Study findings from Massey University provide new insights into politics and government

Researchers detail in "On lies, secrets, and silence"the politics of evidence and interpretive strategies,' new data in politics and government. "Debates about identifying and naming lesbians in history and how to characterize relationships between women in earlier historical contexts have been passionately contested since publication of Carroll Smith-Rosenberg's (1975) essay 'The Female World of Love and Ritual.' Spurred by Adrienne Rich's influential concept of a lesbian continuum and more recent gender-crossings in Queer and Trans-theory, charting the ambiguous spaces of desire is a highly charged political act. Together, these debates pose significant challenges for feminist historians researching women whose lives disrupted any neat correspondence between sex, gender, and sexuality," scientists in Palmerston North, New Zealand report.
"This article traverses these issues in relation to Amy Bock, infamous as a criminal confidence artist and cross-dresser at the turn of the twentieth century and claimed in recent times as lesbian. Amy herself pleaded an inherited mental instability; the authorities at the time agreed she was a habitual criminal," wrote J. Coleman and colleagues, Massey University.
The researchers concluded: "Mad, bad, or lesbian? Or was she simply unconventional in her gender and sexuality? It is argued that how we approach these questions potentially tells us more about the desires of the researcher than those of our subjects."
Coleman and colleagues published their study in the Journal of Lesbian Studies ("On lies, secrets, and silence"the politics of evidence and interpretive strategies. Journal of Lesbian Studies, 2010;14(4):303-18).
For more information, contact J. Coleman, School of People, Environment and Planning, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand.
Publisher contact information for the Journal of Lesbian Studies is: The Haworth Press, Inc., Taylor & Francis Group Ltd, 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxford OX14 4RN United Kingdom.
Keywords: City:Palmerston North, Country:New Zealand, Government, Politics, Politics and Government.