Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

This research consists of an analysis of “lesbian” identities and sexualities as represented in a sample of contemporary American films. Through this analysis I explored 1) the constructed “lesbian” identities and sexualities; 2) the displays of “lesbian” sexual interactions and their perceived intended audiences; and 3) the differences of these depictions as affected by the persons constructing these representations of “lesbian” identities and sexualities.

This research comprises an ethnographic study of female erotic dancers in a single erotic dance club. Using Erving Goffman’s (1959) dramaturgical analysis of the social construction of the self as my theoretical basis of inquiry, I examined the dancers’ staged performance of a self. I interpreted the erotic dancers’ performances as constructed fronts intended to fulfill the heterosexual male customers’ fantasies of the ideal sexual female. Operating with this assumption, I observed how the erotic dancers created and maintained the ideal sexual female through the manipulation of setting, appearance, manner, and impression management techniques. Lastly, I discuss the implications these …

Upon critiquing MacKinnon and Dworkin’s (Dworkin 1981; MacKinnon 1986, 1987; MacKinnon and Dworkin 1997) stance against “pornography,” discussing the theoretical and linguistic obstacles besetting women’s sexual expression, and reviewing research literature examining romance novels, I then explored erotic short-stories written by women—or women’s “erotica”—as surfaces for the (re)clamation of women’s desire. Drawing from my analyses of fourteen erotic tales from two separate collections, I concluded that the selected corpus of women’s erotica demonstrates the multiplicity of women’s sexual voices and combats the hegemony of a male-centered discourse of desire.