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Thread: The Sexualization of Lesbians

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    IMPress Polly's Avatar Senior Member
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    The Sexualization of Lesbians

    There was a story I was just now reading that I'd like to highlight: Google tweaks algorithm to show less porn when searching for 'lesbian' content.

    The campaigners for this cause observed that "in their research, they found that only the word 'lesbian' was linked to pornographic sites, whereas searching for 'gay' or 'trans' linked to informative pages including Wikipedia, top news articles, and specialized blogs".

    This is a real issue. Because lesbians are an all-female group by definition, we are sexualized way more than anyone else. The top search term on both Pornhub and YouPorn (two of the world's leading online pornographers) is, in fact, 'lesbian'. To judge by the leading search results one encounters (a large percentage of which seem to involve things like penetration with penile-shaped objects), one seriously doubts that it's mainly lesbians who are doing these searches. Even gay men sometimes participate in the sexual objectification of lesbians (example).

    The consequences of people viewing lesbians more as entertainment than as people can get very real. To highlight a high-profile example of what I mean that made global headlines earlier this year, there was group of male teenagers who approached a lesbian couple on a bus in London and, on learning of their sexual orientation, demanded that they kiss for the group. When the couple refused, they were beaten and had to be hospitalized. Likewise, just the other weekend, a lesbian couple was physically attacked at Amsterdam Pride after refusing the advances of two men. In these sorts of ways, we can see how pornography fosters a dangerous culture of male entitlement to women, and not just the straight or even bi ones. So yeah, I'm very glad that Google has recently tweaked their algorithm for the term 'lesbian' to produce informative results comparable to what appears when one searches for 'gay' or 'trans'.

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    I have seen exactly what you are saying, Polly, even though you never acknowledge when i agree with you.
    That is ok, your choice.

    The term "lesbian" is used over and over in the porn industry to show girl-on-girl sex.
    Yet everyone knows it is just acting. Explicit acting, but acting.

    To calm you a bit, Polly, most men ( a huge majority) are not like those covered in the story.
    There is no "cult of male entitlement" just drunk 20 somethings being $#@!s.

    I threw up on my keyboard once when I search for " grandfather CLOCK " but forgot to type the L.
    Last edited by Retirednsmilin308; 08-13-2019 at 06:46 AM.

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    Thanks for the tip. LOL.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Retirednsmilin308 View Post
    I have seen exactly what you are saying, Polly, even though you never acknowledge when i agree with you.
    That is ok, your choice.

    The term "lesbian" is used over and over in the porn industry to show girl-on-girl sex.
    Yet everyone knows it is just acting. Explicit acting, but acting.

    To calm you a bit, Polly, most men ( a huge majority) are not like those covered in the story.
    There is no "cult of male entitlement" just drunk 20 somethings being $#@!s.
    I tend to mainly Thank posts I can agree with more or less fully. It's a (perhaps bad) habit I've developed over the years. You DO offer quality contributions and I don't mean to make you feel ignored by not always clicking the Thank button!

    Anyway, obviously I wasn't claiming that "most men" are violent in these sorts of ways. That's a dramatic reading. Rather, I was highlighting an aspect of the culture that exists and a positive change that may be affected by Google's new policy.

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    Polly Im trying hard to word this properly but im sure it will come out wrong, I have a penchant for doing that but im going to try.

    Women have been sexualized since the first ones lived in caves with males. It changes a bit generation to generation but its still the same sexualization and I think its always going to be that way till the end of time.

    However we got here and no matter who believes how, now that were here women produce the offspring and men are the sexual offense and its always been that way. Even in the animal kingdom, males still kill each other over females in heat.

    Its just never going to change Polly because its nature
    Last edited by Common; 08-13-2019 at 07:06 AM.
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    That’s hot.
    I find your lack of faith...disturbing...

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    Polly, lesbians are not being sexualized. The "lesbians" these men watch aren't actually lesbians. Trust me, no one wants to watch a couple of Pete Rose lookalikes do anything together.
    Whoever criticizes capitalism, while approving immigration, whose working class is its first victim, had better shut up. Whoever criticizes immigration, while remaining silent about capitalism, should do the same.


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    Quote Originally Posted by IMPress Polly View Post
    There was a story I was just now reading that I'd like to highlight: Google tweaks algorithm to show less porn when searching for 'lesbian' content.

    The campaigners for this cause observed that "in their research, they found that only the word 'lesbian' was linked to pornographic sites, whereas searching for 'gay' or 'trans' linked to informative pages including Wikipedia, top news articles, and specialized blogs".

    This is a real issue. Because lesbians are an all-female group by definition, we are sexualized way more than anyone else. The top search term on both Pornhub and YouPorn (two of the world's leading online pornographers) is, in fact, 'lesbian'. To judge by the leading search results one encounters (a large percentage of which seem to involve things like penetration with penile-shaped objects), one seriously doubts that it's mainly lesbians who are doing these searches. Even gay men sometimes participate in the sexual objectification of lesbians (example).

    The consequences of people viewing lesbians more as entertainment than as people can get very real. To highlight a high-profile example of what I mean that made global headlines earlier this year, there was group of male teenagers who approached a lesbian couple on a bus in London and, on learning of their sexual orientation, demanded that they kiss for the group. When the couple refused, they were beaten and had to be hospitalized. Likewise, just the other weekend, a lesbian couple was physically attacked at Amsterdam Pride after refusing the advances of two men. In these sorts of ways, we can see how pornography fosters a dangerous culture of male entitlement to women, and not just the straight or even bi ones. So yeah, I'm very glad that Google has recently tweaked their algorithm for the term 'lesbian' to produce informative results comparable to what appears when one searches for 'gay' or 'trans'.

    It amazes me how you can link disparate ideas together.

    Google searches are based on user searches. Their tweaking algorthms distorts that. Campaigners pushing that might have changed an algorthm but won't change society.

    Then there's a leap to the real issue and you lose all logic. Lesbians being all-female doesn't imply anything about being secualized more. And a top search term implies nothing in the way of support for that because it says nothing about why people are searching.

    And then there's the fantastical leap to violence.

    I find it all unconvincing.
    Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire. ― Gustav Mahler

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    Quote Originally Posted by Mister D View Post
    Polly, lesbians are not being sexualized. The "lesbians" these men watch aren't actually lesbians. Trust me, no one wants to watch a couple of Pete Rose lookalikes do anything together.
    The bolded item reveals how little you know about lesbian culture. While most lesbians don't exactly look like the perfectly femme women who men would love to do that you see in "lesbian" pornography, most aren't "butch" women either in terms of how they present. In terms of how lesbians typically present, in my experience, most lesbians are "tomboyish", as they say, sort of like me; somewhere in-between being super masculine-expressing ("Pete Rose lookalikes", as you crudely put it) and super feminine-expressing like most women. The unfortunate reality of the matter is that butch women have always been stigmatized and isolated in the lesbian community itself, not just by outsiders to it. Many of the super masculine-expressing ones today are accordingly adopting male identities now that transgenderism is in, doubtless in part just out of a longstanding feeling that they simply don't fit in with other women. It's horrible, but that's what's happening.

    Now us "tomboyish" women are definitely more common in the lesbian community than among the general population. There's a more relaxed atmosphere to the scene. For example, I do my clothes shopping in both the women's and men's departments (categorizations that I view as artificial and personally believe should just be abolished), have a limited beauty regimen and rarely bother shaving my legs or underarms. If I were interested in men, that would mean I'd have no chance, but I find that other women don't care. Body hair, for example, isn't viewed as a sign of laziness in the lesbian community like it is in the wider culture, but as an indicator of maturity; as an outward sign of adulthood, like how society tends to see it on men. In the wider society, women aren't allowed to age. You're expected to infantilize yourself. You're expected to appear completely hairless as though you never hit puberty because men prize youthfulness in women. That's a reality I first came to a full awareness of by engaging with other lesbians.

    (You're right, of course, that the women in "lesbian" porn obviously aren't lesbians by and large. My point though was that porn is the main lens through which people view lesbianism as a concept and they can behave accordingly toward actual lesbians.)
    Last edited by IMPress Polly; 08-14-2019 at 06:31 AM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by IMPress Polly View Post
    (You're right, of course, that the women in "lesbian" porn obviously aren't lesbians by and large. My point though was that porn is the main lens through which people view lesbianism as a concept and they can behave accordingly toward actual lesbians.)
    Women are sexualized in virtually ALL porn, lesbian porn or not. It's just the nature of the beast (and of men, who makeup the largest viewing pool). I am not insulted by porn that sexualizes women because the women making money doing porn have the right to do that. I kind of wish those women thought more highly of themselves, but it's their life and their choice.
    ""A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul" ~George Bernard Shaw

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