Chic and popular culture The August 1993 cover of Vanity Fair that marked the arrival of lesbian chic as a social phenomenon in the 1990s. Female homosexual behavior may be present in every culture, although the concept of a lesbian as a woman who pairs exclusively with other women is not. Attitudes about female homosexual behavior are dependent upon women's roles in each society and each culture's definition of sex. Women in the Middle East have been historically segregated from men. In the 7th and 8th centuries, some extraordinary women dressed in male attire when gender roles were less strict, but the sexual roles that accompanied European women were not associated with Islamic women. The Caliphal court in Baghdad featured women who dressed as men, including false facial hair, but they competed with other women for the attentions of men. [153] [154]

a b Elman, Amy (Winter 1996–97). "Triangles and Tribulations: The Gay Appropriation of Nazi Symbols" (PDF). Trouble & Strife (34): 62–66 . Retrieved 12 June 2021. An earlier version of this article appeared in Journal of Homosexuality, Vol. 30, issue 3, 1996. ( doi: 10.1300/J082v30n03_01. PMID 8743114. ISSN 0091-8369.) The word lesbian is the demonym of the Greek island of Lesbos, home to the 6th-centuryBCE poet Sappho. [3] From various ancient writings, historians gathered that a group of young women were left in Sappho's charge for their instruction or cultural edification. [9] Little of Sappho's poetry survives, but her remaining poetry reflects the topics she wrote about: women's daily lives, their relationships, and rituals. She focused on the beauty of women and proclaimed her love for girls. [10] Before the mid-19th century, [11] the word lesbian referred to any derivative or aspect of Lesbos, including a type of wine. [b] Within racial communities, the decision to come out can be costly, as the threat of loss of support from family, friends, and the community at large is probable. Lesbians of color are often exposed to a range of adverse consequences, including microaggression, discrimination, menace, and violence. [316] See also Women in homosexual relationships in Europe and the United States responded to the discrimination and repression either by hiding their personal lives, or accepting the label of outcast and creating a subculture and identity. Following World WarII, during a period of social repression when governments actively persecuted homosexuals, women developed networks to socialize with and educate each other. Gaining greater economic and social freedom allowed them to determine how they could form relationships and families. With second-wave feminism and the growth of scholarship in women's history and sexuality in the late 20th century, the definition of lesbian broadened, leading to debate about the term's use. While research by Lisa M. Diamond identified sexual desire as the core component for defining lesbians, [8] [a] some women who engage in same-sex sexual activity may reject not only identifying as lesbians but as bisexual as well. Other women's self-identification as lesbian may not align with their sexual orientation or sexual behavior. Sexual identity is not necessarily the same as one's sexual orientation or sexual behavior, due to various reasons, such as the fear of identifying their sexual orientation in a homophobic setting.In the United States, the 1920s was a decade of social experimentation, particularly with sex. This was heavily influenced by the writings of Sigmund Freud, who theorized that sexual desire would be sated unconsciously, despite an individual's wish to ignore it. Freud's theories were much more pervasive in the U.S. than in Europe. With the well-publicized notion that sexual acts were a part of lesbianism and their relationships, sexual experimentation was widespread. Large cities that provided a nightlife were immensely popular, and women began to seek out sexual adventure. Bisexuality became chic, particularly in America's first gay neighborhoods. [100] In a rare instance of sexuality being the focus of a romantic friendship, two Scottish schoolteachers in the early 19th century were accused by a student of visiting in the same bed, kissing, and making the bed shake. The student's grandmother reported the teachers to the authorities, who were skeptical that their actions were sexual in nature, or that they extended beyond the bounds of normal friendship: "Are we to say that every woman who has formed an intimate friendship and has slept in the same bed with another is guilty? Where is the innocent woman in Scotland?" [73]

Etymology Sappho of Lesbos, depicted here in a 1904 painting by John William Godward, gave the term lesbian the connotation of erotic desire between women. The most extensive early study of female homosexuality was provided by the Institute for Sex Research, who published an in-depth report of the sexual experiences of American women in 1953. More than 8,000 women were interviewed by Alfred Kinsey and the staff of the Institute for Sex Research in a book titled Sexual Behavior in the Human Female, popularly known as part of the Kinsey Report. The Kinsey Report's dispassionate discussion of homosexuality as a form of human sexual behavior was revolutionary. Up to this study, only physicians and psychiatrists studied sexual behavior, and almost always the results were interpreted with a moral view. [193]

According to the 12th-century writings of Sharif al-Idrisi, highly intelligent women were more likely to be lesbians; their intellectual prowess put them on a more even par with men. [153] Relations between women who lived in harems and fears of women being sexually intimate in Turkish baths were expressed in writings by men. Women were mostly silent, and men likewise rarely wrote about lesbian relationships. It is unclear to historians if the rare instances of lesbianism mentioned in literature are an accurate historical record or intended to serve as fantasies for men. A 1978 treatise about repression in Iran asserted that women were completely silenced: "In the whole of Iranian history, [no woman] has been allowed to speak out for such tendencies ... To attest to lesbian desires would be an unforgivable crime." [153] a b Esterberg, Kristin Gay (1990). "From illness to action: Conceptions of homosexuality in The Ladder, 1956–1965". Journal of Sex Research. 27 (1): 65–80. doi: 10.1080/00224499009551542. Main articles: List of television shows with LGBT characters and Lists of American television episodes with LGBT themes

Some Indigenous peoples of the Americas conceptualize a third gender for women who dress as, and fulfill the roles usually filled by, men in their cultures. [164] [165] In other cases they may see gender as a spectrum, and use different terms for feminine women and masculine women. [166] These identities are rooted in the context of the ceremonial and cultural lives of the particular Indigenous cultures, and "simply being gay and Indian does not make someone a Two-Spirit." [167] These ceremonial and social roles, which are conferred and confirmed by the person's elders, "do not make sense" when defined by non-Native concepts of sexual orientation and gender identity. [165] Rather, they must be understood in an Indigenous context, as traditional spiritual and social roles held by the person in their Indigenous community. [167] [165] [168] Africa Portrayals of lesbians in the media suggest that society at large has been simultaneously intrigued and threatened by women who challenge feminine gender roles, as well as fascinated and appalled with women who are romantically involved with other women. Women who adopt a lesbian identity share experiences that form an outlook similar to an ethnic identity: as homosexuals, they are unified by the heterosexist discrimination and potential rejection they face from their families, friends, and others as a result of homophobia. As women, they face concerns separate from men. Lesbians may encounter distinct physical or mental health concerns arising from discrimination, prejudice, and minority stress. Political conditions and social attitudes also affect the formation of lesbian relationships and families in the open. Women who had the option of a career instead of marriage labeled themselves New Women and took their new opportunities very seriously. [f] Faderman calls this period "the last breath of innocence" before 1920 when characterizations of female affection were connected to sexuality, marking lesbians as a unique and often unflatteringly portrayed group. [86] Specifically, Faderman connects the growth of women's independence and their beginning to reject strictly prescribed roles in the Victorian era to the scientific designation of lesbianism as a type of aberrant sexual behavior. [88] Identity and gender role in western culture Construction Berlin's thriving lesbian community in the 1920s published Die Freundin magazine between 1924 and 1933.a b Rust, Paula C. (November 1992). "The Politics of Sexual Identity: Sexual Attraction and Behavior among Lesbian and Bisexual Women". Social Problems. 39 (4): 366–386. doi: 10.2307/3097016. JSTOR 3097016. a b "Lesbian". Oxford Reference: A Dictionary of Psychology. Oxford University Press . Retrieved December 10, 2018. Zimmerman, Bonnie, ed. (2000). "Lesbian (by Colleen Lamos)". Lesbian Histories and Cultures: An Encyclopedia (1sted.). New York: Garland Publishing. p. 453. ISBN 0-8153-1920-7. The equivocal grammatical status of "lesbian," as both noun and adjective, captures the historical difficulty and the controversy over its definition. Whereas the former names a substantive category of persons—female homosexuals—the latter refers to a contingent attribute. The use of the term to denominate a particular kind of woman, one whose sexual desire is directed toward other women, originated in the late nineteenth century with the formulation of types of sexual deviance, especially homosexuality. ...Taking "lesbian" as an adjective, however, implies that female same-sex desire is a detachable modifier, a relative characteristic rather than an essential, or core, substance. Describing an object or activity as lesbian may simply reflect its contingent affiliation or association with female homoeroticism. Such an understanding of the term was common in Western society before the twentieth century and remains so in non-Western cultures that do not sharply distinguish female homosexuality from heterosexuality.