Abstract
They are sexy, they are hip, they are cool. But are they lesbians? Digital age women-loving-women, gaydies, gay bois, trannie boys eschew the “L word” (i.e. “lesbian”) in post-gay, post-feminist fashion. In this clutch under the queer umbrella, the word “lesbian” is not often used to describe a sexuality where females are attracted to females as life partners. The “girl-on-girl action” is simply that a disempowered performance for the male gaze. If there are masculine (“butch”) lesbians representations, they are of an androgynous “gayboi”—emphasis on boy as opposed to man—or “gay” woman who is “cute butch,” slim hips, funky boy fashion, and nerdy glasses. Caught between butch performance and highly feminine heterosexual fantasy, woman-loving women in the digital sphere are supporting instead of subverting patriarchal sex and gender roles, especially in regards to body image and beauty standards typically applied to heterosexuals. The desire to be accepted and “normal” begets assimilation—and consumption is demanded to assimilate. Young women who access the virtual lesbian community feel the pull of this binary, creating an either/or that harkens back to pre-Stonewall butch/femme and pre-Second Wave feminism discussions of beauty ideals. The contemporary “gay woman” identity eschews the label “lesbian” as too harsh, too feminist, too angry, and too masculine.
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Siebler, K. (2016). Lesbian Chic in the Digital World. In: Learning Queer Identity in the Digital Age. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59950-6_4
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