Surface Tension: Love, Sex and Politics Between Lesbians and Straight Women

Representing diverse views and voices, the essays, short stories, and interviews in this collection explore the spectrum of feelings and opinions about being a lesbian, the friendships women share—or fear—and the rich diversity of personal choices women make today.

This anthology is filled with personal narratives that explore a particular friendship or perspective on relationships between women of different sexualities. Editor Meg Daly breaks the essays, interviews, and stories into six different sections—”Best Friends”; “Romantic Love”; “Curiosity, Desire, and Sex”; “On Passing and Solidarity”; “Blurred Boundaries or Which One Is the Lesbian?”; and “Visibility, Community, and Our Separate Spheres.” These stories explore personal experiences of life as a lesbian, close friendships, queer theory, and LGBTQ history. In Dorothy Allison’s story “Conceptional Lesbianism,” she lends a historical perspective to straight-lesbian relationships in the 1970s, and she examines on what it means to be a lesbian. Lisa Springer reflects on the period in her adolescence when she wasn’t aware of her attraction to women in “Between Girls.” In “Kat,” Guinevere Turner on the pain of reconciling one’s sexual orientation with past relationships.

A wide range of experiences, perspectives, and diverse voices come together in this anthology to explore the pain, joy, humor, and beauty of life as a lesbian.