I got curious about this question after noticing a weird pattern in my friend group. We’re all straight women in our 30s, but last girls’ night got eye-opening when Sarah suddenly announced she’d downloaded HER. “Just scrolling!” she laughed, but then Lisa admitted she regularly watches wlw TikToks “for the aesthetic.” Made me wonder: why are so many of us feeling less 100% straight these days?
How I Started Digging
First I talked to my circle over brunch. Jenna straight up said: “I’d never date a woman, but damn – seeing Emily Ratajkowski’s thirst traps hits different now.” Then I went down Instagram rabbit holes tracking #MascLove tags. Saw hundreds of women thirsting over butch lesbian influencers like no tomorrow. Weirdest part? Half these accounts belonged to married straight women leaving fire emojis.
Next weekend I tried an experiment. Joined two Discord servers pretending to be a baby queer (felt sketchy but needed raw data). In the LGBTQ+ safe space, actual queer women kept rolling their eyes: “Straight girls fetishizing us again.” But in the mainstream women’s chat? Holy crap. Saw housewives from Ohio sharing lesbian webcomics and saying stuff like “I’d go gay for her” about female celebrities. Zero shame.
What Blew My Mind
Three things clicked during my deep dive:
- Social media flattened everything. Ten years ago you had “gay” and “straight” sections at Barnes & Noble. Now TikTok shows me wedding dresses, then a hot girl’s gym progress, then lesbian wedding photos – all under #LifeGoals
- The fantasy gap closed hard. Remember when lesbian relationships were either tragic or porn? Now my feed shows cute couples doing groceries and funny couple memes. Makes “could I?” feel way more normal
- Nobody’s policing. When bisexual Taylor Swift kisses girls on stage? Straight fans don’t clutch pearls – they sell out her concerts faster
Last Wednesday sealed it. My super conservative aunt shared a reel of two women slow dancing. Caption: “Goals ๐”. When I called her shocked? She shrugged: “Relax kiddo, I just think they look happy.” That’s when I realized social media didn’t turn straight women gay – it made gayness feel mundane instead of scary.
So yeah. We’re not all running to U-Haul. But judging by my DMs after posting about this? Loads of women are quietly thinking “huh… maybe 97% straight.” Wild times.
