Glossary
Lipstick Lesbian
A lesbian who presents in a conventionally feminine or glamorous way, wearing makeup and feminine fashion.
Lipstick lesbian describes a lesbian who presents in a conventionally feminine or glamorous style, with makeup, dresses, and traditionally feminine fashion. It sits alongside older butch and femme labels and rose to wider use during the 'lesbian chic' media moment of the 1990s. The term makes the point that feminine women are just as authentically lesbian as more masculine-presenting ones, and it pushes back on the idea that a lesbian must 'look' a certain way. Reactions are mixed. Some women embrace it as an empowering self-identifier, while others find it reductive or feel it flattens their identity into a straight male fantasy.
