A lesbian (lowercase L) is a homosexual woman. Lesbians have or prefer to have romantic and sexual relationships with other women.
__Etymology__
The word "lesbian" originally referred to an inhabitant of the island of Lesbos, in ancient Greece. The term has come to have its current meaning due to the ancient Greek lyric poet Sappho, who lived on the island; some of her poems concerned love between women. Whether Sappho was herself a lesbian, in the modern meaning of the term, or simply a poet who described lesbians, is open to question; whilst she did indeed write poems about love between women, there is some dispute as to just how far to interpret her writings in this fashion. This association with Sappho led to the term sapphism being used as another term for lesbianism.
Many terms have been used to describe lesbianism over the past 200 years, such as amor lesbicus, urningism, sapphism, tribadism, and others.
__The law__
Explicit prohibitions on women's homosexual behavior have been markedly weaker in Western societies than on men's homosexual behavior. Lesbianism has been legal in the United Kingdom since the Victorian Era, whereas male homosexuality has not been, and at least occasionally produced a prison sentence. Jewish religious teachings condemn male, but say nothing about female homosexuality.
__Reproductive and parenting rights__
In some countries, the right of lesbian women to have access to assisted birth technologies such as In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) in order to have children, has been the subject of debate: in Australia for example, the High Court rejected a Roman Catholic Church move to ban access to IVF treatments for lesbian and single women. However, the Prime Minister of Australia, John Howard had sought to amend legislation to prevent the access of these groups to IVF, raising indignation from the gay and lesbian community.
Many lesbian couples seek to have children through adoption, although this is not possible in every country.
__Sexuality__
Sexual activity between women is as diverse as sex between heterosexuals or sex between gay men. Like all interpersonal activity, sexual expression must be seen within the context of the relationship between the people involved. It is only within the last generation that women (at least in the western world) have found the economic power to take control of their own lives, including their romantic and sexual relationships. As the role of women change, so will how women express themselves emotionally and physically with other women.
There is a growing body of research work and writing on lesbian sex and with it much debate over the control women have over their sexual lives in a society still seen to be patriarchal, the fluidity of female sexuality, the redefinition of female sexual pleasure, and the debunking of old stereotypes (such as "lesbian bed death"). "Lesbian Bed Death" is a phrase that has been in use within the lesbian community for many decades, to describe the lack of sexual passion in a long term relationship between two women. While it is a phrase that is often used in a joking manner between lesbians (and others) there have also been sexologists using the term. Sex researcher Pepper Schwartz published findings indicating that lesbian couples have less sex than couples of any other sexual orientation. However, her findings have been criticised by many; it is argued that this can happen to any long term relationship whether heterosexual or not. Within part of the lesbian community, the phenomenon is usually rejected and is the subject of humour. Some lesbians who do accept diminishing sexual passion consider it to be an inevitable part of any long-term relationship. Many lesbian couples enjoy a fulfilling sex life.
__Mainstream media__
In television, the number of lesbian couples portrayed is generally less than the number of gay couples - notable lesbian couples in television include Tara Maclay and Willow Rosenberg in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Lindsay Peterson and Melanie Marcus in Queer as Folk and Dr. Kerry Weaver and Sandy Lopez in ER. Additionally, the casted pop-group t.A.T.u from Russia was quite popular in Europe in the 2000s, gaining several Top 10 hits by the assumption that they were lesbians when they, in fact, were not.
However, the trend may be changing, for example, see The L Word, which is primarily focused on the lives of a group of lesbian friends.
__Pornography__
__Reactions of heterosexual men__
It has been noted that attitudes of most men to lesbian sex and its depiction in Pornography are usually tolerant, or even perceived to be desirous, in sharp contrast with widespread aversion to images of male gay sex.
One explanation for this could be that some men have the mistaken belief that lesbians are only having sex with one another because of the lack of a suitable man, and would be delighted to engage in group sex were such a man to become available; however, this is generally not the case.
Another is the absence of penises from such pornography, either clearing any viewer from any possible accusations of homoerotic tendencies or simply a result of straight men, through social conditioning, not really wanting to view another man's genitalia.
Another explanation is that the reaction stems from male sexual arousal to the presence of nude female women. This theory is given some credence by a study showing that homophobic and non-homophobic men were aroused to the same degree by lesbian imagery, suggesting that male arousal from lesbian sex may not involve higher reasoning.
Another explanation is that men find images of lesbian sex to be completely non-threatening and therefore comfortable and appealing. There is no other man to compete with for the women's attention.
Nominally positive reactions of heterosexual men to "lesbian" pornography should not be taken as evidence of acceptance of lesbians in general. Lesbians frequently suffer bashing, including rape.
__Reactions of heterosexual women__
Many heterosexual women also have a more positive attitude to depictions of lesbian sex than most heterosexual men have to depictions of male gay sex. It has been suggested that this is because heterosexual women are "more bi-curious" on average than heterosexual men. However, this is a controversial theory: many other heterosexual women have attitudes to lesbianism that range from mildly to extremely negative.Air Zoom Pegasus 34 Leather