Disrupt and Disentangle by Louise Morley

I’m an academic moving (slowly) into writing fiction. Why? I get so frustrated whenever I get the rare opportunity to read fiction myself. So many of the literary hot reads are profoundly heteronormative and bereft of characters who come anywhere near my experiences, feelings, aspirations. The LGBTQAI+ community, when allowed to enter, is also often represented in simplistic, monochromatic ways, with limited opportunities to intersect sexuality with other structures of inequality such as age and social class. And yet our lesbian lives are so diverse, rich and complex, and overflowing with dramatic opportunities! There is also an abundance of comic gold! The dating scene itself is like a gripping detective novel – trying to work out what on earth is happening and whether these people are really who they say they are!

I attempt to include different sources of knowledge and data in my writing. I’m a sociologist who has worked on five continents. I’m a public speaker, researcher, and academic writer – mainly on the topics of power, inclusion, equality, difference, and diversity. But I am also active on the lesbian scenes in London and Brighton, and regularly encounter situations that intrigue, puzzle, and excite me. They are screaming out to be explored, analysed, and narrated. I often find myself drawing on theories of micropolitics – that is how power gets relayed, withheld, and communicated through everyday practices, exclusions, coalitions, and language. It can often be via throwaway remarks that people reveal information about themselves, for example. I find that my sociological imagination can be extremely helpful in analysing the complexities that lie behind surface presentations.

But it also provokes accusations from some people that I overthink – something that I hotly deny. Critical thinking is central to my existence, and I won’t apologise for this feature! I also try to bring my insights from therapy into my understandings of relationships, anxieties, and responses. All around me, I hear platitudes, binaries, and certainties that I want to disrupt and disentangle. I used to try and provoke and stimulate in my academic writing and keynote presentations. Now I am aiming to do this via my storytelling. Join me?

Louise Morley’s story, Dear Lesbopops, is in SapphFic Eclectic, volume 5.