Episode Details

Are lesbians “real” in the way society claims? Or is much of what we call lesbianism a modern cultural phenomenon driven by social dynamics, politics, jealousy, and intra-female competition rather than innate same-sex attraction?

In this provocative episode, Simone & Malcolm Collins unpack shocking stats (e.g., 36% of lesbians in their 40s, 50% in their 50s, and 75% of those 60+ were previously married to men), question historical “lesbians” like Sappho (whose poetry may reflect jealousy or performance rather than lust), and explore why female sexuality seems far more fluid and dominance/resource-oriented than male sexuality.

We cover:

* Skyrocketing lesbian/bisexual identification among young women (Gen Z at 5.4% lesbian)

* High rates in sports, academia, military, and urban monocultures

* “Lesbian bed death” and low sexual frequency in lesbian couples vs. gay men

* Why historical records show clear gay male attraction but mostly spinster/companion “lesbian” pairings

* Political lesbianism, the “U-Haul” stereotype, and why women may pair with women for compatibility rather than raw sexual attraction

This is NOT denial of individual experiences—some women are genuinely same-sex attracted—but a challenge to the “born this way” narrative when data and history suggest something more complex (and often male-projected) is at play.

Episode Notes

There are a variety of odd things about lesbians:

* One analysis of Census data found that around 36% of women in their 40s with same-sex partners were previously married to men

* Despite there being fewer women who identify as lesbian (A large pooled analysis reported that about 1.5% of men and 1.2% of women in surveyed populations identified as gay or lesbian, respectively), there are more lesbian marriages than gay marriages, at least in the USA (roughly 53% of same-sex marriages are lesbian)

* Women make up the lion’s share of the LGBTQIA population, but mostly due to their identification as bisexual (around twice the rate of men)

* The rate at which women identify as lesbian or bisexual is trending up with younger generations more than the rate at which young men are identifying as gay

* The percentage of lesbians among professional athletes is significantly higher than the percentage in the general population (e.g. approx 30–38% of WNBA players are openly lesbian or in same-sex relationships; this is 15–30x higher than the general population) whereas there is no difference with male athletes.

* There are also disproportionately more lesbians in academia, STEM fields, psychology/social work, law, nonprofits, the trades, and the military

I want to go through this data and get Malcolm’s impression.

Historical Lesbians

Sappho

People claim that Sappho was a lesbian (meaning a woman whose primary erotic and romantic attractions were to other women—based on the strongest available historical evidence: her own surviving poetry.

* It is argued that her poems (from around 630–570 BCE on the island of Lesbos) provide clear, direct expressions of intense desire for women,

But if her own surviving poetry is the evidence, she is no more a lesbian than modern male songwriters who write for female artists, or right-wing body building appreciators, are gay.

For context: Most scholars think Sappho’s primary audience was other women in her own elite social circle, especially the young, unmarried women she taught and led in song. Her poems were composed to be performed aloud with music, often in a small, aristocratic female community, at religious occasions (especially for female deities) and at events like weddings

In other words, you could argue she was a micro Taylor Swift.

Alleged Evidence from Her Poetry

* In (one of her most famous), the speaker describes overwhelming physical symptoms of desire—trembling, sweating, feeling n