"That crosscountry 1969 vw squareback and holiday inn affair": lesbian mobility

This article argues that lesbian mobility contributed to the development of lesbian identity in North America in the 1960s and 1970s. Drawing primarily on published accounts, it explores the ways in which women achieved and sustained their lesbian identity in part through their access to what cultur...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of lesbian studies 2020-01, Vol.24 (3), p.298-310
Main Author: Millward, Liz
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Automobiles
Countercultures
Female
Gays & lesbians
highways
History, 20th Century
Homosexuality, Female - history
Humans
Identity
lesbian
Lesbianism
Mobility
Population Dynamics
Sexual and Gender Minorities - history
transportation
Travel - history
United States
Volkswagen
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Summary:This article argues that lesbian mobility contributed to the development of lesbian identity in North America in the 1960s and 1970s. Drawing primarily on published accounts, it explores the ways in which women achieved and sustained their lesbian identity in part through their access to what cultural geographers term a transportation assemblage or constellation of mobility. This was constituted through the symbolic meaning of mobility for predominantly white women, the existence of new highway networks and Volkswagen vehicles, which were popularized through countercultural branding, and lesbians' embodied experiences of fear and desire.
ISSN:1089-4160
1540-3548
DOI:10.1080/10894160.2019.1676594