SELF-REPRESENTATIONS OF LESBIAN WOMEN: FACETS OF LESBOPHOBIA AND ITS IMPLICATIONS IN THE LESBIANITY SIGNIFICANCE PROCESS

Abstract

This article presents the parcial results of a research accomplished in 2020, in which the objective was to know the social representations of lesbians women about the lesbianity, aiming to understand, beyond the meanings given to the experience itself as lesbians, the role of the family and society in the production in these representation, as the influences of feminism on it. This qualitative study, guided by the production of feminists and lesbofeminist theorists, and the Theory of Social Representation, produced the data from the semi-structured interviews were fulfilled with eight women who call themselves as lesbians. The data were subjected to Content Analysis, wich made it possible to organize the information into thematic categories. The results are articulated around three specific dimensions: individual, social and political, from which emitted, in each, two thematics categories, respectively: a) the process of self-perception as lesbian and b) theories about the lesbianity; c) repercussions of the family context and d) social implications of lesbianity; e) feminism as a possibility of understanding and transformation and f) an instrument of struggle for women. This discussion focuses in the categorie about the social implications of lesbianity, highlighting the production of stigmas and stereotypes as manifestations of lesbophobia, wich contributes greatly to the invisibility and denial of lesbian existence.