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Sexuality, Class, and Conflict in a Lesbian Workplace
... On the one hand, gay liberation and women's liberation rewrote the sexual landscape of the country. Gay male communities became increasingly visible in large cities (Bailey, 1999;Shilts, 1982), while lesbian feminists built alternative institutions-such as auto repair shops (Weston & Rofel, 1984) and women's health centers (Simonds, 1996;Ward, 2008)-intended to embody a liberated vision of the future. Legal reforms and protections included the repeal of sodomy laws in more than half the states, the partial lifting of the exclusion of lesbians and gay men from federal employment, and the extension of explicit civil rights protections in several dozen cities. ...
... An edited volume on Homosexual Issues in the Workplace is a case in point, dividing its occupational section into chapters on the military, the church, primary school teachers, and professional athletes-the fields traditionally most hostile to LGBTs-and emphasizing the barriers to entry, promotion, and overall flourishing (Diamant, 1993). While a small number of studies still considered gay men and lesbians in occupations stereotypically associated with those demographics, such as gay men in professional dance (Bailey & Oberschneider, 1997) or interior decorating (Matthews & Hill, 2011), or lesbians in the skilled trades (Weston & Rofel, 1984), most research efforts in the collective identity tradition examined more mainstream occupational pursuits. ...
... At the organizational level of analysis, the impact of the collective identity paradigm was to make intelligible the notion of a public, formally constituted gay organization, as opposed to the more or less covert informal organizations (e.g., bars, bathhouses, tearooms) where ''sexual deviants'' congregated. In practice this nearly always meant social change organizations, as gay or lesbian business organizations were comparatively few and small in size, such as the auto repair shop owned and staffed by lesbians documented by Weston and Rofel (1984). Accordingly, the research on LGBT organizations drew extensively on social movement scholarship between the late 1980s and the present (Armstrong, 2002;Fassin, 2010;Walker, 2012). ...
... In addition to issues of race, other differences have been considered to illustrate differing contexts of sexual expression in space. Differences on the basis of disability (Peake, 1993), age (Grube, 1991), class (Weston and Rofel, 1997;Chappie et al, 1998), as well as sado-masocistic sex (SM) (Califia, 1997;Bell, 1995a;Geurtsen, 1994) and prostitution (Jackson, 1989;Larsen, 1992;Murray, 1995;Hart, 1995;Hubbard, 1997; have undermined simplistic accounts of unitary sexual spaces. ...
... Similarly, in studying the politics of the workplace in a lesbian car workshop, Weston and Rofel (1997) found that class divisions occasionally transcended senses of sexual solidarity. Research on prostitution has also illustrated that prostitutes construct their own particular spaces in relation to wider forces of control within society (Bell, 1995b;Jackson, 1989). ...
p>This thesis examines the relationships between sexuality, communality and space through the exploration of changing senses of community experienced by gay men in Brighton. A review of changing conceptualisations of sexuality reveals that the formation of sexual identities, communities and urban spaces cannot be reduced to a single historical narrative but are influenced by numerous contextual factors. In response, the thesis develops what is termed a 'negotiative framework' in which the tensions and contradictions associated with these differences can be reconciled with the need for strategic senses of resistance and solidarity. It is argued that Barthes' writings on doxa (systems of repression and control), paradoxa (forces of transgression) and atopia (processes occurring between and beyond these forces) provide such a negotiative framework.
Drawing upon evidence from in-depth, qualitative semi-structured interviews with gay men in Brighton, supplemented by group interviews and the analysis of secondary sources of historical documentation, five paths of transgression are observed: the establishment of the early underground scene; the gay political organisations formed in the wake of threats to civil liberties; the responses to HIV and AIDS; the responses to police harassment; and finally the development of the gay commercial scene. The study reveals how sites of both doxa and paradoxa are diverse and spatially and temporally contextual. Exploring changing conceptualisations of community amongst gay men in Brighton illustrated how concepts of atopia can reconcile bounded and boundless conceptions of space.
The Barthes-inspired approach of this thesis contributes to post-structuralist and queer theories by relating issues of negotiativity and process in a non-binaristic way to the functioning of systems of restraint and resistance in the context of gay spaces.
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... The former is defined as a private and emotional matter, while the latter is considered public and rational. Weston and Rofel (1984) argued that this private-public division or opposition is a dominant feature of US culture. As a distinct feature of modern society, this private-public dichotomy dates back to the rise of industrialization (Engels, 1902). ...
... Gould, 2009;Ward, 2008) or small businesses (e.g. Weston and Rofel, 1984). Deverell's (2001) study of an HIV prevention outreach service is particularly relevant to our case. ...
Recent scholarship on gay social apps has largely focused on the experiences of their users. In this article, we take a production-side approach to examine the politics of sexuality and professionalism in Blued, a Chinese gay social app company. Based on ethnography at the company and in-depth interviews with its workers, we found that workers at Blued actively weaved their sexual identity into their professional identity. Also, its CEO made use of workers’ personal memory and collective hope as a motivating rhetoric, transgressing the boundary between the private and the public. Nonetheless, the collapse of the private–public division is not total, because such division was continuously re-established by the company’s corporate external positioning and workers’ pragmatic consideration of their career prospect. The case of Blued reveals a highly dynamic relationship between sexuality and professionalism, which sometimes reinforce and sometimes negate each other.
... Apparently feminist solidarity is not always extended to the rights of FSMO workers (Ahrens, 1980; "We Walk...", 1979; Weston and Rofel, 1984). While it is not surprising that the reform branch exhibits exclusionary actions, it is ironic that the revolutionary branch, with its emphasis on egalitarianism and diversity, should demonstrate similar tendencies. ...
... These include lifestyles (vegetarianism, communes), partnerships (lesbian relationships) or particular means of empowerment (insisting that battered women leave and disown their husbands). Finally, the more gender is stressed as the primary source of oppression, and subsequent political action is based on a collective sense of being oppressed solely because one is female, the greater the likelihood that such ideology will not be embraced by working class, poor or minority women (Dill, 1983; Lewis, 1977; Weston and Rofel, 1984). As discussed in the section on ideology, there is a growing feminist movement among women of color, particularly black women. ...
http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/51117/1/349.pdf
... Though being a matter of privacy, sexual orientation has to be made a matter of public affairs -simply because of the economic and social consequences of its restrictive regulation by society through (explicit and implicit) norms that are based on subjective value judgments instead of divinely revealed "truths". Private, even intimate issues cannot be effectively and meaningfully concealed from the public, especially in the workplace (Weston and Rofel 1997), even if it was tried. In the longer run you just cannot efficiently apply the passing strategy (i.e., the trial of passing as a heterosexual), just because no human is an island, the "costs" of isolation eventually become unbearably high, and citizens want to be integrated in ordinary social life together with their partners, participating in the common interactions as a couple (Badgett and King 1997;Escoffier 1997). ...
... The superiority of applying a Marxist feminist theoretical paradigm over other forms of feminism can be explained with the following case study. Studying a lesbianowned and operated auto repair shop, "Amazon", Weston and Rofel (1984) show us how simply sharing the same social category (sexuality) is insufficient for guaranteeing freedom from oppression and conflict. In this case, although this particular group of women managed to free themselves from the dominant society's heterosexual norm and heterosexist biases, from patriarchal oppression, and from class and race cleavages (all were white and employed in "blue-collar" jobs), as a collective, this group still was unable to avoid conflict. ...
... How do the nations construct meanings out of the actions of others and react to the actions based on their interpretations? Weston and Rofel (1984) examined how power defines the situation, as well as how power defines the meaning of personal relationships in symbolic interactions. Gordon (1997) argued that symbolic interactionism casts a different conceptualization of the power of organizations and a new perspective upon persuasion. ...
This case study conceptualizes public diplomacy as a symbolic interactionist process, in which nations actively participate in constructing and negotiating meanings of symbols and performing actions based on the meanings. The international relief efforts for the Asian tsunami are used as a case to examine the conceptualization.
... How do the nations construct meanings out of the actions of others and react to the actions based on their interpretations? Weston and Rofel (1984) examined how power defines the situation, as well as how power defines the meaning of personal relationships in symbolic interactions. Gordon (1997) argued that symbolic interactionism casts a different conceptualization of the power of organizations and a new perspective upon persuasion. ...
This case study conceptualizes public diplomacy as a symbolic interactionist process, in which nations actively participate in constructing and negotiating meanings of symbols and performing actions based on the meanings. The international relief efforts for the Asian tsunami are used as a case to examine the conceptualization.
... The failure of symbolic interactionists to study power dimensions does not mean that pertinent concepts are unavailable. Weston and Rofel (1984) examined the power to deElne the situation, as well as the power to define the meaning of personal relationships, and expectations for sexual identity in their examination of sexuality, sexual identity, and class conflict. They emphasized the importance of the lesbian identity as a historical construct affecting social relations in lesbian institutions. ...
In this article I examine the symbolic interactionist approach to the study of sexuality. The philosophical roots of symbolic interactionism are examined beginning with a review of the themes emphasized by the social philosophy of the Scottish Enlightenment as well as American pragmatism. The situational, structural, and biographical‐historical approaches to contemporary symbolic interactionism are compared in terms of methodological orientations, assumptions, and concepts. Key symbolic interactionist concepts, including the definition of the situation, scripting, identities, self, self‐concept, and socialization, are examined within the context of sex research. I conclude with a critique and an evaluation of the use of symbolic interactionism in the study of sexuality.
... However, how these dynamics work in connection with assumptions related to age and ageing is still relatively under-researched. While the studies of gender and emotionality in organizations are now well established (for example, Gherardi, 1995;Hochschild, 1983;Virkki, 2004;Weston and Rofel, 1998;Williams, 2003), it is difficult to find analyses of the link between women, ageing and irritation in the dynamics of work organizations. Feminist studies on ageing have generally concentrated on older women who are not in waged work, and studies of working life have seldom focused on midlife women. ...
This article discusses midlife women's irritation and resistance in waged work. Old age is stereotypically conceptualized as a time of tranquility and wisdom, but whether women are included in this stereotype is a matter of question. This article concentrates on instances in which women are regarded instead as cranky and difficult when they age. The article is based on interviews of 56 to 64-year-old women and men employees, personnel managers, and trade union representatives employed in 10 work organizations. Of these, the gendering practices of three organizations, a hospital, and food and metal industry organizations, are analyzed in detail. The article asks what irritates midlife women, and suggests that gendering practices in the organizations can be seen to produce that which is perceived as ‘cranky old women’.
... In response to this rampant homophobia, some gays and lesbians formed work organizations in gay enclaves; sociologists responded by studying their unique features, mostly under a 'sociology of deviance' framework (e.g. Achilles 1967; Perkins and Skipper 1981; Reitzes and Diver 1982; Taub 1982; Weinberg and Williams 1975; Weston and Rofel 1984). ...
Organization scholars historically ignored the crucial importance of sexuality in the workplace. But in the last 20 years, scholars influenced by the ‘sexuality in organizations’ perspective have documented the ways that the management and deployment of workers’ sexuality are key elements in organizational life. While most of these studies have documented persistent privileging of heterosexuality in work organizations, a recent trend is to investigate a new organizational form: the gay-friendly workplace. We review legal and policy changes in US workplaces that have made them more accepting of gay and lesbian employees. Then we examine ethnographic studies of gay-friendly organizations. Although they are certainly an advance over previous homophobic workplaces, the literature suggests that they may reproduce inequalities of race, class, and gender. Few studies have investigated ‘queer organizations’, which we identify as a rich area for future scholarship.
Since the 1950s, the closet has been the chief metaphor for conceptualizing the experience of sexual minorities. Social change over the last four decades has begun to dismantle some of the social structures that historically policed heteronormativity and forced queer people to manage information about their sexuality in everyday life. Although scholars argue that these changes make it possible for some sexual minorities to live "beyond the closet" (Seidman, 2002), evidence shows the dynamics of the closet persist in organizations. Drawing on a case study of theme park entertainment workers, whose jobs exist at the nexus of structural conditions that research anticipates would end heterosexual domination, I find that what initially appears to be a post-closeted workplace is, in fact, a new iteration: the walk-in closet. More expansive than the corporate or gay-friendly closets, the walk-in closet provides some sexual minorities with a space to disclose their identities, seemingly without cost. Yet the fundamental dynamics of the closet-the subordination of homosexuality to heterosexuality and the continued need for LGB workers to manage information about their sexuality at work-persist through a set of boundaries that contain gayness to organizationally desired places. © 2016 by Emerald Group Publishing Limited All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.
Out in the Union tells the continuous story of queer American workers from the mid-1960s through 2013. Miriam Frank shrewdly chronicles the evolution of labor politics with queer activism and identity formation, showing how unions began affirming the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender workers in the 1970s and 1980s. She documents coming out on the job and in the union as well as issues of discrimination and harassment, and the creation of alliances between unions and LGBT communities. Featuring in-depth interviews with LGBT and labor activists, Frank provides an inclusive history of the convergence of labor and LGBT interests. She carefully details how queer caucuses in local unions introduced domestic partner benefits and union-based AIDS education for health care workers-innovations that have been influential across the U.S. workforce. Out in the Union also examines organizing drives at queer workplaces, campaigns for marriage equality, and other gay civil rights issues to show the enduring power of LGBT workers.
This dissertation examines the work lives of 32 gays and lesbians in Florida. It compares the experiences of Lesbian and Gay (LG) workers who are protected by non-discrimination laws and policies to those who are unprotected. Through in-depth interviews I explore the reasons that LG workers decide to conceal or reveal a homosexual identity at work, the importance of non-discrimination policies compared to workplace climate, and the social processes that promote acceptance in the workplace experienced by LG workers. In this dissertation I have illustrated the changing nature of the workplace by examining the experiences of LG workers in a climate where workplace rights have begun to enter the public discourse, and public opinion appears to be shifting away from condemnation toward acceptance. I have found that LG workers are active agents in this change, by coming out at work, voicing their needs and discussing their lives openly and honestly. This dissertation has three main findings. First, my findings suggest that LG workers choose to come out at work for many reasons, including the desire to be themselves at work, to enact social change, because they feel they cannot hide their sexual orientation or because a specific event prompts them to identify as gay or lesbian. Second, for LG workers in this study who are employed in gay-friendly environments, workplace climate is more important than having formal protections. For unprotected workers in gay-unfriendly workplaces, non-discrimination protection trumps climate. Third, many LG workers promote acceptance in the workplace via interaction. In this dissertation I identified four social processes through which acceptance is promoted through interaction in the workplace: inclusion, subordinate vocalization, boundary deconstruction, and emotional management. The findings of this dissertation illustrate that acceptance is being promoted in the workplace, but equality can only be created when all workers are formally protected from discrimination.
This paper explores the unseen ways in which the power relations of class may influence the ‘telling’ of lesbian stories in research interviews. It draws on in-depth interviews with 24 self-defined lesbians in a UK study investigating the effects of sexual identity and social class on psychosocial health. Utilising Bourdieu's conceptualisation of social class, the class differences which arose in the talk of the lesbians interviewed are analysed across three areas: class discourses, linguistic capital and class habitus. In doing so, it is suggested that the research interview opens up spaces for articulation which facilitate the narratives of lesbians from more privileged class positions but which are less inviting spaces for the telling of lesbian stories from disadvantaged class positions. The paper concludes that attention must be paid to ‘classed’ talking practices to ensure that the stories of lesbians with the least social advantages are heard.
This study explores the role feminist ideology played in long-term structural changes in feminist organizations. The vehicle for this exploration was a comparative case study of 14 feminist women's health centers that were started in the 1970s and were still in existence in the early 1990s. Drawing on interviews and site visits, the author describes the early collectivist structures, highlights some of the crises these organizations faced, and describes three structural ideal types that emerged in the 1990s. The analysis suggests three ideological issues that directed structural change: the importance of maintaining a system for the equitable distribution of power, the importance of growth versus autonomy, and the importance of feminism as an organizational outcome or internal process.
This chapter draws on 17 months of ethnographic observations in the Parade department at an American theme park that I call Wonderland. The Parade department is a homonormative workplace, numerically and culturally dominated by gay men. I examine how this work culture challenges the dominance of heteronormative masculinity often embedded at work through an exploration of backstage interactions among performers. I also explore the gendered and racialized meanings of the camp aesthetic that performers embody. I argue that while Parade culture undermines workplace heteronormative masculinity, it also reproduces the epistemology of the closet through its reliance on the gay/straight binary.
Sociological studies suggest that there is social change occurring in the acceptance of lesbians and gay men in the workplace. Compared to prior decades, there are more businesses that welcome, value, and even privilege nonheterosexual sexual identities and relationships. Few studies have analyzed workers' experiences in these types of work contexts. In this article, we explore the experiences of “out” LGB women and men who work for organizations that they consider “gay-friendly.” In-depth interviews demonstrated that, although gay and lesbian workers feel that they are accepted in “gay-friendly” organizations, they nevertheless described differential treatment because of their sexual identity. We discuss evidence of stereotyping, sexual harassment, and gender discrimination in their work experiences. Although the movement toward greater acceptance of gays and lesbians in the workplace has made significant progress, the transformation is so far incomplete. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of this research for the study of equality in organizations.
This empirical study in one UK Fire Service explores the experiences of sexual minorities in the workplace, an under-researched area of diversity, but one that has a growing focus of interest. The article aims to show that the organizational culture has an impact on sexual minorities in a number of different ways. The UK Fire Service is an organization which is fragmented into regional brigades, fire stations and watches (shifts) and it is at the level of the Watch that firefighters interact very closely. This article shows the complexities and dynamics of sexual minorities living and working in the Watch culture in the Fire Service. In particular, it highlights the different dimensions of the Fire Service culture which have an impact on sexual minorities. These are: the work environment, discourse, ways of working, rules, association, signs and symbols.
This study was developed to examine whether bias against women, blacks, and homosexuals emerges in predictable patterns when raters are presented with hiring scenarios. We instructed the research sample to hire six of eight candidates for an accounting position. Eight candidates were necessary to offer the full range of gender, race, and sexual orientation combinations. Requiring the research sample to select six of the eight candidates meant that each respondent would have to discriminate by eliminating the two candidates they considered the least desirable. We found that a black, male homosexual is the most likely target of discrimination and the white, female heterosexual is the least likely to be discriminated against. If it develops that these findings hold across a wide range of work-related decisions and samples, such results would support the argument for maintaining affirmative action for blacks and extending civil-rights protection to gays and lesbians.
Most stratification studies exclude from the scope of their analysis the study of inequalities based on the division of labour between women and men. In this paper an attempt is made to identify ambiguities which arise from the ad hoc treatment of this issue in the literature, at both individual and aggregate levels of analysis. A systematic approach to the problem requires reconsideration of the assumption that the class position of the family is determined by the occupation of the male head of household. Evidence on the inadequacy of this assumption for the analysis of occupational stratification in contemporary Britain is presented.
It is unnecessary to adopt a multi-dimensional approach to stratification or to treat women as a distinct `class'. But it is essential to examine the collective effects of women's employment on the occupational system. This in turn requires consideration of the processes by which women's work in the household and labour force articulate. The analysis of inequalities based on gender can be integrated with the study of class-based inequalities if a dynamic approach, one which focuses on the causes and effects of changes in the occupational division of labour, is adopted.