Comparing conceptions of gender, sexuality and lesbian identity between baby boomers and millennials

Abstract

To answer this special issue provocation, Is Lesbian Identity Obsolete? we analyzed interviews with people who had identified at some point in their lives as lesbians, or as women/femmes who were attracted to women – some of them part of the Baby Boomer generation and some part of the Millennial generation. Participants from both generations rejected the gender binary. Nevertheless, we found a shift away from understanding gender as an oppressive category to an understanding of gender as a proliferating identity in which one may play with gender in an intentional and creative manner. It appears that participants across generations articulated their sexual identities strategically to express not only a sexual orientation but more importantly political and community alliances. For Baby Boomer lesbians, lesbian identity connoted an alliance with feminism, and for Millennials their sexual identity indicated a political alliance with queer and trans* movements. In order to sustain solidarity between lesbians of different generations, we suggest that narratives about gender should include both intrinsic and extrinsic components. We further suggest that the political project of ending the oppression of all lesbians/women who love women is fraught, but essential in a world that hates women.

Keywords:

• Baby Boomers
• generational differences
• gender and sexuality
• Lesbian
• millennials
• nonbinary
• Queer

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research and preparation of this manuscript were supported by grant #R01CA190238 (Antin, PI) from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program (TRDRP) of the University of California, grant number T30IR0890 (Antin, PI). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NCI, NIH, or TRDRP. Also, sincere appreciation is due to the research participants who shared their insights and time with us. Without them, this research would not have been possible.