Same-Sex Marriage, Context, and Lesbian Identity - by Julie Whitlow & Patricia Ould

About the Book

This book shows how the first lesbians to marry in the United States are using or avoiding the word wife at this historic juncture when the definition of marriage is undergoing a shift. It will interest the LGBTQ community, its allies, political activists, feminists, and schol...

Book Synopsis

This book shows how the first lesbians to marry in the United States are using or avoiding the word wife at this historic juncture when the definition of marriage is undergoing a shift. It will interest the LGBTQ community, its allies, political activists, feminists, and scholars of sociology, sociolinguistics, linguistic anthropology, and gender.

Review Quotes

This fascinating book explores one of the most complicated words around--"wife"--and uses that word to learn how lesbian couples and their friends and family are adapting to marriage.

Whitlow and Ould make the important point that context and situation often determine what language married lesbians use to describe themselves.

Whitlow and Ould's cutting edge in-depth linguistic research with lesbians in same-sex marriages captures an important moment in lesbian feminist history. In crisp prose and with lively story-telling, they capture the fear, excitement, and challenges of breaking linguistic barriers in terms of what we lesbians call our spouses. Linguistic risk-taking is shaping a more equal world.

About the Author

C. Julie Whitlow is professor of English and coordinator of the graduate program in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages at Salem State University.

Patricia J. Ould is professor and chairperson of the Sociology Department at Salem State University.