Discrimination against lesbians, sometimes called

lesbophobia Discrimination against lesbians, sometimes called lesbophobia, comprises various forms of prejudice and negativity towards lesbians as individuals, as couples, as a social group, or lesbianism in general. Based on the categories of sex, sexu ...

, comprises various forms of prejudice and negativity towards

lesbian A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homosexu ...

s as individuals, as couples, as a

social group In the social sciences, a social group is defined as two or more people who interact with one another, share similar characteristics, and collectively have a sense of unity. Regardless, social groups come in a myriad of sizes and varieties. F ...

, or lesbianism in general. Based on the categories of

sex Sex is the biological trait that determines whether a sexually reproducing organism produces male or female gametes. During sexual reproduction, a male and a female gamete fuse to form a zygote, which develops into an offspring that inheri ...

sexual orientation Sexual orientation is an enduring personal pattern of romantic attraction or sexual attraction (or a combination of these) to persons of the opposite sex or gender, the same sex or gender, or to both sexes or more than one gender. Patterns ar ...

identity Identity may refer to: * Identity document * Identity (philosophy) * Identity (social science) * Identity (mathematics) Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Identity'' (1987 film), an Iranian film * ''Identity'' (2003 film), an ...

, and

gender Gender is the range of social, psychological, cultural, and behavioral aspects of being a man (or boy), woman (or girl), or third gender. Although gender often corresponds to sex, a transgender person may identify with a gender other tha ...

expression, this negativity encompasses prejudice, discrimination, hatred, and abuse; with attitudes and feelings ranging from disdain to

hostility Hostility is seen as a form of emotionally charged aggressive behavior. In everyday speech, it is more commonly used as a synonym for anger and aggression. It appears in several psychological theories. For instance it is a Facet (psychology), f ...

. It is analogous to

gayphobia Discrimination against gay men, sometimes called gayphobia, is a form of homophobic prejudice, hatred, or bias specifically directed toward gay men, male homosexuality, or men who are perceived to be gay. This discrimination is closely related ...

Terminology

The first usage of the term ''lesbophobia'' listed in the ''

Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the principal historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP), a University of Oxford publishing house. The dictionary, which published its first editio ...

'' is in ''The Erotic Life of the American Wife'' (1972), a book by ''

Harper's Bazaar ''Harper's Bazaar'' (stylized as ''Harper's BAZAAR'') is an American monthly women's fashion magazine. Bazaar has been published in New York City since November 2, 1867, originally as a weekly publication entitled ''Harper's Bazar''."Corporat ...

'' editor Natalie Gittelson. While some people use only the more general term ''

homophobia Homophobia encompasses a range of negative attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who identify or are perceived as being lesbian, Gay men, gay or bisexual. It has been defined as contempt, prejudice, aversion, hatred, or ant ...

'' to describe this sort of prejudice or behavior, others believe that the terms ''homosexual'' and ''homophobia'' do not adequately reflect the specific concerns of lesbians, because they experience the double discrimination of both homophobia and sexism.

Extent

The idea that lesbians are dangerous—while

heterosexual Heterosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between people of the opposite sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, heterosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions ...

interactions are natural, normal, and spontaneous—is a common example of beliefs which are lesbophobic. Like homophobia, this belief is classed as

heteronormative Heteronormativity is the definition of heterosexuality as the normative human sexuality. It assumes the gender binary (i.e., that there are only two distinct, opposite genders) and that sexual and marital relations are most fitting between peo ...

, as it assumes that heterosexuality is dominant, presumed, and normal, and that other sexual or relationship arrangements are abnormal and unnatural. A stereotype that has been identified as lesbophobic is that female athletes are always or predominantly lesbians. Lesbians encounter lesbophobic attitudes not only in straight men and women, but also gay men. Lesbophobia in gay men is regarded as manifest in the perceived subordination of lesbian issues in the campaign for

gay rights Rights affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the death penalty for homosexuality. Not ...

. Lesbians have been stereotyped in often contradictory ways. Kim Emery, in discussing lesbians in the United States during the late-19th century, says:

Anti-lesbian violence

Lesbophobia is sometimes demonstrated through crimes of violence, including

corrective rape Corrective rape, also called curative rape or homophobic rape, is a hate crime in which somebody is raped because of their perceived sexual orientation. The common intended consequence of the rape, as claimed by the perpetrator, is to turn the ...

and even murder. In the late 2000s, several rape/murders of lesbians occurred in South Africa. The victims included Sizakele Sigasa (a lesbian activist living in

Soweto Soweto () is a Township (South Africa), township of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality in Gauteng, South Africa, bordering the city's mining belt in the south. Its name is an English syllabic abbreviation for ''South Western T ...

) and her partner Salome Masooa, who were raped, tortured, and murdered in an attack that South African lesbian-

organizations, including the umbrella-group Joint Working Group, said were driven by lesbophobia. In the

Gauteng Gauteng ( , ; Sotho-Tswana languages, Sotho-Tswana for 'place of gold'; or ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts f ...

township of

KwaThema KwaThema is a township south-west of Springs in the district of Ekurhuleni, Gauteng, South Africa. It was established in 1951 when Africans were forcibly removed from Payneville because it was considered by the apartheid government to be too clos ...

, soccer player

Eudy Simelane Eudy Simelane (11 March 1977 – 28 April 2008) was a South African footballer who played for the South African national team and was an LGBT rights activist. She was one of the first lesbian women to live openly in KwaThema, Springs, Gauteng. ...

was gang-raped, beaten and stabbed to death, and LGBT activist

Noxolo Nogwaza Noxolo Nogwaza (1987 – 24 April 2011) was a South African lesbian LGBT rights activist and member of the Ekurhuleni Pride Organising Committee. She was raped, then stoned and stabbed to death by assailants in KwaThema, Gauteng. Nogwaza had bee ...

was raped and stoned before being stabbed to death.

Zanele Muholi Zanele Muholi (born 1972) is a South African artist and visual activist working in photography, video, and installation. Muholi's work focuses on race, gender and sexuality with a body of work that dates back to the early 2000s, documenting and ...

, community relations director of a lesbian rights group, reports having recorded 50 rape cases over the past decade involving black lesbians in townships, stating: "The problem is largely that of

patriarchy Patriarchy is a social system in which positions of authority are primarily held by men. The term ''patriarchy'' is used both in anthropology to describe a family or clan controlled by the father or eldest male or group of males, and in fem ...

. The men who perpetrate such crimes see rape as curative and as an attempt to show women their place in society." In its 2019 annual report, SOS Homophobie found that anti-lesbian violence increased 42 percent in France in 2018, with 365 attacks reported.

Lesbian erasure

Lesbian erasure references the process of ignoring or discarding the history and problems of lesbians. The term demonstrates the ways in which the contributions of notable lesbian women are diminished by making their lesbianism no longer a part of their story; some examples being

Stormé DeLarverie Stormé DeLarverie ( December 24, 1920 – May 24, 2014) was an American woman known as the Butch and femme, butch lesbian whose scuffle with police was, according to DeLarverie and many eyewitnesses, the spark that ignited the Stonewall riots, ...

Audre Lorde Audre Lorde ( ; born Audrey Geraldine Lorde; February 18, 1934 – November 17, 1992) was an American writer, professor, philosopher, Intersectional feminism, intersectional feminist, poet and civil rights activist. She was a self-described "Bl ...

, or

Angela Davis Angela Yvonne Davis (born January 26, 1944) is an American Marxist and feminist political activist, philosopher, academic, and author. She is Distinguished Professor Emerita of Feminist Studies and History of Consciousness at the University of ...

Erotic plasticity and lesbianism

Some suggest that the notion of female

erotic plasticity Erotic plasticity is the degree to which one's sex drive can be changed by cultural or social factors. Someone has "high erotic plasticity" when their sex drives can be affected by situational, social and cultural influences, whereas someone with ...

is wishful thinking on the part of men who want to have sex with lesbians, and should be criticized for not being objective; while some hypothesize that lesbian relationships exist because of male sexual desires, and that females are more

sexually fluid Sexual fluidity is one or more changes in sexuality or sexual identity (sometimes known as sexual orientation identity). Sexual orientation is stable for the vast majority of people, but some research indicates that some people may experience ch ...

References

External links

Lesbophobia
definition by the

European Institute for Gender Equality The European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) is the European Union's agency for gender equality. In accordance with Regulation (EC) No.1922/2006 the Agency was founded on 20 December 2006 and is located in Vilnius, Lithuania. The Agency ...

''Violence against lesbians: education, research, public campaigns'' (Project Number: 2000-021-W)
DAPHNE project.

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...

, 2000.
''Violence Against Lesbians: Education – Research – Public Relation'' (Final Report)
DAPHNE Programme.

, 31 December 2001.
''Lesbians visibility and lesbophobia in France''
. SOS Homophobie, 2014.
''Breaking the Silence: Criminalisation of Lesbians and Bisexual Women and its Impacts''

Human Dignity Trust Human Dignity Trust is a UK-based registered charity that focuses on strategic litigation challenging the criminalization of homosexuality around the world. It was founded in 2011 by Jonathan Cooper Jonathan Javell Cooper (born January 19, ...

, May 2016.
''In Some Countries, Being Gay Or Lesbian Can Land You In Prison...Or Worse''

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is a media organization broadcasting news and analyses in 27 languages to 23 countries across Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the Caucasus, and the Middle East. Headquartered in Prague since 1995, RFE/RL ...

, 2020. {{Authority control Feminist terminology Homophobia Lesbian history Lesbianism Misogyny Prejudice and discrimination by type Sexism Violence against women LGBTQ and society Anti-LGBTQ sentiment Discrimination against LGBTQ people