Allison, Dorothy

Scope and Contents

In this two-hour conversation, Allison and Vázquez tell stories of young adulthood and realizing “who they are,” share their journeys through 1970s and 80s feminisms in San Francisco, explore the extensive emphasis on androgyny and hostility towards butch-femme within the lesbian community, and reflect on current debates within the lesbian community over trans identities. (Transcript 48 pp.)

Scope and Contents Because Dorothy Allison has written extensively about her childhood and early family life, this oral history focuses on Allison's political activism and involvement with feminism, beginning in Tallahassee, FL in the 1970s. She recounts "finding the movement" at Florida State University through the Women's Center and her parallel life in the bars, among butch-femme dykes, and her struggle to integrate the worlds of middle-class politics and working class erotics. Allison describes...