What and how many are the lesbians


	What and how many are the lesbians
back main page to be a lesbian

Lesbian identification (the term comes from the name of the Greek island Lesvos in the Aegean Sea; Note: the name of the island reads with the letter ''v'' not ''b''synonyms- sapphism, tribadism.) – female homosexuality.

Lesbian relationships were common in the Far East, especially in South Asia (Assyria, Babylon, Ancient India) as well as in Africa (Egypt). From these places, existence of such relationships spread in the ancient Greece and the Roman Empire and later on around the European and American continents. The attitude of different societies toward lesbian relationships has differed a lot. For example in Austria, the female homosexuality was regarded a capital offence. In the same period (1881), France has officially permitted women to attend private clubs specialised where they could enjoy the physical closeness to other women.

How many women are lesbians?
Lesbians are not a small, isolated and insignificant group. One in 20 adolescent girls is a lesbian. One in every 10 women is a lesbian. You are not the only one! Almost every person has been attracted to one`s own sex at a certain period of her or his life. In addition, there are many bi-sexual people who maintain intimate relationships with persons from their own sex. Imagine groups of people placed on a continuum. At one of the ends stay those who are strictly homosexual. At the opposite end are those who are strictly heterosexual. In the middle are those who are bi-sexual. Therefore wherever you happen to be, you`ll be surrounded by many people who are more or less attracted to their own sex. There are lesbians everywhere around you. And when they were young and discovered their sexuality, they were confused and lonely. So if you are feeling lonely and surrounded by crowds of heterosexual people, think that the tennis players Martina Navratilova, Billie Jean King...the singers Indigo girls - Amy Ray and Emily Saliers, and even the poetess Sappho have surely felt as lonely as you. And probably thousands of other women around the world. (read here)

There are many of us!

     What are the lesbians?
- Lesbians are women coming from all kinds of racial backgrounds - European, African, Native American,
    mixed, etc...
- Lesbians come from all possible religious faiths - Christian Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Mormon,
    Buddhist, even Muslim...
- Lesbians   have   diverse national origin - Bulgarian, American, Russian, Greek, Brazilian, Arab, Australian,
    Canadian, French, German...
- Lesbians are rich or poor women, middle or blue colour class, working women and house wifes.
- Some lesbians have heterosexual marriages and good husbands.
- There are lesbians with physical disorders.
- Lesbians come from all age groups - adolescent, teenagers, young women, middle aged, even pensioners.
- Lesbians hold a variety of professional occupations and social positions - teachers, doctors, lawyers, blue
    colour workers, mothers, writers and poetesses, politicians, sports persons, and so on...
    Whichever socio-cultural, work or political sphere you look at, there would be women like us.

We come in any kind!

- There are lesbians in the cities, towns, and the villages...
- There are lesbians in the schools and at the universities...
- There are lesbians in the companies and the factories...
- There are lesbians in the sports and the media...
- There are lesbians in the cinema, music, and literature...

We are everywhere!

The majority of the lesbians are not radical feminists! True, most of the lesbians are feminists but not radical ones. The moderate feminists don`t hate men. They just believe that women deserve the rights and opportunities for social and professional development which men enjoy.

The lesbians themselves differ a lot one from another. There are different types of lesbians, and many do not fall in the commonly held stereotypes about lesbian outlook and behaviour. Very often, when a lesbian shares with someone her sexual orientation, she will hear the sentence: ''I can`t believe that! You don`t look lesbian!'' I`ve heard it personally...and i`ve been never quire sure how to respond in such case. But I have always felt that the person on the other side was not making me a compliment. It is clear that lesbians come in different kinds, the same as heterosexuals do. Then, how comes that I don`t look lesbian? How should lesbians look like? Anyhow, I`m convinced that it is not correct to play with stereotypes in this way or to put labels on people. Let me consider several types of lesbians:

The butches (man-like lesbians)
These women, as a rule, carry very short hair cuts or even shave their heads, they have muscles and male, aggressive gait. They are ashamed to appear in a dress or with make-up in front of their friends as the heterosexual men would do. Manicure is a dirty word for them, they are proud of their ill- kept nails. Their voices are deeper and course, their movements are harsh and abrupt as male ones, their dictionary changes to contain words like ''bro,'' ''c`mon bustard, we`ll fix something for you,'' and so on. They often talk about themselves in a male form, they are proud of beer bellies, their gait and posture are male. As a whole the butches have definitely male behaviour, opinions, attitudes, and they are dominant characters. They don`t tolerate the chit-chatting typical for women talks or wandering around the malls. Except if their girlfriends like it, but this is another story. According to the societal stereotypes, lesbians are such kind of women.

The femmes (or the female looking, delicate lesbians)
Contrary to the man-like lesbians, the femmes are typical women. Manicure and clothing, behaviour and interests, make-up and coiffure, carrying almost always long hairs, having delicate hands, tweeting voices and tender movements. Airs and graces are not unacceptable for them. They coquet and look at you behind their long eyelashes like the Barbie dolls. There is a popular belief that femmes prefer relationships with butches, which I consider absurd. This is another form of stereotypical heterosexist idea which presupposes that only the male beginning attracts the female and vice versa. And this opinion has taken roots in the belief system of the lesbians themselves.And especially in the thinking of the butches, probably because they would have preferred it to be that way. But these ideas are ridiculous in my opinion, they contradict to the essence of lesbians as women attracted to women. I personally know many femmes who are new- comers and happen to enter the environment of the butches. Then, there are scandals, displays of jealousy, unfaithfulness, fights, until the femme breaks the relationship. For me, it is closer to the truth that femmes and butches connect to their own kinds. Both groups don`t like each other too much.Femmes often ridicule the butches, which is kind of nasty in my opinion.
And butches are often aggressive toward femmes and blame them for being unfaithful, heterosexual, and not lesbian enough. Actually, there are other opinions on the topic as well- that butches ignore femmes because of their heterosexual manners and appearance, which reminds me of my own dislike of Anna Kurnikuva as there is no way I could be possibly with her.

Lipstick lesbians
This is the ultimate femme type of a lesbian. Heavy make-up, always wearing high- heels , manicure, over-sweet voices, constant caprices, intrigues, demands to be spoilt, and whatever you think of on the nth degree. These are sometimes not lesbians, but experimenting women who pick upon a fashion or feel bored and soon turn back to their heterosexual life, using their lesbian image to draw the attention of more interesting men or to look more interesting and eccentric.

Political lesbians
I have to unwillingly admit that one small group of such lesbians exists. They have been rejected by the patriarchical society for one reason or another, and they encircle themselves with women only. They insist that there should be no men around them, no matter wherever they are or whatever they do. In this group fall women who have been disappointed by a man, and they transfer hatred from an individual to men in general. Actually often, because of these exact cases, people assume that lesbians hate men or that they have been rejected by men. But these women are exceptions to the rule.

The ''non-lesbian'' lesbian
This is the funniest group of lesbians. And the group which leaves the most broken hearts behind their backs. These are usually very attractive women who meet and fall in love with men but have sex with their friends or flatmates. But when some of their friends or flatmates falls in love, this woman will readily declare that she is not a lesbian, and she
likes men!

Lesbians in a male body
I just can`t miss this type - I have a very close friend who is such. Heterosexual men who is very friendly toward lesbians, helps them in everything, and wants nothing in return. Moreover, we don`t talk only about feminine and beautiful lesbians. Actually, this person can be very helpful friend if you don`t take him very seriously.

Well, did you girls recognize yourself in any of these categories? No??
Or there is a little from each of them in you. Without the last one - I hope! Anyhow, don`t take these categorizations too seriously, and if I have missed some of your favourite categories- drop me a line, I`ll add them.