Thinking queerly: an intersectional approach to evaluations of sexual identity and gender presentation

Taking an intersectional approach, this research explored how sexual identity and an aspect of gender (i.e., social presentation via attire presentation) impact heterosexual women's evaluation of lesbians, and, separately, heterosexual men's evaluations of gay men. In Studies la and lb, I presented participants two samples of heterosexual women with one of four between-subjects vignettes which fully crossed female targets' sexual orientation (heterosexual or lesbian) and attire presentation (femme or butch) and had them rate the likeability of the fictitious target as well as their social distance from that target. Study 1 a was recruited from psychology courses at a university in San Francisco, California (N= 93) while Study lb was recruited from an Internet panel throughout the United States (N= 108). In Studies 2a and 2b, I presented two samples of heterosexual men with one of four between-subjects vignettes fully crossed male targets' sexual orientation (heterosexual or gay man) and attire presentation (femme or butch). Study 2a was recruited from psychology courses at a university in San Francisco, California (N= 45) while Study 2b was recruited from an Internet panel throughout the United States (N= 98). In all samples, significant main effects of attire presentation demonstrated more favorable evaluations of targets with gender expectation conforming presentation styles. Also, for heterosexual women, significant interactions were observed on a social distance scale, such that participants were least willing to be acquaintances with the butch lesbian target only. Further, heterosexual women participants across both samples were more willing to be friends with and share separate bedrooms with a femme lesbian than a butch lesbian. My findings demonstrate that heterosexual individuals' evaluations of lesbians and gay men may depend chiefly on attire-based presentation, and thereby suggest that previous literature findings are most relevant to heterosexual participants' perceptions of gender expectation non-conforming gay men and lesbian targets.