minority culture can turn its back on a separate counterculture. As I in some segments of society am considered a pariah I find it difficult to point fingers at others who are different than me.
All of my life I have been securitized judged and hated by others. I can’t think of a good reason to do the same thing to another human. I am not certain about the book. I did not finish. Some may find this an interesting part of queer cultural history. Lesbian, Sapphic, queer, and transwomen all fall into the horrid viewpoint of the Heteronormative perspective. I can’t go there. I DNF. What I read seemed well written but not my cup of tea. This is 2 stars because I can’t give something 1 star when it is material not suited to me.
April 1, 2018
The Disappearing L is part memoir, part essay, and part historical account of lesbian culture and music in the 1970-1990’s. The book mainly focuses on the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival for the crux of its argument, which defends lesbian separatism as a means for cultural production, education, and social connection. There is also an entire section which deals exclusively with contributions from Jewish lesbian women.
While the book seems to waffle perpetually between primary and secondary source, it is part of a larger project to collect and archive specifically lesbian experiences at a critical moment of their erasure. It also tries to empower young lesbians to continue to fight for their voice and history as something unique and distinct in the ‘umbrella’ of LGBT+ narratives.
While the book seems to waffle perpetually between primary and secondary source, it is part of a larger project to collect and archive specifically lesbian experiences at a critical moment of their erasure. It also tries to empower young lesbians to continue to fight for their voice and history as something unique and distinct in the ‘umbrella’ of LGBT+ narratives.
December 2, 2024
This book furnishes a comprehensive and painfully nostalgic journey through an era in which lesbian culture - yes, lesbian only, without the nebulous self-identification of "queer" (worthwhile for some, but often employed as a means of obfuscating the only sexual orientation that entirely excludes men) - thrived apart from the G, the B, and the T. All of those latter three categories have gained their own spaces to one degree or another, without the forceful demand of being "inclusive."
The same cannot be said of lesbian culture.
Of course inclusivity is good, and Morris doesn't pretend otherwise - but that women have often been coerced into ceding their lesbian spaces to those who do not qualify as lesbian (by virtue of being attracted, in some capacity, to males) should not be denied, and I appreciate her refusal to shy away from such a bleak truth.
Every contemporary advocate of LGBT rights should read this book, lest the L continue to be maligned and misunderstood.
One star was docked for the text's numerous typographical errors.
The same cannot be said of lesbian culture.
Of course inclusivity is good, and Morris doesn't pretend otherwise - but that women have often been coerced into ceding their lesbian spaces to those who do not qualify as lesbian (by virtue of being attracted, in some capacity, to males) should not be denied, and I appreciate her refusal to shy away from such a bleak truth.
Every contemporary advocate of LGBT rights should read this book, lest the L continue to be maligned and misunderstood.
One star was docked for the text's numerous typographical errors.
December 2, 2023
This was a fascinating retrospective into lesbian feminist festival culture of the 70s, 80s, and 90s (as well as other tangential topics). I deeply appreciate the author's commitment to sharing her own personal stories, as well as others', of this overlooked time in history. I learned so much. This time period and the contributions made during it is an integral part of lesbian and gay history that will not and cannot be forgotten.
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