Camionneuses s’abstenir: Lesbian Community Creation Through the Personals

Abstract

In this text, Anna Livia analyzes, via the perspective of Queer Linguistics and the concept of communities of practice, personal ads published in Lesbia Magazine, a French monthly aimed at the lesbian population. Firstly, the author examines how the ad writers discursively construct their ideal partner, focusing on which sexual orientations and gendered stylizations are excluded and, especially, on the discrimination against “butch” lesbians. Afterwards, she also analyzes how the language of the notes from the editor, which are inserted directly, like interjections, into the ads, reinforce or contest the values inherent in the texts and question, in particular, certain exclusions and prejudices.