It’s been a long ol time since I’ve known any lesbians well enough to ask such things, but I followed my brain down a weird line of inquiry, and got to wondering about the current state of the art for the gay gals. I guess I had always assumed it was similar to the dynamics of a gay guy relationship, but then I realized that since men have both an input and an output, they can choose, but it’s mechanically a bit different for cis women. Is there any relationship between that, and the slightly more masculine versus feminine flavors? Asking for a friend, who is me. I want to know. Thanks.
Anecdotes okay? If so, read on.
So, I’m cishetero, but have been involved with gay culture in specific, and broader LGBTQ+ culture generally. I was also a beard multiple times over the years, including for a lesbian couple that ended up being a bit more intimate.
But, yeah, there’s definitely dynamics with lesbians akin to top and bottom. Afaik, the terminology isn’t used often for lesbians, but it’s there in that regard too. Back in my younger days, an exclusively “top” lesbian was sometimes called a butch, whether or not they were butch in the more common sense if presenting in a more “masculine” manner. And, that was true of “bottom” lesbians being referred to as femme, even when they presented masculine.
Mind you, there was predominance of butch lesbians being tops in a sexual sense compared to being bottoms. It was fairly unusual to run into the stereotypical butch lesbian and have them not also want to be the more active partner, and even to the extent of not wanting any sexual acts being performed on them at all. By no means a universal thing, but it was common enough that people would be surprised when a butch lesbian wanted to receive head.
Being masculine presenting or feminine presenting isn’t a reliable predictor of sexual dynamics, but it’s not far off from reliable in my experience. Men and women, not just women. I’d say 8/10, the closer to a generic "masculine"presentation a person is, they’re a top in the bedroom. Mind you, that’s based on people willing to talk about such things fairly casually, which could leave out a ton of people that aren’t that way, but just don’t like talking about their sex lives in a group at work or party or other gathering.
The best lesbian friend I’ve ever had, that literally saved my life at least twice, was butch as hell. Flannels, boots, truck, went hunting, and mirrored male mannerisms with zero effort. But she was most definitely a bottom sexually. She would complain like hell that everyone wanted her to do all the work, every time, and all she wanted was some hot making out where the other woman was in charge, followed by “my pussy getting ate like a fat kid at a pie eating contest”. She didn’t mind reciprocating, but what made her most happy, most satisfied was being “bottom” in a sexual sense. But, being butch as hell, the women into her tended to assume she was going to be in control and be the active partner exclusively.
It seemed to me that the butch lesbians had a harder time with being stereotyped sexually than the femme/lipstick lesbians. It wasn’t as big a surprise to people when a feminine presenting lesbian wanted to be the more active party, or to be in charge even from the bottom. Power bottom lesbians exist in the same way laid back tops do, though a bit more frequently from what I’ve seen and heard.