Lesbian Potentiality and Feminist Media in the 1970s

“Jed Samer reworks the genealogy of contemporary feminist, queer, and trans cultural politics in this fascinating foray into the futures envisioned by speculative lesbian literature and media half a century ago. It’s brilliant, generative, and timely.” - Susan Stryker, Executive Editor,, TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly

“Feminist documentary and science fiction: they nourish so many of our lives in tandem, but we so often study them separately. By merging the perspectives of the scholar, maker, and fan while traversing spaces from the archive to the convention hall and refining ideas as elegant as their gorgeous prose, Jed Samer is the perfect person to conduct this tour of the distinctive yet deeply overlapping legacies of these genres and the people who made them possible.” - Nick Davis, author of The Desiring-Image: Gilles Deleuze and Contemporary Queer Cinema

“Samer’s excellent book . . . is relevant to contemporary 21C debates on who may and who may not claim to be a lesbian but, more significantly, the range of its scope, imagination, and ambition far exceeds the narrow and prescriptive terms in which such debates are framed by the British media."

"Samer puts forward a new theory of lesbian media history as offering alternative visions of sexual and gendered life, visions that emerge from concrete experiences of lesbian conviviality, including the film screening, video workshop, and fan newsletter. . . . Freed from the burden of being a precedent for feminists and queer people 'today,' lesbian media in this book are allowed to be expansive, messy. . . . Samer’s rich archival research shines throughout the book. . . ." - Cait McKinney, Journal of Cinema and Media Studies

"Samer’s work creates new ground for feminist sf scholarship, deeply contextualizing the importance of lesbian feminist fannish productions in the 1970s. . . . A valuable source for those interested in exploring feminist fan histories. It would also be suitable in courses exploring feminist sf, gender, and sexuality studies." - Kathryn Heffner, Science Fiction Studies

"The writing of the core chapters becomes progressively more captivating throughout, and the chapters read together well, though they each will also draw specific audiences. The author’s writing brings even the most recently converted sci-fi and avant-garde neophyte (I wave) up to speed quickly." - Jack Jen Gieseking, Women's Studies Quarterly