{"id":62420,"date":"2014-12-30T11:00:55","date_gmt":"2014-12-30T16:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=62420"},"modified":"2017-09-17T17:20:14","modified_gmt":"2017-09-17T22:20:14","slug":"girl-on-girl-action-a-new-visual-landscape","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2014\/12\/30\/girl-on-girl-action-a-new-visual-landscape\/","title":{"rendered":"Girl-on-Girl Action: A New Visual Landscape"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2014\/12\/29.png\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-0\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\" title=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-65517\" src=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2014\/12\/29-500x111.png\" alt=\"2\" width=\"500\" height=\"111\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2014\/12\/29-500x111.png 500w, https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2014\/12\/29-1024x229.png 1024w, https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2014\/12\/29.png 1475w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a>Perusing my Facebook feed, I came across a photo proudly posted by a former student &#8212; now <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/elizabethchangmakeup\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a hair and makeup artist<\/a> &#8212; of two brides at a wedding. \u00a0It was beautiful and the young, conventionally attractive brides were leaning in for a kiss. \u00a0Or engagement celebrations, like this:<\/p>\n<p><a id='xoGZNFOnSKRFH6wGEPH2tw' class='gie-single' href='http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/165528180' target='_blank' style='color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;'>Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'xoGZNFOnSKRFH6wGEPH2tw',sig:'H-RfrLrpvhuuViXZBbFWR-lejaYetiDU7JheHkqUDhY=',w:'507px',h:'338px',items:'165528180',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<p>When I saw the image, my mind immediately pulled up similar images it has in storage &#8212; frequently described as <a href=\"http:\/\/dailyfiasco.com\/tag\/baba-booey\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">girl-on-girl action<\/a>\u00a0&#8212; and I was struck by the similarity of the images and their powerfully different messages.<\/p>\n<p>Until recently, &#8220;hot girl-on-girl action&#8221; was the primary visual that involved women kissing. \u00a0In mainstream culture, genuine and open female same-sex attraction was almost entirely invisible, hidden and denied. \u00a0Today, the proliferation of same-sex marriages offer a new visual landscape for framing what it means for two women to kiss each other.<\/p>\n<p>The meaning, moreover, could not be more different. \u00a0Though often women with same-sex desire\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/gas.sagepub.com\/content\/early\/2013\/11\/20\/0891243213510782.abstract\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">use this assumption<\/a>\u00a0to explore real attraction, girl-on-girl action shots are <em>ostensibly<\/em> between two heterosexually-oriented women who are kissing for male attention. \u00a0These brides are presumably doing the opposite of that. \u00a0They are displaying love and commitment to one another. The kiss is for them and no one else and they are, implicitly if not actually, openly committing to making themselves sexually <em>un<\/em>available to anyone else, male or female. \u00a0This is far from the notion that they are just kissing a girl to get guys to think they&#8217;re sexy.<\/p>\n<p>I wonder how these images &#8212; ones that depict sexual intimacy between women who love one another and <em>do not<\/em> seek male attention &#8212; will ultimately change how we think about &#8220;girl-on-girl&#8221; action in the U.S. \u00a0As they proliferate, will they push back against the male-centrism and heterocentrism of our society? \u00a0I think they very well might.<\/p>\n<span class=\"ft_signature\"><em><a href=\"http:\/\/lisa-wade.com\/\">Lisa Wade, PhD<\/a> is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/American-Hookup-New-Culture-Campus\/dp\/039328509X?ie=UTF8&amp;*Version*=1&amp;*entries*=0\">American Hookup<\/a><em>, a book about college sexual culture; a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Gender-Interactions-Institutions-Lisa-Wade\/dp\/0393931072?ie=UTF8&amp;*Version*=1&amp;*entries*=0\">textbook about gender<\/a>; and a forthcoming introductory text: <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/lisa-wade.com\/intro\/\">Terrible Magnificent Sociology<\/a><em>.\u00a0You can follow her on <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/lisawade\">Twitter<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/lisawadephd\/\">Instagram<\/a>.<\/em><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Perusing my Facebook feed, I came across a photo proudly posted by a former student &#8212; now a hair and makeup artist &#8212; of two brides at a wedding. \u00a0It was beautiful and the young, conventionally attractive brides were leaning in for a kiss. \u00a0Or engagement celebrations, like this: Embed from Getty Images When I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":67733,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[23384,272,283,120,54,23643,293,23622],"class_list":["post-62420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-social-construction-discourselanguage","tag-marriagefamily","tag-prejudicediscrimination","tag-sex","tag-sexual-orientation","tag-sexual-orientation-prejudicediscrimination","tag-social-construction","tag-social-construction-symbols"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2014\/12\/43.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62420"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62420\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71683,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62420\/revisions\/71683"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}