Sue Alexander - Lesbian clipping collection

Sue Alexander’s interview delves into her extensive lesbian clippings collection, amassed over decades as a personal chronicle of lesbian history and cultural shifts. Conducted at the Lesbian Information, Library, and Archives Centre (LILAC) in Wellington, this discussion explores Alexander’s life experiences and her journey in assembling a collection of thousands of newspaper and magazine clippings documenting lesbian visibility, identity, and social evolution from the 1970s to the 2020s.

Alexander, born in 1949, reflects on her childhood, marked by a sense of difference in a conservative social environment that emphasized traditional gender roles for women. By the 1960s, she found herself increasingly at odds with conventional expectations, encountering early experiences with sexism and rigid norms that prescribed passive roles for women, especially in interactions with men. Through her formative years, Alexander discovered lesbian identity as a path distinct from society’s prescriptive ideals, drawing inspiration from independent and non-conforming women she came across in literature and media. This personal awareness fueled her early interest in gathering clippings, initially on an informal basis.

The collection started taking shape seriously in the early 1990s, reflecting evolving lesbian representation and societal attitudes. Alexander describes her role as a chronicler of lesbian history and the challenges faced in organizing and preserving these materials, especially as print media has dwindled in favor of digital content. The archives provide a unique lens on public perceptions of lesbian identity over the decades, capturing both supportive and sensationalist media coverage, from Hollywood’s portrayal of lesbians to coverage of significant local events and personalities. Alexander observes that mainstream press in New Zealand and beyond has gradually shifted from viewing lesbians as a fringe or scandalous presence to recognizing lesbian identities as part of the social mainstream, particularly following the advent of marriage equality.

The interview captures Alexander’s anecdotes from living abroad in the 1970s, a period marked by liberation and activism in the UK. Alexander attended early meetings of the Gay Liberation Front in London, finding a burgeoning sense of community but also grappling with personal struggles to reconcile societal expectations with her identity. Her account includes vivid recollections of disco culture and social gatherings in a pre-AIDS era, as well as her evolving interactions with other lesbians and gay men.

A pivotal theme is the changing landscape of lesbian identity and community cohesion. Alexander speaks to the increasing fragmentation within the LGBTQ+ community in recent years, noting that some younger lesbians resist labels or identification with older, distinct lesbian spaces. However, there is also a resurgence among some young women seeking dedicated lesbian spaces, both online and in physical spaces like LILAC.

Alexander’s collection, as displayed in her recent exhibitions, functions as both a historical record and a mirror for shifts in social and media representation. The collection includes everything from early portrayals of lesbians in scandalous terms to the celebration of lesbian cultural icons like Ellen DeGeneres and Lucy Lawless. Alexander has organized the clippings chronologically, providing a timeline that demonstrates how media portrayals have moved from sensationalism toward more nuanced visibility, with lesbian relationships depicted in more normalized and varied contexts in recent years.

The interview concludes with reflections on the future of the clippings collection. Alexander hopes to secure a lasting home for the archive, potentially within LILAC or similar organizations, preserving it as a testament to lesbian cultural history for future generations. Despite the challenges of archival work, Alexander is committed to continuing her collection and curating exhibitions that celebrate and interrogate lesbian identity, culture, and media representation.

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Sue Alexander

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