What a Lesbian Looks Like
Aly Eber
Issue date: 2/2/09 Section: Vanities
In the age of Katy Perry's "I Kissed a Girl," Lindsay Lohan coming out to the tabloids, and shows like The L Word, the word 'lesbian' has become about as trendy as Cabbage Patch Kids. Our generation has been exposed to a kind of commercial lesbianism that poses as tolerance, but in fact only trivializes LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender) issues. Every time Perry's lyrics enter the airwaves, they diminish the ability of every girl, gay or straight, to define herself. Personally, I don't want Katy Perry, or anyone else, to tell me who I am. In fact, I challenge these pop culture outlets to accurately define any group that comprises nearly 2% of the female population.
The Myths
This trendy lesbianism has brought about a series of interesting, confusing and sometimes plainly ridiculous myths that have engulfed the lesbian image. These are my Big Three:
"Lesbians Are Hot" …or not
I've overheard the sentence "lesbians are hot" twelve times since I decided to write this article in September. We don't need any data on this one, right? This makes no sense. Literally. None whatsoever. I apologize for stating the obvious here, but of course not every lesbian can be attractive. What are people trying to say when this sentence comes clumsily falling out of their mouths? If what they mean is "I like seeing attractive women making out on YouTube," let's say that. I know it's less eloquent, but it actually has some substantive meaning, whether you agree with the message it sends or not.
There's also another side to this, however. Don't forget the butch stereotype! Though it seems to have dropped dramatically in popularity as the first thing people think of when they picture a stereotypical lesbian since the 1980s and 1990s, the butch stereotype is still important to analyze as a point of contrast. Why do we think lesbians are either femme (and therefore stereotypically female) or butch (and therefore stereotypically male)? This is a product of the fact that our world is built around heterosexual relationships and, by extension, everything must fit into one of two camps: male or female. As an already-misunderstood group strives to make itself known, our society tries to cram it into a mold in which it does not fit, like trying to push the triangle block through the square hole. Lesbians, just like everyone else, come in all shapes, sizes, and colors, so let's take "lesbians are ______" out of our vocabulary.
Women "become" lesbians because of bad experiences they had with men.
A 1990 study of lesbian and straight female students done at McGill University found no correlation between traumatic heterosexual experiences (molestation, rape, abuse, incest, etc.) in a woman's life and her sexual orientation. Rather, most women shared that they originally thought they might be gay because of a positive attraction to women, not because of any negative feelings towards men. In fact, some studies show that it takes longer for women to discover their sexuality, so it is not uncommon for a woman to not realize she is a lesbian until her late 20s or even early 30s.
Sexuality is Determined by a "Gay Gene"
This myth inspires discussion of whether or not a woman's sexual orientation is encoded in her genes. While the jury is not still out on this one, it is important to realize that there's no clear answer one way or the other-in 1993, Dean Hamer published a study in Science magazine claiming that there is evidence that points towards a gene that determines a person's sexual orientation. It is important to realize, however, that there is absolutely nothing conclusive about this study. The type of work they did is called a Gene Linkage Study, which picks out a variant of chromosome that occurs frequently within a family, and then compares it to the frequency of homosexuality within that same family. What they found is a mere correlation, of which there are many more of its kind. Any firm conclusion one way or the other about the so-called "gay gene" is, so far, a myth. This is not to say that there is definitely no chemical or genetic component that determines a person's sexual orientation, but only that making it a fundamental piece of a discussion about sexuality is unfounded and misguided.
How We Got Here
So what lead us to a place where all we know of lesbianism can be boiled down to a few celebrities and a few unsupported myths? It hasn't always been this way. Jon Savage, a renowned writer and music journalist, wrote in 1990 that, though "popular music acknowledges the sign of 'gayness,' there is not yet a whisper of female sexual autonomy, of lesbianism." What we see today, perhaps, was born out of the fact that gay women were looking to see people they could identify with in popular culture and weren't quite finding it.
Here's my theory: Imagine, for a moment, a train (bear with me). Gay women wanted to start seeing people they could identify with and they wanted it quickly. That desire got the train moving. Their passion and enthusiasm helped the train to pick up speed (i.e. good movie revenues and TV ratings). The business became very profitable very quickly, and the train began to hurtle down the tracks with no sign of stopping. Seeing its momentum, people began to see lesbian culture as a business opportunity, forming it into what mainstream society felt it should look like. Profit became the driving force. Now there's no one person who can apply the brakes and stop these perverted images that do not represent who these individual women are. That is where we stand at this moment.
Where We're Going
Don't be discouraged! Our current situation isn't all bad for two primary reasons: first, any publicity is good publicity, right? Lesbianism has essentially come out of the closet in the last 15 or 20 years and made itself known to the world through whatever means possible. This is an important first step because it's impossible to get someone to be interested in what you have to say about an issue if they know nothing about it.
Second, people are getting mad! Consider the African-American Civil Rights Movement. Change came when people got angry, when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat, when Ruby Bridges held her head high past mobs of racists on her way to school or when Martin Luther King Jr. organized the March on Washington. The lesbian community is getting angry and beginning to mobilize, which has historically consistently resulted in more equality among people. Don't fight that anger, because that anger is the future of the United States.
The Myths
This trendy lesbianism has brought about a series of interesting, confusing and sometimes plainly ridiculous myths that have engulfed the lesbian image. These are my Big Three:
"Lesbians Are Hot" …or not
I've overheard the sentence "lesbians are hot" twelve times since I decided to write this article in September. We don't need any data on this one, right? This makes no sense. Literally. None whatsoever. I apologize for stating the obvious here, but of course not every lesbian can be attractive. What are people trying to say when this sentence comes clumsily falling out of their mouths? If what they mean is "I like seeing attractive women making out on YouTube," let's say that. I know it's less eloquent, but it actually has some substantive meaning, whether you agree with the message it sends or not.
There's also another side to this, however. Don't forget the butch stereotype! Though it seems to have dropped dramatically in popularity as the first thing people think of when they picture a stereotypical lesbian since the 1980s and 1990s, the butch stereotype is still important to analyze as a point of contrast. Why do we think lesbians are either femme (and therefore stereotypically female) or butch (and therefore stereotypically male)? This is a product of the fact that our world is built around heterosexual relationships and, by extension, everything must fit into one of two camps: male or female. As an already-misunderstood group strives to make itself known, our society tries to cram it into a mold in which it does not fit, like trying to push the triangle block through the square hole. Lesbians, just like everyone else, come in all shapes, sizes, and colors, so let's take "lesbians are ______" out of our vocabulary.
Women "become" lesbians because of bad experiences they had with men.
A 1990 study of lesbian and straight female students done at McGill University found no correlation between traumatic heterosexual experiences (molestation, rape, abuse, incest, etc.) in a woman's life and her sexual orientation. Rather, most women shared that they originally thought they might be gay because of a positive attraction to women, not because of any negative feelings towards men. In fact, some studies show that it takes longer for women to discover their sexuality, so it is not uncommon for a woman to not realize she is a lesbian until her late 20s or even early 30s.
Sexuality is Determined by a "Gay Gene"
This myth inspires discussion of whether or not a woman's sexual orientation is encoded in her genes. While the jury is not still out on this one, it is important to realize that there's no clear answer one way or the other-in 1993, Dean Hamer published a study in Science magazine claiming that there is evidence that points towards a gene that determines a person's sexual orientation. It is important to realize, however, that there is absolutely nothing conclusive about this study. The type of work they did is called a Gene Linkage Study, which picks out a variant of chromosome that occurs frequently within a family, and then compares it to the frequency of homosexuality within that same family. What they found is a mere correlation, of which there are many more of its kind. Any firm conclusion one way or the other about the so-called "gay gene" is, so far, a myth. This is not to say that there is definitely no chemical or genetic component that determines a person's sexual orientation, but only that making it a fundamental piece of a discussion about sexuality is unfounded and misguided.
How We Got Here
So what lead us to a place where all we know of lesbianism can be boiled down to a few celebrities and a few unsupported myths? It hasn't always been this way. Jon Savage, a renowned writer and music journalist, wrote in 1990 that, though "popular music acknowledges the sign of 'gayness,' there is not yet a whisper of female sexual autonomy, of lesbianism." What we see today, perhaps, was born out of the fact that gay women were looking to see people they could identify with in popular culture and weren't quite finding it.
Here's my theory: Imagine, for a moment, a train (bear with me). Gay women wanted to start seeing people they could identify with and they wanted it quickly. That desire got the train moving. Their passion and enthusiasm helped the train to pick up speed (i.e. good movie revenues and TV ratings). The business became very profitable very quickly, and the train began to hurtle down the tracks with no sign of stopping. Seeing its momentum, people began to see lesbian culture as a business opportunity, forming it into what mainstream society felt it should look like. Profit became the driving force. Now there's no one person who can apply the brakes and stop these perverted images that do not represent who these individual women are. That is where we stand at this moment.
Where We're Going
Don't be discouraged! Our current situation isn't all bad for two primary reasons: first, any publicity is good publicity, right? Lesbianism has essentially come out of the closet in the last 15 or 20 years and made itself known to the world through whatever means possible. This is an important first step because it's impossible to get someone to be interested in what you have to say about an issue if they know nothing about it.
Second, people are getting mad! Consider the African-American Civil Rights Movement. Change came when people got angry, when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat, when Ruby Bridges held her head high past mobs of racists on her way to school or when Martin Luther King Jr. organized the March on Washington. The lesbian community is getting angry and beginning to mobilize, which has historically consistently resulted in more equality among people. Don't fight that anger, because that anger is the future of the United States.
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