The availability of lesbian role models positively influences a lesbian’s ability to accept herself. So what happens when all lesbian-specific media outlets close down and all that’s left are ‘queer’ websites that don’t acknowledge the definition of ‘lesbian’? That’s if the word gets written in the first place.
If everyone who self-identifies as lesbian can be one, even if they don’t meet the definition–even if they are male or experience male attraction–then how is it possible to represent female homosexuals?
As lesbian news and culture websites like After Ellen struggle to survive, more general LGBT platforms thrive. It’s not cool to be specific today. In fact, it’s ‘exclusionary’. If you don’t identify as the all-inclusive ‘queer’, which could mean anything from transgender to a kinky heterosexual, then you’re ‘on the wrong side of history’.
Reminding everybody that ‘female homosexual’ is the definition of lesbianism will incite rage from all non-lesbians who feel entitled to the word. You will be accused of ‘dog whistling’ anybody who has enough dignity to not relinquish material reality. Essentially, you will be guilted and shamed into pretending ‘lesbian’ doesn’t describe a coherent class of people.
Treating the LGBT as a political ‘queer’ monolith harms homosexuals, especially female homosexuals, the most. How?
- ‘Queer’ connotes fluidity, which is considered more ‘enlightened’ by the ‘queer community’. Homosexuals don’t experience any attraction to the opposite sex, even if they might have attempted sex with them pre-accepting their sexual orientation. Heteronormaitivity is real. But if an attraction to the opposite sex actually exists, even if it lays dormant for years at a time, that’s bisexuality babes.
- ‘Queer’ connotes an intention to subvert heterosexuality, as if homosexuality is a choice to buck the heteronormative system. I love a good revolution as much as the next lesbian, but a lesbian couple with a suburban white picket fence and two cats are way more revolutionary than a kinky heterosexual couple calling themselves ‘queer’ because they go to furry conventions.
- ‘Queer’ still means strange and odd in a bad way. My rural family don’t know it has been ‘reclaimed’ by some gay people and is used as an umbrella term for all of us without our consent. They just know me as a lesbian because that’s what I am. When they say ‘what a queer hat!’ they aren’t making a derogatory comment about gay fashion, they’re saying the hat is bizarre in a bad way. Not unique. Not cool. Not hip. Not trendy. Queer.
The word ‘lesbian’ is barely used by the most popular LGBT news and culture websites. Same-sex female representation is scarce in general. Want proof? Go onto a popular “LGBTQI+” media website. Count how many times you see the word ‘lesbian’ in the title. Count how many times you see references to anything female/female. Count how many times you see the word ‘gay’. Count how many times you see references to anything male/male. Count how many times you see the word ‘queer’. Count how many times you see the word ‘trans’. Count how many times trans or nonbinary people are represented.
Let’s look at Pink News, “the world’s largest and most influential LGBTQ+ media brand.” The website’s ‘latest’ page shows the 20 most recently published articles. These are the statistics:
- ‘Lesbian’ mention: 0
- Female/Female relationship representation: 0
- ‘Gay’ mention: 1
- Male/Male relationship representation: 5
- ‘Queer’ mention: 2
- ‘Trans’ mention: 6
- Trans representation: 10
Pink News promotes inclusivity at all costs… except when it’s to include lesbians (or even female relationships!). Lesbians aren’t seen to be oppressed. Our liberation isn’t on trend. It probably never will be: not only are we homosexual–not ‘enlightened’ or ‘inclusive’ enough to force ourselves to have sex we can’t enjoy with males–but we’re also women. The definition of our sexual orientation is built upon female exclusivity. What threatens patriarchy more?
Maybe Pink News is the only LGBT media site that excludes lesbians. Let’s have a look at Out Magazine: “Gay & Lesbian Travel, Fashion, Culture & Politics.” Good sign that it puts ‘lesbian’ in its bio! This site advertises that it’s 50% for lesbians! What about its latest 20 articles?
- ‘Lesbian’ mention: 0
- Female/Female relationship representation: 2
- ‘Gay’ mention: 4
- Male/Male relationship representation: 16
- ‘Queer’ mention: 2
- ‘Trans’ mention: 0
- Trans representation: 2
A website that focuses on gay & lesbian media represents trans people as much as it represents female/female relationships. In fact, the website mentioned straight people–not even part of the LGBT–more than lesbians. At least gay men have got a website catered to them, I guess.
Let’s try one more website that’s supposed to represent lesbians as an equal member of the LGBT. One out of three ain’t bad. The Advocate: “The world’s leading source of LGBT news and information.” I wonder if Pink News knows it’s not the only media site claiming to be the best LGBT media site in the world. Anyway. You know the drill. The last 20 articles for the advocate:
- ‘Lesbian’ mention: 0
- Female/Female relationship representation: 1
- ‘Gay’ mention: 1
- Male/Male relationship representation: 5
- ‘Queer’ mention: 1
- ‘Trans’ mention: 6
- Trans representation: 7
I’m tired. The word ‘lesbian’ was not in the title of 60 articles across three major LGBT news sites. In fact, one website was only meant for gay men and lesbians but somehow managed to represent bisexual and trans people equally or more than lesbians.
A same-sex attracted female, character or relationship was mentioned or alluded to three times across 60 articles. That’s only 11 per cent compared to how many times gay men and their relationships were represented: 26.
Trans people were represented 633% more than female same-sex relationships, even though one website was made for lesbian and gay people only. The word ‘trans’ was written in the title of 12 articles out of 60. The word ‘lesbian’? None.
Lesbians are downright gaslit into being told that they’re fictionalizing the added marginalization and exclusion we face within the LGBT. The very definition of who we are is labelled ‘exclusionary’ and bigoted and biphobic and transphobic, as if we intentionally ban male people from our dating pool. As if we SHOULD force ourselves to have sex we can’t consent to, or enjoy, in order to be ‘inclusive’. As if we SHOULD give up our only word for any appropriator feeling entitled to it.
There’s a silver lining: If your liberation isn’t flavor of the week; if you’re not being represented in the media; if your class is being redefined through penetrative intimidation; then chances are that you challenge what’s normalized and empowered more than any heterosexual ‘queer’ couple at a drug-fueled sex party ever could.
Challenging the definitive material reality of an oppressed class is tyrannical however you look at it. “Lesbianism can’t be real because God made women to sleep with men and procreate,” and, “Lesbianism is exclusionary because lesbians can’t be attracted to male bodies, even if they identify as women,” is equally lesbophobic. You can’t change homosexuality and expect your excuse to be ‘valid’. Homophobia does not discriminate. It manifests itself in every community. It is always dangerous.
Lesbian-specific media is a necessity for the ongoing documentation of lesbian culture. You cannot trust other LGBT publications to represent lesbians when they currently do not… and it’s not getting any more ‘trendy’ to do so. Lesbianism is marginalized among the LGBT, as well as the rest of society, for being a sexual orientation that does not include males, even in attraction. It is not fluid nor open for interpretation. It is clear. Female homosexuality. We must represent ourselves if we want any representation. That’s why we must support lesbian news and culture websites.
