Having had this article pointed out to me . . . Babes Breed Les Boom . . . and then asked the question, "What about Taipei?"

While Tatu and the rest might be one aspect of lesbianism used to sell product, I really don’t think it’s part of a boom in lesbianism in and of itself. I would say that’s more of a subset of the bisexual chic phenomenon of Britney kissing Madonna kissing Christina or Girls Gone Wild or girls on the dance floor kissing one another as experimentation but also to get the guys excited . . . see my earlier post Bisexual Chic. Yes, there is a so-called lesbian boom in popular culture and the like, but it is part of a wider experimentation in sexuality, particularly the search for alternatives.

Certainly, experimenting with lesbian behaviors and feelings is real and does seem to be growing, particularly among the young where same sex experimentation by women has always been fairly high (see anyone from Kinsey’s original report to Masters and Johnson to Hite). However, experimentation is not lesbianism, it’s experimentation. The interesting change is that bisexual and lesbian experimentation are becoming more socially acceptable in media and within the youth cultures. Openly carressing and kissing on a dance floor is very different from the guilt-ridden girls experimenting behind closed doors praying they weren’t freaks and that they wouldn’t get caught.

A significant degree of the public experimental behavior of this type is intended to arouse males, thus the bisexual in the term. Guys are aroused by girls kissing or girl-to-girl sexual behavior. This should not be news to anyone. It’s been around a long time. It should be noted that guys are not for the most part aroused by lesbians, but by bisexual women with other women, this is in part because of the fantasy of participation. See Janet Yuen’s excellent article on this Girls Kissing: Barb Lee’s documentary on the male obsession with watching girls lock lips at Ricepaper Online which is a look at the phenomenon while reviewing Barb Lee’s documentary film on the subject (see the promotion site for the film Girls Kissing).

It is also very apprarent that male samesex and bisexual experimentation is still fairly taboo on those lines.

As far as Taiwan goes, it certainly is happening . . . to a degree . . . not quite as bold and flashy as the Americans but more along the lines of the Japanese, toned down a notch.

For more on this subject, feel free to go to Kiss for the Camera.