Media portrayal of lesbianism

Lesbians often attract media attention, particularly in relation to feminism, love and sexual relationships, marriage and parenting. Some writers who have asserted this trend can lead to exploitative and unjustified plot devices. The lack of lesbian portrayal in the media can also influence the consumer's view of the particular sexuality. Common tropes of lesbians in the media include butch or femme lesbians and lesbian parents. The word Butch lesbian comes from the idea of a lesbian expressing themselves as masculine by dressing masculine, behaving masculinely, or liking things that are deemed masculine, while the word femme lesbian comes from the idea of a lesbian expressing themselves as feminine by dressing feminine, behaving femininely, or liking things that are deemed feminine. In the media, lesbian marriage and parenting are depicted in shows such as the live action television show The Fosters and even the children's cartoon Steven Universe.

During the twentieth century, lesbians such as Gertrude Stein and Barbara Hammer were noted in the U.S. avant-garde art movements, along with figures such as Leontine Sagan in German pre-war cinema. Since the 1890s the underground classic The Songs of Bilitis has been influential on lesbian culture. This book provided a name for the first campaigning and cultural organization in the United States, the Daughters of Bilitis. Joseph Sheridan le Fanu's 1872 novella Carmilla (which has since been adapted as a webseries) cited as a root of the lesbian vampire trope about the predatory love of a vampire (the title character) for a young woman (the narrator) which was picked up in 20th-century exploitation films.

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