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Lesbian Pulp Fictions

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Lesbian Pulp Fictions
The novel Women’s Barracks is one of the first lesbian pulps to depict real incidences of homosexual love affairs between women in the army during World War II. Tereska Torres’s publication of personal experiences during the war in Women’s Barracks, led to the rise of lesbian pulp fiction popularity across America. These novels could be found in drug stores or news stands, and were read by a variety of people including men, women, homosexuals and heterosexuals. Due to a diverse amount of people reading lesbian pulp fictions, the word and idea of lesbian was brought into the world creating a class of people that to most, did not exist.
Lesbian pulp fictions gave insight to individuals about different sexual identities other than heterosexuality. …show more content…
To me, sexual expression is how individuals present themselves as sexual beings. By an individual classifying themselves as homosexual or heterosexual they are able to interact and have sexual relations with people who identify with the same sexual identity. It also gives individuals the option to choose their own sexual identity, instead of everyone being forced to have one choice of sexual identity and expression. In the 1950’s the predominant sexual identity that many individuals associated with was heterosexual, but with the spread and recognition of homosexuality, individuals were given freedom to choose their own identity of something other than being heterosexuals. This gave individuals the ability to express their sexual views and preferences more freely. However, having categories can also be harmful. Though having categories allows individuals to choose, it also places them for possible discrimination. Because heterosexuality was favored in the 1950’s, anyone who was categorized themselves as a homosexual were seen as an outcast and socially rejected. Though this created a negative impact on sexual expression, I feel that there are more positive outcomes of the creation of categories. By there being an option to choose what category individuals would like to belong to, shows that there is diversity in sexual expression instead of one standard view. Though there are people who still feel strong about individuals who affiliate with identities other than heterosexual, there are also individuals in society who recognize the many categories of sexual identities there are today, and accept them and their form of sexual
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