Why a straight woman might want to kiss another woman

It’s not that unusual to see two young womenespecially from the age of adolescence to the early 20s, exchanging effusions or real kisses, despite not having homosexual inclinations (or not having yet become aware of them).

A recent one study conducted by Samantha Stevens, Flora Oswald and Jes Matsick, researchers in the psycho-sexual field and published on Personal Relationshipswanted to delve deeper into the concept of homosexual performativity (SSP) among college age women, wondering why it is so common at that age and what it could mean on a psychosociological level. The psychologist Mark Travers reported the data in the online magazine Psychology Today.

What is homosexual performativity?

There homosexual performativity refers to public displays of attraction towards individuals of the same sexhow can kisses be, among people who identify as heterosexual. According to research, between 20 and 33% of university women identified as heterosexual have had homosexual performances.

The objective of the research carried out in the university setting

«We wanted shed light on the heterogeneity of women who participate in same-sex performativity,” he says Samantha Stevens, researcher at Equity Accelerator and lead author of the article. “The media and popular culture often fetishize and trivialize this type of sexual behavior among women of that age, but there is more complexity than people can imagine and that’s important avoid generalizing and simplifying excessively this phenomenon and the women who practice it”.

How the research was carried out

The researchers administered some online surveys of 282 heterosexual women that they reported having practiced homosexual activities, investigating their identities, attitudes, motivations and evaluations of their experiences as women. Using thelatent class analysis (a statistical technique), they identified three distinct groups of women with common patterns of motivations for the practice of homosexual performativity.

• The first group was identified as «motivated by the other” and was driven by factors such as the seeking male attention and from desire to bond with others.
• The second group was that «Sexually motivated” and was characterized by reasons of sexual desire and exploration.
• The third group, the largest, was «ambiguously motivated” and showed a relatively low percentage towards any specific motivating factor.

A fact that should not be underestimated is the fact that all three groups have taken over the influence of alcohol and the desire to have fun as determining factors in practicing homosexual performativity, underlining how the party environment pushed people to engage in certain homosexual behaviors.

The results of the study

The conclusions drawn from this study are interesting, according to which it seems that women in the group «with ambiguous motivation” have perceived their experiences less positively than other groups, as it inhibited them from trying the experience again. On the other hand, women belonging to the group «motivated by the other» they perceived the experience as more objectifying, but not necessarily more negative. Finally, as is obvious, the group of «sexually motivated” they reported higher levels of desire towards the kissed woman, expressing the desire to try the experience again with more awareness.

«Let’s not forget that homosexual experimentation is typical of development and homosexual performativity can be a comfortable way for some women to explore their sexuality – concludes Stevens – Stereotyping and oversimplifying these experiences can be harmful and can perpetuate stigmas».

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