Introduction

A complex history lies behind the patterns of alcohol use within the lesbian population. There is no doubt that nowadays alcohol is used among women of all classes and genders, and within most ethnic communities. The use of alcohol in lesbian communities has to be understood historically, relating to societal mores of the past, as well as the broader cultural and national debates influencing societal understanding of sexualities as well as alcohol use. Identifying as a lesbian, as well as differing use of alcohol, are also related to social demographics such as class, religion, race, age, disability, ethnicity and sexuality and cannot be understood outside of these intersectional overlaps. This chapter focuses on the use of alcohol among lesbians in the United Kingdom (UK).

The central theme of this book suggests that issues relating to the way alcohol is used can only be understood properly within their social and environmental context; hence the importance of utilising a ‘social model’ of alcohol use. A social model suggests that the meaning and use of alcohol is context related (Staddon, 2012, 2013a). It enables us to move away temporarily from distress, from normal social expectations and from ‘self-imprisonment’ (Gusfield, 1996, p 72). It may be a way of acting out, recreation, even a form of selfhood to which one has a right (Cresswell, 2009; Staddon, 2013a, p 106). To apply this understanding of context to lesbian alcohol use, it is necessary to look at lesbian history.

Lesbian history

Knowledge ‘about’ the lesbian and her community originally emerged from studies written by those ‘outside’ of the community. A rhetoric of emotional pathology was constructed via psychiatric and mental health approaches following on from religious and legal sanctimony. The Diagnostic and statistical manual (DSM), used globally by psychiatrists, appeared to declare ‘open season’ on lesbians and gay men throughout the late 1950s to the early 1980s (the DSM only removed homosexuality as a pathology in 1983) by declaring ‘homosexuality’ as a form of mental illness. It is hard to imagine how lesbians managed to endure life as women throughout these times.

Psychologically, one would want to ask how they managed to ‘get out alive’ considering the harshness of social life. Imagine the working-class lesbian of the 1950s, living in the North of England.