I am a lesbian, and you love me Lesbian representation in the media to reduce homophobia

Background – Lesbian visibility has increased over the past decade. As such, people are exposed to a variety of different gender expressions. However, lesbians are often objectified and stereotyped in the media. Stereotypes can be harmful when perceived negatively as they are based on societal values rather than experience. Additionally, with the increased popularity of social media, frequent access to lesbians is much easier. As such, how lesbians are perceived is a critical factor. Purpose – the purpose of the current study is to gain a deeper understanding of the extent to which gender representation in lesbians impacts homophobia from a social identity perspective. The aim is to investigate whether feminine representations of lesbians on social media can reduce an aversion toward lesbians. Moreover, it aims to highlight whether people with an aversion are aware of their discrimination toward lesbians. Method – An online experimental survey was made using already established scaled from theoretical literature. Participants were randomly assigned to one of the groups: masculine exposure, feminine exposure, and the control group. Once data was collected, the data has been analyzed using SPSS. Findings – Results indicate that there is no difference in homophobia after exposure to masculine or feminine gender representation in lesbians. Moreover, openness to experience was found to be an insignificant predictor of homophobia. Additionally, results did reveal a significant effect between social identification and homophobia after exposure. Lastly, when lesbians are perceived as positive, it showed a reduction in homophobia. Limitation – The differences in the exposure to feminine and masculine were perceived to be minimal. As such, the results could have been impacted by this. Future direction – future researchers should be certain that their manipulations are done effectively. Moreover, lesbians have an array of different aesthetics (athletic, gothic, outdoorsy, creative, etc.). Thus, researchers may focus on how different aesthetics impact homophobia.