Awfully Devoted Women

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The lives of many lesbians who grew up before 1965 remain cloaked inmystery. Historians have illuminated the worlds of upper-middle-class"romantic friends" and working-class butch and femme womenwho frequented lesbian bars in the '50s and '60s. Themajority of lesbians, however, were lower-middle-class women who hidtheir sexual identity by engaging in discreet social and sexualrelationships. Drawing on correspondence, interviews, journals, and newspaperarticles, "Awfully Devoted Women" offers a nuanced portrait ofthe lives of middle-class lesbians in the decades before the gay rightsmovement in English-Canada. Accounts and explorations of thesewomen's sexual practices, thoughts on same-sex desire, andrelations with friends and family unveil a world of privaterelationships, house parties, and discreet social networks. Thisintimate study of the lives of women forced to love in secret not onlychallenges the idea that lesbian relationships in the past wereasexual, it also reveals the courage it took for women to exploredesire in an era when they were supposed to know little aboutsexuality. "Awfully Devoted Women" is the first book-length study oflesbian sexuality, relationships, and community in Canada before 1965.It will be of interest to students and practitioners of Canadianhistory and women's studies and to anyone interested in thehistory of sexuality.