CONSTR(I)(U)CTING LESBIAN IDENTITIES IN PHYSICAL-EDUCATION - FEMINISTAND POSTSTRUCTURAL APPROACHES TO RESEARCHING SEXUALITY

The article explores some assumptions and limitations of current resea rch about lesbians in physical education. Research has explored the id entity management strategies used by lesbian teachers (Griffin, 1992b; Sparkes, 1994; Woods, 1992), based upon liberal and radical feminist assumptions that a ''lesbian identity'' exists in some essential form (Jaggar, 1988). Materialist feminist theory refuses any ''essential'' lesbian identity, but acknowledges the social construction of particul ar lesbian identities within specific historical conditions, illustrat ed in the work of Cahn (1994). Poststructural theorists (Bryson & de C astell, 1993; Butler, 1990; Pronger, 1990, 1992) also reject the exist ence of essentialized identities, and argue instead that ''effects'' o f sexualities are continually being performed at the surface of the bo dy. I argue this poststructural assumption, that lesbian identities do not really exist, is compatible with a politics ''as if'' they existe d (Riley, 1988). Finally, the paper calls for a shift in research focu s away from individual lesbian identity toward how institutional disco urses constrict and construct lesbian identities.