Creating sexuality : female same-sex subjectivities in Mexico City

This thesis explores the subjectivities of females practicing same-sex sexuality in Mexico City. These subjectivities are here viewed in relationship to recent economic transformations in Mexico and to ideas on gender and sexuality produced by diverse actors such as the gay and lesbian and feminist movements, government programs, the media, and the Catholic Church. While the individual subject is constructed through different dominant ideas, female same-sex sexuality in Mexico, offers an interesting case because most dominant ideas suggest that it cannot exist. Analyzing dominant ideas is, then, not sufficient to understand how subjectivities are constructed. Hegemonic ideas are pieced together to form subjectivities, but meanings on gender and sexuality are also produced by subjects that are here viewed as possessing a creative potential. Subversive ideas are not only considered reactive responses to hegemonic ideals but rather as an active shaping of life to make the everyday experience possible. The presentation of subjectivities here focuses on three main themes: Gender and sexual self-representation; love and sexuality; and, life with the family. The second part of the thesis presents three testimonies that have the potential of challenging fixed definitions of these women's identities and realities. This thesis contributes to the understanding of gender and sexuality in Mexico City from the unexplored location of female same-sex sexuality, and to the understanding of the effects on sexualities and subjectivities of the social and economic changes that have taken place in Mexico during the past decades.