I. Physical violence towards lesbians, bi-women, and queer women
Violence against women in the LGBTQ community is not talked about enough. According to domestic shelters.org, “44% of percent of lesbian women and 61% of bisexual women – compared to 35% of heterosexual women – experienced rape, physical violence, and/or stalking by an intimate partner in their lifetime.” (National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, 2010 Summary Report. National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Division of Violence Prevention, Atlanta, GA, and Control of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.). That is a 26% percent increase between heterosexual women and bisexual women; and a 9% increase for lesbian women. And that is just relationships, according to the 2011 NCAVP Hate Violence Report, 87% of anti-LGBTQH murders were people of color. And while that number has gone down a little since their most recent report in 2017, it was still high at 75%.
II. Media portrayal of lesbians, bi-women, and queer
The media portrayal of queer, lesbians, and bi-women are shined in negative light. A study by the media agency UM had questioned 500 women on a dating app. 92% believed that they were negatively stereotyped in the media, popular culture, movies, etc in the survey. They also believe that there is a misogyny in and out of the LGBTI community (79%) or 91% that they think a misogynistic attitude is targeting them. The study highlighted that 86% of queer women believing that queer men have more public visibility than them, moreover, 83% of the women thought that society tries to ‘sweep queer women under the rug’. There are a lot of myths about lesbians and bi-women that aren’t particularly true. Lesbians are women who are sexually and romantically attracted to women. Bisexuality is just a phase that women goes through before returning back to their normal lives or they are actually lesbian and that bisexuality phase is just a stepping stone. Bi-women and lesbians have a meaningful relationship with other women, bi-women don't like women to attract men or they like women to attract women. The author, Melissa A. Fabello, says that it’s insolent to objectify not only the women but also her relationship.
III. Effect that sexualization has on mental health
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