We all remember t.A.T.u’s “All The Things She Said” video – you know, the two Russian chicks in school uniforms kissing in the rain. Not long after that, Britney and Madonna were sucking face in a highly choreographed public stunt at the MTV Video Music Awards. Then Katy Perry kissed a girl – and she liked it. Call it lipstick lesbianism, fauxmosexuality, celesbianism – there’s no doubt about it, playing gay has been a very viable marketing strategy for these celebs to get noticed. SIOBHAN DOWNES looks at just how “fluid” female sexuality really is, and investigates how much it is manipulated by the media.
We like to think that we have progressed to an era of tolerance and acceptance for all sexual orientation identities. At first glance, sexuality is simple, confined to just three neat categories – heterosexuality, homosexuality and bisexuality. Lady Gaga even managed to condense human sexuality down into a cute couplet of catchy lyrics, in her self-described gay anthem “Born This Way” – “No matter gay, straight or bi/Lesbian, trans-gendered life”. The not-so-secret message of the tune is that your sexuality is what you were born with (you were born this “gay”), so you should embrace it for the rest of your life – you’re on the right track, baby.
Enter Lisa Diamond, a Professor of Psychology and Gender Studies at the University of Utah, and her groundbreaking 2008 book, Sexual Fluidity: Understanding Women’s Love and Desire. Diamond argues that for many - women in particular - sexuality is not so fixed – rather, it is “fluid”. Women are capable of desiring both men and women, taking on any sexual orientation, despite what their established orientation appears to be. According to Diamond, many women’s sexual identities will change numerous times throughout their lives. Sexuality, Diamond claims, is not just determined by biological factors, such as genetics, as has been commonly accepted – it can also be transformed by social and environmental situations.
To arrive at these conclusions, Diamond tracked a hundred young women of various sexual orientations over a period of ten years. What she found was that a lot of these women – especially as they grew older – transcended the traditional labels of sexuality. The “born this way” rhetoric was simply not applicable. Said Diamond in an interview with lesbian/bi website AfterEllen.com, “As I’ve gotten older in this community, you realise how unpredictable life can be and how fluid sexuality is. You see it in the women around you and you see it in yourself, and what you find attractive when you’re 22 changes when you’re 38.” It puts into question whether we even need traditional labels of sexuality – as one woman in Diamond’s study put it simply, “deep down, it’s just a matter of who I meet and fall in love with.”
It’s a reasonable concept, and one that allows for much more flexibility than traditional theories of sexuality. As the author of the AfterAllen.com article wrote, “Committing to a sexuality today is like committing to a favourite colour for the rest of your life. What if you love red now but find you prefer green later in life?”
The media, however, cannot seem to take seriously the concept of female sexual fluidity. It fills the tabloids, is a hot talk-show topic and even makes the evening news – all the scandalous lesbian affairs that no one saw coming. When Lindsay Lohan and Samantha Ronson started going out, the tabloids brushed it off as part of Lohan’s public meltdown. They assumed that she would eventually get over it, settle down with a man, and become just another “hasbian”, a one-time lesbian turned straight, joining the ranks of hasbians such as Angelina Jolie and Anne Heche. The media manipulates female sexual fluidity by degrading it to a symptom of Hollywood – just another girls-gone-wild scenario, another good story for the gossip columns. In the Lindsay Lohan example, we see sexual fluidity being depicted as a classic “celebrity off the rails” story – Lohan’s lesbian “experimentation” was seen to be reflective of her deteriorating mental state, so could not possibly be taken seriously.
The media also perpetuates the view that female sexual fluidity is just a novelty by portraying it as nothing more than eye-candy for men. The collective tongues of the media were set a-wagging when Megan Fox came out as bisexual. From then on, pictures of a lingerie-clad Megan in men’s magazines were simply headlined “Bisexual” and her sexual fluidity was turned into a men’s sexual fantasy. Think girl-on-girl pillow fights. It’s that stereotypical. Even more recently, GQ magazine published a sexy photo shoot of Glee stars Lea Michele, Cory Monteith and Dianna Agron, most pictures of which had a blatant threesome vibe. There were also some pictures of Michele and Agron alone together, ripping each other’s tops off for good measure. In this context, forget about the concept of sexual fluidity being liberating for women – if the media has anything to do with it, it’s all a big horn-fest for men’s viewing pleasure.
Of course, it is not just the media manipulating our favourite female celebrities’ sexualities to get stories. It works the other way, too – female celebrities are acutely aware of the impact on their fame that disclosing a subversive sexuality would achieve. It’s like the classic high school party trick, where you try making out with your best friend in front of a hoard of adoring boys to see if you can score a free drink. Lesbian sexploits equal big bucks. Was it really necessary for Megan Fox to comment that she thought Olivia Wilde was “so sexy she makes me want to strangle a mountain ox with my bare hands”? Was it then necessary for Rihanna to cash in on Megan Fox’s newly acquired bisexual status, by claiming that, she too, was bisexual and would even like to do a lesbian sex scene in a movie with Fox? Its like an orgy of Hungry, Hungry Homo-hippos – whoever has the most outrageous lesbian claim to fame wins the media spotlight.
We have to question how many of these claims are even authentic. The rise of fauxmosexuality – or, pretending to be gay – among celebrities is credited to Russian pop duo t.A.T.u, whose debut single “All The Things She Said”, detailing the angsty trials of being a teen lesbian, shot to global fame in 2002. The accompanying music video and promotion for the pair was steeped in raunchy lesbian imagery, and in interviews the two young girls even claimed to be having sex with each other “at least three times a day”. Later, it was revealed that t.A.T.u were never actually lesbians, and it was all a clever marketing ploy designed by their manager. And it worked – how many other Russian bands can you name? Female sexual fluidity – even when invented – never fails to command media attention.
The most debated example of faked sexual fluidity in recent years has been Katy Perry’s “I Kissed A Girl (And I Liked It)”. Some argue that the song is a celebration of female sexuality and its power in all its soft-skinned, cherry-chapsticked, glory. Then there are those who see it as one hell of a mixed message. We are reminded of the fact that, before Katy Perry was an international sex symbol, she was Katy Hudson, with Christian pastors for parents, trying to make her way in the gospel industry with a run of unsuccessful Christian-rock albums. Cue a cheeky song and music video depicting Katy’s supposed sexual fluidity (which involves prancing around in a pink, pillowy room with other lace-and-fishnet clad girls) – and the rest is history.
In the real world, Diamond’s sexual fluidity is a legitimate concept, revolutionising our understanding of sexuality, questioning the rigid categories of sexuality as detailed in Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way”. The problem is, it has been manipulated by Hollywood for its marketing potential – by media and celebrities alike – to the extent that it can barely be taken seriously anymore. Wrote Tim Duggan, a columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald, “The current popular culture ‘acceptance’ of lesbianism is a temporary pass that is expected to be handed back when the novelty wears off. It’s OK to go for a swim off the Isle of Lesbos, but don't ever think about living there.” He makes the point that celebrities such as Katy Perry may think it “ain’t no big deal, it’s innocent”, but when you look at the suicide rates for young people struggling with their sexualities, the use of a particular sexuality as a “fad” becomes much more sinister.
Sadly, it seems even Lady Gaga’s much-touted anthem of gay acceptance is a result of carefully crafted sexuality-based marketing. And not surprisingly, her target audience is beginning to see right through it. Zack Rosen articulated it best on website Gays Against Gaga; “I know I can ‘be a queen’ if I want to. I didn’t need a limp, pink-wigged strand of fettuccine to give me permission.”
Born this Way?
