Editing Lesbian (section)

===Literature===
{{Further|Lesbian literature}}

In addition to Sappho's accomplishments,{{efn|Sappho has also served as a subject of many works of literature by writers such as [[John Donne]], [[Alexander Pope]], [[Pierre Louÿs]], and several anonymous writers, that have addressed her relationships with women and men. She has been used as an embodiment of same-sex desire, and as a character in fictions loosely based on her life.<ref name="Castle2003"/>{{rp|pp=125, 208, 252, 319, 566}}}} Literary historians [[Jeannette Howard Foster]] and Terry Castle include the [[Book of Ruth]],<ref name="Foster1956"/>{{rp|pp=22–23}}<ref name="Castle2003"/>{{rp|p=108}} and ancient mythological tradition as examples of lesbianism in classical literature. Greek stories of the heavens often included a female figure whose virtue and virginity were unspoiled, who pursued more masculine interests, and who was followed by a dedicated group of maidens. Foster cites [[Camilla (mythology)|Camilla]] and [[Diana (mythology)|Diana]], [[Artemis]] and [[Callisto (mythology)|Callisto]], and [[Iphis]] and [[Iphis|Ianthe]] as examples of female mythological figures who showed remarkable devotion to each other, or defied gender expectations.<ref name="Foster1956"/>{{rp|pp=24–27}} The Greeks are also given credit with spreading the story of a mythological race of women warriors named [[Amazons]].

For ten centuries after the fall of the Roman Empire, lesbianism disappeared from literature.<ref name="Castle2003"/>{{rp|p=11}} Foster points to the particularly strict view that [[Eve]]—representative of all women—caused the downfall of mankind; [[original sin]] among women was a particular concern, especially because women were perceived as creating life.<ref name="Foster1956"/>{{rp|pp=30–31}} During this time, women were largely illiterate and not encouraged to engage in intellectual pursuit, so men were responsible for shaping ideas about sexuality.<ref name="Castle2003"/>{{rp|p=6}}

In the 15th and 16th centuries, French and English depictions of relationships between women (''[[Lives of Gallant Ladies]]'' by [[Pierre de Bourdeille, seigneur de Brantôme|Brantôme]] in 1665, [[John Cleland]]'s 1749 erotica ''[[Fanny Hill|Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure]]'', ''[[L'Espion Anglais]]'' by various authors in 1778), writers' attitudes spanned from amused tolerance to arousal, whereupon a male character would participate to complete the act. Physical relationships between women were often encouraged; men felt no threat as they viewed sexual acts between women to be accepted when men were not available, and not comparable to fulfillment that could be achieved by sexual acts between men and women.<ref name="Faderman1981"/>{{rp|pp=26–28}} At worst, if a woman became enamored of another woman, she became a tragic figure. Physical and therefore emotional satisfaction was considered impossible without a natural phallus. Male intervention into relationships between women was necessary only when women acted as men and demanded the same social privileges.<ref name="Faderman1981"/>{{rp|pp=29}}

[[File:Lautrec in bed 1893.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|''[[Le Lit (Toulouse-Lautrec)|In Bed]]'' by [[Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec]] (1893). The Parisian artist employed the association between lesbianism and prostitution.<ref name="Faderman1981"/>{{rp|pp=281–283}}|alt=A painting of two short-haired women in a massive bed, covered to their chins in blankets under a red top cover. One woman is looking sleepily at the other.]]

Lesbianism became almost exclusive to French literature in the 19th century, based on male fantasy and the desire to shock bourgeois moral values.<ref name="Faderman1981"/>{{rp|pp=264, 268}} [[Honoré de Balzac]], in ''[[The Girl with the Golden Eyes]]'' (1835), employed lesbianism in his story about three people living amongst the moral degeneration of Paris, and again in ''[[Cousin Bette]]'' and ''[[Séraphîta]]''. His work influenced novelist [[Théophile Gautier]]'s ''[[Mademoiselle de Maupin]]'', which provided the first description of a physical type that became associated with lesbians: tall, wide-shouldered, slim-hipped, and athletically inclined.<ref name="Foster1956"/>{{rp|pp=51–65}} [[Charles Baudelaire]] repeatedly used lesbianism as a theme in his poems "Lesbos", {{lang|fr|"Femmes damnées 1"}} ("Damned Women"), and {{lang|fr|"Femmes damnées 2"}}.<ref name="Castle2003"/>{{rp|p=435}}

Reflecting French society, as well as employing stock character associations, many of the lesbian characters in 19th-century French literature were prostitutes or courtesans: personifications of vice who died early, violent deaths in moral endings.<ref name="Faderman1981"/>{{rp|pp=281–283}} [[Samuel Taylor Coleridge]]'s 1816 poem "[[Christabel (poem)|Christabel]]" and the novella ''[[Carmilla]]'' (1872) by [[Sheridan Le Fanu]] both present lesbianism associated with vampirism.<ref name="Faderman1981"/>{{rp|pp=277, 288–289}} Portrayals of female homosexuality not only formed European consciousness about lesbianism, but Krafft-Ebing cited the characters in [[Gustave Flaubert]]'s ''[[Salammbô]]'' (1862) and [[Ernest Feydeau]]'s ''[[La comtesse de Chalis]]'' (1867) as examples of lesbians because both novels feature female protagonists who do not adhere to social norms and express "contrary sexual feeling", although neither participated in same-sex desire or sexual behavior.<ref name="Foster1956"/>{{rp|p=72}} Havelock Ellis used literary examples from Balzac and several French poets and writers to develop his framework to identify sexual inversion in women.<ref name="Faderman1981"/>{{rp|p=254}}

Gradually, women began to author their own thoughts and literary works about lesbian relationships. Until the publication of ''The Well of Loneliness'', most major works involving lesbianism were penned by men. Foster suggests that women would have encountered suspicion about their own lives had they used same-sex love as a topic, and that some writers including [[Louise Labé]], [[Charlotte Charke]], and [[Margaret Fuller]] either changed the pronouns in their literary works to male, or made them ambiguous.<ref name="Foster1956"/>{{rp|pp=116–127}} Author [[George Sand]] was portrayed as a character in several works in the 19th century; writer [[Mario Praz]] credited the popularity of lesbianism as a theme to Sand's appearance in Paris society in the 1830s.<ref name="Faderman1981"/>{{rp|pp=263}}{{efn|The cross-dressing Sand was also the subject of a few of [[Elizabeth Barrett Browning]]'s sonnets.<ref name="Castle2003"/>{{rp|pp=426–427}} [[Charlotte Brontë]]'s ''[[Villette (novel)|Villette]]'' in 1853 initiated a genre of boarding [[School story|school stories]] with homoerotic themes.<ref name="Castle2003"/>{{rp|p=429}}}}

In the 20th century, [[Katherine Mansfield]], [[Amy Lowell]], [[Gertrude Stein]], [[H.D.]], [[Vita Sackville-West]], [[Virginia Woolf]], and [[Gale Wilhelm]] wrote popular works that had same-sex relationships as themes. Some women, such as [[Marguerite Yourcenar]] and [[Mary Renault]], wrote or translated works of fiction that focused on homosexual men, like some of the writings of [[Carson McCullers]]. All three were involved in same-sex relationships, but their primary friendships were with gay men.<ref name="Norton1997"/>{{rp|p=182}} Foster further asserts 1928 was a "peak year" for lesbian-themed literature; in addition to ''The Well of Loneliness'', three other novels with lesbian themes were published in England: [[Elizabeth Bowen]]'s ''The Hotel'', Woolf's ''[[Orlando: A Biography|Orlando]]'', and [[Compton Mackenzie]]'s satirical novel ''Extraordinary Women''.<ref>Lanser, 1979, p. 39.</ref> Unlike ''The Well of Loneliness'', none of these novels were banned.<ref name="Foster1956"/>{{rp|pp=281–287}}{{efn|A fifth novel in 1928, American author Djuna Barnes' ''[[Ladies Almanack]]'', is a ''[[roman à clef]]'' of [[Natalie Clifford Barney#Salon|a lesbian literary and artistic salon in Paris]] and circulated at first within those circles; Susan Sniader Lanser calls it a "sister-text" to Hall's landmark work,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lanser |first1=Susan Sniader |title=Speaking in Tongues: 'Ladies Almanack' and the Language of Celebration |journal=Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies |date=1979 |volume=4 |issue=3 |pages=39–48 |doi=10.2307/3346147|jstor=3346147 }}</ref> as Barnes includes a character based on Radclyffe Hall and passages that may be a response to ''The Well of Loneliness''<ref name="Barnes1992">Barnes, Djuna. With an introduction by Susan Sniader Lanser. (1992). ''Ladies Almanack'', [[New York University Press]]. {{ISBN|0-8147-1180-4}}. p. xxxi</ref>}}

As the paperback book came into fashion, lesbian themes were relegated to [[Pulp magazines|pulp fiction]]. Many of the pulp novels typically presented very unhappy women, or relationships that ended tragically. Marijane Meaker later wrote that she was told to make the relationship end badly in ''Spring Fire'' because the publishers were concerned about the books being confiscated by the U.S. Postal Service.<ref>Packer, Vin (Marijane Meaker). ''Spring Fire'', Introduction. 2004, Cleis Press.</ref> [[Patricia Highsmith]], writing as Claire Morgan, wrote ''[[The Price of Salt]]'' in 1951 and refused to follow this directive, but instead used a pseudonym.<ref name="Castle2003"/>{{rp|pp=1024–1025}}

Following the [[Stonewall riots]], lesbian themes in literature became much more diverse and complex, and shifted the focus of lesbianism from erotica for heterosexual men to works written by and for lesbians. Feminist magazines such as ''[[The Furies Collective|The Furies]]'', and ''[[Sinister Wisdom]]'' replaced ''The Ladder''. Serious writers who used lesbian characters and plots included [[Rita Mae Brown]]'s ''[[Rubyfruit Jungle]]'' (1973), which presents a feminist heroine who chooses to be a lesbian.<ref name="Schlager1998"/>{{rp|p=377}} Poet [[Audre Lorde]] confronts homophobia and racism in her works, and [[Cherríe Moraga]] is credited with being primarily responsible for bringing Latina perspectives to lesbian literature. Further changing values are evident in the writings of [[Dorothy Allison]], who focuses on child sexual abuse and deliberately provocative lesbian [[sadomasochism]] themes.<ref name="Schlager1998"/>{{rp|p=379}}