Drastic Dykes and Accidental Activists
Queer Women in the Urban South
By La Shonda Mims
256 pp., 6.125 x 9.25, 13 halftones, notes, bibl., index
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Paperback ISBN: 978-1-4696-7055-3
Published: December 2022 -
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4696-7054-6
Published: December 2022 -
E-book EPUB ISBN: 978-1-4696-7056-0
Published: November 2022 -
E-book PDF ISBN: 979-8-8908-5053-9
Published: November 2022
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Awards & distinctions
A 2023 Choice Outstanding Academic Title
Mims's work reveals significant differences between gay men's and lesbian women's lived experiences, with lesbians often missing out on the promises of prosperity that benefitted some members of gay communities. Money, class, and race were significant variables in shaping the divergent life experiences for the lesbian communities of Atlanta and Charlotte; whiteness especially bestowed certain privileges. In Atlanta, an inclusive corporate culture bolstered the city's queer community. In Charlotte, tenacious lesbian collectives persevered, as many queer Charlotteans leaned on Atlanta's enormous Pride celebrations for sanctuary when similar institutional community supports were lacking at home.
About the Author
La Shonda Mims is assistant professor of history at the University of Birmingham, UK.
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Reviews
"There is no one lesbian experience, just as there is no one human experience. Mims confronts this challenge head-on in her parallel histories of “women loving women” in Atlanta, GA, and Charlotte, NC . . . . [Mims] incorporates the experiences of wo mmen of color without tokenism . . . . She also skillfully discusses the role of sexism and gay white privilege. This important work sits at the intersection of race, economics, religion, sectionalism, gender, and sexuality . . . . Highly recommended."—CHOICE
"Mims’s expansive and meticulous research offers up multiple examples of how the printed word, through lesbian and lesbian feminist publications—some long-lasting and others fleeting and irregular—was central to building and sustaining communities and to producing knowledge about nonnormative sexualities and critical feminist philosophical formulations.”—Journal of Southern History
"Anyone who doubts the rich, multilayered history of the queer South should immerse themselves in Drastic Dykes and Accidental Activists: from bombings of gay bars during the Atlanta Olympics, to the unexpected appearance of Chick-Fil-A in the first conservative protests against Charlotte Pride, to the activists and organizers who pushed back against corporate heterosexual norms, Mims’s book provides dozens of key moments and fascinating figures.”—Jamie Harker, Signs
"Keenly researched and well written, Mims's outstanding book makes an important contribution to the social and cultural histories of southern lesbians and all the identities the words 'southern' and 'lesbians' entail."—Stephanie Gilmore, author of Groundswell: Grassroots Feminist Activism in Postwar America
"By putting lesbian communities in Atlanta and Charlotte in conversation, Mims charts new territory in the historiography of the queer South."—Julia Brock, University of Alabama