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OUT of TIME and out of PLACE Habitus Dislocation and the Importance of Affinity Groups for Older Lesbians and Bisexual Women

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OUT of TIME and out of PLACE Habitus Dislocation and the Importance of Affinity Groups for Older Lesbians and Bisexual Women OUT OF TIME AND OUT OF PLACE Habitus dislocation and the importance of affinity groups for older lesbians and bisexual women JILL WILKENS ORCID IDENTIFIER:0000-0002-2261-6696 THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY LONDON SOUTH BANK UNIVERSITY September 2016 1 I hereby declare that this thesis has not been and will not be submitted in whole or in part to another university for the award of any other degree. Signature: Jill Wilkens 2 Acknowledgements Without the thirty-five participants and the gate-keepers who gave me access to them, this research would not exist. Skeggs (1997) observes that the affectivity of research is diminished through the ‘academic analytical filtering process’ (p.15) but I hope some trace of my participants’ resilience and good humour remains. Their warm hospitality and patience in answering my questions made the interviews a joy. Nothing could make transcription a pleasure, but their attention to detail when reviewing their transcripts, made the process feel worthwhile. Most importantly, the courage and joie de vivre with which they have lived their lives and told their stories are an inspiration to generations of women, including my own, for which I am truly grateful. As someone born in the 1960s, I am mindful of my privilege and protection. The experiences of self-concealment, discrimination, family estrangement and harassment bear little resemblance to my own and those of my contemporaries, although I do not suggest that they have been eradicated. Back and Puwar (2012) urge us to ‘take time, think carefully and slowly’ (p.13), a luxurious imperative not easily followed given the pace and pressure of current academic funding regimes. I am therefore indebted to London South Bank University for offering me a scholarship which supported this research, and particularly grateful to Craig Barker and Cait Beaumont for securing additional funding to enable me to write up thoughtfully and attentively. I hope I have achieved my intent in finding a balance between work that is ‘readerly’ and that which is ‘writerly’ (Plummer, 2001:171). During my time at London South Bank University I had four supervisors, each of whom inspired and supported me in different ways. I would particularly like to thank Yvonne Robinson and Jeffrey Weeks for their time, positivity and inspirational guidance throughout my final year. My friends and colleagues have had a trying four years. Many people have patiently read extracts of chapters, talked endlessly about method and, most importantly, provided encouragement and cheer when I was weary. Julie Harpin, Tuula Juvonen, Ellis Morgan, Anna Shadrina, Lotika Singha, Jane Traies and Kairen Zonena all helped to move me on when I was stuck. The generosity of Louise Mycroft and the rest of the teacher-education team at Northern College made it possible for me to continue teaching throughout the life course of this research, demonstrating their genuine commitment to social purpose and praxis. A very special mention goes to my friend Maggie Rutter who has read every chapter at least once, shared her own ideas about cleft habitus as a working-class, socially mobile woman and generally offered a level of support well above and beyond the call of our thirty-year friendship. 3 Thanks to my small family of origin - Janet and Freddy - for always, always being there. You are my genes and my blood and most definitely, my family of choice. My partner Sarah has lived every minute of this research and done it patiently, calmly and with the same love and generosity she bestows on me always. When I started this research we had just returned to Essex from Yorkshire; as I finish it we are making the journey in reverse. I can’t wait for our next chapter to begin. Dedication Everything I write is, and always will be, dedicated to the loving memory of Jacqueline and Frederick Wilkens, whose unswerving love and belief in their daughters continues to make everything possible. This particular piece of work is also dedicated, with love, to Gwen (21st December 1936 - 20th September 1996). I wish I’d known you better. Publications Part of Chapters Seven and Eight were initially published in 2016 as ‘The significance of affinity groups and safe spaces for older lesbians and bisexual women: creating support networks and resisting heteronormativity in older age’, in Quality in Ageing and Older Adults, 17 (1), pp. 26-35. 4 OUT OF TIME AND OUT OF PLACE Habitus dislocation and the importance of affinity groups for older lesbians and bisexual women Abstract This research investigates the intersection of ageing, gender, class and sexual identity with a particular focus on the role of same-sexuality social groups and networks for older lesbians and bisexual women. Thirty-five women aged between 57 and 73 were interviewed about a range of topics including what it was like to come out in the 1950s and 1960s, their education and employment, their feelings about ageing, whether they had been lonely or isolated and their experiences of attending groups for lesbians and bisexual women. The research found that many participants experienced feelings of being ‘out of place’ that were not to do with financial or structural inequalities but were culturally and socially shaped by aspects of their social mobility, generation, gender and sexuality. Using an intersectional approach, I draw on Bourdieu’s work, using the concept of habitus dislocation to consider the contradictions of these mobilities. I suggest that many of my participants faced unprecedented and unique disjunctures between their original habitus and the new classed, sexual and gendered locations in which they finally ‘arrived’. The research indicates that participants’ friendships and families of choice, as well as the social groups they have created and attended across the life course, have had an important role to play in helping to alleviate the feelings of difference that are a consequence of multiple mobilities. For many participants they are sites of resilience and help to promote positive ageing, offering a sense of belonging to a generation of lesbian and bisexual women who have faced marginalisation across their life course. However, they are also locations of hierarchy and privilege, where some are excluded or precariously positioned. This study offers a unique view of habitus dislocation as a consequence of multiple mobilities across the life course of a generational cohort of women, often under-represented or absent from sexualities research. It makes an important contribution to the literature on lesbian, gay and bisexual ageing that focuses solely on loneliness and isolation and the significance of social support. 5 Contents Acknowledgements p.3 Publications p.4 Abstract p.5 Chapter One: Introduction 1.0 The scope of the research p.9 1.1 The rationale for this study p.10 1.2 Theoretical foundations and methodological approaches p.14 1.3 Conceptualising and defining ‘sexual minorities’ p.20 1.4 Research aims and questions p.23 1.5 Outline of chapters p.26 Chapter Two: A review of the literature 2.0 A word of caution: The limitations of existing research p.28 2.1 The historical context of the current generation of LGB p.29 elders: Forming an alternative sexual identity in post-war Britain 2.2 Identity and difference: p.34 The intersections of multiple inequalities 2.3 Out of field and out of place: p.47 The habitus and contemporary mobilities 2.4 Loneliness and resilience in older LGBT individuals p.52 2.5 LGBT communities, friendships, groups and belonging p.59 2.6 Research questions p.78 Chapter Three: Methodology 3.0 Introduction p.81 3.1 Who can speak? p.82 Defining and refining the scope of the research. 3.2 Situating my ‘self’ in the research: p.85 Researcher as a positioned subject 6 3.3 Designing and ‘doing’ qualitative feminist research p.87 3.4 Issues of ethics and care p.103 3.5 Demographics: Talking about the participants p.112 3.6 Analysis: The art of interpretation p.115 Chapter Four: Social mobility as a site of habitus dislocation 4.0 Vignette: Ivy p.123 4.1 Introduction p.125 4.2 The timing of lives p.128 4.3 1950s education as an agent of social (im)mobility p.129 4.4 A material world: p. 138 Intersections of gender and class in employment 4.5 Theorising adult class identity: p. 143 ‘Upward’ mobility and habitus dislocation Chapter Five: Life course diversity: Gender and sexuality - contemporary mobilities as a site of habitus dislocation 5.0 Vignette: Gillian p.157 5.1 Introduction p.158 5.2 Growing up in the 1950s and 1960s: p.163 Recognition and transgression of gender role 5.3 Swimming against the tide: p.168 Recognition and transgression of heteronormativity 5.4 Women at work: Gender, sexuality and employment p.181 5.5 Fish out of water: p.190 Adult lesbian identity as uncharted territory Chapter Six: Identity building as women and lesbians: Creating communities of belonging and resistance across the life course 6.0 Introduction p.204 6.1 Loneliness, isolation and a sense of being different p.204 6.2 Organising and belonging to groups across the life course: p.212 Feminist groups and Greenham Common Peace Camp 7 6.3 Organising and belonging to groups across the life course: p.228 Lesbian groups 6.4 Other ways of belonging p.231 Chapter Seven: Affinity groups and safe spaces: Creating support networks and resisting heteronormativity in older age 7.0 Introduction p.243 7.1 The cumulative effect of multiple mobilities in older age p.244 7.2 Establishing the continued need for affinity groups p.250 in older age: resisting
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