Members of the queer community are all too familiar with stereotypes. Whether it’s generalizations made through the media or just plain ignorance, stereotypes tend to come up a lot in our community. One particularly persistent stereotype is the idea of lesbian bed death. To get an idea of what this term means, both in the past and how it fits into queer culture today, we spoke to Katie Hauser, LCSW, a therapist at the Chelsea and Brooklyn locations of the Gay Therapy Center.
What is lesbian bed death, anyway?
Katie defines lesbian bed death as:
The idea that lesbians not only have less sex than other types of couples but that there’s a noticeable drop in sexuality in long-term lesbian relationships.
Here’s where it gets dicey: the data doesn’t back it up. Katie continues, “It’s really only supported by anecdotal evidence and very old survey research from over 25 years ago. The surveys were reporting low rates of sexual activity and relatively high rates of celibacy among lesbians in comparison with other types of couples. So that brought about this idea that lesbians just aren’t as sexual.”
