Cassell's Queer Companion: Dictionary of Lesbian and Gay Life and Culture (Cassell Lesbian & Gay Studies) - Softcover

This text offers kaleidoscopic coverage of lesbian and gay life, history, politics, language, sex and humour. The volume's 2500 entries celebrate this culture's breadth, from Chinese folklore, Islamic poetry and Native American customs, to "dykes on bikes", Alternative Miss World and the Gay Games. The historical section looks at lesbian and gay history from the Ancients to the AIDS epidemic, focussing on the ways of organizing and representing lesbian and gay identities in opposition to a usually oppressive dominant culture (eg. Molly Houses, quilt project) and on events which feed the collective consciousness. Cultural apects of gay life are described through eclectic entries on literature, film, music, art, and other forms of artistic expression from San Francisco Gay Punk to Lesbian detective fiction. Political concepts and history is examined including the Stonewall Riots and concepts such as Queer. The section on queer counter-culture includes references to handkerchiefs, signals and signs, lifestyles (opera queen, butch dyke, clone), dress and drag. The fable aspect is supplied in biographic entries via nicknames, anecdotes, quotations and gossip associated with lesbian and gay icons, heroes, villains, gods and godesses. The book is multicultural in out-look, including examples from CHinese folklore and politics, Islamic poetry and Pacific anthropology.