Jacqueline S. Weinstock

The Listening Partners Program: An Initiative Toward Feminist Community Psychology in Action

The Listening Partners intervention is described and analyzed as a synthesis of feminism and community psychology, within a developmental framework. Working from an empowerment perspective, this social action, peer group intervention supported a community of poor, rural, isolated, young, White mothers to gain a greater voice, claim the powers of their minds, and collaborate in developmental leadership—creating settings that promote their own development and that of their families, peers, and communities. High quality dialogue, individual and group narrative, and collaborative problem-solving were emphasized, in a feminist context affirming diversity, inclusiveness, strengths, social-contextual analyses, and social constructivist perspectives. The power of enacting a synergy of feminism and community psychology is highlighted.

Lesbian FLEX-ibility

Abstract Lesbian ex-lover relationships have frequently been noted as unique phenomena, yet they have received little empirical or theoretical attention. In this article, the available literature on lesbian ex-lovers is examined, as are possible factors and/or motivations among lesbians for maintaining ties with ex-lovers, and especially for constructing close friend and/or family connections among lesbian ex-lovers-what the author calls FLEX relationships. Three main types of factors/motivations are identified: (a) those that reflect a problematic developmental perspective, (b) contextual influences (such as lesbians’ oppression as lesbians and women, socialization as girls and women, and the tendency for same-sex friendships), and (c) constructive challenges to traditional relational forms, family patterns and/or adult development models that offer alternative models for adult lives and relationships. Finally, the author considers the importance of attending to the ex-lover relational form and future directions this attention might take, closing with consideration of the implications for all of us-whatever our sexualities and gender identities-that may be drawn from telling constructive stories of friend/family relationships among lesbian ex-lovers.

Building Bridges: Examining Lesbians' and Heterosexual Women's Close Friendships with Each Other

Abstract Friendships between lesbians and heterosexual women were explored using a sample of 47 mostly White women (23 lesbians and 24 heterosexual women), ages 18 to 25, that reported at least one close lesbian-heterosexual woman friendship. A majority of participants indicated that friendships between lesbians and heterosexual women had both uniquely positive and negative aspects that could be attributed to the difference in sexual identity. Positive aspects included socio-emo-tional benefits, opportunities for learning, and societal benefits. Negative aspects included anxiety about sexuality, doubts regarding mutual understanding, clashes of perspectives and experience, and societal stressors. Implications of the findings for challenging current social inequities associated with sexual identities were explored.

The Politics of Prevention: Community Women as Leaders in the Developmental Tradition

We point to controversy surrounding the politics of prevention and examine factors that contribute to the resistance to acknowledge politics as prevention in the mental health arena. We argue that politics, and specifically what we call community leadership in the developmental tradition, is a critically important approach to prevention.

Bisexual Women's Friendship Experiences

SUMMARY While filling in some gaps in the literature and successfully expanding the discourse on friendships to include bisexual and bi-curious womens friendships, Bisexual Women: Friendship and Social Organization also raises a diversity of issues and poses several challenges for of research and theorizing on friendships. Three of these challenges are explored in this chapter: (1) conceptualizing sexual identities in friendship dyadic research; (2) the potentially positive and negative roles friends may play in each others lives and in the dynamics of privilege and oppression; and (3) narrowing the lines between friends and lovers.

Just friends: The role of friendship in lesbians' lives

When we co-edited the book Lesbian Friendships in 1996, we wanted to focus more attention on the functions and meanings of friendships among lesbians. We asked lesbians to write about the ways in w...