Lipstick lesbian - Definition and Overview

A lipstick lesbian is a traditionally feminine homosexual woman. It is a slang term for a femme lesbian, emerging in the early 1990s. It can be used for any feminine lesbian, but it is usually reserved for feminine women who are attracted to other feminine women.

In American films, the lipstick lesbian stereotype portrays lesbians in a feminine way, to be both politically safer and also more sexually attractive to male viewers.

It can also mean a person who isn't actually lesbian but acts like it, especially in pornography. Women involved in Aristasia are sometimes identified as lipstick lesbians. Aristasians dress in feminine styles, often recalling the 1950s, and situate themselves in an "alternative reality" where the two sexes are blonde and brunette. Aristasian society has been describes as "not so much butch and femme as femme and femmer".

See also: chapstick lesbian.

External link

• Femm Magazine's discussion of lipstick lesbians in films (http://www.femmagazine.com/articles.asp?ID=51)
• The Lipstick Lesbian Page (http://belladonna.org/lipsticklesbian.html)