In today’s society, you would think that all the girls have gone gay and that it is trendy to be a lesbian.
I guess I am not as trendy as I thought after all. Paying close attention to the media, I have noticed that “lesbian” kisses went from unacceptable and inappropriate to sexy and trendy in a short period of time.
Girls kissing on screen or during performances such as the famous Britney and Madonna kiss are looked at as entertainment for heterosexual enjoyment and pleasure.
Since when did showing affection for your significant other become entertainment for an audience?
Five years have passed since Katy Perry’s hit single “I Kissed a Girl.” Perry had been trying to have a single hit for years before, but was not successful until “I Kissed a Girl” released. Perry stated to Huffington post, “It was a bit radical to sing about bisexuality, but it was a topic that was on the tip of everybody’s tongue.”
Interesting enough, girl-on-girl kissing was on everybody’s tongue and it is what set off her career.
The lyrics of Perry’s song state, “it felt so wrong, it felt so right, don’t mean I’m in love tonight” and “No, I don’t even know your name it doesn’t matter, you’re my experimental game.”
I personally think this is very offensive, it is portraying that girls kissing is just a game, an experiment, it does not matter who the girl is and that there is no affection or love from the kiss.
The song also states, “I kissed a girl just to try it, as long as my boyfriend don’t mind it” which objects the fact that she is trying to get her boyfriend’s attention by kissing a girl and also portraying the double-standard, that it is okay for girls to kiss but not guys.
Girl-on-girl kissing seems to be more acceptable and common than actual lesbian portrayals (Anderson-Minshall, 2004, p. 313).
Yes, I think it’s great that we as a society are more widely accepting of the homosexual community unlike before, but referring to girl-on-girl kissing as a trend makes it seem like you can choose to be a lesbian.
Being a lesbian is something you are born with, it is how one chooses to identify their sexual orientation as, not something you pick up of the trendy tips of Cosmo.
I think girl-on-girl kissing in society is belittling and disrespecting to homosexuality, especially lesbians.
It is portraying straight women kissing as a trend rather than two women who are actually homosexual, showing love and affection for one another. Anderson-Minshall (2004) stated that “these days women that kiss other women on TV aren’t coded as gay; they’re simply sexually adventurous and their adventurousness is geared toward nothing so progressive as the advancement of lesbian visibility” (p.316).
This depicts that girl-on-girl kissing in pop culture is used to excite men and is considered very adventurous, but when men kiss it is considered “disgusting” and “unacceptable,” because it threatens their sexuality and masculinity.
I am sure if a heterosexual male artist came out with a single with lyrics along the lines of “I kissed a guy and I liked it” the media and society would not think it was “so sexy” or “so trendy”.
Advertisers and marketers take advantage of these trends as well. They know that girl-on-girl kissing is socially acceptable and guy-on-guy kissing is not, and they use such scenarios to sell their services or products.
In their article Morris III and Sloop (2006) stated, “cultural critics have repeatedly observed that because advertisers want their commercial products to appeal to large numbers, mediated images and themes must necessarily be “comfortable” ones, reflecting commonsense expectations and shared ideological meanings.”
To me, this shows that the media is more concerned with how heterosexuals feel about homosexuality rather then homosexuality being supported.
Advertisers and the media go out of their way to make sure that heterosexuals feel comfortable and secure so they can appeal to the public.
It saddens me that when you see some social acceptance in the LGBTQ community, a lot of the times the movement and power behind it is because society and the media associate it with things such as being “trendy” or “sexy”.
Their actions seem to focus on heterosexuals feeling comfortable and secure about homosexuals, instead of being accepting and supportive of the LGBTQ community.
Julia Kamburi can be contacted at julia.kamburi@ksc.keene.edu