Reading Community : Periodicals as Archives for Australian Lesbian Public Cultures 1970-2000

This thesis examines the histories of Australian lesbian periodicals from the 1970s to the end of the 1990s and their role in maintaining and documenting the varied lesbian readership communities. Further, the place of the magazine medium in articulating Australian lesbian identities and subcultures will be analysed, noting the conversations between writers and editors across and within publications. The 1990s will be highlighted as a transitional period, encapsulating multiple changes in the production of the periodicals, including the sharp increase in city-based newsletters and their downfall by the end of the decade. Evolving discourses around the place of lesbian feminism, queer politics and homonormativity peaked during this decade, shaping an emerging generational divide. This thesis is defined by a close reading of the magazines, imagining them as lesbian spaces for the exploration of significant topics and the articulation of tension and division.

This thesis explores the rich archives of Australian lesbian periodicals, noting how they preserve representations of Australian lesbian communities. The publications’ entanglements with various political, social and cultural movements will be highlighted, developing a specific voice influenced by lesbian feminism. The magazines’ production will be examined, changing from collective practices to individual ownership and how this impacted revenue raising from advertising and connections to business. Lesbian motherhood will be explored, from the discursive creation of the identity to responses to conservative rhetoric. The development of lesbian sexual public cultures will be detailed, noting the evolution of lesbian sexuality and the place of state recognition of partnerships. Visual components of the magazines’ will be incorporated, with attention to lesbian dress and its connection to identity and subcultural affiliation. Taking the magazines as lesbian space, who has been included and excluded from this imagined community will be considered, noting the constructions of Australian lesbian identity boundaries. This thesis will explore the complex histories of Australian lesbian periodicals, analysing what was discussed and how this impacted Australian communities.

This work © 2024, Harriet Steele.