Discussing Lesbian In/Visibility: A Scoping Review

Abstract

This study aims to understand the discussions surrounding lesbian in/visibility in the scientific literature. After a careful study selection process, we analyzed 19 articles on the dynamics and negotiations lesbians make with in/visibility. We then carried out a scoping review and, through thematic analysis, we found four main themes: (1) The need for visibility; (2) Negotiations with in/visibility; (3) Representativity; and (4) Beyond the visibility/invisibility dichotomy. This scoping review emphasizes that both visibility and invisibility are ambiguous and often overlapping concepts and that the relationship between them is complex and multifaceted. While dominant activist discourses of lesbian visibility might open possibilities for lesbian existence, it is also important to question who are the lesbian subjects that can become visible and consider the negotiations they are willing to make with in/visibility. Criteria for lesbian social legibility are embedded in homonormativity, ideals of respectable citizenship, and neoliberalism, resulting in multiple exclusions in the stride for legitimization. When the dichotomy visibility/invisibility is problematized, visibility politics fall short, and places of invisibility can also be regarded as places of subversive agency.