MythBusting Mondays: All Feminists are Lesbians

    All Feminists are Lesbians, false. Because of the nature of sexuality it is not clear to researchers exactly how many Lesbian, Gay, or Bisexual people there are. Estimates range from 2% to 13%, but are still considerably lower than the estimated heterosexual population. It follows logically to conclude that it is nearly statistically impossible for lesbians to make up a majority of feminists.

    This subject is difficult to discuss without first defining “Lesbian Baiting”, or the practice of accusing women (feminists) of being lesbians in an effort to discredit feminism and prevent women both from joining the movement and from taking women’s studies classes. (Shaw, Lee: Women’s Voices, Feminist Visions)  Lesbian Baiting is not specific to feminism, it also encompasses any instance in which a person attempts to police a woman (correct the way she dresses, speaks, thinks, etc.) with the threat of identifying her as a lesbian.  When a woman is identified as a lesbian she immediately loses her heterosexual privilege. 

    Now, this tactic puts heterosexual and lesbian feminists in a very peculiar situation because of the intricate nature of the attack. On the one hand, a heterosexual feminist does not want incorrect assumptions made about her sexuality, but conversely it is homophobia that allows lesbian baiting to be insulting.  What’s a straight feminist to do? Traditionally the options that come to minde are: feed into the homophobia that inspires the insult by aggressively disagreeing to prove your own heterosexuality (and later commenting to your lesbian friend how unhappy you are to have been called a lesbian), or allow your sexuality to become a point of anti-feminist speculation and lose heterosexual privilege. 

    So I ask readers, is there any way to disarm such a comment without reinforcing heteronormativity? Is lesbian baiting unavoidable so long as there is homophobia?