Lesbian Identities: An Examination of Sexual Behavior and Sex. Role Attribution as Related to Age of Initial Same-Sex Sexual Encounter

To investigate some of the differences among lesbians proposed by Ponse (1978), 43 self-defined lesbians were interviewed and administered questionnaires. Three groups were distinguished on the basis of age of initial lesbian sexual experience, and those in the earliest and latest age groups were compared. Group 1 lesbians engaged in same-sex sexual relations prior to age 17 (perhaps before the establishment of their personal identity), were more sexually active at an earlier age, see themselves as having more stereotypic masculine traits, and define themselves as exclusively homosexual. Group 2 lesbians did not engage in same-sex sexual relations until after the age 20, were typically emotionally involved heterosexually prior to defining themselves as lesbians, and may be somewhat bisexual in activity. Both groups see themselves as being high in stereotypic feminine traits and have fairly active heterosexual histories. The heterogeneous nature of the "coming out" process for lesbians and its implications for future research are discussed.     

The Varied Trajectories of Engaged Buddhism: New Works on Buddhist Environmental Ethics,Interdependence, and Racial Karma

This book discussion reads three works in contemporary Buddhist social ethics alongside one another: Ogyen Trinley Dorje’s Interconnected, David Loy’s Ecodharma, and Larry Ward’s America’s Racial Karma. Each of these works contributes to the subfield of engaged Buddhism, which aims to bring Buddhist value theory to contemporary social and political issues in order to effect social change. The rapid development of engaged Buddhism constitutes a particularly rich moment in the history of Buddhist thought, as Buddhist ethics is showing itself to be actively in process—a tradition in the midst of rapid transformation, revision, and cross-cultural application. This book discussion interrogates these three works with that metaphilosophical and historiographical issue in mind, analyzing the particular ways in which they contribute to challenging and reshaping the traditional contours of Buddhist ethics into a contemporary social and political register. In exemplifying the approaches of translation, extending, and applying, these works demonstrate the creative and experimental moment in which Buddhist social ethics finds itself today. Such adaptations of the Buddhist tradition are historiographically significant as innovations, while also of a piece with Buddhism’s history of intercultural transmission.