Beyond the Bars: Exploring Alternate Sexual Geographies among Lesbians in New York City, 1945–69

In the postwar period, journalistic and sociological exposés, pulp novels, and rumor cemented Greenwich Village’s reputation as a queer space.  Lesbians flocked to New York City in search of gay community, some relocating permanently and others traveling from the outer boroughs, New Jersey, and farther to get their fix of lesbian camaraderie.  However, while the Village might be what got them to New York, its continued presence in the public and historical imagination obscures an array of additional sexual geographies in which lesbians carved out city space to develop identity and culture.  My proposed paper pushes beyond the familiar territory of the Village bar scene and explores uncharted urban sites that enable a diverse analysis of lesbian communities and norms.  Histories focusing exclusively on bars as the primary site of lesbian socializing often project an almost caricatured view of lesbianism during this period; namely, a starkly contrasting gendered image of butch-femme.  Examining alternate lesbian spaces-- like Bay Ridge High School in Brooklyn, public street cultures of Harlem and the Bronx, beaches in Queens, and individuals’ homes throughout the boroughs-- reveals a variety of interpretations of butch-femme identities that deviate from the dominant representation, and allows for the inclusion of women of color as well as middle-class white women into what has become a white, working-class history.  These alternate geographies provide a deeper understanding of the diversity and tensions within queer communities during the postwar era, and illuminate a range of adaptations of butch-femme culture beyond the somewhat flattened image that persists.