DIVA (between 1994 and 2004, at the very least; the mag has withstood considerable improvement in the very last ten years) makes a fascinating situation in this respect. Though my focus is on audience interactions, i do want to begin by taking a look at some editorial data, mainly because highlight a few of the tensions that arise in constructing lesbian (and bisexual) identities. Within the test, DIVA relates clearly to bisexuals reasonably infrequently, an element additionally noted by Baker ( 2008 ) in the analysis regarding the Uk and American corpora that is national. Bisexuality tends become erased, ignored or sidelined (Ault, 1994 ; The Bisexuality Report, 2012 ). Where it is not the scenario, ‘lesbian’ apparently denotes the ‘us’ category and ‘bisexual’ seems to relate to a category of people that are ‘not us’.

Extract 1 ‘For the girls: what’s on offer in this year’s Lesbian and Gay movie Tour package?’ (1998, p. 10 june)

right Here, line 1 relates to ‘card carrying lesbians’, a group of apparently ‘real’ or ‘authentic’ lesbians who will be split from ‘the bisexual audience’ (line 5). a film ‘for’ bisexuals probably will displease and anger them more, it need to do this (note the deontic modality at the office in line 1) by virtue of, plus in purchase to safeguard, their card holding status. Continue reading →