Lipstick Lesbians

Lipstick Lesbians

Lipstick lesbian is a slang term used to describe lesbian and bisexual women who exhibit feminine gender attributes, such as wearing make-up (thus, lipstick), wearing dresses or skirts and perhaps having other characteristics associated with feminine women.

In mainstream American films, lesbians are often portrayed according to the lipstick lesbian stereotype to be more sexually attractive to male viewers. A good example is Showtime's television series The L Word, which presents most of its major lesbian characters in this way. Most female same-sex sex scenes in mainstream pornography are also portrayed in this way.

The term was used in San Francisco at least as far back as the 1980s. In 1982, Priscilla Rhoades, a journalist with the gay newspaper The Sentinel, wrote a feature story on "Lesbians for Lipstick." The term is thought to have emerged in wide usage during the early 1990s. A 1997 episode of the television show Ellen widely publicized the phrase. In the show, Ellen DeGeneres's character, asked by her parents whether a certain woman is a "dipstick lesbian," explains that the term is "lipstick lesbian," and comments that "I would be a chapstick lesbian."

In 1999, columnist Mark Steyn called actress Anne Heche, who was dating DeGeneres at the time, "the world's most famous lipstick lesbian."

An alternate term for "lipstick lesbian" is "doily dyke."

Lipstick Lesbians