Leave it to Slate to make even hot girl-on-girl action totally un-hot. We were enjoying Ariel Levy's 'CultureBox' (tee hee) essay on every straight woman's favorite gay soap opera, The L Word. We were bopping along, getting into it—having a gay old time, as it were:

I have seen the future and it's naked. The second season of The L Word is accurately represented by Showtime's publicity campaign, which pictures the cast in a nude tangle. But let's be clear. All that sex isn't there just for fun. For the very first show on television about lesbians to depict lesbian sexuality as hot isn't pornographic; it's corrective.

Despite the keg-party clich that every man's fantasy is to see two women make out, our more pervasive cultural fantasy about lesbian sexuality is that it is not all that sexual. In this formulation, lesbianism is about emotion, connection, sisterhood, herbal tea. It is about womyn loving womyn—


Splash! Talk about a bucket of cold water. Thanks a lot, Slate. We may never be able to watch women kissing again.

Lipstick Lesbians [Slate]