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Home and Sexuality

The 'Other' Side of the Kitchen

Palgrave Macmillan
  • Presents experiences of a group of lesbians over 5 years
  • Explores the multiple meanings of homes across cultures
  • Looks at the domestic kitchen across time

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Table of contents (9 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xi
  2. The Political Liveliness of the Domestic

    • Rachael M Scicluna
    Pages 243-252
  3. Home and Sexuality

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 27-27
    2. The Domestic Kitchen across Time

      • Rachael M Scicluna
      Pages 53-81
  4. The Domestic as a Tool for Ethnographic Inquiry

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 83-83
    2. Towards Alternative Domesticities

      • Rachael M Scicluna
      Pages 85-116
  5. The ‘Other’ Side of the Kitchen

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 147-147
    2. Turning the Tables: Generational Domestic Battles

      • Rachael M Scicluna
      Pages 183-216
  6. Back Matter

    Pages 253-275

About this book

This book explores the meanings and experiences of home among a group of lesbians who over the past five decades have sought to create alternative intimate and public living spaces. The protagonists who enact the ethnographic narrative are a small group of older lesbians, mainly feminist activists, residing in the metropolis of London. The meaning of home and domestic space emerges from unique life histories informed by the wider social and political context, and moves from the earliest memories of their childhood kitchens to their contemporary domestic lives.

Leaping from the radical lesbian feministcollectives and squats of the 1980s to the ordinariness of home life, the kitchen emerged as a tangle of cultural norms, customs, duties, ideas, aspirations, expectations, and values that tells us about the thinking process and behaviour of this specific group of older lesbians. In this context, the kitchen brings out the experiences of social inequalities experienced by these older lesbians, mainly brought out by the hegemonic institution of heteronormativity and patriarchy.

This ethnography will be of interest to students and scholars across a range of disciplines in anthropology, sociology, geography and feminism.

Authors and Affiliations

  • School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent, United Kingdom

    Rachael M Scicluna

About the author

Rachael M Scicluna is a Lecturer in Social Anthropology at the School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent, UK. 

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Home and Sexuality

  • Book Subtitle: The 'Other' Side of the Kitchen

  • Authors: Rachael M Scicluna

  • Series Title: Palgrave Macmillan Studies in Family and Intimate Life

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-46038-7

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan London

  • eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-137-46037-0Published: 26 July 2017

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-1-349-68976-7Published: 04 November 2020

  • eBook ISBN: 978-1-137-46038-7Published: 12 July 2017

  • Series ISSN: 2731-6440

  • Series E-ISSN: 2731-6459

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XI, 275

  • Number of Illustrations: 18 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: Gender Studies, Family, Sociology of Family, Youth and Aging

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 79.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 105.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 99.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access