Tonight's #VintageMagTweets come from the American magazine Lesbian Tide, later Tide.

Here is its remit.

I'm not sure who H & T were, but I think this is probably a fair representation of how a lot of conservatives in 1972 regarded lesbians *and* hetero feminists.

Here's some political context. The Vietnam war was still ongoing, and here the magazine talks about a lesbian contingent at one of the protest marches.

Here's how one lesbian was treated by the US police. Blatant homophobia was just fine back then.

However, she fought back in more ways than one.

Here's a shocking statistic. We know that women in the 70s were far more likely than men to be put on heavy duty anti-depressants by uninterested doctors, but I had no idea many were lobotomised.

It was OK to perform lobotomies on women because no one cared or made a fuss, but they didn't dare inflict them on men.

LOOK at the kind of 'mental health' problem they used to address with a lobotomy.

There's every chance that woman was just responding rationally to a miserable, stifling marriage, but that was deemed too disruptive for her husband.

#StepfordWives

It's fine to destroy a woman's creativity because that doesn't matter in a female.

This is where your I-believe-in-ladybrains cod science gets you. Shame on those who still believe this derogatory and harmful rubbish.

The first two female FBI agents ever. Look at how they're described, though!

Apologies, this is out of sequence. Here's another awful clipping about a woman who was treated with a lobotomy, with heartbreaking consequences. But of course that wasn't the doctor's fault.

I don't know whether both sexes were subjected to this appalling and cruel treatment. In texts of the time, 'homosexuals' tends to mean men, but we know that they performed more lobotomies on women, so it's unclear how many lesbians were affected.

I wonder how many youngsters know how dangerous it was to be a lesbian or a gay man in the 70s?

I'd never heard of this, and there's no information to say what kind of adult or child the treatment was used on. Incredibly disturbing, though. People who had this operation must have been left permanently damaged.

Again, though, it seems to have been used on women. So important that they retain their "femininity" during this hideous abuse.

OK, that's enough for tonight. I'll tweet some more on Sunday. If anyone knows any more about the magazine or about the subjects I've mentioned, do chip in.

More #VintageMagTweets from the 70s American magazine Lesbian Tide.

I think this story was briefly referenced in Mrs America.

She did win her case.

But only after an 8-day trial!

They did try to get an all-women jury to judge the case, given that it was about women's bodies, and a women's illness. However, no dice.

And here is Ms Downer after her acquittal.

Imagine trying to legislate against women treating their own bodies!

There's a lot in LT magazine about custody battles. Here two women won the right to keep their children after divorce, but were then told they couldn't live together.

Two female parent figures were "too unusual" to be countenanced.

Meanwhile, in Portugal, three women are jailed for 6 years because their book was critical of the government.

A lesbian describes being threatened at the Pride parade

A reminder of the lack of civil rights women had in America up to the 20thC. Pretty much as in the UK.

The beginnings of women's suffrage in America.

The first American woman votes, and is promptly arrested.

Just as in the UK, women asking for equal rights were painted as unnatural, immoral and home-wreckers.

Some American women got the vote a few years earlier than UK women, but not many.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_suffrage_in_the_United_Kingdom

Meanwhile, back to the 70s and a judge blocks a female teacher's right to back pay. Why had she been sacked in the first place? Because she was a lesbian.

Because at that time, in the US, it was legal to fire people in certain professions for being lesbian or gay.

I'll pause there and tweet some more from this magazine on Thursday. Meanwhile, here's a really cute graphic I thought you'd like. :-)

More from Tide magazine now, the American 70s magazine for lesbians. #VintageMagTweets

These practices used to be legal and widespread.

The CIC was a US organisation that helped lesbian and gay people find employment in an often openly hostile world.

"...employment agencies that are friendly to gays", meaning there were agencies that were clear about being prejudiced against them.

This is so sad: having to use secret codes, and not daring to be open about your personal life.

More ways in which lesbians suffered discrimination.

One woman, sick of sexual harassment and assault, fights back.

I love that she was just imitating an advert for aftershave.

Even though those adverts actually made light of sexual assault.

Bless her.

Here's another woman describing how she and her flatmate scared away an attacker who'd broken in.

I'd have been applauding too.

(Just as a side note here, women navigate violence from men daily. It's so common it very often goes unreported, although I like to think these days more women speak out than they did in the 70s. Even now, though, there's a current of "Well, this stuff just happens to women".)

A more serious, sadder clipping now.

This is why I, and a lot of my generation, can't bring ourselves to use the Q word. To my ears, it will always sound offensive and threatening.

What happens when women do feel confident enough to speak up.

I think this was the genesis of the first rape crisis centre in America. Do correct me if I'm wrong, though.

Meanwhile in France:

A victory: same-sex attraction at last not considered a 'mental illness'.

I admit I didn't know the term had such early origins.

And lastly for tonight, this made me chuckle.

I'll add some more to this thread on Sunday. x

More from the #VintageMagTweets thread on Tide magazine now. Warning: some of the snippets in this thread might be upsetting as they talk about violence and sexual assault against women, and American police brutality. Mute me or unfollow me if you need to. x

The climate of fear under which lesbians and gay men lived in early-70s America.