Love is love, no matter where you find it. Whether with a man, woman, or in between.
Love knows no gender and, neither do we.
The queer flag colors reflect that many colors of people can be found under one roof.
Every person has their own identity that must be cherished as it is one of a kind. This is why the pride flag colors have a significant role.
This article is on one of the famous and widely popular versions of the lesbian flag i.e ‘The Lipstick lesbian pride flag.’
Who is a Lipstick Lesbian?
We’ve all met the lipstick lesbian before.
She’s the femme lesbian who wears makeup and heels, who dresses in a traditionally feminine way, and whose partner is more likely to be butch.
A lipstick lesbian is a lesbian who looks feminine and ‘straight.’
She’s sometimes assumed to be a repressed bisexual or maybe even straight.
A lipstick lesbian is supposedly not as “butch” as other lesbians. She dresses up nicely and tries to look pretty for her girlfriend instead of wearing t-shirts and jeans (as if dressing up isn’t an option). People say that she gets more attention from men than other lesbians do because she looks more like a woman than they do.
The term lipstick lesbian has been in use since at least the 1980s.
Traditionally, the term was applied almost exclusively to straight-identified women who did not behave in a stereotypically masculine way in their daily lives. Still, it can also be applied to visibly genderqueer people.
In 1982, Priscilla Rhoades of the San Francisco Sentinel wrote a story about women who wore lipstick and other feminine attire. In 1990, OutWeek magazine covered a social group called “Lesbian Ladies Society” which required its members to wear dresses or skirts to all meetings.
History Of The Lipstick Lesbian Flag.
Natalie Mc cray designed the lipstick lesbian pride flag in 2010 and posted it on her WordPress blog – The lesbian life.
The lipstick lesbian flag has shades of pink and red with a lipstick symbol on the top left corner that symbolizes femininity.
The lipstick lesbian pride flag is a symbol of solidarity and pride among those who identify as lipstick lesbians.
Why was the lipstick lesbian flag designed?
While bringing the flag live amongst people, Natalie mentioned that there were a lot of flags designed that represented communities of gay men. But none empowered lesbians. The lipstick lesbian pride flag was created to support and promote lesbians with femme characteristics at the parade.
What do the colors on the lipstick lesbian flag represent?
The lipstick lesbian flag consists of seven stripes with six shades of red and pink color and a white bar in the center. A red kiss is superimposed on the left corner of these stripes.
The Lipstick lesbian flag represents homosexual women who have more feminine gender expression. The red kiss on the top left corner symbolizes strength. The bold red color of the kiss represents liberation and rebellion.
However, the symbols of other colors weren’t explained. Some embraced this new idea while others argued against this design.
In 2018, Emily Gwen recreated the flag by removing the red kiss from the top left corner. Shades of orange were added to represent the togetherness of feminine and masculine expressing lesbians. The shades in the current recreation of the flag represent different symbols.
The orange and red color symbolizes gender nonconformity, independence, and community. The white strip on the flag represents a unique relationship with womanhood and the shade of pink represents peace, love, serenity, sex, and femininity.
Criticism of lipstick lesbian flag
The creator of the flag, Rachel McCray, was criticized for advocating transphobic and exclusionary ideologies. The majority of the community abandoned her flag creation immediately. Also, the colors of the flag were not explained anywhere.
What are some alternatives to lipstick lesbian flags?
There are 13 different lesbian flags proposed based on pride flags.
The term Lesbian was first used to describe the erotic relationship between women in 1870. The term Lipstick Lesbian has been used as slang for women who are more feminine in appearance and wear make-up particularly lipstick and other dresses.
Some other lesbian flags are the Labrys lesbian flag created in 1999, the Pink lesbian flag, the Orange-pink lesbian flag, and the Five-stripes variant of the orange-pink flag.
5 signs that you are a lipstick lesbian
Lipstick lesbians are no longer expected to wear skirts or dresses; today’s lipstick lesbian can rock a pair of heels or even a business suit if she chooses!
But these are some of the common natures in the lipstick lesbian.
- You love high-quality clothing and accessories.
- You’ve all shades of colors inside your vanity, which is an integral part of your identity (though certainly not all). But light-shaded makeup always raises your confidence.
- Your relationship with your hair and nails is deep.
- You can’t walk past a shoe store without going in and drooling over the pumps.
- You have a softer-spoken personality.
Things To Never Say To A Lipstick Lesbian
“You’re too pretty to be a lesbian.”
This statement disregards how people define their sexuality and gender identity. The idea that someone’s sexuality might be a choice is ludicrous enough on its own. But beyond that, this statement implies that a woman has only one option when it comes to being with women: lesbians. So, if she’s attractive enough to be with men, she must be straight.
“You don’t look like a lesbian.”
You might think that your statement is meant to be complimentary or an observation about how a lesbian looks. But the truth is that it’s not. It might come from wanting to understand their appearance or identity better, but it’s still commenting on what a lesbian should look like—and it implies that their appearance doesn’t fit the stereotype.
“You just haven’t met the right guy yet.”
Sometimes people try to be supportive by suggesting that this new revelation isn’t really true and that she just needs to keep looking for a man. They don’t realize that this comment can feel like a slap in the face. They are telling them something must be wrong with you or the situation. They insinuate that your sexuality isn’t real, or that you are making up what you feel in your heart because of some personal failure on your part. There isn’t one guy out there that every queer woman will fall in love with and suddenly be straight again.
Constantly being asked to explain/justify your sexuality.
When you’re a lipstick lesbian, you get used to being asked questions about your sexuality and having your relationship with the gay community questioned. Some people even seem to feel entitled enough to ask invasive questions like:
“So, what does that mean?”
“Like, do you like women better than men?”
“Are you sure?”
But the answer is “We’re the same”.
