Dyke Life: From Growing Up to Growing Old, A Celebration of the Lesbian Experience

by Karla Jay (Editor)

Written by lesbians of different ages, races and religions—and compiled by one of the gay movement’s best-known writers and activists—these original essays give vibrant voice to the diversity of the lesbian experience. Celebrating the many ways in which the lesbian experience is unique from all others, many of these pieces focus on specific lesbian concerns such as sexual practices, raising children and higher incidence of certain illnesses.Beyond pointing out these differences, the essays also provide a comprehensive view of the many phases of lesbian life by covering diverse topics like body piercing, coming out and work. Short narratives—“To Mother or Not to Mother,” “Confessions of a Lesbian Vampire,” “About Being an Old Lesbian in Love,” and more—complement and enrich the main essays, adding a unique personal tone to the collection. A mix of the serious and the irreverent, Dyke Life is an important contribution to gay and lesbian literature.

Genres: LGBT, Lesbian, Queer, Nonfiction, History, Sexuality, Womens

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Karla Jay is a professor of English and the director of the Women's and Gender Studies program at Pace University. A pioneer in the field of lesbian and gay studies, she is widely published. Jay was born Karla Jayne Berlin in Brooklyn, New York, to a conservative Jewish family. She attended the Berkeley Institute, a private girls' school in Brooklyn now called the Berkeley Carroll School. Later she attended Barnard College, where she majored in French, and graduated in 1968 after having taken part in the student demonstrations at Columbia University. While she shared many of the goals of the radical left-wing of the late 1960s, Jay was uncomfortable with the male-supremacist behavior of many of the movement’s leaders. In 1969, she became a member of Redstockings. At around the same time she began using the name Karla Jay to reflect her feminist principles.

Reviews

[Patricia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Serious and funny. The book is a compilation of essays by women of different ages, races, and classes.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this collection of essays on lesbian life from the 90s, mainly to get some insight in how things have changed in the past 30 years, but I found that a lot of the issues were also applicable to nowadays! It was also very nice that there were a lot of personal stories interwoven in the essays. So eventually, this was more relevant and personal than I expected and still a great informative read.

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

The essays in this collection ranged wildly from thoughtful and interesting, to unfocused and out-of-touch. While there were a few nuggets of information that provided food for thought, the general arrangement of pieces written in a quasi-academic tone, interspersed with page-long personal essays that allowed for little analysis or development, provided for dry and uninteresting reading.

[Jean Marie Angelo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was part of my ramp up for Stonewall 25. Can't believe it was so many years ago. I was assigned to do a feature on LGBT books and publishing companies. This was one of the many comp books I received that spring.

[treehugger · Rating 1 out of 5]

Outdated, out of sync with my own experiences.

[Marks House]

2 copies