Peplau LA, Fingerhut AW. The close relationships of lesbians and gay men. Annu Rev Psychol. 2007;58:405–24. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.58.110405.085701. Crépault C, Couture M. Men’s erotic fantasies. Arch Sex Behav. 1980;9:565–81. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01542159. Dawson SJ, Suschinsky KD, Lalumiere ML. Sexual fantasies and viewing times across the menstrual cycle: a diary study. Arch Sex Behav. 2012;41(1):173–83. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-012-9939-1. Your dreamscape alone isn’t reason enough to doubt your sexuality or to begin identifying as a lesbian.

What follows are examples of sculptors who may have been homosexual and sculptures of renowned, possibly queer, women – some arguably more explicit in their identity than others. Tortora C, D’Urso G, Nimbi FM, Pace U, Marchetti D, Fontanesi L. Sexual fantasies and stereotypical gender roles: the influence of sexual orientation, gender and social pressure in a sample of Italian young-adults. Front Psychol. 2020;10:2864. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02864 This article compares gender and sexual orientations regarding erotic fantasies and gender role expressions. Umberson D, Thomeer MB, Lodge AC. Intimacy and emotion work in lesbian, gay, and heterosexual relationships. J Marriage Fam. 2015;77(2):542–56. https://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12178. Women in homosexual relationships in Europe and the United States responded to the discrimination and repression either by hiding their personal lives, or accepting the label of outcast and creating a subculture and identity. Following World WarII, during a period of social repression when governments actively persecuted homosexuals, women developed networks to socialize with and educate each other. Gaining greater economic and social freedom allowed them to determine how they could form relationships and families. With second-wave feminism and the growth of scholarship in women's history and sexuality in the late 20th century, the definition of lesbian broadened, leading to debate about the term's use. While research by Lisa M. Diamond identified sexual desire as the core component for defining lesbians, [8] [a] some women who engage in same-sex sexual activity may reject not only identifying as lesbians but as bisexual as well. Other women's self-identification as lesbian may not align with their sexual orientation or sexual behavior. Sexual identity is not necessarily the same as one's sexual orientation or sexual behavior, due to various reasons, such as the fear of identifying their sexual orientation in a homophobic setting.

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Women in ancient Rome were similarly subject to men's definitions of sexuality. Modern scholarship indicates that men viewed female homosexuality with hostility. They considered women who engaged in sexual relations with other women to be biological oddities that would attempt to penetrate women—and sometimes men—with "monstrously enlarged" clitorises. [49] According to scholar James Butrica, lesbianism "challenged not only the Roman male's view of himself as the exclusive giver of sexual pleasure but also the most basic foundations of Rome's male-dominated culture". No historical documentation exists of women who had other women as sex partners. [50] Early modern Europe Lesbianism and hermaphroditism, depicted here in an engraving c. 1690, were very similar concepts during the Renaissance. O’Byrne P. Examining the intersection of desire, drugs and place among gay men. J Res Nurs. 2013;18(3):265–76. https://doi.org/10.1177/1744987111415040. Tracy JK, Junginger J. Correlates of lesbian sexual functioning. J Women's Health. 2007;16(4):499–509. https://doi.org/10.1089/jwh.2006.0308.

McDermott, Michael. ‘The (Broken) Promise of Queerbaiting: Happiness and Futurity in Politics of Queer Representation’, International Journal of Cultural Studies 24 (2021) 844–859.There are many harmful myths surrounding vulva-to-vulva sex that are steeped in ignorance, homophobia and stereotypes that it is important to unlearn. Hirshfield S, Chiasson M, Wagmiller R, Remien R, Humberstone M, Scheinmann R, et al. Sexual dysfunction in an internet sample of U.S. men who have sex with men. J Sex Med. 2010;7:3104–14. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1743-6109.2009.01636.x. Vansintejan J, Janssen J, Van De Vijver E, Vandevoorde J, Devroey D. The gay men sex studies: prevalence of sexual dysfunctions in Belgian HIV+ gay men. HIV/AIDS. 2013;5:89. https://doi.org/10.2147/HIV.S43962. Levitt EE, Klassen AD. Public attitudes toward homosexuality: part of the 1970 national survey by the Institute for Sex Research. J Homosex. 1974;1:29–43. https://doi.org/10.1300/J082v01n01_03.

Lippa RA. The relation between sex drive and sexual attraction to men and women: a cross-national study of heterosexual, bisexual, and homosexual men and women. Arch Sex Behav. 2007;36(2):209–22. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-006-9146-z. Nimbi FM, Tripodi F, Rossi R, Simonelli C. Testing a conceptual model for men’s sexual desire referring to automatic thoughts, emotions, sexual function, and sexism. J Sex Med. 2018;15(11):1518–26. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsxm.2018.09.008. Simmons JL. Public stereotypes of deviants. Soc Probl. 1965;13:223–32. https://doi.org/10.2307/798906.

One such relationship was between Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, who wrote to Anne Wortley in 1709: "Nobody was so entirely, so faithfully yours ... I put in your lovers, for I don't allow it possible for a man to be so sincere as I am." [74] Similarly, English poet Anna Seward had a devoted friendship to Honora Sneyd, who was the subject of many of Seward's sonnets and poems. When Sneyd married despite Seward's protest, Seward's poems became angry. Seward continued to write about Sneyd long after her death, extolling Sneyd's beauty and their affection and friendship. [75] As a young woman, writer and philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft was attached to a woman named Fanny Blood. Writing to another woman by whom she had recently felt betrayed, Wollstonecraft declared, "The roses will bloom when there's peace in the breast, and the prospect of living with my Fanny gladdens my heart:—You know not how I love her." [76] [e] The Ladies of Llangollen, Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby. Instead of fetishizing lesbian sex, we aim to normalize and celebrate it. Of course, watching girl-on-girl romance can be a fetish, but on Audiodesires we just want to celebrate all things sex, regardless of who is in our stories.