A lesbian is a woman who is romantically and sexually attracted only to other women. Women who are attracted to both women and men are more often referred to as bisexual. An individual's self-identification might not correspond with her behavior, and may be expressed with either, both, or neither of these words.
History
The earliest known written references to same-sex love between women come from ancient Greece. Sappho (the eponym of "sapphism"), who lived on the island of Lesbos, wrote poems which apparently expressed her sexual attraction to other females but some ancient accounts also describe her as having had love affairs with men. Moreover, Maximus of Tyre wrote that Sappho's relationships with the girls in her school were platonic[citation needed]. Modern scholarship suggests a parallel between the ancient Greek constructs of love between men and boys and the friendships between Sappho and her students in which "both pedagogy and pederasty may have played a role." Lesbian relationships have also been cited in ancient Sparta. Plutarch, writing about the Lacedaemonians, reports that "love was so esteemed among them that girls also became the erotic objects of noble women." Accounts of lesbian relationships are also found in poetry and stories from ancient China, but are not documented with the detail given to male homosexuality. Research by anthropologist Liza Dalby, based mostly on erotic poems exchanged between women, has suggested lesbian relationships were commonplace and socially accepted in Japan during the Heian Period. During medieval times in Arabia there were reports of relations between harem residents, although these were sometimes suppressed. For example, Caliph Musa al-Hadi ordered the beheading of two girls who were surprised during lovemaking. In Europe, the twelfth-century author Etienne de Fougères' treatise on women, Livre des manières (written circa A.D. 1170) derided lesbians, likening them to hens that act like roosters. This reflected a general tendency of European authorities, both religious and secular, to reject the notion that women could be properly sexual without men.
Feminism
Same-sex married couple at San Francisco Pride 2004.Historically, many lesbians have been involved in women's rights. Late in the 19th century, the term Boston marriage was used to describe romantic unions between women living together, often while contributing to the suffrage movement.
Same sex marraige has now been legalized in Netherlands, Spain, Belgium, Canada, and South Africa but it is still not permitted by many countries. Continuing this tradition of inclusive acceptance, in 2004 Massachusetts became the first American state to legalize same-sex marriages.
During the 1970s and 80s, with the emergence of modern feminism and the radical feminism movement, lesbian separatism became popular and groups of lesbian women gathered together to live in communal societies. Women such as Kathy Rudy in Radical Feminism, Lesbian Separatism, and Queer Theory remarked that, in her experience, stereotypes and the hierarchies to reinforce them developed in the lesbian separatist collective she lived in, ultimately leading her to leave the group.
During the 1990s, dozens of chapters of Lesbian Avengers were formed to press for lesbian visibility and rights.
There Also Many Type:
Butch and femme
Soft butch
Tomboy
Lesbian literature
Lesbian science fiction
Lesbian until graduation
Lipstick lesbian
Lesbianism in erotica
List of LGBT-related organizations
List of gay, lesbian or bisexual people
List of lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender-related films
The Ladder
Lesbian teen fiction
Terminology of homosexuality
Tribadism
Drag king
U-Haul lesbian
Lesbophobia
Lesbian Separatism
Lesbian Feminism
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