`Lesbian' in a Post-Lesbian World? Policing Identity, Sex and Image

This article is concerned with women in the UK who continue to mobilize around the term `lesbian' - that is, with women attending groups 1 targeted expressly at lesbians. 2 How do such women understand and negotiate their identities? What role does sex and sexuality play in their negotiations? And what can their negotiations tell us about the construction of identities more widely? In exploring these questions, the article highlights the ongoing policing of lesbian identities and behaviours in the 1990s, and draws attention to the continued deployment of oppositional lesbian identities alongside newer post-lesbian forms.