The Secret Life of Lesbians:
Uncovering the Erasure, Appropriation, and Assimilation of Lesbian Archetypes in Western History and Literature
Gage incorporates the stories of lesbians of achievement who have been written out of history or misrepresented as heterosexual, or whose lesbianism has been constructed as a sexual behavior having no relevance to their values, perspectives, or lifework. Some of Gage’s subjects include Rachel Carson, Babe Didrikson, Joan of Arc, Louisa May Alcott, Eva Le Gallienne, Hildegard von Bingen, Artemisia Gentileschi, Renee Vivien, Natalie Barney, Charlotte Cushman, Virginia Woolf, Countess Constance Markiewicz, Annie Oakley, Sarah Orne Jewett, Emily Dickinson, Susan B. Anthony, Lizzie Borden, Toni Stone, Pauli Murray, Mary Baker Eddy, Lozen, and Octavia Butler.
Gage invites her audience to explore how the missing archetypes deform the narratives in the Western canon, narrowing the roles and options for all women. Overlooking the ways in which their lesbianism informed their lives and work, historians have erased strategic alliances, perpetuating the myth of the exceptional, asexual woman working in a social vacuum.
Gage invites her audience to explore how the missing archetypes deform the narratives in the Western canon, narrowing the roles and options for all women. Overlooking the ways in which their lesbianism informed their lives and work, historians have erased strategic alliances, perpetuating the myth of the exceptional, asexual woman working in a social vacuum.
