Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an adjective, to describe characteristics of an object or activity related to female same-sex desire.

Lesbian as a concept, used to differentiate women with a shared sexual orientation, is a 20th-century construct. Throughout history, women have not had the freedom or independence to pursue homosexual relationships as men have, but neither have they met the harsh punishment in some societies as homosexual men. Instead, lesbian relationships have often been regarded as harmless and incomparable to heterosexual ones unless the participants attempted to assert privileges traditionally enjoyed by men. As a result, little in history has been documented to give an accurate description of how female homosexuality has been expressed. When early sexologists in the late 19th century began to categorize and describe homosexual behavior, hampered by a lack of knowledge about lesbianism or women's sexuality, they distinguished lesbians as women who did not adhere to female gender roles and designated them mentally ill.

Women in homosexual relationships responded to this designation either by hiding their personal lives or accepting the label of outcast and creating a subculture and identity that developed in Europe and the United States. Following World War II, during a period of social repression when governments actively persecuted homosexuals, women developed networks to socialize with and educate each other. Greater economic and social freedom allowed women gradually to be able to determine how they could form relationships and families. With second wave feminism and growth of scholarship in women's history and sexuality in the 20th century, the definition of ''lesbian'' broadened, sparking a debate about sexual desire as the major component to define what a lesbian is. Women generally exhibit greater sexual fluidity than men and find it easier to become physically and emotionally intimate with other women. Some women who engage in homosexual behavior may reject the lesbian identity entirely, refusing to identify themselves as lesbian or bisexual. Other women may adopt a lesbian identity for political reasons. Greater understanding of women's sexuality has led to three components to identifying lesbians: sexual behavior, sexual desire, or sexual identity.

Portrayals of lesbians in the media suggest that Western society at large has been simultaneously intrigued and threatened by women who challenge feminine gender roles, and fascinated and appalled with women who are romantically involved with other women. Women who adopt a lesbian identity share experiences that form an outlook similar to an ethnic identity: as homosexuals, they are unified by the discrimination and potential rejection they face from their families, friends, and others. As women, they face concerns separate from men. Lesbians may encounter distinct physical or mental health concerns. Political conditions and social attitudes also affect the formation of lesbian relationships and families.

Origin and transformation of the term

The word "lesbian" is derived from the name of the Greek island of Lesbos, home to the 6th-century BCE poet Sappho. From various ancient writings, historians have gathered that a group of young women were left in Sappho's charge for their instruction or cultural edification. Not much of Sappho's poetry remains, but that which does reflects the topics she wrote about: women's daily lives, their relationships, and rituals. She focused on the beauty of women and proclaimed her love for girls. Before the late 19th century, the word "Lesbian" referred to any derivative or aspect of Lesbos, including a type of wine.

In 1890 the term was used in a medical dictionary as an adjective to describe tribadism (as "Lesbian love"): sexual gratification of two women by simulating intercourse. "Lesbianism" to describe erotic relationships between women had been documented in 1870. The terms were interchangeable with "Sapphist" and "Sapphism" around the turn of the 20th century. The use of "Lesbian" in medical literature became prominent; by 1925 the word was recorded as a noun to mean the female equivalent of a sodomite.

The development of medical knowledge was a significant factor in further connotations of the term. In the middle of the 19th century, medical writers attempted to establish ways to identify male homosexuality, which was considered a significant social problem in most Western societies. In categorizing behavior that indicated what was referred to as "inversion" by German sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld, researchers determined what was normal sexual behavior for men and women, and therefore to what extent men and women varied from the "perfect male sexual type" and the "perfect female sexual type". Far less literature focused on female homosexual behavior than on male homosexuality, as medical professionals did not consider it a significant problem. In some cases it was not acknowledged to exist. However, sexologists Richard von Krafft-Ebbing from Germany, and Britain's Havelock Ellis wrote some of the earliest and more enduring categorizations of female same-sex attraction, approaching it as a form of insanity. Krafft-Ebbing, who considered lesbianism (what he termed "Uranism") a neurological disease, and Ellis, who was influenced by Krafft-Ebbing's writings, disagreed about whether sexual inversion was generally a lifelong condition. Ellis believed that many women who professed love for other women changed their feelings about such relationships after they had experienced marriage and a "practical life".

However, Ellis conceded that there were "true inverts" who would spend their lives pursuing erotic relationships with women. These were members of the "third sex" who rejected the roles of women to be subservient, feminine, and domestic. "Invert" described the opposite gender roles and the related attraction to women instead of men; since women in the Victorian period were considered unable to initiate sexual encounters, women who did so with other women were thought of as possessing masculine sexual desires. The work of Krafft-Ebbing and Ellis was widely read, and helped to create public consciousness of female homosexuality. The sexologists' claims that homosexuality was a congenital anomaly were generally well-accepted by homosexual men; it indicated that their behavior was not inspired by nor should be considered a criminal vice, as was widely acknowledged. In the absence of any other material to describe their emotions, homosexuals accepted the designation of different or perverted, and used their outlaw status to form social circles in Paris and Berlin. "Lesbian" began to describe elements of a subculture.

Identity and gender

Lesbians in Western cultures in particular often classify themselves as having an identity that defines their individual sexuality, as well as their membership to a group that shares common traits. Women in many cultures throughout history have had sexual relations with other women, but they rarely were designated as part of a group of people based on who they had physical relations with. As women have generally been political minorities in Western cultures, the added medical designation of homosexuality has been cause for the development of a subcultural identity.

Construction of lesbian identity

For some women, the realization that they participated in behavior or relationships that could be categorized as lesbian caused them to deny or conceal it, such as professor Jeannette Marks at Mount Holyoke College, who lived with the college president, Mary Woolley, for 36 years. Marks discouraged young women from "abnormal" friendships and insisted happiness could only be attained with a man. Other women, however, embraced the distinction and used their uniqueness to set themselves apart from heterosexual women and gay men. From the 1890s to the 1930s American heiress Natalie Clifford Barney held a weekly salon in Paris to which major artistic celebrities were invited and where lesbian topics were the focus. Combining Greek influences with contemporary French eroticism, she attempted to create an updated and idealized version of Lesbos in her salon. Her contemporaries included artist Romaine Brooks, who painted others in her circle; writers Colette, Djuna Barnes, social host Gertrude Stein, and novelist Radclyffe Hall.

Berlin had a vibrant homosexual culture in the 1920s: about 50 clubs catering to lesbians existed, women had their own magazine titled ''Die Freundin'' (''The Girlfriend'') between 1924 and 1933, and another titled ''Garçonne'' specifically for male transvestites and lesbians. In 1928 a book titled ''The Lesbians of Berlin'' written by Ruth Margarite Röllig further popularized the German capital as a center of lesbian activity. Clubs varied between large establishments so popular that they were tourist attractions to small neighborhood cafes where only local women went to find other women. "Das Lila Lied" ("The Lavender Song") served as an anthem to the lesbians of Berlin. Homosexuality was illegal in Germany, though sometimes tolerated, as some functions were allowed by the police who took the opportunity to register the names of homosexuals for future reference. Magnus Hirschfeld's Scientific-Humanitarian Committee, which promoted tolerance for homosexuals in Germany, welcomed lesbian participation, and a surge of lesbian-themed writing and political activism in the German feminist movement became evident.

In 1928 Radclyffe Hall published a novel titled ''The Well of Loneliness''. Its plot centers around Stephen Gordon, a woman who identifies herself as an invert after reading Krafft-Ebbing's ''Psychopathia Sexualis'', and lives within the homosexual subculture of Paris. The novel included a foreword by Havelock Ellis and was intended to be a call for tolerance for inverts by publicizing their disadvantages and accidents of being born inverted. Hall subscribed to Ellis and Krafft-Ebbing's theories and rejected Freud's theory that same-sex attraction was caused by childhood trauma and was curable. The publicity Hall received was due to unintended consequences; the novel was tried for obscenity in London, a spectacularly scandalous event described as "''the'' crystallizing moment in the construction of a visible modern English lesbian subculture" by professor Laura Doan. Newspaper stories frankly divulged that the book's content includes "sexual relations between Lesbian women", and photographs of Hall often accompanied details about lesbians in most major print outlets within a span of six months. Hall reflected the appearance of a "mannish" woman in the 1920s: short cropped hair, tailored suits (often with pants), and monocle that became widely recognized as a "uniform". When British women participated in World War I, they became familiar with masculine clothing, and were considered patriotic for wearing uniforms and pants. However, postwar masculinization of women's clothing became associated with lesbians.

In the United States, the 1920s was a decade of social experimentation, particularly with sex. This was heavily influenced by the writings of Sigmund Freud, who theorized that sexual desire would be sated unconsciously, despite an individual's wish to ignore it. Freud's theories were much more pervasive in the U.S. than in Europe. With the well-publicized notion that sexual acts were a part of lesbianism and their relationships, sexual experimentation was widespread. Large cities that provided a nightlife were immensely popular, and women began to seek out sexual adventure. Bisexuality became chic, particularly in America's first gay neighborhoods. No location saw more visitors for its possibilities of homosexual nightlife than Harlem, the predominantly African American section of New York City. White "slummers" enjoyed jazz, nightclubs, and anything else they wished. Blues singers Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Ethel Waters, and Gladys Bentley sang about affairs with women to visitors such as Tallulah Bankhead, Beatrice Lillie, and the soon-to-be-named Joan Crawford. Homosexuals began to draw comparisons between their newly recognized minority status and that of African Americans. Among African American residents of Harlem, lesbian relationships were common and tolerated, though not overtly embraced. Some women staged lavish wedding ceremonies, even filing licenses using masculine names with New York City. Most women, however, were married to men and participated in affairs with women regularly; bisexuality was more widely accepted than lesbianism.

Across town, Greenwich Village also saw a growing homosexual community; both Harlem and Greenwich Village provided furnished rooms for single men and women, which was a major factor in their development as centers for homosexual communities. The tenor was different in Greenwich Village than Harlem, however. Bohemians—intellectuals who rejected Victorian ideals—gathered in the Village. Homosexuals were predominantly male, although figures such as poet Edna St. Vincent Millay and social host Mabel Dodge were known for their affairs with women and promotion of tolerance of homosexuality. Women in the U.S. who could not visit Harlem or live in Greenwich Village for the first time were able to visit saloons in the 1920s without being considered prostitutes. The existence of a public space for women to socialize in bars that were known to cater to lesbians "became the single most important public manifestation of the subculture for many decades", according to historian Lillian Faderman.

Great Depression

The primary component necessary to encourage lesbians to be public and seek other women was economic independence, which virtually disappeared in the 1930s with the Great Depression. Most women in the U.S. found it necessary to marry, to a "front" such as a gay man where both could pursue homosexual relationships with public discretion, or to a man who expected a traditional wife. Independent women in the 1930s were generally seen as holding jobs that men should have. The social attitude made very small and close-knit communities in large cities that centered around bars, while simultaneously isolating women in other locales. Speaking of homosexuality in any context was socially forbidden, and women rarely discussed lesbianism even amongst themselves; they referred to openly gay people as "in the Life". Freudian psychoanalytic theory was pervasive in influencing doctors to consider homosexuality as a neurosis afflicting immature women. Homosexual subculture disappeared in Germany with the rise of the Nazis in 1933.

World War II

The onset of World War II caused a massive upheaval in people's lives as military mobilization engaged millions of men. Women were also accepted into the military in the U.S. Women's Army Corps (WACs) and U.S. Navy's Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES). Unlike processes to screen out male homosexuals, which had been in place since the creation of the American military, there were no methods to identify or screen for lesbians; they were put into place gradually during World War II. Despite common attitudes regarding women's traditional roles in the 1930s, independent and masculine women were directly recruited by the military in the 1940s, and frailty discouraged. Some women were able to arrive at the recruiting station in a man's suit, deny ever having been in love with another woman, and be easily inducted. Sexual activity, however, was forbidden, and blue discharge was almost certain if one identified oneself as a lesbian. As women found each other, they formed into tight groups on base, socialized at service clubs, and began to use code words. Historian Allan Bérubé documented that homosexuals in the armed forces either consciously or subconsciously refused to identify themselves as homosexual or lesbian, and also never spoke about others' orientation.

The most masculine women were not necessarily common, though they were visible so they tended to attract women interested in finding other lesbians. Women had to broach the subject about their interest in other women carefully, sometimes taking days to develop a common understanding without asking or stating anything outright. Women who did not enter the military were aggressively called upon to take industrial jobs left by men, in order to continue national productivity. The increased mobility, sophistication, and independence of many women during and after the war made it possible for women to live without husbands, something that would not have been feasible under different economic and social circumstances, further shaping lesbian networks and environments.

Postwar years

Following World War II, a nationwide movement pressed to return to pre-war society as quickly as possible in the U.S. When combined with the increasing national paranoia about communism and psychoanalytic theory that had become pervasive in medical knowledge, homosexuality became an undesired characteristic of employees working for the U.S. government in 1950. Homosexuals were thought to be vulnerable targets to blackmail, and the government purged its employment ranks of open homosexuals, beginning a widespread effort to gather intelligence about employees' private lives. State and local governments followed suit, arresting people for congregating in bars and parks, and enacting laws against cross-dressing for men and women. The U.S. military and government conducted many interrogations, asking if women had ever had sexual relations with another woman and essentially equating even a one-time experience to a criminal identity, thereby severely delineating heterosexuals from homosexuals. In 1952 homosexuality was listed as a pathological emotional disturbance in the American Psychiatric Association's ''Diagnostic and Statistical Manual''. The view that homosexuality was a curable sickness was widely believed in the medical community, general population, and among many lesbians themselves. Attitudes and practices to ferret out homosexuals in public service positions extended to Australia and Canada; lesbianism had been outlawed in the United Kingdom in 1921.

Very little information was available about homosexuality beyond medical and psychiatric texts. Community meeting places consisted of bars that were commonly raided by police once a month on average, with those arrested exposed in newspapers. In response, eight women in San Francisco met in their living rooms in 1955 to socialize and have a place to dance. When they decided to make it a regular meeting, they became the first organization for lesbians in the U.S., titled the Daughters of Bilitis (DOB). The DOB began publishing a magazine titled ''The Ladder'' in 1956; inside the front cover of every issue was their mission statement, the first of which stated was "Education of the variant". It was intended to provide women with knowledge about homosexuality—specifically relating to women, and famous lesbians in history. However, by 1956 the term "lesbian" had such a negative meaning that the DOB refused to use it as a descriptor, choosing "variant" instead. The DOB spread to Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles, and ''The Ladder'' was mailed to hundreds—eventually thousands—of DOB members discussing the nature of homosexuality, sometimes challenging the idea that it was a sickness, with readers offering their own reasons why they were lesbians, and suggesting ways to cope with the condition or society's response to it. British lesbians followed with the publication of ''Arena Three'' beginning in 1964, with a similar mission.

As a reflection of categories of sexuality so sharply defined by the government and society at large, lesbian subculture developed extremely rigid gender roles between women, particularly among the working class in the U.S. and Canada. Although many municipalities had enacted laws against cross-dressing, some women would socialize in bars as butches: dressed in men's clothing and mirroring traditional masculine behavior. Others wore traditionally feminine clothing and assumed a more diminutive role as femmes. Butch and femme modes of socialization were so integral within lesbian bars that women who refused to choose between the two would be ignored, or at least unable to date anyone, and butch women becoming romantically involved with other butch women or femmes with other femmes was unacceptable. Butch women were not a novelty in the 1950s; even in Harlem and Greenwich Village in the 1920s some women assumed these personae. In the 1950s and 1960s, however, the roles were pervasive and not limited to North America: from 1940 to 1970, butch/femme bar culture flourished in Britain, though there were fewer class distinctions. They further identified members of a group that had been marginalized; women who had been rejected by most of society had an inside view of an exclusive group of people that took a high amount of knowledge to function in. Butch and femme were considered coarse by American lesbians of higher social standing during this period. Many wealthier women married to satisfy their familial obligations, and others escaped to Europe to live as expatriates.

Regardless of the lack of information about homosexuality in scholarly texts, another forum for learning about lesbianism was growing. A paperback book titled ''Women's Barracks'' describing a woman's experiences in the Free French Forces was published in 1950. It told of a lesbian relationship the author had witnessed. After 4.5 million copies were sold, it was consequently named in the House Select Committee on Current Pornographic Materials in 1952. Its publisher, Gold Medal Books, followed with the novel ''Spring Fire'' in 1952, which sold 1.5 million copies. Gold Medal Books was overwhelmed with mail from women writing about the subject matter, and followed with more books, creating the genre of lesbian pulp fiction. Between 1955 and 1969 over 2,000 books were published using lesbianism as a topic, and they were sold in corner drugstores, train stations, bus stops, and newsstands all over the U.S. and Canada. Most were written by, and almost all were marketed to heterosexual men. Coded words and images were used on the covers. Instead of "lesbian", terms such as "strange", "twilight", "queer", and "third sex", were used in the titles, and cover art was invariably salacious. A handful of lesbian pulp fiction authors were women writing for lesbians, including Ann Bannon, Valerie Taylor, Paula Christian, and Vin Packer/Ann Aldrich. Bannon, who also purchased lesbian pulp fiction, later stated that women identified the material iconically by the cover art. Many of the books used cultural references: naming places, terms, describing modes of dress and other codes to isolated women. As a result, pulp fiction helped to proliferate a lesbian identity simultaneously to lesbians and heterosexual readers.

Second wave feminism

The social rigidity of the 1950s and early 1960s encountered a backlash as social movements to improve the standing of African Americans, the poor, women, and gays all became prominent. Of the latter two, the gay rights movement and the feminist movement connected after a violent confrontation occurred in New York City in the 1969 Stonewall riots. What followed was a movement characterized by a surge of gay activism and feminist consciousness that further transformed the definition of lesbian.

The sexual revolution in the 1970s introduced the differentiation between identity and sexual behavior for women. Many women took advantage of their new social freedom to try new experiences. Women who previously identified as heterosexual tried sleeping with women, though many maintained their heterosexual identity. However, with the advent of second wave feminism, lesbian as a political identity grew to describe a social philosophy among women, often overshadowing sexual desire as a defining trait. A militant feminist organization named Radicalesbians published a manifesto in 1970 entitled "The Woman-Identified Woman" that declared "A lesbian is the rage of all women condensed to the point of explosion". Militant feminists expressed their disdain with an inherently sexist and patriarchal society, and concluded the most effective way to overcome sexism and attain the equality of women would be to deny men any power or pleasure from women. For women who subscribed to this philosophy—dubbing themselves lesbian-feminists—lesbian was a term chosen by women to describe any woman who dedicated her approach to social interaction and political motivation to the welfare of women. Sexual desire was not the defining characteristic of a lesbian-feminist, but rather her focus on politics. Independence from men as oppressors was a central tenet of lesbian-feminism, and many believers strove to separate themselves physically and economically from traditional male-centered culture. In the ideal society, named Lesbian Nation, "woman" and "lesbian" were interchangeable.

In 1980, poet and essayist Adrienne Rich expanded upon the political meaning of lesbian by proposing a continuum of lesbian existence based on "woman-identified experience". All relationships between women, Rich proposed, have some lesbian element, regardless if they claim a lesbian identity: mothers and daughters, women who work together, and women who nurse each other, for example. Such a perception of women relating to each other connects them through time and across cultures, and Rich considered heterosexuality a condition forced upon women by men. Several years earlier, DOB founders Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon similarly relegated sexual acts as unnecessary in determining what a lesbian is, by providing their definition: "a woman whose primary erotic, psychological, emotional and social interest is in a member of her own sex, even though that interest may not be overtly expressed".

Although lesbian-feminism was a significant shift, not all lesbians agreed with it. Lesbian-feminism was a youth-oriented movement: its members were primarily college educated, with experience in New Left and radical causes, but they had not seen any success in persuading radical organizations to take up women's issues. Many older lesbians who had acknowledged their sexuality in more conservative times felt maintaining their ways of coping in a homophobic world was more appropriate. The Daughters of Bilitis folded in 1970 over which direction to focus on: feminism or gay rights issues. As equality was a priority for lesbian-feminists, disparity of roles between men and women or butch and femme were viewed as patriarchal. Lesbian-feminists eschewed gender role play that had been pervasive in bars, as well as the perceived chauvinism of gay men; many lesbian-feminists refused to work with gay men, or take up their causes. However, lesbians who held a more essentialist view that they had been born homosexual and used the descriptor "lesbian" to define sexual attraction, often considered the separatist, angry opinions of lesbian-feminists to be detrimental to the cause of gay rights.

Female homosexuality without identity

The varied meanings of ''lesbian'' since the early 20th century have prompted some historians to revisit historic relationships between women before the wide usage of the word was defined by erotic proclivities. Discussion from historians caused further questioning of what qualifies as a lesbian relationship. As lesbian-feminists asserted, a sexual component was unnecessary in declaring oneself a lesbian if the primary and closest relationships were with women. When considering past relationships within appropriate historic context, there were times when love and sex were separate and unrelated notions. In 1989 an academic cohort named the Lesbian History Group wrote:

Because of society's reluctance to admit that lesbians exist, a high degree of certainty is expected before historians or biographers are allowed to use the label. Evidence that would suffice in any other situation is inadequate here... A woman who never married, who lived with another woman, whose friends were mostly women, or who moved in known lesbian or mixed gay circles, may well have been a lesbian. ... But this sort of evidence is not 'proof'. What our critics want is incontrovertible evidence of sexual activity between women. This is almost impossible to find.

Female sexuality is often not adequately represented in texts and documents. Until very recently, much of what has been documented about women's sexuality has been written by men, in the context of male understanding, and relevant to women's associations to men—as their wives, daughters, or mothers, for example. Often artistic representations of female sexuality suggest trends or ideas on broad scales, giving historians clues as to how widespread or accepted erotic relationships between women were.

Ancient Greece and Rome

History is often analyzed with contemporary ideologies; Ancient Greece as a subject enjoyed popularity by the ruling class in Britain during the 19th century. Based on their social priorities, British scholars interpreted ancient Greece as a westernized, white, and masculine society, and essentially removed women from historical importance. Women in Greece were sequestered with each other, and men with men. In this homosocial environment erotic and sexual relationships between males were common and recorded in literature, art, and philosophy. Hardly anything is recorded about homosexual activity between women. There is some speculation that similar relationships existed between women and girls. The poet Alcman used the term ''aitis,'' as the feminine form of ''aites''—which was the official term for the younger participant in a pederastic relationship. Aristophanes, in Plato's ''Symposium'', mentions women who love women, but uses the term ''trepesthai'' (to be focused on) instead of ''eros'', which was applied to other erotic relationships between men, and between men and women.

Historian Nancy Rabinowitz argues that ancient Greek red vase images portraying women with their arms around another woman's waist, or leaning on a woman's shoulders can be construed as expressions of romantic desire. Much of the daily lives of women in ancient Greece is unknown, specifically their expressions of sexuality. Although men participated in pederastic relationships outside of marriage, there is no clear evidence that women were allowed or encouraged to have same-sex relationships before or during marriage as long as their marital obligations were met. Women who appear on Greek pottery are depicted with affection, and in instances where women appear only with other women, their images are eroticized: bathing, touching one another, with dildos placed in and around such scenes, and sometimes with imagery also seen in depictions of heterosexual marriage or pederastic seduction. Whether this eroticism is for the viewer or an accurate representation of life is unknown.

Women in Ancient Rome were similarly subject to men's definitions of sexuality. Modern scholarship indicates that men viewed female homosexuality with hostility. They considered women who engaged in sexual relations with other women to be biological oddities that would attempt to penetrate women—and sometimes men—with "monstrously enlarged" clitorises. According to scholar James Butrica, lesbianism "challenged not only the Roman male's view of himself as the exclusive giver of sexual pleasure but also the most basic foundations of Rome's male-dominated culture". No historical documentation exists of women who had other women as sex partners.

Early Modern Europe

Female homosexuality has not received the same negative response from religious or criminal authorities as male homosexuality or adultery has throughout history. Whereas sodomy between men, men and women, and men and animals was punishable by death in Britain, acknowledgment of sexual contact between women was nonexistent in medical and legal texts. The earliest law against female homosexuality appeared in France in 1270. In Spain, Italy, and the Holy Roman Empire, sodomy between women was included in acts considered unnatural and punishable by burning to death, although few instances are recorded of this taking place. The earliest such execution occurred in Speier, Germany, in 1477. Forty days' penance was demanded of nuns who "rode" each other or were discovered to have touched each others' breasts. An Italian nun named Sister Benedetta Carlini was documented to have seduced many of her sisters when possessed by a Divine spirit named "Splenditello"; to end her relationships with other women, she was placed in solitary confinement for the last 40 years of her life. Female homoeroticism, however, was so common in English literature and theater that historians suggest it was fashionable for a period during the Renaissance.

Ideas about women's sexuality were linked to contemporary understanding of female physiology. The vagina was considered an inward version of the penis; where nature's perfection created a man, often nature was thought to be trying to right itself by prolapsing the vagina to form a penis in some women. These sex changes were later thought to be cases of hermaphrodites, and hermaphroditism became synonymous with female same-sex desire. Medical consideration of hermaphroditism depended upon measurements of the clitoris; a longer, engorged clitoris was thought to be used by women to penetrate other women. Penetration was the focus of concern in all sexual acts, and a woman who was thought to have uncontrollable desires because of her engorged clitoris was called a "tribade" (literally, one who rubs). Not only was an abnormally engorged clitoris thought to create lusts in some women that led them to masturbate, but pamphlets warning women about masturbation leading to such oversized organs were written as cautionary tales. For a while, masturbation and lesbian sex carried the same meaning.

Class distinction, however, became linked as the fashion of female homoeroticism passed. Tribades were simultaneously considered members of the lower class trying to ruin virtuous women, and representatives of an aristocracy corrupt with debauchery. Satirical writers began to suggest that political rivals (or more often, their wives) engaged in tribadism in order to harm their reputations. Queen Anne was rumored to have a passionate relationship with Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, her closest adviser and confidante. When Churchill was ousted as the queen's favorite, she purportedly spread allegations of the queen having affairs with her bedchamberwomen. Marie Antoinette was also the subject of such speculation for some months between 1795 and 1796.

Female husbands

Hermaphroditism appeared in medical literature enough to be considered common knowledge, although cases were rare. Homoerotic elements in literature were pervasive, specifically the masquerade of one gender for another to fool an unsuspecting woman into being seduced. Such plot devices were used in Shakespeare's ''Twelfth Night'' (1601), ''The Faerie Queene'' by Edmund Spenser in 1590, and James Shirley's ''The Bird in a Cage'' (1633). Extraordinary cases during the Renaissance of women taking on male personae and going undetected for years or decades have been recorded. If found, punishments ranged from death, to time in the pillory, to being ordered never to dress as a man again. Henry Fielding wrote a pamphlet titled ''The Female Husband'' in 1746, based on the life of Mary Hamilton, who married women on three separate occasions, and was sentenced to public whipping in four separate towns and six months in jail. Similar examples were procured of Catharine Linck in Prussia in 1717, executed in 1721; Swiss Anne Grandjean married and relocated with her wife to Lyons, but was exposed by a woman with whom she had had a previous affair and sentenced to time in the stocks and prison. Queen Christina of Sweden's tendency to dress as a man was well known during her time, and excused because of her noble birth; she was brought up as a male and there was speculation at the time that she was a hermaphrodite. Even after Christina abdicated the throne in 1654 to avoid marriage, she was known to pursue romantic relationships with women.

Some historians view cases of cross-dressing women to be manifestations of women seizing power they would naturally be unable to enjoy in feminine attire, or their way of making sense out of their desire for women. Lillian Faderman argues that Western society was threatened by women who rejected their feminine roles. Catharine Linck and other women who were accused of using dildos, such as two nuns in 16th century Spain executed for using "material instruments", were punished more severely than those who did not. Two marriages between women were recorded in Cheshire, England, in 1707 (between Hannah Wright and Anne Gaskill) and 1708 (between Ane Norton and Alice Pickford) with no comment about both parties being female. Reports of clergymen with lax standards who performed weddings—and wrote their suspicions about one member of the wedding party—continued to appear for the next century.

Outside of Europe women were able to dress as men and go undetected. Deborah Sampson fought in the American Revolution as a man named Robert Shurtleff, and pursued relationships with women. Edward De Lacy Evans was born female in Ireland, but took a male name during the voyage to Australia and lived as a man for 23 years in Victoria, marrying three times. Percy Redwood created a scandal in New Zealand in 1909 when he was found to be Amy Bock, who had married a woman from Port Molyneaux; newspapers argued whether it was a sign of insanity or an inherent character flaw.

Re-examining romantic friendships

During the 17th through 19th centuries, a woman expressing passionate love for another woman was fashionable, accepted, and encouraged.

One such relationship was between Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, who wrote to Anne Wortley in 1709: "Nobody was so entirely, so faithfully yours ... I put in your lovers, for I don't allow it possible for a man to be so sincere as I am." Similarly, English poet Anna Seward had a devoted friendship to Honora Sneyd, who was the subject of many of Seward's sonnets and poems. When Sneyd married despite Seward's protest, Seward's poems became angry. However, Seward continued to write about Sneyd long after her death, extolling Sneyd's beauty and their affection and friendship. As a young woman, writer and philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft was attached to a woman named Fanny Blood. Writing to another woman by whom she had recently felt betrayed, Wollstonecraft declared, "The roses will bloom when there's peace in the breast, and the prospect of living with my Fanny gladdens my heart:—You know not how I love her." Wollstonecraft's first novel ''Mary: A Fiction'', in part, addressed her relationship with Fanny Blood.

Perhaps the most famous of these romantic friendships was between Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby, nicknamed the Ladies of Llangollen. Butler and Ponsonby eloped in 1778, to the relief of Ponsonby's family (concerned about their reputation had she run away with a man) to live together in Wales for 51 years and be thought of as eccentrics. Their story was considered "the epitome of virtuous romantic friendship" and inspired poetry by Anna Seward and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Diarist Anne Lister, captivated by Butler and Ponsonby, recorded her affairs with women between 1817 and 1840. Some of it was written in code, detailing her sexual relationships with Marianna Belcombe and Maria Barlow. Both Lister and Eleanor Butler were considered masculine by contemporary news reports, and though there were suspicions that these relationships were sapphist in nature, they were nonetheless praised in literature.

Romantic friendships were also popular in the U.S. Enigmatic poet Emily Dickinson wrote over 300 letters and poems to Susan Gilbert, who later became her sister-in-law, and engaged in another romantic correspondence with Kate Scott Anthon. Anthon broke off their relationship the same month Dickinson entered self-imposed lifelong seclusion. Nearby in Hartford, Connecticut, African American freeborn women Addie Brown and Rebecca Primus left evidence of their passion in letters: "No ''kisses'' is like youres". In Georgia, Alice Baldy wrote to Josie Varner in 1870, "Do you know that if you touch me, or speak to me there is not a nerve of fibre in my body that does not respond with a thrill of delight?"

Around the turn of the 20th century the development of higher education provided opportunities for women. In all-female surroundings, a culture of romantic pursuit was fostered in women's colleges. Older students mentored younger ones, called on them socially, took them to all-women dances, and sent them flowers, cards, and poems that declared their undying love for each other. These were called "smashes" or "spoons", and they were written about quite frankly in stories for girls aspiring to attend college in publications such as ''Ladies Home Journal'', a children's magazine titled ''St. Nicholas'', and a collection called ''Smith College Stories'', without negative views. Enduring loyalty, devotion, and love were major components to these stories, and sexual acts beyond kissing were consistently absent. Women who had the option of a career instead of marriage labeled themselves New Women, and took their new opportunities very seriously. Faderman calls this period "the last breath of innocence" before 1920 when characterizations of female affection were connected to sexuality, marking lesbians as a unique and often unflattering group. Specifically, Faderman connects the growth of women's independence and their beginning to reject strictly prescribed roles in the Victorian era to the scientific designation of lesbianism as a type of aberrant sexual behavior.

Outside Western cultures

Middle East

Female homosexual behavior may be present in every culture, although the concept of a lesbian as a woman who pairs exclusively with other women is not. Attitudes about female homosexual behavior are dependent upon women's roles in each society, and each culture's definition of sex. Women in the Middle East have been historically segregated from men. In the 7th and 8th centuries some extraordinary women dressed in male attire when gender roles were less strict, but the sexual roles that accompanied European women were not associated with Islamic women. The Caliphal court in Baghdad featured women who dressed as men, including false facial hair, but they competed with other women for the attentions of men. Highly intelligent women, according to the 12th century writings of Sharif al-Idrisi, were more likely to be lesbians; their intellectual prowess put them on a more even par with men. Relations between women who lived in harems, and fears of women being sexually intimate in Turkish baths were expressed in writings by men. Women, however, were mostly silent and men likewise rarely wrote about lesbian relationships. It is unclear to historians if the rare instances of lesbianism mentioned in literature are an accurate historical record or intended to serve as fantasies for men. A 1978 treatise about repression in Iran asserted that women were completely silenced: "In the whole of Iranian history, [no woman] has been allowed to speak out for such tendencies ... To attest to lesbian desires would be an unforgivable crime." Although the authors of ''Islamic Homosexualities'' argued this did not mean women could not engage in lesbian relationships, a lesbian anthropologist in 1991 visited Yemen and reported that women in the town she visited were unable to comprehend her romantic relationship to another woman. Women in Pakistan are expected to marry men; those who do not are ostracized. Women, however, may have intimate relations with other women as long as their wifely duties are met, their private matters are kept quiet, and the woman with whom they are involved is somehow related by family or logical interest to her lover.

The Americas

Indigenous people in North and South America conceptualized a third gender for men-women and women-men. These roles were recorded of the Coahuiltecan Indians in Texas, Timucuan in Florida, and Cueva in Panama. In Cree, the term for a man who took the role of a woman was ''ayekkwew''; the Zuni word for a woman who took the role of a man was ''katsotse'' (boy-girl), and the Mohave give women the term ''hwame''. The cross-gender roles have less to do with sexuality than with spirituality and occupation. A "two-spirit" woman who has a relationship with a non cross-gender woman is thought to be a "hetero-gender" relationship.

In Latin America, lesbian consciousness and associations appeared in the 1970s, increasing while several countries transitioned to or reformed democratic governments. Even so, no regime in Central or South America, democratic or otherwise, has acknowledged gay and lesbian rights. Harassment and intimidation have been common even in places where homosexuality is legal, and laws against child corruption, morality, or "the good ways" (''faltas a la moral o las buenas costumbres''), have been used to persecute homosexuals. From the Hispanic perspective, the conflict between the lesbophobia of feminists and the misogyny from gay men has created a difficult path for lesbians and associated groups.

Argentina was the first Latin American country with a gay rights group, ''Nuestro Mundo'' (NM, or Our World), created in 1969. Six mostly secret organizations concentrating on gay or lesbian issues were founded around this time, but persecution and harassment were continuous and grew worse with the dictatorship of Jorge Rafael Videla in 1976, when all groups were dissolved in the Dirty War. Lesbian rights groups have gradually formed since 1986 to build a cohesive community that works to overcome philosophical differences with heterosexual women. The Latin American lesbian movement has been the most active in Mexico, but has encountered similar problems in effectiveness and cohesion. While groups try to promote lesbian issues and concerns, they also face misogynistic attitudes from gay men and homophobic views from heterosexual women. In 1977, ''Lesbos'', the first lesbian organization for Mexicans, was formed. Several incarnations of political groups promoting lesbian issues have evolved; 13 lesbian organizations were active in Mexico City in 1997. Ultimately, however, lesbian associations have had little influence both on the homosexual and feminist movements.

In Chile, the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet forbade the creation of lesbian groups until 1984, when ''Ayuquelén'' ("joy of being" in Mapuche) was first founded, prompted by the very public beating death of a woman amid shouts of "Damned lesbian!" from her attacker. The lesbian movement has been closely associated with the feminist movement in Chile, although the relationship has been sometimes strained. ''Ayuquelén'' worked with the International Lesbian Information Service, the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association, and the Chilean gay rights group ''Movimiento de Integración y Liberación Homosexual'' (Movement to Integrate and Liberate Homosexuals) to remove the sodomy law still in force in Chile. Lesbian consciousness began in Nicaragua in 1986, when the Sandinista National Liberation Front expelled gay men and lesbians from its midst. State persecution prevented the formation of associations until AIDS became a concern, when educational efforts forced sexual minorities to band together. The first lesbian organization was ''Nosotras'', founded in 1989. An effort to promote visibility from 1991 to 1992 provoked the government to declare homosexuality illegal in 1994, effectively ending the movement, until 2004, when ''Grupo Safo – Grupo de Mujeres Lesbianas de Nicaragua'' was created, four years before homosexuality became legal again.

The meetings of feminist lesbians of Latin America and the Caribbean, sometimes shortened to "Lesbian meetings", have been an important forum for the exchange of ideas for Latin American lesbians since the late 1980s. With rotating hosts and biannual gatherings, its main aims are the creation of communication networks, to change the situation of lesbians in Latin America (both legally and socially), to increase solidarity between lesbians and to destroy the existing myths about them.

Africa

Cross-gender roles and marriage between women has also been recorded in over 30 African societies. Women may marry other women, raise their children, and be generally thought of as men in societies in Nigeria, Cameroon, and Kenya. The Hausa people of Sudan have a term equivalent to lesbian, ''kifi'', that may also be applied to males to mean "neither party insists on a particular sexual role". Near the Congo River a female who participates in strong emotional or sexual relationships with another female among the Nkundo people is known as ''yaikya bonsángo'' (a woman who presses against another woman). Lesbian relationships are also known in matrilineal societies in Ghana among the Akan people. In Lesotho, females engage in what is commonly considered sexual behavior to the Western world: they kiss, sleep together, rub genitals, participate in cunnilingus, and maintain their relationships with other females vigilantly. Since the people of Lesotho believe sex requires a penis, however, they do not consider their behavior sexual, nor label themselves lesbians. Colonization of Africa resulted in a cultural shift; aboriginal sexuality was no longer seen as fluid and dynamic but binary and set for life. Some women who identified as lesbian following colonization have been submitted to the curative effort of rape in the mindset that sex with men can fix lesbianism. Despite this paradigm shift, the government of South Africa was the first in the world to outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Asia

China before westernization was another society that segregated men from women. Historical Chinese culture has not recognized a concept of sexual orientation, or a framework to divide people based on their same-sex or opposite-sex attractions. Although there was a significant culture surrounding homosexual men, there was none for women. Outside of their duties to bear sons to their husbands, women were perceived as having no sexuality at all. This did not mean that women could not pursue sexual relationships with other women, but that such associations could not impose upon women's relationships to men. Rare references to lesbianism were written by Ying Shao, who identified same-sex relationships between women in imperial courts who behaved as husband and wife as ''dui shi'' (paired eating). "Golden Orchid Associations" in Southern China existed into the 20th century and promoted formal marriages between women, who were then allowed to adopt children. Westernization brought new ideas that all sexual behavior not resulting in reproduction was aberrant. The liberty of being employed in silk factories starting in 1865 allowed some women to style themselves ''tzu-shu nii'' (never to marry) and live in communes with other women. Other Chinese called them ''sou-hei'' (self-combers) for adopting hairstyles of married women. These communes passed because of the Great Depression and were subsequently discouraged by the communist government for being a relic of feudal China. In contemporary Chinese society, ''tongzhi'' (same goal or spirit) is the term used to refer to homosexuals; most Chinese are reluctant to divide this classification further to identify lesbians.

In Japan, the term ''rezubian'', a Japanese pronunciation of "lesbian", was used during the 1920s. Westernization brought more independence for women and allowed some Japanese women to wear pants. The cognate tomboy is used in the Philippines, and particularly in Manila, to denote women who are more masculine. Virtuous women in Korea prioritize motherhood, chastity, and virginity; outside of this scope, very few women are free to express themselves through sexuality, although there is a growing organization for lesbians named ''Kkirikkiri''. The term ''pondan'' is used in Malaysia to refer to gay men, but since there is no historical context to reference lesbians, the term is used for female homosexuals as well. As in many Asian countries, open homosexuality is discouraged in many social levels, so many Malaysians lead double lives. A 14th century Indian writing mentioning a lesbian couple who had a child as a result of their lovemaking is an exception to the general silence about female homosexuality. This invisibility disappeared with the release of a film titled ''Fire'' in 1996, prompting some theaters in India to be attacked by extremists. Terms used to label homosexuals are often rejected by Indian activists for being the result of imperialist influence, but most discourse on homosexuality centers on men. Women's rights groups in India continue to debate the legitimacy of including lesbian issues in their platforms, as lesbians and material focusing on female homosexuality are frequently suppressed.

Demographics

The Kinsey Report

The most extensive early study of female homosexuality was provided by the Institute for Sex Research, who published an in-depth report of the sexual experiences of American women in 1953. More than 8,000 women were interviewed by Alfred Kinsey and the staff of the Institute for Sex Research in a book titled ''Sexual Behavior in the Human Female'', popularly known as part of the Kinsey Report. The Kinsey Report's dispassionate discussion of homosexuality as a form of human sexual behavior was revolutionary. Up to this study, only physicians and psychiatrists studied sexual behavior, and almost always the results were interpreted with a moral view.

Kinsey and his staff reported that 28% of women had been aroused by another female, and 19% had a sexual contact with another female. Of women who had sexual contact with another female, half to two-thirds of them had orgasmed. Single women had the highest prevalence of homosexual activity, followed by women who were widowed, divorced, or separated. The lowest occurrence of sexual activity was among married women; those with previous homosexual experience reported they got married to stop homosexual activity. Most of the women who reported homosexual activity had not experienced it more than ten times. Fifty-one percent of women reporting homosexual experience had only one partner. Women with post-graduate education had a higher prevalence of homosexual experience, followed by women with a college education; the smallest occurrence was among women with education no higher than eighth grade.

Based on Kinsey's scale where 0 represents a person with an exclusively heterosexual response and 6 represents a person with an exclusively homosexual one, and numbers in between represent a gradient of responses with both sexes, 6% of those interviewed ranked as a 6: exclusively homosexual. Apart from those who ranked 0 (71%), the largest percentage in between 0 and 6 was 1 at approximately 15%. However, the Kinsey Report remarked that the ranking described a period in a person's life, and that a person's orientation may change. Among the criticisms the Kinsey Report received, a particular one addressed the Institute for Sex Research's tendency to use statistical sampling, which facilitated an over-representation of same-sex relationships by other researchers who did not adhere to Kinsey's qualifications of data.

The Hite Report

Twenty-three years later, in 1976, sexologist Shere Hite published a report on the sexual encounters of 3,019 women who had responded to questionnaires, under the title ''The Hite Report''. Hite's questions differed from Kinsey's, focusing more on how women identified, or what they preferred rather than experience. Respondents to Hite's questions indicated that 8% preferred sex with women and 9% answered that they identified as bisexual or had sexual experiences with men and women, though they refused to indicate preference. Hite's conclusions are more based on respondents' comments than quantifiable data. She found it "striking" that many women who had no lesbian experiences indicated they were interested in sex with women, particularly because the question was not asked. Hite found the two most significant differences between respondents' experience with men and women were the focus on clitoral stimulation, and more emotional involvement and orgasmic responses. Since Hite performed her study during the popularity of feminism in the 1970s, she also acknowledged that women may have chosen the political identity of a lesbian.

Population estimates

Lesbians in the U.S. are estimated to be about 2.6% of the population, according to a National Opinion Research Center survey of sexually active adults who had had same-sex experiences within the past year, completed in 2000. A survey of same-sex couples in the United States showed that between 2000 and 2005, the number of people claiming to be in same-sex relationships increased by 30%—five times the rate of population growth in the U.S. The study attributed the jump to people being more comfortable self-identifying as homosexual to the federal government. The government of the United Kingdom does not ask citizens to define their sexuality; only percentage estimates of 5–7% are provided. Estimates of lesbians are sometimes not differentiated in studies of same-sex households, such as those performed by the U.S. census, and estimates of total gay, lesbian, or bisexual population by the U.K. government. However, polls in Australia have recorded a range of self-identified lesbian or bisexual women from 1.3% to 2.2% of the total population.

Health

Physical

In terms of medical issues, lesbians are referred to as women who have sex with women (WSW) because of the misconceptions and assumptions about women's sexuality and some women's hesitancy to disclose their accurate sexual histories even to a physician. Many self-identified lesbians neglect to see a physician because they do not participate in heterosexual activity and require no birth control, which is the initiating factor for most women to seek consultation with a gynecologist when they become sexually active. As a result, many lesbians are not screened regularly with Pap smears. The U.S. government reports that some lesbians neglect seeking medical screening in the U.S.; they lack health insurance because many employers do not offer health benefits to domestic partners.

The result of the lack of medical information on WSW is that medical professionals and some lesbians perceive lesbians as having lower risks of acquiring a sexually transmitted disease or types of cancer. When women do seek medical attention, medical professionals often fail to take a complete medical history. In a recent study of 2,345 lesbian and bisexual women, only 9.3% had claimed they had ever been asked their sexual orientation by a physician. A third of the respondents believed disclosing their sexual history would result in a negative reaction, and 30% had received a negative reaction from a medical professional after identifying themselves as lesbian or bisexual. A patient's complete history helps medical professionals identify higher risk areas and corrects assumptions about the personal histories of women. In a similar survey of 6,935 lesbians, 77% had had sexual contact with one or more male partners, and 6% had that contact within the previous year.

Heart disease is listed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as the number one cause of death for all women. Factors that add to risk of heart disease include obesity and smoking, both of which are more prevalent in lesbians. Studies show that lesbians have a higher body mass and are generally less concerned about weight issues than heterosexual women, and lesbians consider women with higher body masses to be more attractive than heterosexual women do. Lesbians are more likely to exercise regularly than heterosexual women, and lesbians do not generally exercise for aesthetic reasons, although heterosexual women do. Research is needed to determine specific causes of obesity in lesbians.

Lack of differentiation between homosexual and heterosexual women in medical studies that concentrate on health issues for women skews results for lesbians and non-lesbian women. Reports are inconclusive about occurrence of breast cancer in lesbians. It has been determined, however, that the lower rate of lesbians tested by regular Pap smears makes it more difficult to detect cervical cancer at early stages in lesbians. The risk factors for developing ovarian cancer rates are higher in lesbians than heterosexual women, perhaps because many lesbians lack protective factors of pregnancy, abortion, contraceptives, breast feeding, and miscarriages.

Some sexually transmitted diseases are communicable between women, including human papillomavirus (HPV)—specifically genital warts—squamous intraepithelial lesions, trichomoniasis, syphilis, and herpes simplex virus (HSV). Transmission of specific sexually transmitted diseases among women who have sex with women depends on the sexual practices women engage in. Any object that comes in contact with cervical secretions, vaginal mucosa, or menstrual blood, including fingers or penetrative objects may transmit sexually transmitted diseases. Orogenital contact may indicate a higher risk of acquiring HSV, even among women who have had no prior sex with men. Bacterial vaginosis (BV) occurs more often in lesbians, but it is unclear if BV is transmitted by sexual contact; it occurs in celibate as well as sexually active women. BV often occurs in both partners in a lesbian relationship; a recent study of women with BV found that 81% had partners with BV. Lesbians are not included in a category of frequency of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) transmission, although transmission is possible through vaginal and cervical secretions. The highest rate of transmission of HIV to lesbians is among women who participate in intravenous drug use or have sexual intercourse with bisexual men.

Mental

Since medical literature began to describe homosexuality, it has often been approached from a view that sought to find an inherent psychopathology as the root cause, influenced by the theories of Sigmund Freud. Although he considered bisexuality inherent in all people, and said that most have phases of homosexual attraction or experimentation, exclusive same-sex attraction he attributed to stunted development resulting from trauma or parental conflicts. Much literature on mental health and lesbians centered on their depression, substance abuse, and suicide. Although these issues exist among lesbians, discussion about their causes shifted after homosexuality was removed from the ''Diagnostic and Statistical Manual'' in 1973. Instead, social ostracism, legal discrimination, internalization of negative stereotypes, and limited support structures indicate factors homosexuals face in Western societies that often adversely affect their mental health. Women who identify as lesbian report feeling significantly different and isolated during adolescence; these emotions have been cited as appearing on average at 15 years old in lesbians and 18 years old in women who identify as bisexual. On the whole, women tend to work through developing a self-concept internally, or with other women with whom they are intimate. Women also limit who they divulge their sexual identities to, and more often see being lesbian as a choice, as opposed to gay men, who work more externally and see being gay as outside their control.

Anxiety disorders and depression are the most common mental health issues for women. Depression is reported among lesbians at a rate similar to heterosexual women, although generalized anxiety disorder is more likely to appear among lesbian and bisexual women than heterosexual women. Depression is a more significant problem among women who feel they must hide their sexual orientation from friends and family, or experience compounded ethnic or religious discrimination, or endure relationship difficulties with no support system. Men's shaping of women's sexuality has proven to have an effect on how lesbians see their own bodies. Studies have shown that heterosexual men and lesbians have different standards for what they consider attractive in women. Lesbians who view themselves with male standards of female beauty may experience lower self-esteem, eating disorders, and higher incidence of depression. More than half the respondents to a 1994 survey of health issues in lesbians reported they had suicidal thoughts, and 18% had attempted suicide.

A population-based study completed by the National Alcohol Research Center found that women who identify as lesbian or bisexual are less likely to abstain from alcohol. Lesbians and bisexual women have a higher likelihood of reporting problems with alcohol, as well as not being satisfied with treatment for substance abuse programs. Many lesbian communities are centered in bars, and drinking is an activity that correlates to community participation for lesbians and bisexual women.

Media representation

Lesbians portrayed in literature, film, and television often shape contemporary thought about women's sexuality. The majority of media about lesbians is produced by men; women's publishing companies did not develop until the 1970s, films about lesbians made by women did not appear until the 1980s, and television shows portraying lesbians written by women only began to be created in the 21st century. As a result, homosexuality—particularly dealing with women—has been excluded because of symbolic annihilation. When depictions of lesbians began to surface, they were often one-dimensional, simplified stereotypes.

Literature

In addition to Sappho's accomplishments, literary historian Jeannette Howard Foster includes the Book of Ruth, and ancient mythological tradition as examples of lesbianism in classical literature. Greek stories of the heavens often included a female figure whose virtue and virginity were unspoiled, who pursued more masculine interests, and who was followed by a dedicated group of maidens. Foster cites Camilla and Diana, Artemis and Callisto, and Iphis and Ianthe as examples of female mythological figures who showed remarkable devotion to each other, or defied gender expectations. The Greeks are also given credit with spreading the story of a mythological race of women warriors named Amazons. En-hedu-ana, a priestess in Ancient Iraq who dedicated herself to the Sumerian goddess Inanna, has the distinction of signing the oldest-surviving signed poetry in history. She characterized herself as Inanna's spouse.

For ten centuries after the fall of the Roman Empire, lesbianism disappeared from literature. Foster points to the particularly strict view that Eve—representative of all women—caused the downfall of mankind; original sin among women was a particular concern, especially because women were perceived as creating life. During this time, women were largely illiterate and not encouraged to engage in intellectual pursuit, so men were responsible for shaping ideas about sexuality. In 15–16th-century French and English depictions of relationships between women (''Lives of Gallant Ladies'' by Brantôme in 1665, John Cleland's 1749 erotica ''Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure'', ''L'Espion Anglais'' by various authors in 1778), writers' attitudes spanned from amused tolerance to arousal, whereupon a male character would participate to complete the act. Physical relationships between women were often encouraged; men felt no threat as they viewed sexual acts between women to be accepted when men were not available, and not comparable to fulfillment that could be achieved by sexual acts between men and women. At worst, if a woman became enamored of another woman, she became a tragic figure. Physical and therefore emotional satisfaction was considered impossible without a natural phallus. Male intervention into relationships between women was necessary only when women acted as men and demanded the same social privileges.

Lesbianism became almost exclusive to French literature in the 19th century, based on male fantasy and the desire to shock bourgeois moral values. Honoré de Balzac, in ''The Girl with the Golden Eyes'' (1835), employed lesbianism in his story about three people living amongst the moral degeneration of Paris, and again in ''Cousin Bette'' and ''Séraphîta''. His work influenced novelist Théophile Gautier's ''Mademoiselle de Maupin'', which provided the first description of a physical type that became associated with lesbians: tall, wide-shouldered, slim-hipped, and athletically inclined. Charles Baudelaire repeatedly used lesbianism as a theme in his poems "Lesbos", "Femmes damnées 1" ("Damned Women"), and "Femmes damnées 2". Reflecting French society, as well as employing stock character associations, many of the lesbian characters in 19th-century French literature were prostitutes or courtesans: personifications of vice who died early, violent deaths in moral endings. Samuel Taylor Coleridge's 1816 poem "Christabel" and the novella ''Carmilla'' (1872) by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu both present lesbianism associated with vampirism. Portrayals of female homosexuality not only formed European consciousness about lesbianism, but Krafft-Ebbing cited the characters in Gustave Flaubert's ''Salammbo'' (1862) and Ernest Feydeau's ''Le Comte de Chalis'' (1867) as examples of lesbians because both novels feature female protagonists who do not adhere to social norms and express "contrary sexual feeling", although neither participated in same-sex desire or sexual behavior. Havelock Ellis used literary examples from Balzac and several French poets and writers to develop his framework to identify sexual inversion in women.

Gradually, women began to author their own thoughts and literary works about lesbian relationships. Until the publication of ''The Well of Loneliness'', most major works involving lesbianism were penned by men. Foster suggests that women would have encountered suspicion about their own lives had they used same-sex love as a topic, and that some writers including Louise Labé, Charlotte Charke, and Margaret Fuller either changed the pronouns in their literary works to male, or made them ambiguous. Author George Sand was portrayed as a character in several works in the 19th century; writer Mario Praz credited the popularity of lesbianism as a theme to Sand's appearance in Paris society in the 1830s. Charlotte Brontë's ''Villette'' in 1853 initiated a genre of boarding school stories with homoerotic themes.

In the 20th century, Katherine Mansfield, Amy Lowell, Gertrude Stein, H.D., Vita Sackville-West, Virginia Woolf, and Gale Wilhelm wrote popular works that had same-sex relationships or gender transformations as themes. Some women, such as Marguerite Yourcenar and Mary Renault, wrote or translated works of fiction that focused on homosexual men, like some of the writings of Carson McCullers. All three were involved in same-sex relationships, but their primary friendships were with gay men. Foster further asserts 1928 was a "peak year" for lesbian-themed literature; in addition to ''The Well of Loneliness'', three other novels with lesbian themes were published in England: Elizabeth Bowen's ''The Hotel'', Woolf's ''Orlando'', and Compton MacKenzie's satirical novel ''Extraordinary Women''." Unlike ''The Well of Loneliness'', none of these novels were banned.

As the paperback book came into fashion, lesbian themes were relegated to pulp fiction. Many of the pulp novels typically presented very unhappy women, or relationships that ended tragically. Marijane Meaker later wrote that she was told to make the relationship end badly in ''Spring Fire'' because the publishers were concerned about the books being confiscated by the U.S. Postal Service. Patricia Highsmith, writing as Claire Morgan, wrote ''The Price of Salt'' in 1951 and refused to follow this directive, but instead used a pseudonym.

Following the Stonewall riots, lesbian themes in literature became much more diverse and complex, and shifted the focus of lesbianism from erotica for heterosexual men to works written by and for lesbians. Feminist magazines such as ''The Furies'', and ''Sinister Wisdom'' replaced ''The Ladder''. Serious writers who used lesbian characters and plots included Rita Mae Brown's ''Rubyfruit Jungle'' (1973), which presents a feminist heroine who chooses to be a lesbian. Poet Audre Lorde confronts homophobia and racism in her works, and Cherríe Moraga is credited with being primarily responsible for bringing Latina perspectives to lesbian literature. Further changing values are evident in the writings of Dorothy Allison, who focuses on child sexual abuse and deliberately provocative lesbian sadomasochism themes.

Film

Lesbianism, or the suggestion of it, began early in filmmaking. The same constructs of how lesbians were portrayed—or for what reasons—as what had appeared in literature were placed on women in the films. Women challenging their feminine roles was a device more easily accepted than men challenging masculine ones. Actresses appeared as men in male roles because of plot devices as early as 1914 in ''A Florida Enchantment'' featuring Edith Storey. In ''Morocco'' (1930) Marlene Dietrich kisses another woman on the lips, and Katharine Hepburn plays a man in ''Christopher Strong'' in 1933 and again in ''Sylvia Scarlett'' (1936). Hollywood films followed the same trend set by audiences who flocked to Harlem to see edgy shows that suggested bisexuality. Overt female homosexuality was introduced in 1929's ''Pandora's Box'' between Louise Brooks and Alice Roberts. However, the development of the Hays Code in 1930 censored most references to homosexuality from film under the umbrella term "sex perversion". German films depicted homosexuality and were distributed throughout Europe, but 1931's ''Mädchen in Uniform'' was not distributed in the U.S. because of the depiction of an adolescent's love for a female teacher in boarding school.

Because of the Hays Code, lesbianism after 1930 was absent from most films, even those adapted with overt lesbian characters or plot devices. Lillian Hellman's play ''The Children's Hour'' was converted into a heterosexual love triangle and retitled ''These Three''. Biopic ''Queen Christina'' in 1933, starring Greta Garbo, veiled most of the speculation about Christina of Sweden's affairs with women. Homosexuality or lesbianism was never mentioned outright in the films while the Hays Code was enforced. The reason censors stated for removing a lesbian scene in 1954's ''The Pit of Loneliness'' was that it was, "Immoral, would tend to corrupt morals". The code was relaxed somewhat after 1961, and the next year William Wyler remade ''The Children's Hour'' with Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine. After MacLaine's character admits her love for Hepburn's, she hangs herself; this set a precedent for miserable endings in films addressing homosexuality. Gay characters also were often killed off at the end, such as the death of Sandy Dennis' character at the end of ''The Fox'' in 1968. If not victims, lesbians were depicted as villains or morally corrupt, such as portrayals of brothel madames by Barbara Stanwyck in ''Walk on the Wild Side'' from 1962 and Shelley Winters in ''The Balcony'' in 1963. Lesbians as predators were presented in ''Rebecca'' (1940), women's prison films like ''Caged'' (1950), or in the character Rosa Klebb in ''From Russia, With Love'' (1963). Lesbian vampire themes have reappeared in ''Dracula's Daughter'' (1936), ''Blood and Roses'' (1960), ''Vampyros Lesbos'' (1971), and ''The Hunger'' (1983). ''Basic Instinct'' (1991) featured a bisexual murderer played by Sharon Stone; it was one of several films that set off a storm of protests about the depiction of gays as predators.

The first film to address lesbianism with significant depth was ''The Killing of Sister George'' in 1968, which was filmed in The Gateways Club, a longstanding lesbian pub in London. It is the first to claim a film character who identifies as a lesbian, and film historian Vito Russo considers the film a complex treatment of a multifaceted character who is forced into silence about her openness by other lesbians. ''Personal Best'' in 1982, and ''Lianna'' in 1983 treat the lesbian relationships more sympathetically and show lesbian sex scenes, though in neither film are the relationships happy ones. ''Personal Best'' was criticized for engaging in the cliched plot device of one woman returning to a relationship with a man, implying that lesbianism is a phase, as well as treating the lesbian relationship with "undisguised voyeurism". More ambiguous portrayals of lesbian characters were seen in ''Silkwood'' (1983), ''The Color Purple'' (1985), and ''Fried Green Tomatoes'' (1991), despite explicit lesbianism in the source material.

An era of independent filmmaking brought different stories, writers, and directors to films. ''Desert Hearts'' arrived in 1985, to be one of the most successful. Directed by lesbian Donna Deitch, it is loosely based on Jane Rule's novel ''Desert of the Heart''. It received mixed critical commentary, but earned positive reviews from the gay press. The late 1980s and early 1990s ushered in a series of films treating gay and lesbian issues seriously, made by gays and lesbians, nicknamed New Queer Cinema. Films using lesbians as a subject included Rose Troche's avant garde romantic comedy ''Go Fish'' (1994) and the first film about African American lesbians, Cheryl Dunye's ''The Watermelon Woman'', in 1995. Realism in films depicting lesbians developed further to include romance stories such as ''The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love'' and ''When Night is Falling'', both in 1995, ''Better Than Chocolate'' (1999), and the social satire ''But I'm A Cheerleader'' in 2001. A twist on the lesbian-as-predator theme was the added complexity of motivations of some lesbian characters in Peter Jackson's ''Heavenly Creatures'' (1994), the Oscar-winning biopic of Aileen Wuornos, ''Monster'' (2003), and the exploration of fluent sexuality and gender in ''Chasing Amy'' (1997), ''Kissing Jessica Stein'' (2001), and ''Boys Don't Cry'' (1999).

Television

Homosexuality addressed by television started much later than films. Local talk shows in the late 1950s first addressed homosexuality by inviting panels of experts (usually not gay themselves) to discuss the problems of gay men in society. Lesbianism was rarely included. The first time a lesbian was portrayed on network television was the NBC drama ''The Eleventh Hour'' in the early 1960s, in a teleplay about an actress who feels she is persecuted by her female director, and in distress, calls a psychiatrist who explains she is a latent lesbian who has deep-rooted guilt about her feelings for women. When she realizes this, however, she is able to pursue healthy heterosexual relationships. Invisibility for lesbians continued in the 1970s when homosexuality became the subject of dramatic portrayals, first with medical dramas (''The Bold Ones'', ''Marcus Welby, M.D.'', ''Medical Center'') featuring primarily male patients coming out to doctors, or staff members coming out to other staff members. These shows allowed homosexuality to be discussed clinically, with the main characters guiding troubled gay characters or correcting homophobic antagonists, while simultaneously comparing homosexuality to psychosis, criminal behavior, or drug use.

Another stock plot device in the 1970s was the gay character in a police drama. They served as victims of blackmail or anti-gay violence, but more often as criminals. Beginning in the late 1960s with ''N.Y.P.D.'', ''Police Story'', and ''Police Woman'', the use of homosexuals in stories became much more prevalent, according to Vito Russo, as a response to their higher profiles in gay activism. Lesbians were included as villains, motivated to murder by their desires, internalized homophobia, or fear of being exposed as homosexual. One episode of ''Police Woman'' earned protests by the National Gay Task Force before it aired for portraying a trio of murderous lesbians who killed retirement home patients for their money. NBC edited the episode because of the protests, but a sit-in was staged in the head of NBC's offices. In the middle of the 1970s, gays and lesbians began to appear as police officers or detectives, facing coming out issues. This did not extend to CBS' groundbreaking show ''Cagney & Lacey'' in 1982, starring two female police detectives. CBS production made conscious attempts to soften the characters so they would not appear to be lesbians. In 1991, a bisexual lawyer portrayed by Amanda Donohoe on ''L.A. Law'' shared the first significant lesbian kiss on primetime television with Michele Greene, stirring a controversy despite being labeled "chaste" by ''The Hollywood Reporter''.

Though television did not begin to use recurring homosexual characters until the late 1980s, some early situation comedies used a stock character that author Stephen Tropiano calls "gay-straight": supporting characters who were quirky, did not comply with gender norms, and/or had ambiguous personal lives, that "for all purposes ''should'' be gay". These included Zelda from ''The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis'', Miss Hathaway from ''The Beverly Hillbillies'', and Jo from ''The Facts of Life''. In the mid 1980s through the 1990s, sitcoms frequently employed a "coming out" episode, where a friend of one of the stars admits she is a lesbian, forcing the cast to deal with the issue. ''Designing Women'', ''The Golden Girls'', and ''Friends'' used this device with women in particular. Recurring lesbian characters who came out were seen on ''Married With Children'', ''Mad About You'', and ''Roseanne'', in which a highly publicized episode had ABC executives afraid a televised kiss between Roseanne and Mariel Hemingway would destroy ratings and ruin advertising. The episode was instead the week's highest rated. By far the sitcom with the most significant impact to the image of lesbians was ''Ellen''. Publicity surrounding Ellen's coming out episode in 1997 was enormous; Ellen DeGeneres appeared on the cover of ''Time'' magazine the week before the airing of "The Puppy Episode" with the headline "Yep, I'm Gay". Parties were held in many U.S. cities to watch the episode, and the opposition from conservative organizations was intense. It won an Emmy for writing, but as the show began to deal with Ellen Morgan's sexuality each week, network executives grew uncomfortable with the direction the show took and canceled it.

Dramas following ''L.A. Law'' began incorporating homosexual themes, particularly with continuing storylines on ''Relativity'', ''Picket Fences'', ''ER'', and ''Star Trek: The Next Generation'' and ''Deep Space Nine'', both of which tested the boundaries of sexuality and gender. A show directed at adolescents that had a particularly strong cult following was ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer''. In the fourth season of ''Buffy'', Tara and Willow admit their love for each other without any special fanfare and the relationship is treated as are the other romantic relationships on the show. What followed was a series devoted solely to gay characters from network television. Showtime's American rendition of ''Queer as Folk'' ran for five years, from 2000 to 2005; two of the main characters were a lesbian couple. Showtime promoted the series as "No Limits", and ''Queer as Folk'' addressed homosexuality graphically. The aggressive advertising paid off as the show became the network's highest rated, doubling the numbers of other Showtime programs after the first season. In 2004, Showtime introduced ''The L Word'', a dramatic series devoted to a group of lesbian and bisexual women, running its final season in 2009.

Current issues of lesbians

Lesbian chic and popular culture

The invisibility of lesbians has gradually eroded since the early 1980s. This is in part due to public figures who have caused speculation and comment in the press about their sexuality and lesbianism in general. The primary figure earning this attention was Martina Navratilova, who served as tabloid fodder for years as she denied being lesbian, admitted to being bisexual, had very public relationships with Rita Mae Brown and Judy Nelson, and acquired as much press about her sexuality as she did her athletic achievements. Navratilova spurred what scholar Diane Hamer termed "constant preoccupation" in the press with determining the root of same-sex desire. Other public figures acknowledged their homosexuality and bisexuality, notably musicians k. d. lang and Melissa Etheridge, and Madonna's pushing of sexual boundaries in her performances and publications. In 1993, lang and self-professed heterosexual supermodel Cindy Crawford posed for the cover of ''Vanity Fair'' in a provocative arrangement that showed Crawford shaving lang's face, as lang lounged in a barber's chair wearing a pinstripe suit. The image "became an internationally recognized symbol of the phenomenon of lesbian chic", according to Hamer. The year 1994 marked a rise in lesbian visibility, particularly appealing to women with feminine appearances. Between 1992 and 1994, ''Mademoiselle'', ''Vogue'', ''Cosmopolitan'', ''Glamour'', ''Newsweek'', and ''New York'' magazines featured stories about women who admitted sexual histories with other women.

One analyst reasoned the recurrence of lesbian chic was due to the often-used homoerotic subtexts of gay male subculture being considered off limits because of AIDS in the late 1980s and 1990s, joined with the distant memory of lesbians as they appeared in the 1970s: unattractive and militant. In short, lesbians became more attractive to general audiences when they ceased having political convictions. All the attention on feminine and glamorous women created what culture analyst Rodger Streitmatter characterizes as an unrealistic image of lesbians packaged by heterosexual men; the trend influenced an increase in the inclusion of lesbian material in pornography aimed at men. A resurgence of lesbian visibility and sexual fluidity was noted in 2009 with celebrities such as Cynthia Nixon and Lindsay Lohan commenting openly on their relationships with women, and reality television addressing same-sex relationships. Psychiatrists and feminist philosophers write that the rise in women acknowledging same-sex relationships is due to growing social acceptance, but also concede that "only a certain kind of lesbian—slim and elegant or butch in just the right androgynous way—is acceptable to mainstream culture".

Sexuality and lesbians

The presence of sexual activity between women as necessary to define a lesbian or a relationship continues to be debated. According to feminist writer Naomi McCormick, women's sexuality is constructed by men, whose primary indicator of lesbian sexual orientation is sexual experience with other women. The same indicator is not necessary to identify a woman as heterosexual, however. McCormick states that emotional, mental, and ideological connections between women are as important or more so than the genital. Nonetheless, in the 1980s, a significant movement rejected the desexualization of lesbianism by cultural feminists, causing a heated controversy called the Sex Wars. Butch and femme roles returned, although not as strictly followed as they were in the 1950s. They became a mode of chosen sexual self-expression for some women in the 1990s. Once again, women felt safer claiming to be more sexually adventurous, and sexual flexibility became more accepted.

The focus of this debate often centers on a phenomenon named by sexologist Pepper Schwartz in 1983. Schwartz found that long-term lesbian couples report having less sexual contact than heterosexual or homosexual male couples, calling this lesbian bed death. However, lesbians dispute the study's definition of sexual contact, and introduced other factors such as deeper connections existing between women that make frequent sexual relations redundant, greater sexual fluidity in women causing them to move from heterosexual to bisexual to lesbian numerous times through their lives—or reject the labels entirely. Further arguments attested that the study was flawed and misrepresented accurate sexual contact between women, or sexual contact between women has increased since 1983 as many lesbians find themselves freer to sexually express themselves.

More discussion on gender and sexual orientation identity has affected how many women label or view themselves. Most people in western culture are taught that heterosexuality is an innate quality in all people. When a woman realizes her romantic and sexual attraction to another woman, it may cause an "existential crisis"; many who go through this adopt the identity of a lesbian, challenging what society has offered in stereotypes about homosexuals, to learn how to function within a homosexual subculture. Lesbians in Western cultures generally share an identity that parallels those built on ethnicity; they have a shared history and subculture, and similar experiences with discrimination which has caused many lesbians to reject heterosexual principles. This identity is unique from gay men and heterosexual women, and often creates tension with bisexual women. Social theorists note that often behavior and identity do not match: women may label themselves heterosexual but have sexual relations with women, self-identified lesbians may have sex with men, or women may find that what they considered an immutable sexual identity has changed over time. A 2001 article on differentiating lesbians for medical studies and health research suggested identifying lesbians using the three characteristics of identity only, sexual behavior only, or both combined. The article declined to include desire or attraction as it rarely has bearing on measurable health or psychosocial issues.

Families and politics

Although homosexuality among females has taken place in many cultures in history, a recent phenomenon is the development of family among same-sex partners. Before the 1970s, the idea that same-sex adults formed long-term committed relationships was unknown to many people. The majority of lesbians (between 60% and 80%) report being in a long-term relationship. Sociologists credit the high number of paired women to gender role socialization: the inclination for women to commit to relationships doubles in a lesbian union. Unlike heterosexual relationships that tend to divide work based on sex roles, lesbian relationships divide chores evenly between both members. Studies have also reported that emotional bonds are closer in lesbian and gay relationships than heterosexual ones.

Family issues were significant concerns for lesbians when gay activism became more vocal in the 1960s and 1970s. Custody issues in particular were of interest since often courts would not award custody to mothers who were openly homosexual, even though the general procedure acknowledged children were awarded to the biological mother. Several studies performed as a result of custody disputes viewed how children grow up with same-sex parents compared to single mothers who did not identify as lesbians. They found that children's mental health, happiness, and overall adjustment is similar to children of divorced women who are not lesbians. Sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex roles of children who grow up with lesbian mothers are unaffected. Differences that were found include the fact that divorced lesbians tend to be living with a partner, fathers visit divorced lesbian mothers more often than divorced nonlesbian mothers, and lesbian mothers report a greater fear of losing their children through legal means.

Improving opportunities for growing families of same-sex couples has shaped the political landscape within the past ten years. A push for same-sex marriage in western countries has replaced other political objectives. As of 2009, seven countries and four U.S. states offer same-sex marriage; civil unions are offered as an option in many European countries, U.S. states and individual municipalities. The ability to adopt children or provide a home as a foster parent is also a political and family priority for many lesbians, as is improving access to artificial insemination.

See also

Biology and sexual orientation

Lesbian sexual practices

:Category:Lesbian organizations

Lesbian science fiction

Lesbianism in erotica

List of lesbian periodicals

Yuri (genre)

Footnotes

Notes

References

External links

'Late-Life Lesbians' Reveal Fluidity Of Sexuality - audio report by ''NPR''

Category:Sexual orientation 1 *

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Coordinates	39°44′21″N104°59′5″N
name	Dana Delany
birth date	March 13, 1956
birth place	New York City, New York, U.S.
birthname	Dana Welles Delany
occupation	Actress, producer
yearsactive	1974–present
website	}}

Dana Welles Delany (born March 13, 1956) is an American film, stage, and television actress, producer, host and health activist.

After various roles in the early career, in 1987, Delany garnered her first leading role in the short-living NBC sitcom ''Sweet Surrender'' and, 1988–1991, achieved wider fame as Colleen McMurphy on the ABC television show ''China Beach'', , for which she won two Emmy Awards. She received further recognition for her performances in the films ''Light Sleeper'' (1992), ''Tombstone'' (1993), ''Exit to Eden'' (1994), ''The Margaret Sanger Story'' (1995), ''Fly Away Home'' (1996), ''True Women'' (1997) and ''Wide Awake'' (1998). Since the mid-1990s, Delany has served on the board of the Scleroderma Research Foundation.

In 2000s she returned to television with a string of short-lived television series beginning with ''Pasadena'' (2001), ''Presidio Med'' (2002–2003), and ''Kidnapped'' (2006-2007). From 2007 to 2010 Delany played Katherine Mayfair on the ABC series ''Desperate Housewives''. She is currently in the lead role as Megan Hunt on the ABC drama series ''Body of Proof''

Delany is also known as a voice-actress. She played Lois Lane in the DC Animated Universe as well as the television series ''The Batman''. In an interview, she said she loves to play "complicated characters". Delany has been active in film, television, and stage since the late 1970s.

Biography

Early life

Delany was born in New York City to parents of Irish descent and was raised Catholic. She has remarked that, even as a child, she always wanted to go into acting. "The reason a person first gets into acting is because you want attention from your parents as a child," she told a reporter. In her childhood, she went with her family to many Broadway shows, and was fascinated by films.

After growing up in Stamford, Connecticut, she attended Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, for her senior year, and was a member of the school's first co-educational class which included jazz composer Bill Cunliffe, software executive Peter Currie, artist Julian Hatton, poet Karl Kirchwey, writer Nate Lee, editor Sara Nelson restaurateur Priscilla Martel and sculptor Gar Waterman. "Andover was the best time of my life," she recalled. She played the lead role of Nellie Forbush in the school's spring musical production of ''South Pacific'' playing opposite Peter Kapetan as Emile. She commented: "It was just a little awkward to be Nellie at first because she hesitates to marry Emile since he had once lived with a Polynesian woman -- I don't agree with her reasoning so that made things a bit hard at the beginning." She appeared in a student video directed by fellow classmate Jonathan Meath in a film class taught by Steve Marx. She graduated in 1974 with the academic honor of "cum laude" which was awarded to 80 out of 378 graduating seniors. She majored in theater at Wesleyan University, worked in summer stock productions during vacations, and graduated in 1978. Later, in an interview, she reported that she sometimes had eating issues during this time of her life. She said: "I binged... I starved ... I was one step from anorexia –a piece of toast and an apple would be all I would eat in a day."

1980s: stage, television, ''China Beach''

After college, she found acting work in New York City in daytime soap operas. She starred in the Broadway show ''A Life'' and won critical acclaim in 1983 in Nicholas Kazan's off-Broadway ''Blood Moon'', where the ''New York Times'' cited her "skillful verisimilitude" handling a difficult part requiring two roles "and she does them both with authority." Delany moved to Hollywood and during the next few years found work guest starring in TV shows like ''Moonlighting'' and ''Magnum, P.I.''.

Dana Delany's first audition for the lead role of nurse Colleen McMurphy was unsuccessful. "They thought I wasn't pretty enough", she said in an interview, but heeding advice from director Paul Schrader, who had directed her in the film ''Patty Hearst'', she "cut her long tresses into a bob" and re-auditioned with this new haircut, successfully, after the producers lost their first choice. She won the lead role on the critically acclaimed ''China Beach'', which appeared weekly from 1988 to 1991 and brought intense media attention to the actress. This role not only garnered two Emmy Awards, but two other Emmy nominations and two Golden Globe nominations. But after several seasons the show suffered from mediocre ratings and was discontinued in 1991.

1990s: movies, television, voice

In 1991, Dana Delany was chosen by ''People'' magazine as one of the "50 most beautiful people in the world." In the years following ''China Beach'', Delany worked steadily in television, movies, theater. In addition, she established herself as a significant voice talent.

Delany won leading roles in a string of feature films such as the TV movie ''A Promise to Keep'', ''Light Sleeper'', ''Housesitter'', ''Fly Away Home'' as well as appearing in the TV mini-series ''Wild Palms''. She also took on controversial roles, such as Mistress Lisa in ''Exit to Eden'', where one film critic commented "The script was awful -- Dana looked great." Delany commented in a 2008 interview about the audience reaction: "I had already got pilloried for playing the ''Exit to Eden'' dominatrix after ''China Beach'' because audiences had a certain image of me as Colleen and didn’t want to see it change." The provocatively titled ''Live Nude Girls'' included frank discussion by women of their sexual fantasies at a bachelorette party using a low-budget improvisational comedy format with strong chemistry between the actors. Reviews were mixed: ''Los Angeles Times'' critic Richard Natale liked the film but wrote older male film executives believed it to be "uncommercial"; another critic agreed it was "genuine girl talk" but "didn't have a lot of substance" and viewers "don't get to know the characters in the film". She also starred as Margaret Sanger in the TV movie ''Choices of the Heart: The Margaret Sanger Story'' (1995), about a controversial nurse who crusaded for women's reproductive rights in the early 1900s.

In 1995, Delany appeared in the Broadway show ''Translations'' and in May 1997, Delany returned to her alma mater Phillips Academy to work with theater students as an artist-in-residence. She appeared in TV movies such as ''True Women'' (1997) and ''Resurrection'' (1999).

In 1998, Delany reportedly turned down the role of Carrie Bradshaw in the hit TV show ''Sex and the City''. She commented in a subsequent interview: "The show’s creator Darren Star asked me to play Carrie ... Darren got the idea of televising Candace Bushnell’s ''Sex and the City'' from seeing me and Kim (Kim Cattrall) in ''Live Nude Girls''." Delany declined the role partly after remembering the negative audience reaction she received with a similar film, ''Exit to Eden'', a few years back. ''Sex and the City'' became a successful series, and the role of ''Carrie'' made Sarah Jessica Parker world-famous.

Delany played a gun-toting mother in an episode of the TV series ''Family Law'' (1999) for which she earned an Emmy nomination, but the series was not rerun due to sponsorship withdrawal.

Work as Lois Lane

Dana Delany has performed substantial voice work periodically. She portrayed Andrea Beaumont in the 1993 animated feature film ''Batman: Mask of the Phantasm'' based on the popular TV show ''Batman: The Animated Series''. Delany's voice performance in the film impressed filmmakers and led to her being cast as Lois Lane in ''Superman: The Animated Series''. She was also mentioned by name in the theme song of ''Animaniacs'', another Warner Bros. production. She reprised her role as Lois Lane for the character's guest appearances in ''Justice League'', ''Justice League Unlimited'', and ''The Batman''. She returned to the DC Universe in an episode of ''Batman: The Brave and the Bold'' as Vilsi, an alternate universe variation of Lois Lane. Coincidentally, Delany's future ''Desperate Housewives'' co-star, Teri Hatcher, also portrayed Lois Lane on the live-action TV series ''Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman''.

2000s: television, movies, stage, ''Desperate Housewives''

Delany continued to find work in a variety of projects, doing pilots, TV series, made-for-TV movies, and feature films. She appeared in the NBC drama ''Good Guys/Bad Guys'' (2000), which ''Newsweek'' termed a "Sopranos knock-off". She appeared in the short-lived ''Pasadena'' (2001), a critically acclaimed Fox production which was "underpromoted and endlessly pre-empted" and described as a "twisted rich-family saga" with a "great cast". Delany commented in an interview: "You can see ''Pasadena'' as a black comedy or see it as really tragic. A lot of soaps on television now don't have that layer of tragedy to them." She was an actor and co-executive producer of the film ''Final Jeopardy'' (2001). New York Daily News TV critic David Bianculli gave a positive review to both her performance as an actor -- "Delany, as always, does pensive and independent better than most actresses" -- and as a producer. She played a doctor in the TV series ''Presidio Med'' (2002), described as a "conventional but pleasant drama populated by characters dedicated to medicine who also have messy personal lives." She appeared in TV movies such as ''A Time to Remember'' (2003), and ''Baby for Sale'' (2004). She appeared in feature films by indie film producers, such as ''The Outfitters'' (1999), ''Mother Ghost'' (2002), and ''Spin'' (2003).

Returning to theater, she played an artsy and incompetent woman who questions the "imposed conventions of society" after discovering her husband's affair in the Pulitzer-prize winning ''Dinner With Friends'' (2000, New York City, Los Angeles, Boston); her performance earned positive reviews generally. She played Beatrice in Shakespeare's ''Much Ado About Nothing'' (2003, San Diego); one critic described the "verbal sparring" between Delany and actor Billy Campbell as a "joy".

From 2004 to 2006, Delany played many guest roles on TV shows, such as ''Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'', ''Boston Legal'', ''Kojak'', ''Related'', ''The L Word'', and ''Battlestar Galactica''. She also starred in the short-lived TV series ''Kidnapped'' (2006). One critic wrote "Delany is alternately furious and despondent as Ellie, and she and Hutton (Timothy Hutton) can do more without words than other actors can do with pages of dialogue. They’re absolutely convincing as rich, complicated Manhattanites and as parents who come face to face with the scary reality that they can’t always protect their kids."

The actress appeared as herself in the TV documentary ''Vietnam Nurses with Dana Delany'' which explored their lives and treatment after returning to the United States. Delany has become "something of a heroine to the nurses who served in Vietnam", according to ''Los Angeles Times'' writer Susan King, who noted that the actress worked on a nationwide nurse recruitment program in 1990 called the McMurphy project.

In 2007, Delany appeared in the films ''A Beautiful Life'', ''Camp Hope'', and ''Multiple Sarcasms''.

Delany initially declined the offer to play one of the four ''Desperate Housewives'' principal characters, Bree Van De Kamp, saying it was too similar to her role on ''Pasadena''. The show became a popular prime-time soap opera with substantial ratings. But in 2007 she was again offered a role by producer Marc Cherry, this time as a supporting housewife, and she joined the cast of the well-established series for the 2007–08 season. Reaction to the addition of Delany was positive; one critic wrote "...casting Dana Delany as Katherine Mayfair in Season 4 is one of the smartest things Cherry has ever done ... Not many actors can deftly deliver both comedy and drama, but Delany makes it look easy." She commented about playing housewife Katherine Mayfair: "The hardest thing for me was figuring out the tone of the piece because it's such a specific tone - so it was more of an acting challenge than anything else." She commented in 2008: “I hope that she (Katherine Mayfair) doesn’t lose her snarkiness, because that’s always fun to play.” On May 13, 2008, it was announced that Delany would reprise her role on ''Desperate Housewives'' for season five, having been promoted to the sixth lead.

2010s: new series and movies

In March 2010, Delany appeared as FBI agent Jordan Shaw in a two-part story on the TV series ''Castle'', which stars Nathan Fillion, who played her character's second husband on ''Desperate Housewives''.

Delany left ''Desperate Housewives'' to star in the new ABC series ''Body of Proof'' originally slated to begin airing in late 2010.Delany also voiced a character ''Margaret Rosenblatt'' in the film ''Firebreather'' in 2010

In 2011 in ''Body of Proof'', Delany plays a brilliant neurosurgeon turned medical examiner after a car accident causes her to lose dexterity in her hands. Ironically, Delany in real life had an experience similar to her character of Dr. Megan Hunt. Two weeks before filming the pilot episode, Delany's car was hit by a bus in Santa Monica; two fingers of her hand were broken and her car was totaled. Delany describes her character in ''Body of Proof'' as being "complicated, smart, and definitely complex."

In April 2011 Delany came 9th in ''People'' magazine's annual 100 Most Beautiful list.

In May 2011 Delany was the host the fourth annual ''Television Academy Honors''.

Delany is currently filming the crime drama ''Freelancers'' with director Jessy Terrero. The film also stars Robert De Niro, Forest Whitaker, and 50 Cent, and is set for a 2012 release.

Personal and public life

Since the mid-1990s, Delany has served on the board of the Scleroderma Research Foundation, and with her friend Sharon Monsky, she helped campaign for support in finding a cure for scleroderma. Working with director Bob Saget, she starred in the TV movie ''For Hope'' (1996), based on Saget's sister Gay, who had died as a result of the disease. She appeared as a contestant on ''Celebrity Jeopardy'' in 2001, 2006 and 2009 to raise money for scleroderma research. Scleroderma "robs these women of not only their own lives in many cases, but robs their families which include countless children," she explained in 2002.

Delany is a board member of the arts advocacy organization Creative Coalition. She appeared in June 2009 in an onstage meeting in New York alongside White House social secretary Desiree Rogers to discuss ways to promote American cinematic creativity. In August 2009 Delany was named co-president of the Creative Coalition, joining Tim Daly in the leadership of the organization. Delany explained her support for the arts in an interview: "I just think it's so important for children and the future of the country and people's general happiness. I'm one of those people who, whenever I feel cut off spiritually or emotionally, I go to a museum or a play or a movie, and I'm just transported." She participated as a celebrity guest in fundraising events which support the rights of same-sex couples to marry. In addition, she has supported Planned Parenthood. She attended the organization's 90th birthday celebration in New York City in 2006. Delany said: "It's hard to imagine where we'd be in this country had Margaret Sanger not founded that first clinic here in New York, 90 years ago." She attended events sponsored by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.

Delany commented about her personal life in an interview in 2006: "I turned 50 and I'm ready to get married ... I don't know who he is yet but I'm ready ... He has to be smart, funny and kind." She added a year later: "Marriage has never been a big deal for me ... But I think I’m ready now ... I got to have all the fun in the world, to experience a lot of people and figure out what I really like." Delany (in 1988) said she doesn't find being a celebrity to be that appealing: "I'm not a 'personality'. I am never recognized, which I take as a compliment. I have a love-hate thing with publicity."

Since the mid-1990s, she has had a notable Internet presence. She has participated in several online chat events promoting various projects. Her official web site, online since 1996, includes a guestbook in which she participates.

Delany, in 2003, tried having an injection of botox in her forehead, but the needle hit a nerve and created a hematoma which affected the muscle in her right eye, causing it to droop slightly. In 2010, she vowed she will never have plastic surgery. She told Prevention in 2010 that she prefers eating healthily, including vegetables, tofu, fish, gluten-free pasta, and bread. Since she plays a neurosurgeon in her new ABC drama ''Body of Proof'', she refuses to eat turkey sausage because of a perceived similarity with intestines seen on the set.

In April 2011 Delany came 9th in ''People'' magazine's annual 100 Most Beautiful list.

Filmography

! Year	! Film/play/TV/other	! Role	! Other notes
1974		Nellie Forbush	Musical at Phillips Academy
1978	''Ryan's Hope''	Ryan's bar patron
1979	''Love of Life''	Amy Russell
1980	''A Life''		Broadway play
		Saleswoman in record store
''As the World Turns''	Hayley Wilson Hollister
	''Wisk detergent''	Lady in an elevator	TV commercial (opposite Tom McBride)
''Blood Moon''	Innocent pre-med student	Off-broadway production by Nicholas Kazan
	''Almost You''	Susan McCall
''Threesome''	Laura Shaper
''The Streets''	Jeannie
		Jillian Armstrong	"Knowing Her," episode 206
''Magnum, P.I.''	Cynthia Farrell
		Nora
''Where the River Runs Black''	Sister Ana
''Liberty''	Moya Trevor
1987		Georgia Holden
		Gelina
	Anne Briscoe
''Moon over Parador''	Jenny
	Eve	South by Southeast season 1, episode 10
''China Beach''	Colleen McMurphy	62 episodes 1988–1991
1990	''A Promise to Keep''	Jane Goodrich
	''Light Sleeper''	Marianne
''Housesitter''	Becky Metcalf
''Cheers''	Susan Metheny	Season 11, episode 11
	''Wild Palms''	Grace Wyckoff
''Donato and Daughter''	Lieutenant Dena Donato
''Batman: Mask of the Phantasm''	Andrea Beaumont	(voice)
	''The Enemy Within''	Betsy Corcoran
	Lisa Emerson
''Texan''
	''Choices of the Heart: The Margaret Sanger Story''	Margaret Sanger
	Jill
	Helen Fiske
''Translations''	Maire	Broadway play (short-lived)
	''Superman: The Animated Series''	Lois Lane	(voice) (43 episodes 1996–2000)
''Fly Away Home''	Susan Barnes
''The Adventures of Mowgli''	Bagheera	(voice) English version
''For Hope''	Hope Altman
''Wing Commander Academy''	Gwen Archer Bowman	(voice) 13 episodes
	''True Women''	Sarah Ashby McClure
	Honey Trapp	Season 1, episode 4
''Duckman: Private Dick/Family Man''	Dr. Susan Fox	(voice)
		Mrs. Beal
	Dr. Ashley
''Rescuers: Stories of Courage — Two Couples''	Johtje Vos
''The Patron Saint of Liars''	Rose Cleardon Abbott
''The Batman/Superman Movie: World's Finest''	Lois Lane	(voice)
''Louise Brooks: Looking for Lulu''		Documentary
	''Outfitters''	Cat Bonfaim
	Sally Rawlings
	Clare Miller
''Shake, Rattle and Roll: An American Love Story''	Elaine Gunn
	''The Right Temptation''	Anthea Farrow-Smith
''Dinner With Friends''	Beth	Stage; Pulitzer-prize script
		Alexandra Cooper	Delany was actor, co-executive producer
	Mary Sullivan	Episode "Safe At Home"
	Catherine McAllister	13 episodes (2001–2002)
	''Conviction''	Martha
''Mother Ghost''	Karen Bennett
''Superman: Shadow of Apokolips''	Lois Lane	(voice)
''Presidio Med''	Dr. Rae Brennan	13 episodes
		Herself
	Lois Lane	(voice) (10 episodes 2003–2005)
	Margaret Swift-Bejarano
	Britt Calhoun	aka "Turning Homeward"
''Much Ado About Nothing''	Beatrice	Stage, San Diego
	''Baby for Sale''	Nathalie Johnson
''Law & Order: Special Victims Unit''	Carolyn Spencer	"Obscene", episode 603
''Justice League Unlimited''	Loana
''Boston Legal''	Samantha Fleming	1 episode
	''Related''	Francesca Sorelli	Season 1, episodes 7,18
''Getting to Know You''	Marla
	Kate McNeil
		Sesha Abinell
''Superman: Brainiac Attacks''	Lois Lane	Voice
''The Woman with the Hungry Eyes''	Theda Bara	Voice
	Ellie Cain	13 episodes (2006–2007)
''The L Word''	Senator Barbara Grisham
''Vietnam Nurses with Dana Delany''	Host	Documentary
	''Drunkboat''	Eileen
	Lois Lane	Voice (2 episodes)
''Life on the Refrigerator Door''	Narrator	Audio book by Alice Kuipers
2007–2010	''Desperate Housewives''	Katherine Mayfair	Series regular (2007–2010) (3 seasons; 64 episodes)
		Amish Martha
''Flying Lessons''	Jeanne
	''Multiple Sarcasms''	Annie
''A Beautiful Life''	Anne
	Patricia
''PoliWood''	Herself	Documentary
''Annul Victory''	Herself	Documentary
		Agent Jordan Shaw	2 episodes; season 2, episodes 17–18
''Batman: The Brave and the Bold''	Vilsi Vaylar	voice
	Margaret	voice
	''Body of Proof''		2011–present
	Host
2012			Filming

Awards and nominations

! Year	! Result	! Award	! Category	! Film or series
1989	Won	Emmy	Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series	''China Beach''
1990	Nominated	Emmy	Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series	''China Beach''
1991	Nominated	Emmy	Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series	''China Beach''
1992	Won	Emmy	Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series	''China Beach''
2001	Nominated	Emmy	Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series
1990	Nominated	Golden Globe	Best Performance by an Actress in a TV-series drama	''China Beach''
1991	Nominated	Golden Globe	Best Performance by an Actress in a TV-series drama	''China Beach''
1989	Won		Best Actress in a Quality Drama Series	''China Beach''
1990	Won		Best Actress in a Quality Drama Series	''China Beach''
1991	Won		Best Actress in a Quality Drama Series	''China Beach''
2009	Won		Best Performance in a Comedy Series	''Desperate Housewives''
2008	Nominated	Screen Actors Guild	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series	''Desperate Housewives''
2009	Nominated	Screen Actors Guild	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series	''Desperate Housewives''
1998	Won	Lone Star Film & Television	Best TV Actress	''True Women''
2007	Nominated	TV Land Award	Lady you love to watch fight for her life in a movie of the week	Movie of the week

General source for awards:

Additional sources—Family Law: Prism: Screen Actors Guild: Lone Star Film & Television: TV Land:

==References==

External links

Category:Actors from New York City Category:American people of Irish descent Category:American film actors Category:American soap opera actors Category:American stage actors Category:American television actors Category:American voice actors Category:Emmy Award winners Category:Actors from Connecticut Category:Phillips Academy alumni Category:Wesleyan University alumni Category:1956 births Category:Living people

ar:دانا ديلاني bg:Дейна Дилейни da:Dana Delany de:Dana Delany es:Dana Delany fr:Dana Delany gl:Dana Delany hr:Dana Delany it:Dana Delany hu:Dana Delany nl:Dana Delany no:Dana Delany pl:Dana Delany pt:Dana Delany ru:Дилейни, Дана simple:Dana Delany sl:Dana Delany sh:Dana Delany fi:Dana Delany sv:Dana Delany tl:Dana Delany tr:Dana Delany uk:Дана Ділейні yo:Dana Delany

Coordinates	39°44′21″N104°59′5″N
name	Julie Benz
birthname	Julie M. Benz
birth date	May 01, 1972
birth place	Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.
yearsactive	1990–present
occupation	Actress
spouse	John Kassir (1998–2007) }}

Julie M. Benz (born May 1, 1972) is an American actress, best known for her roles as Darla on ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' and ''Angel'' and as Rita Bennett on ''Dexter'', for which she won the 2006 Satellite Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television. She starred on the series ''No Ordinary Family'' until it was cancelled on May 13, 2011. She will have a main role in the upcoming CBS show ''A Gifted Man''.

Early life

Benz was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her father is a surgeon in Pittsburgh. The family settled in nearby Murrysville when Benz was two, and she started ice skating when she was three. She competed in the 1988 U.S. Championships in junior ice dancing with her skating partner David Schilling, finishing in 13th place. Her older brother and sister, Jeffrey and Jennifer, were the 1987 U.S. Junior Champions in ice dancing and competed internationally. When Benz was 14, she suffered a stress fracture in her right leg and had to take time off. She grew up in Murrysville, graduating from Franklin Regional High School.

Career

At age 15, Benz was told by an acting coach that she would never succeed as an actress. According to Benz, "I remember the teacher telling me I should not even try acting. I still have the report card where she was like, 'You will never be an actor. Your voice is horrible.' That was the best thing that ever happened to me because I was like, 'I'll show you'."

By 1989, with her figure skating career over, Benz became involved in local theater, where she was cast in the play ''Street Law''. Her first movie role was a small speaking part in "The Black Cat" segment of the Dario Argento/George A. Romero horror movie ''Two Evil Eyes'' (1990). A year later, she was cast in the TV show ''Hi Honey, I'm Home'' (1991), which was canceled after two seasons.

After graduating from high school, Benz entered New York University to study acting. After graduation from NYU, she moved to Los Angeles. Two weeks after her move, she obtained a bit part in a 1994 episode of ''Married... with Children'' , playing a girl who wanted to lose her virginity to Bud Bundy.

Her subsequent roles include an unaired Aaron Spelling television pilot ''Cross Town Traffic''. She starred in another unaired TV pilot called ''Empire'' in 1995. Her other TV shows included ''Hang Time'', ''High Tide'', ''Step by Step'' and ''Boy Meets World'', plus a small role in the TV movie ''The Barefoot Executive''. She had an uncredited role in ''Black Sheep'' and appearances in ''Diagnosis: Murder'', ''Sliders'' and ''The Single Guy''. She played Christy in the TV movie ''Hearts Adrift'' and a lead role as Julie Falcon in ''Darkdrive''.

In 1996, Benz auditioned for the role of Buffy Summers in the series ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' (1997), but lost out to Sarah Michelle Gellar. However, she was offered the small role of the vampire Darla in the pilot episode. Her performance was so well-received that her part was expanded to a few more episodes. The role helped launch her career.

She appeared in more TV shows such as ''The Big Easy'' and ''Fame L.A.'' along with a small role as a receptionist in the movie ''As Good as It Gets'' (1997). She starred in the short spoof film ''Eating Las Vegas'' and the unaired TV pilot ''Veronica's Video'', had a small uncredited role in the TV movie ''A Walton Easter'' and a small role in ''Inventing the Abbotts''.

In 1998, she had a recurring role as Joplin Russell in the TV show ''Ask Harriet'' (though the show was canceled and only two of her appearances aired), then guest-starred on ''Conrad Bloom'' and ''The King of Queens''. She made two movies, the dark comedy ''Jawbreaker'' and ''Dirt Merchant'', before landing a lead role in another TV show called ''Payne''. She played undercover FBI Special Unit agent Kathleen Topolsky on ''Roswell'' during its first season, starred in the TV movie ''Satan's School for Girls'', the unaired TV pilot ''Good Guys/Bad Guys'' and had a lead role in the horror movie parody ''Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the Thirteenth''.

She reprised her role as Darla in 2000 for the ''Buffy'' spin-off series ''Angel'' appearing in every season for at least one episode. She was the only non-African American actor featured in the principal cast of the romantic comedy ''The Brothers''. She was a guest host for the TV show ''Rendez-View''. She was cast as Ellie Sparks in ''Glory Days'' and appeared in the unaired pilot; however, she left the show. She guest starred on ''She Spies'' and was in the featured cast for the mini-series ''Taken''. She did various voices for the video game ''Hot Shots Golf Fore!'', appeared in the short film ''The Midget Stays in the Picture'' and took over the role of Ursula for ''George of the Jungle 2''.

Benz appeared in ''Peacemakers'', ''Coupling'', ''NCIS'' and ''Oliver Beene''. She landed the lead role of Annie Garrett in the Hallmark TV movie ''The Long Shot''. Benz also provided the voice of Miranda Keyes for the video game ''Halo 2'', though she did not return to the role in the sequel ''Halo 3'' as Bungie wanted to try a new direction with the Miranda Keyes voice by giving the character an accent, replaced by Justis Bolding. She played the lead role of Danielle in ''Bad Girls From Valley High'' (a film shot in 2000 under the title ''A Fate Totally Worse Than Death'') which was released on DVD in 2005. She had a small role in the critically acclaimed TV movie ''Lackawanna Blues''. In the Sci-Fi Channel original film ''Locusts: The 8th Plague'', she played the lead female role Vicky. She also appeared in the straight-to-DVD movie ''8mm 2'' as Lynn. The film was originally called ''The Velvet Side of Hell'' and was not supposed to be a sequel to ''8MM''.

Benz appeared in episodes of ''Supernatural'', ''CSI: Miami'', ''Law & Order'' and ''CSI: Crime Scene Investigation''. She had a supporting role in a Swedish independent movie called ''Kill Your Darlings'', a lead role in the Lifetime movie ''Circle of Friends'' and joined the cast of TV show ''Dexter'' as Rita Bennett. Benz played a lead role in the fifth film of the popular horror franchise, ''Saw V'', as Brit, a real-estate developer who is one of Jigsaw's five victims. She had a supporting role in ''Punisher: War Zone'' as Angela.

Benz co-starred with Sylvester Stallone in 2008's ''Rambo'', the fourth film of that series.

She plays the title role in the short film ''Kidnapping Caitlynn'', written by her close friend Jenny Mollen, premiered at the Vail Film Festival 2009 and was released online April 6, 2009. She starred in the Lifetime movie ''Held Hostage'' as Michelle Estey. in July. She also starred in the Hallmark Channel movie ''Uncorked'' as Johnny Prentiss which premiered in the UK in July 2009. She is the lead female character Special Agent Eunice Bloom in ''The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day'' which had a limited release on October 30, 2009, and was released on DVD March 9, 2010. She has been cast in another indie film called ''Bedrooms'' as Anna. She has recently been cast as Frankie in the upcoming movie ''Answers to Nothing'' which is scheduled for a 2010 release.

Benz appeared on ''The Soup'' with Joel McHale. Benz next took a recurring role on ''Desperate Housewives'' as Robin Gallagher, a stripper with a heart of gold and a Masters degree in education who gets offered the chance to transition into a more legitimate career. The character of Robin is further developed when the audience discovers she is a lesbian and begins an affair with housewife Katherine Mayfair (Dana Delany). After the Season 4 finale of ''Dexter'', she returned for the Season 5 premiere.

In early 2010, ABC announced that Benz had landed a lead role as Stephanie Powell, in the network's drama pilot ''No Ordinary Family''. The following May, ABC green-lit the series, which premiered on September 28, 2010, as part of the 2010–11 season. On May 13, 2011, ''No Ordinary Family'' was cancelled after one season. In 2011, she has been cast in a recurring role for the new CBS TV show ''A Gifted Man''. She will also be starring in TV movie ''Ricochet'' as Elise Laird.

Personal life

Benz was married to actor and voice actor John Kassir. They were married on May 30, 1998. She filed for divorce in December 2007.

She is engaged to Rich Orosco, a partner at B360 Studios.

Filmography

+ Film
Year	Title	Role	Notes
1990	''Two Evil Eyes''	Betty	Segment: "The Black Cat"
1996			uncredited
1996	''Darkdrive''	Julie Falcon
1997	''Eating Las Vegas''	Sheila	Short film
1997	''Inventing the Abbotts''	Co-ed
1997	''As Good as It Gets''	Receptionist
1999		Marcie Fox
2000		Alison Kingsley
2000	''Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the Thirteenth''	Barbara
2000	''Bad Girls From Valley High'' (aka ''A Fate Totally Worse Than Death'')	Danielle
2001	''''	Jesse Caldwell
2003	''''	A-List Actress	short film
2002	''George of the Jungle 2''	Ursula, Queen of the Jungle
2005	''8mm 2''	Lynn
2005	''Locusts: The 8th Plague''	Vicky
2006	''Kill Your Darlings''	Katherine
2008
2008	''Saw V''
2008	''Punisher: War Zone''	Angela Donatelli
2009	''''	Eunice Bloom
2010		Anna
2011		Frankie
2012	''Ricochet''	Elise Laird

+ Television
Year	Title	Role	Notes
1991–1992	''Hi Honey, I'm Home!''	Babs Nielson	14 episodes
1994	''Married... with Children''	Sascha	Episode: "Field of Screams"
1995	''Cross Town Traffic''		unaired TV series pilot
1995	''Empire''	Christine Lambert	unaired TV series pilot
1995		Linda Cantrell	episode "Earl Makes the Grade"
1995	''''	Sexy Woman
1995		Joanna Craig	Episode: "Sea No Evil"
1995		Tawny	Episode: "The Wall"
1996	''Boy Meets World''	Bianca	episode "City Slackers"
1996	''Hearts Adrift''	Christy	TV
1996	''Diagnosis: Murder''	Julie Miller	Episode" "Murder on Thin Ice"
1996	''Sliders''	Jenny Michener	Episode: "The Electric Twister Acid Test"
1996	''''	Cranberries Girl	Episode" "Love Train"
1997	''Veronica's Video''	Heidi	unaired TV series pilot
1997	''''	Jeannie	uncredited
1997	''''	Roxanne	Episode" "BeGirled"
1997	''Fame L.A.''	Vanessa	Episode: "The Beat Goes On"
1997–2000			recurring; 5 episodes
1998	''Ask Harriet''	Joplin Russell	recurring 1998; 7 episodes
1998	''Conrad Bloom''	Julie	Episode: "The Rebound Guy"
1999	''Dirt Merchant''	Angie
1999		Breeze O'Rourke	9 episodes
1999	''''	Julie Patterson	Episode: "Train Wreck"
2000–2004			recurring; 20 episodes
1999–2000		Kathleen Topolsky	recurring; 7 episodes
2000	''Good Guys/Bad Guys''		unaired NBC TV series pilot
2002		Ellie Sparks	Unaired Pilot
2002		Kate Keyes	2 episodes
2002	''She Spies''	Elaine	Episode: "Spies vs. Spy"
2002		Miranda Blanchard	Episode: "The Witness"
2002		Amanda	Episode: "Decatur Guy"
2004	''''	Annie Garrett
2004	''NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service''	Denise Johnson	Episode: "A Weak Link"
2004	''Oliver Beene''	Cigarette Girl	Episode: "Idol Chatter"
2005	''Lackawanna Blues''	Laura
2006		Layla Rourke	Episode: "Faith"
2006	''CSI: Miami''	Hayley Gordon	Episode: "Deviant"
2006	''CSI: Crime Scene Investigation''	Heidi Wolff	Episode: "Time of Your Death"
2006		Maggie
2006–2010		Rita Bennett	49 episodes	2006 Satellite Awards: Supporting Actress in a Series	2008 Eyegore Awards	2008 Scream Awards: Best Actress in a Horror Movie or TV Show	2009 Saturn Award: Supporting Actress on Television
2007	''Law & Order''	Dawn Sterling	Episode: "Church"
2009	''Kidnapping Caitlynn''	Caitlynn
2009	''Held Hostage''	Michelle Estey
2009		Johnny Prentiss
2010	''Desperate Housewives''	Robin Gallagher	Recurring 2010; 5 episodes
2010–2011	''No Ordinary Family''	Stephanie Powell
2011	''''	Christina Holt

+ Videogames
Year	Title	Role	Notes
2003	''Everybody's Golf 4'' (aka ''Hot Shots Golf Fore!'')	Various voices
2004	''Halo 2''	Miranda Keyes (voice)

References

External links

Julie Benz Interview at Seat42f

Category:1972 births Category:Actors from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Category:American people of German descent Category:American ice dancers Category:American film actors Category:American television actors Category:Living people Category:New York University alumni Category:People from Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania

da:Julie Benz de:Julie Benz es:Julie Benz eu:Julie Benz fr:Julie Benz id:Julie Benz it:Julie Benz ms:Julie Benz nl:Julie Benz ja:ジュリー・ベンツ no:Julie Benz pl:Julie Benz pt:Julie Benz ru:Бенз, Джули fi:Julie Benz sv:Julie Benz tr:Julie Benz

A centenarian is a person who is or lives beyond the age of 100 years. Because current average life expectancies across the world are less than 100, the term is invariably associated with longevity. Much rarer, a supercentenarian is a person who has lived to the age of 110 or more, something only achieved by about one in a thousand centenarians. Even rarer is a person who has lived to 115 years old; only 1 in 50,000 centenarians make it to this age.

Current incidence

The United States currently has the greatest number of centenarians in the world, estimated at 70,490 on September 1, 2010. This statistic is partly a result of America's large population in 1890–1910, its large farm population a century ago, and its increased emphasis on long-term care facilities.

Japan has the second largest number of centenarians, with 44,449 reported as of September 2010. Japan started its surveys in 1963, at which time the number of Japanese centenarians was found to be 153. This number surpassed the 10,000 mark in 1998; 20,000 in 2003 and 40,000 in 2009. According to a UN Demographic survey, by 2050 Japan is expected to have 272,000 centenarians. However, some sources suggest that the number could be closer to 1 million. Many experts attribute Japan's high life expectancy to the Japanese diet, which is particularly low in refined simple carbohydrates, and to hygienic practices. In addition, the number of centenarians in relation to the total population was, in September 2010, 114% higher in Shimane Prefecture than the ratio for the whole of Japan. This ratio was also 92% higher in Okinawa Prefecture. Okinawa Prefecture used to have the highest percentage of centenarians in Japan. Early estimates were possibly exaggerated, but the corrected ratio was still 139% higher than the average for Japan in September 2006. In addition to diet, there are four other factors that have been found to increase the life expectancy for Okinawans, as noted later in the "research into centenarians" section of this article.

The incidence of centenarians in Japan was 1 per 3,522 people in 2008 (but much higher in Okinawa, at 1 per 1,838 people in 2006), and 1 per 4,400 in the United States.

However, the number of Japanese centenarians was called into question in 2010 following a series of reports showing that hundreds of thousands of elderly people had gone "missing" in the country. The deaths of many centenarians had not been reported, casting doubt on the reliability of not only the Japanese statistics, but also the country's reputation for having a large population of centenarians.

Traditions

In many countries, people receive a gift or congratulations on their 100th birthday. In the United States, centenarians traditionally receive a letter from the president, congratulating them for their longevity. NBC's ''The Today Show'' show has also named new centenarians on air since 1983. In the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth Realms, the Queen sends greetings (formerly as a telegram) on the 100th birthday and on every birthday starting with the 105th. Centenarians born in Ireland receive a €2,540 "Centenarians' Bounty" and a letter from the President of Ireland, even if they are resident abroad. Japanese centenarians receive a silver cup and a certificate from the Prime Minister of Japan upon their 100th birthday, honouring them for their longevity and prosperity in their lives. Swedish centenarians receive a telegram from the King and Queen of Sweden. Centenarians born in Italy receive a letter from the President of Italy.

An aspect of blessing in many cultures is to offer a wish that the recipient lives to 100. Among Hindus, people who touch the feet of elders are often blessed with "May you live a hundred years". In Sweden, the traditional birthday song states, ''May he/she live for one hundred years.'' In Judaism, the term ''May you live to be 120 years old'' is used for blessing someone. In Poland, ''Sto lat'', a wish to live a hundred years, is a traditional form of praise and good wishes, and the song "sto lat, sto lat" is sang on the occasion of the birthday celebrations--arguably, it is the most popular song in Poland and among Poles around the globe. Chinese emperors were hailed to live ten thousand years, while empresses were hailed to live a thousand years. In Italy, "A hundred of these days!" (''cento di questi giorni'') is an augury for birthdays, to live to celebrate 100 more birthdays. Some Italians say "Cent'anni!", which means "a hundred years", in that they wish that they could all live happily for a hundred years. In Greece, wishing someone Happy Birthday ends with the expression ''na ta ekatostisis'', which can be loosely translated as "may you make it one hundred birthdays".

In Japan, September 15 is "National Respect for the Aged Day".

Centenarians in ancient times

While the density of centenarians per capita was much less in ancient times than today, the data suggest that reaching the age of 100 was not unheard of. However, ancient demographics are biased in favor of wealthy or powerful individuals rather than the ordinary person. Grmek and Gourevitch speculate that during the Classical Greek Period, anyone who made it past the age of five years — surviving all the common childhood illness of that day — had a reasonable chance of living to a ripe old age. Life expectancy at 400 B.C. was estimated to be around 30 years of age. One demographer of ancient civilizations reported that Greek men lived to 45 years (based on a sample size of 91), while women lived to 36.2 years (based on a sample size of 55). Curiously, the gender statistics are inverted compared to today, since child-birth was a much more traumatic experience at that time than now, and it certainly skewed female statistics downward. It was common for average citizens to take great care in their hygiene (sanitation), Mediterranean diet (fish, figs, olive oil, wine, etc.), and exercise program (sports/gymnasium), although there was much more male trauma per capita than today, due to military service being virtually universal for citizens. This also biased the statistics for men downward.

Diogenes Laertius (c. 250) gives one of the earliest references regarding (''plausible'' centenarian) longevity given by a scientist, the astronomer Hipparchus of Nicea (c. 185 – c. 120 B.C.), who, according to the doxographer, ''assured'' that the philosopher Democritus of Abdera (c. 470/460 – c. 370/360 B.C.) lived 109 years. All other accounts about Democritus given by the ancients appear to agree on the fact that the philosopher lived over 100 years. Such longevity would not be dramatically out of line with that of other ancient Greek philosophers thought to have lived beyond the age of 90 (e.g.: Xenophanes of Colophon, c. 570/565 – c. 475/470 B.C.; Pyrrho of Ellis, c. 360 - c. 270 B.C.; Eratosthenes of Cirene c. 285 – c. 190 B.C., etc.). The case of Democritus differs from the case of, for example, Epimenides of Crete (7th, 6th centuries B.C.), who is said to have lived an implausible 154, 157 or 290 years, depending on the source.

The sixth dynasty Egyptian ruler Pepi II is believed by some Egyptologists to have lived to the age of 100 or more (c. 2278 BC - c. 2184 BC), as he ruled for 94 years. However this is under dispute, as others claim the length of his reign was actually 64 years.

The Indian Sufi poet, Kabir (1398-1518?) is believed by some to have lived to an unnatural age of 120 while others believe that he lived for no more than 80 years.

Ultimately, there is no reason to believe that centenarians did not exist 2500 years ago, even if they were not commonplace.

Hosius of Córdoba, the man who convinced Constantine the Great to call the First Council of Nicaea, reportedly lived to age 102.

The ''Chronicon'' of Bernold of Constance records the death in 1097 of ''Azzo marchio de Longobardia, pater Welfonis ducis de Baiowaria'', commenting that he was ''iam maior centenario''.

Conchobar Mac Con Rí of Galway, Ireland, (died 1580), is said to have ''"died at the extraordinary age of two hundred and twenty years"''.

Research into centenarians

Research carried out in Italy suggests that healthy centenarians have high levels of vitamin A and vitamin E and that this seems to be important in guaranteeing their extreme longevity. Other research contradicts this, however, and has found that these findings do not apply to centenarians from Sardinia, for whom other factors probably play a more important role. A preliminary study carried out in Poland showed that, in comparison with young healthy female adults, centenarians living in Upper Silesia had significantly higher red blood cell glutathione reductase and catalase activities and higher, although insignificantly, serum levels of vitamin E. Researchers in Denmark have also found that centenarians exhibit a high activity of glutathione reductase in red blood cells. In this study, those centenarians having the best cognitive and physical functional capacity tended to have the highest activity of this enzyme.

Other research has found that people having parents who became centenarians have an increased number of naïve B cells. It is well known that the children of parents who have a long life are also likely to reach a healthy age, but it is not known why, although the inherited genes are probably important. A variation in the gene FOXO3A is known to have a positive effect on the life expectancy of humans, and is found much more often in people living to 100 and beyond - moreover, this appears to be true worldwide.

Men and women who are 100 or older tend to have something else in common, an extroverted personality, says Thomas T. Perls, M.D., M.P.H., the director of the New England Centenarian Study at Boston University. Centenarians will often have many friends, strong ties to relatives and a healthy dose of self-esteem.

Some research suggests that centenarian offspring are more likely to age in better cardiovascular health than their peers.

In John W. Santrock's book "A Topical Approach to Life-Span Development", there are five factors that research has suggested that are most important to longevity in centenarians: 1) heredity and family history 2) health, i.e. weight, diet, whether or not a person smokes, amount of exercise 3) education level 4) personality 5) lifestyle.

Santrock's book also noted that the largest group of centenarians are women who have never been married. Also, people who have been through traumatic life events, such as Holocaust survivors, learn to cope better with stress and poverty and are more likely to reach centenarian status.

In Okinawa, Japan, studies have shown five factors that have contributed to the large number of centenarians in that region: # A diet that is heavy on grains, fish, and vegetables and light on meat, eggs, and dairy products. # Low-stress lifestyles, which are proven significantly less stressful than that of the mainland inhabitants of Japan. # A caring community, where older adults are not isolated and are taken better care of. # High levels of activity, where locals work until an older age than the average age in other countries, and more emphasis on activities like walking and gardening to keep active. # Spirituality, where a sense of purpose comes from involvement in spiritual matters and prayer eases the mind of stress and problems.

Although these factors vary from those mentioned in the previous study, the culture of Okinawa has proven these factors to be important in its large population of centenarians.

Numbers of centenarians

The total number of centenarians in the world is not well known. It has been estimated by the Population Division of the United Nations as 23,000 in 1950, 110,000 in 1990, 150,000 in 1995, 209,000 in 2000 and 324,000 in 2005. There were an estimated 455,000 centenarians in the world in 2009. But these estimates do not take into account the recent downward adjustments of national estimates made by several countries, such as the United States.

{|class="wikitable" |- !Country !! Latest number of centenarians (year) !! Earliest number of centenarians (year) |- |Australia|| 3,700 (30 June 2010) || 203 (30 June 1971) |- |Belgium|| 1,559 (1 January 2010) || 546 (1990) |- |Brazil|| 23,760 (17 September 2010) || 13.865 (1991) |- |Canada|| 6,530 (1 July 2010) || 3,125 (2001) |- |China || 17,800 (2007) || - |- |Czech Republic || 404 (Nov.2006) || - |- |UK || 11,600 (2009) || 102 (1911) |- |France|| 16,791 (1 January 2011) || 7,754 (1 January 1999) |- |Germany||8,839 (2006)||232 (1885) |- |Italy || 6,313 (2001) || - |- |Japan || 44,449 (September 2010) || 155 (1960) |- |Netherlands|| 1,743 (2010) || 10 (1900) |- |Peru|| 1,682 (7 February 2011) || - |- |Poland|| 2,414 (25 July 2009)|| 500 (1970) |- |South Korea|| 961 (2005) || - |- |Spain || 5,891 (1 January 2009)|| - |- |Switzerland || 796 (2000)|| 10 (1860) |- |USA|| 70,490 (September 2010)|| 2,300 (1950) |}

Centenarian controversy in Japan

In July 2010, a centenarian listed as the oldest living male in Tokyo, registered to be at age of 111, was found to have died some 30 years ago. The body was found mummified in its bed, resulting in the launching of a police investigation regarding centenarians who are over 105.

Soon after the discovery, the Japan police further found that at least 200 Japanese centenarians are missing, with the total likely to rise amid a nationwide search that began in early August 2010. In one case, the remains of a mother thought to be 104 had been stuffed into her son's backpack for nearly a decade.

There are growing concerns that Japan's welfare system can be exploited by unscrupulous family members keen to continue receiving benefits after the pensioners die. In one case, a man received around 9.5 million yen in pension payments despite his wife having died six years previously.

See also

Lists of centenarians

New England Centenarian Study

Okinawa Centenarian Study

Oldest people

Queensland Community Care Network for the 100+ Club

Research into centenarians

References

Further reading

External links

The Okinawa Centenarian Study

New England Centenarian Study

Living to 100 and Beyond: Search for Predictors of Exceptional Human Longevity

Mortality of Centenarians

U.S. politicians who lived the longest

Noted Nonagenarians and Centenarians

Centenarian research & celebration

Table of numbers of centenarians for select nations, 1960 and 1990

Centenarians’ Road

*Centenarians

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