{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.02101967799642218, 'fraction_numerical': 0.0008944543828264759, 'mean_word_length': 5.465317919075145, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Working-class Lesbian Life: Classed Outsiders

Yvette Taylor’s monograph represents an important and timely intervention in sexualities studies. Her qualitative study, based on interviews with over 60 self-identified British working-class lesbians, makes a compelling argument for the need to consider the intersections between socioeconomic class and sexuality. This is an important point to make, given the fact that material inequalities are too often glossed over in sexualities studies, chiefly concerned with issues around identity, lifestyle, consumption and intimacy. By showing how her interviewees’ experiences and identifications are deeply shaped by their class positioning, as well as by their sexuality, Yvette Taylor emphasizes the continued relevance of class, and argues for an approach to sexualities that can account for material inequalities. The book begins with a thorough and nuanced exploration of the literatures on class and sexuality, showing how the two are often disjointed and disconnected. One of the greatest merits of the book lies in its successful attempt to draw together different strands of literature, highlighting gaps and potential links between materialist and queer perspectives on sexuality. Taylor incorporates insights from both into her methodology, drawing on a wide range of theoretical and empirical work, from Bourdieu’s work on classed habitus, to Butler’s theory on the performativity of identity, to studies on sexuality in space. Her approach is certainly innovative in this respect: it gives a fresh outlook on the intersections between sexuality and class, while opening up new directions for future research. The book’s findings are framed within a well-informed and nuanced discussion of current debates in sexualities studies, focusing on insights from research conducted in Britain and the US. However, Taylor’s discussion is never abstracted from the realities of the working-class lesbian women she interviewed, but always firmly grounded in her empirical data. Her writing style is engaging, incisive and to the point, and her approach to her rich data perceptive and sensitive. Her study offers a vivid account of working-class lesbian life: by interspersing her analysis