A friends book just released.. Awfully Devoted Women: Lesbian Lives in Canada 1900-19

doctorie · Jan 24, 2011

Cam is an historian..and has been away for along time researching and writing this book. The book release party was in Vancouver on Jan 20th.

It will be nice when Cam gets back to NZ. We all plan to take some long hikes. He is a lifelong friend and part of my fiances circle of camping hiking friends..back when he was a she. yea you read that right.

Once I get my copy Ill post a review. Its a historical account and not really my cup of tea.

doctorie · Jan 24, 2011

a review posted

Awfully Devoted Women is one of those rare academic books with an evocative title and an even catchier cover.
This first book-length study of lesbian sexuality and relationships in Canada before 1965 promises to explain an underground world before the federal Liberal government legalized homosexual marriage and some Canadian churches began blessing same-sex unions.
The book's full title, which is taken from an old euphemism for a woman in a suspiciously "different" relationship with another female, is Awfully Devoted Women: Lesbian Lives in Canada, 1900-65 (UBC Press). The cover illustration shows the back of a bare-chested woman paddling an iconic Canadian canoe.
The book will be the subject of a Vancouver Public Library talk on Thursday, January 20th, by Vancouver-based independent researcher, historian and author Cameron Duder.
"The lives of lesbians who grew up before 1965 remain cloaked in mystery," says a news release announcing the publication of Awfully Devoted Women.
"Historians have illuminated the worlds of upper-middle-class 'romantic
friends' and working-class butch and femme women who frequented lesbian bars
in the '50s and '60s.
"The majority of lesbians, however, were lower-middle-class women who hid their sexual identity by engaging in discreet social and sexual relationships."
Drawing on correspondence, interviews and newspaper articles, Awfully Devoted Women attempts to offer a nuanced portrait of the lives of middle-class lesbians in the decades before the gay rights movement made it largely acceptable, if not sometimes fashionable, to be lesbian.
It was an era of whispers, before openly lesbian women became mayors of major North Texas cities, as well as commonplace in academia, health care, media, Hollywood and government.
Although some conservative followers of Christianity, Sikhism and other religions continue to judge homosexual relationships sinful, many other religious people do not.
It has become harder to find Metro Vancouver residents who raise raise an eyelid when lesbian couples announce the birth of their babies.
The task of Awfully Devoted Women is to unveil the more fear-filled pre-1965 era in Canada, which was characterized by lesbians' private relationships, house parties and discreet social networks.
"{The book} reveals the courage it took for women to explore desire in an era when they were supposed to know little about sexuality."
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A friends book just released.. Awfully Devoted Women: Lesbian Lives in Canada 1900-19

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A friends book just released.. Awfully Devoted Women: Lesbian Lives in Canada 1900-19

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