Invisible Women

Invisible Women: Lesbian Working-class Culture in France, 1880-1930
_ Francesca Canade Sautman

This article speaks "of but not for voices that have been traditionally ignored, silenced, or distorted from all sides because they were at the same time the voices of women, lesbians and working-class people." (p. 177)

How does the author use the term "Sapphist"? "Tribade"?

"It has been claimed that [during this time period] lesbianism was not taken very seriously. Men supposedly thought it was 'charming,' nonthreatening, presenting no obstacle to their interest in women...It may have been true if the lesbians were affluent, refined ladies, but this assessment is called into question by the images of poorer lesbians, who were often painted in the most abject and misogynous colors." (p. 180)

"The conditions of women in the labor force changed dramatically during the course of the nineteenth century." (p. 181)

How did these conditions shift during this time period?

"Unveiling lesbian culture within any segment of the working class may seem like a hopeless enterprise, because the discussion of women's sexuality within working-class culture is seriously hindered by the presupposition of repugnance for homosexuality and of hegemonic aggressive heterosexuality among workers." (p. 182)

Lesbians and the Sex Industry

"Invisible and visible at once: Such was the paradoxical subsumed existence of lesbian sex workers. While the day-to-day lives of these early lesbians seldom reach us, 'lesbian acts' fantasized or even invented by the broader culture were made quite visible and even enjoyed widespread popularity." (p. 187)

"The lesbian life of sex workers inside brothels is well known...They show that amorous and romantic relationships, 'households,' between women, were as important as the possibility of sex between them." (p. 189)

Lesbians in Jail Culture

Sex workers, as well as many other women from the working class, spent a considerable amount of time in jail, for uncontrolled prostitution, various types of theft, abortion, infanticide, and occasionally, homicide. By the early 19th century, crowded jail conditions were held responsible...for promoting the 'ravages of lesbianism'. Same-sex sexual activity and relationships were as frequent among women in jails as in brothels." (p. 193)

For women of these days, it was all too easy to slip from the working class into the underclass. Job scarcity and professional limits kept young working-class girls out of many trades, and unions even participated in this exclusion. Workers' political parties inveighed against the destruction of the family by the bourgeois industrial machine and extolled traditional roles for women, and the absence of independent means of support made it difficult for many women to face life alone. For working-class women who wanted to live same-sex loves, the imperatives of economic survival were overwhelming." (p. 195)

Compare the examples the author uses of Lorrain and Guérin and Madeleine Pelletier. What do you see? What are the differences in their experiences (at the same moment in time) and why?