Last weekend at dinner, a friend was catching me up on her relationships over the past semester. She told me about a boy that she was really into and then she started telling me how she met this great lesbian couple.
Turns out one of the girls had been flirting with my friend and the weekend before they ended up kissing for a while.
My friend told me that she was confused because she liked it, but wasn’t sure if it was her just wanting to experiment with girls or if she was actually a lesbian.
As a college student I can say that last weekend was the first time one of my good friends has expressed their confusion about their sexuality.
But I realized this isn’t what the stereotypes and portrayals of college women would have you believe.
Between “Girls Gone Wild” and movies, the stereotype of college girls is that they all have a drunken night with another girl or test out being a lesbian for a couple months.
Guys, you may want to cover your ears for this, but it turns out experimentation between college girls is mostly a myth.
According to a new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only 9.9 percent of college females said they have experimented with another girl.
Just like the stereotype that all college students do is drink and have sex, the statistics are showing more and more that these common assumptions are changing.
I have never been physically attracted to a girl before. That’s not to say that I never will because you never know. I think talking about it with someone who is straight helped my friend understand the situation she was in. She was worried that it would lead somewhere and when it came down to it she would realize that she really was straight.
So why do most people assume, or in a guy’s mind, hope, that girls will want to hook up with their girl friends during college?
It could be because most TV shows about college and high school students will have some type of girl-on-girl experimenting, but they never stay lesbian for long.
We should be applauding the shows that take female relationships and turn them into more than a moment of confusion. Unfortunately, even looking for examples of lesbians in shows that revolve around high school and college proves difficult.
According to a study done by The Williams Institute, between the years 2000 and 2005, the number of female couples increased by 24 percent. You can only imagine how much more it has increased since then.
The best thing my friend told me during that dinner was that she looked at the other girl and saw a great person. It didn’t really matter to her that she was female because she liked her personality.
Regardless of studies saying that experimenting in college is a myth, if you want to, just go for it. It’s better to try something than keep it bottled up inside.
Tell Lindsey if you were ever confused at lindsey.kupfer@asu.edu
