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The younger generation, epitomised by Peaches and her gang, swap their sexuality as easily as their style...
Along with Katy Perry, Peaches Geldof has now kissed a girl — and she liked it. With that one act she has joined part-time lesbianism, taking advantage of the younger generation's complete acceptance of malleable sexuality.
This is the age when girls can like girls, and like boys, and like girls again — where Lady Gaga can sing about her Poker Face (the look you get when having sex with a man, but fantasising about a woman), and the Black Eyed Peas's Fergie can openly say: “I've experimented definitely, but I have never had a steady girlfriend”, while relishing the girl-on-girl action in her latest music video.
Lindsay Lohan and Samantha Ronson may have gone from Facebook-status “in a relationship” to “it's complicated”, but their year-long relationship (that turned Lohan from a list of celeb boyfriends including snowboarder Riley Giles and Calum Best and into a transitory gay), has made sure that if you're a girl in the public eye who is not coming out about your same-sex tendencies, then you're simply not on message.
Back in the staid 1990s, Peaches's dalliances would have had her labelled a LUG (Lesbian Until Graduation), the kind of girl that “serious” lesbians abhorred, who would admit to liking women only until they had to leave the safe haven of university for the real world — and have more “socially appropriate” relationships.
But now Beth Ditto, lead singer of The Gossip and the most in-your-face lesbian the music world has ever seen, has become a celebrated style icon.
And, while her sister flies the flag for lesbian-cool, Pixie Geldof is among the ranks of stars including Agyness Deyn, Alice Dellal, The Kills's Alison Mosshart and Alexa Chung, who are doing dyke-chic. None of them ever gets within 500 feet of a floral dress and they cling instead to a uniform of T-shirts and biker jackets in black, blue and grey. In this month's Vogue, Chung wrote “I don't feel comfortable in ultra-feminine things — anything body-con just makes me self-con.” She and her fashionable comrades may be firmly on the straight side of the fence, but with that attitude, she is steering the trend for the must-have lesbian look.
Even the all-American DC Comics are jumping on the lesbian bandwagon these days, re-launching their Batwoman character next month as a 5 ft 10in crimson-haired, knee-high booted, super sexy dyke. “We're trying for overall diversity in the DC universe,” said Dan DiDio, vice president at DC. The fact is, it's no longer necessary for young people to define themselves as straight or gay, and it's perfectly acceptable not only to be unsure, but to be neither. A good friend of mine has always maintained being equally attracted to boys and girls doesn't make her bisexual, but simply sexually liberal: “I would only have a long term relationship with a man, but I am attracted to some women and for me, acting on that is just like experimenting with anything else sexually,” she says.
“While I don't think it's necessarily cool' right now to be a dyke, lipstick lesbians' such as Lindsay Lohan do bring lesbianism into the mainstream and probably do encourage more young women to consider trying it out.”
That is the storyline that has had followers of E4's teen drama, Skins, enraptured. The series, which moves to Channel 4 in July, is famed for being written by a group of 17 to 25-year-olds. It saw characters Emily and Naomi (dubbed Naomily) have their first kiss to a backing track of Katy Perry's I Kissed a Girl, and with it begin a Ronson-Lohan style romance in which Naomi entertains the possibility of being a lesbian for the very first time.
An E4 spokesperson said: “Skins is written by young people who don't see sexuality as defining who they are. They're a bit more cool about it than that, so they think of the characters they create as being in love with a person, rather than a boy or a girl.” Tellingly, the relationship has made Emily and Naomi the viewers' most popular pair. Whether this foray into lesbianism will make Peaches the most popular girl in London, or be dismissed as another publicity stunt, remains to be seen.
Reader views (14)
Oh, come off it! Peaches would do anything with anyone, provided that the press were willing to report it.
- Hb, rochford, essex, 16/06/2009 09:44
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Its called being desperate to keep in the public eye. Next stop will be trying to outdo Rebecca Loos and the pig.
- Paul, London, 16/06/2009 09:08
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Um, girls have always kissed girls. You've obviously not read your history books very well - The courts of Eleanor of Aquitane and Marie Antoinette which were the celebrity circuses in their day have well documented, if coy references to women liking one another in more than platonic ways. Tipping the velvet is a pretty obvious literary example of bringing the issue to the fore.
- Nathan, UK, 16/06/2009 00:34
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Interesting to compare the apparent insouciance of these young people (obviously with one eye on the cameras)with the po-faced controlling attitude of my poor local Council, which is getting itself into hot water by its plans for compulsory teaching of Gay, Lesbian and Transgender issues to pre-pubertal children (what they used to call grooming). Children are supposedly being bullied for being or seeming gay at bizarrely young ages, ages at which older generations were having no sexual ideas at all! Perhaps leaving the young to get on with it wasn't such a bad idea, which is what these high-profile young people seem to be saying.
Looking back, the idea of any of our teachers telling us what was normal would have seemed grotesquely bad taste.
- Mdj E10, london uk, 16/06/2009 00:24
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So leather jackets and jeans are "dyke chic"? LOL. Whatever.
- Agent_Torpor, san franny, ca, 15/06/2009 17:41
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She must so bored and boring Bright Young Things - nothing new under the sun
Surely Geldorf could have put a little more effort into raising these ghastlies and given them a sense of purpose and less boring life. Amazing all those eco/social conscience ridden celebs like Bono, Annie Lennox, Sir Paul and his brood, Sting to name a few and not one of them could bring out an ounce of genuine selflessness in these girls. Shame and sad for them, they are missing a whole life.
- Amazonmothe, hasting, 15/06/2009 15:03
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What utter nonsense! Girls aren't swapping their sexuality en masse at all.
Normal girls will kiss their friends or hold hands and flirt in front of the cameras or when they're drunk, but most never seriously entertain the idea of becoming a lesbian. It's one thing having a little flirt, kiss and a fondle, but to engage in the full sexual act is something that most girls would find repulsive. Just because girls can appreciate each other's beauty doesn't mean they are prepared to go the whole way.
It's moronic girls like Peaches Geldof who claim it is anything more than a bit of fun, because they want to seem like some cool, ultra-liberal, anti-establishment figure, when in truth they are just a tragic insult to all real lesbians and bisexuals.
She's putting it on for the cameras and to cause a furore, just as that ridiculous programme Skins does too. They're not dealing with real teen issues they're just creating sensationalist fantastical nonsense to seem cool and edgy.
Normal girls aren't flipping from one sexuality to another, they're simply having fun and a flirt.
But tragic media hogs like Peaches, Katy Perry and Lindsay Lohan are just trying to prove how cool they are and appeal to dimwits who can't read between the lines! Pathetic!
- Alexandra, London, 15/06/2009 14:11
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Within the past eighteen months I've noticed a lot of women in the public eye state that they have experimented with members of the same sex or that they are unsure about their sexuality, and each and every time they seem to have been accepted for what they are. In short, sexuality is no longer a big deal (for most people at least). I think this is a good thing and is surely what this country is all about: freedom to do / be / think what you like, as long as it does no harm to anybody else. Good on them I say.
- Shane, Southampton, 15/06/2009 13:35
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What a sad family they are.
- Maz, London W5, 15/06/2009 12:24
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>Isn't this all just a male inspired media fantasy? I >can't quite see the media being that interested in young >guys who will waiting for the ultimate girlfriend cop >off with one of their rugger mates. Just imagine Prince >Harry, in his Chelsea hiatus stage, coping off with one >of his army buddies.
Now there is a destracting thought I don't need on a Monday morning! 
- Curtis, London, 15/06/2009 11:57
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Kevin T - Peaches' name could have been worse - imagine beig called Rhubarb Geldof
- David Chown, bath, 15/06/2009 11:33
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Someone remind me: why is Peaches Geldof famous again, other than for who her parents are and for having a very silly name?
- Kevin T, Beckenham, Kent, 15/06/2009 11:26
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ALL of this is rubbish. They are young girls who are expertly 'managed' by their publicists to ensure that they receive the maximum amount of press coverage so they can sell their image for other things.
Its stupid and the more attention paid to this makes the problem worse.
CANX coverage of these losers
- Alanj, London, 15/06/2009 10:18
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Isn't this all just a male inspired media fantasy? I can't quite see the media being that interested in young guys who will waiting for the ultimate girlfriend cop off with one of their rugger mates. Just imagine Prince Harry, in his Chelsea hiatus stage, coping off with one of his army buddies.
He'd be laughed out the army.
- Adam, Harrow, UK, 15/06/2009 09:38
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