Lesbians and Feminity

Posted on September 8, 2003 in Sexuality

The results of my Gender Genie survey surprised several people. One thing that flared out like a supernova was that the lesbians on my list — Asylum (aka Crazy Tracy), Jaded Ju, Nurse Ratched, Raven, Red Water Lily, Chari (Techfluid), and Grey Bird all tested feminine. (An interesting pair of exceptions were Teresa of In Sequence and my wife Lynn, both of whom are bisexual — they tested male.) Straight women such as Shelly (Burningbird), Tracy (Joker on the Run), Chari’s sister Mel (Otter’s Den), Andrea (Serial Deviant), and Yule Heibel tested as male.

I have no working theories for the straight women who tested male except that in all the cases they were individuals who strive very hard to be successful in a man’s world. The same might be true of the two bisexuals I noted. What of the lesbians? In the popular imagination, these women should have tested very male and yet their styles registered as female — sometimes decidedly.

My theory is this: my lesbian friends know that they are women and are unashamed of being women. They do not feel the pressure of having to be “male-like” as some of the straight women might. So they relax and speak as themselves.

And it’s entirely possible that the test is screwed up. It was correct 2/3s of the time. I wouldn’t undergo transexual surgery with those odds.