Love under the Coloured Flag: Meaning and Expression of Love and Relationships in a Changing Socio-Cultural and Political Environment. A Case Study of Self-Defined Lesbians in Guadalajara

Abstract

In this thesis I formulated a theoretical, contextual and empirical explanation for the connection between the socio-cultural and political context and the expression of and meaning attributed to female same-sex love and relationships. My expectation was that certain factors, regarding their sexual preferences, experienced on the contextual social, cultural and political level, influence not only how lesbians define love, but also which meaning is attributed to their love and relationships. This thesis focuses on this issue in the direct context of Guadalajara. The following central research question was employed: 'how can the meaning and expression that young lesbians in Guadalajara attribute to love and relationships, be explained from the experienced socio-cultural and political context regarding their sexual preferences?