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QUEER
COUNTRY:
RURAL LESBIAN AND GAY
LIVES
•Written
by: David Bell and Gill Valentine
(Department of Geography, University of
Sheffield, Winter Street, Sheffield S10
2TN, United Kingdom)
•Presented
by: Lucia Dvorakova
Date: 15/11/2010
KEY TERMS (DEFINITIONS):



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Utopia= An ideally perfect place, especially in its social,
political, and moral aspects.
Sociocultural variables= ethnicity, gender class, disability
etc.)
Gay identity=using terms such as 'gay' or 'lesbian' is deeply
problematic, since they are identities to which not everyone
who might engage in same-sex and sexual acts would wish
to subscribe.
Romanticisation= To view or interpret romantically; make
romantic
CONCEPT OF THE STUDY


This article addresses the issues of sexuality in
Rural life and lifestyle
Outlines experiences of gay men and lesbians in
countryside
TYPES OF METHODS AND THEIR AIMS
Look at the lives and lifestyle of gay people by
surveying:


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place of the rural within gay cultural products
(books, poetry, movies)
lives of gay people born and raised in rural areas
Rural communal living experiments and
recreational uses of countryside by sexual
dissidents
AIMS OF THE METHODS
These different sections of research help to mobilise
different conception of ‘the rural’:


Imaginative, idyllic setting for the same-sex love and
sex.
Space that creates social opportunities and lifechances
-positive chances (for commune dwellers)
-negative chances (struggle to find identity &
community in homophobic, claustrophobic rural
communities)
RURALITY IN THE GAY IMAGINATION

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Tracing history of the relationship between the
homosexuality and rurality, through
romanticisation from the Victorian era onwards.
This method includes the use of the literature
from that era and development of the
romanticism.
USING POETRY IN RESEARCH

Byrne Fone’ study of Arcadia and gay male
literature (1983)

Greg Wood’s Articulate Flesh (1987),

Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Herland (1915)
USING FILMS IN THE RESEARCH

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Homosexual dramas (‘Salmonberries and The
Garden’)
Lesbian and gay pornography and Erotic play
(Woods 1995)
Outdoors sex in general and sex in the
countryside in particular have a long history and
a wide geography.
-sex games
-Outdoor sex experiences
HOWEVER
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
In reality rural areas may best be represented as
settings for traditional (not enlightened) moral
(including sexual) standards. (In its cosiest
forms, rurality conflates with 'simple life', with
hegemonic sexualities, church weddings,
heterosexuality).
Although even here 'modernisation' occurs- and
British radio soap The Archers has storylines
involving adultery and abortion (though
continuing to deny homosexuality).
USING MEDIA INFORMATION IN THE
RESEARCH

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Further, to counter the urban bias of much reporting
in the gay media, articles have recently been run in
major gay magazines and newspapers.
The pink press also regularly carries advertisements
for gay or gay-friendly holiday accommodation in the
countryside.
Recent television and filmic portrayals, including
adaptations of classic rural novels, have also
depicted widely different forms of rural sexuality.
RURAL GAY LIFE
Studies which have been conducted reveal,
not surprisingly, tales of isolation, unsupportive
social environments and a chronic lack of structural
services and facilities, leading to eventual or
projected emigration to larger (urban) settlements
which offer better opportunities for living out the
'gay life'.


Louie Crew's autobiographical account of 'growing
up gay in Dixie' (1977) tells a story that deals with these
exact issues, such as the threat of being cast out making
denial and invisibility the only option.
RURAL GAY LIFE
A significant part of the problem of rural gay life, as
mentioned, is the lack of facilities and services -- as
one respondent in Georgina Gowan's (1995) study
of lesbian life in smalltown Salisbury put it, 'It must
be exciting to be heterosexual' -- because at least
then you have places to socialise freely. (Britain)

As Tony D'Augelli and Mary Hart (1987) note in one of the
very few studies to discuss (US) rural lesbian and gay lives
in
any detail: In most rural areas the gay community is
invisible, caused by fear and discomfort. Many rural gays
fear discovery and possible rejection, worrying that any gay
behaviour will lead to exposure.

RURAL GAY LIFE
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Issue with AIDS
However, studies of rural gays and lesbians also
show the extent to which informal support networks
have evolved.
A further issue that must be discussed here is that of
identity and identification.
- Autobiographical accounts such as Crew's, and work such as
Kramer's, show that many people who feel attracted to others
of the same sex, and many who act on those feelings, often
actively deny the label 'homosexual', let alone 'gay' or 'lesbian'.
In fact, due to the intense heteronormative pressures of rural
life, many are married, or have long- term partners of the
opposite sex.
RURAL GAY LIFE
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Continuing the issue with identity
-For some men and women, any kind of acknowledgement of
their own same-sex activities, fantasies or attractions is
unthinkable, rendering even the most sensitive program or
helpline useless (and, of course, these people rarely if ever
show up on any kind of surveys into sexual behaviour).
However some gay men and lesbians decided to fight back
this social prejudice and homophobic policy or even
violence. (campaigns, gay parades, protests, etc.)
COUNTRY LIVING
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1.
2.
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1.
2.
Two groups living in country:
Gay men and lesbians born in rural areas
And those who move to the rural
Life in the country for gay man:
structural difficulties
Offers freedom from many of the undesirable
sides of modern life. (For lesbian feminists a
return to nature, a break from the nuclear
family, and freedom from men could all best be
realised on farms and ranches.)
COUNTRY LIVING (QUEER COUNTRY)
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Creation of rural communes for lesbian women
(UK. US.)
philosophies of lesbian separatism, that are not
exclusively anti-urban, could perhaps best be
enacted away from man-made cities.
Women were suppressed by man, rejected from
education and working. Not doing what man said
made woman look irrational and uncontrollable.
One of the reasons why lesbian feminist women
tried to create women-only rural commune.
COUNTRY LIVING

Country Lesbians (1976)

activities offered by the ECC's Gay Men's Weeks
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Homosexual outdoor recreational groups
currently organising events in the U.K. (Hiking
Dykes to the Gay Naturist Group.)
But not all gay men and lesbians live in these
rural communes. (Sandra Anlin's study (1991))
CONCLUSION
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The relationship between sexuality and rurality has
been shown to be ambivalent, contextual and
malleable.
The lives and lifestyles of lesbians and gay men in
rural locations embody a range of responses from
Utopian to dysfunctional and oppressive.
The rural can be a place of fantasy and utopia, a place
for living an idyllic 'gay' life. For many with same-sex
feelings, they find it hard to deal with them, the
countryside offers nothing but isolation and loathing,
without the social networks or opportunities offered
by metropolitan and cosmopolitan life.
CONCLUSION
For others, it is a place of escape from the evils of
the city, either as an occasional recreational
resource or as the setting for a whole new way of
life.
 There is a high attention given to bisexuality and
homosexuality but not enough research is done
anyways. However the point is that there are
other groups of sexual dissidents that are not
mentioned a lot.
 People rather discuss and analyse homosexuals
than zoophiles or necrophilia.

CONCLUSION (QUESTIONS)

We must immediately question the effects that
academic exposure of rural sex lives might have.
Who will it benefit and who
might it harm?

Is it better to leave hidden those who
wish to be invisible?
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Certainly, there are sound reasons for wanting to
bring to light the harsh realities of rural life for many
sexual dissidents, and perhaps even to 'give voice' to
that life.
THANK YOU FOR YOU ATTENTION
AND HAVE A NICE DAY... =]