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.
I’m very much a lesbian and can confirm we are flatlanders. I get left and right, front and back, but top and bottom? Completely foreign concepts.
Seriously though. It seems to me very popular among young lesbians to talk about tops and bottoms, but I’m a bit older (around 40) and that was never really a thing for me or the people around me.
I suppose this question better than the previous generation’s “So which one of you is the man?”
Hi! Not strictly a lesbian here but in a lesbian relationship. Yes, lesbians have top/bottom dynamics typically in the “one doing the action” vs the “one being acted upon” across various different acts. Most switch it up (“vers”), rather than identifying primarily as tops or bottoms. If you are strictly a top or strictly a bottom, you’re described as “stone” as in “stone top” or “stone bottom”.
Very important that these are completely different roles than dominant/submissive/switch, which are BDSM terms and describe a more psychological aspect of a relationship than the more physical top/bottom/vers.
I always wondered where Steve Austin got his name from.
Whatever you say, Stone Cold Growsomethinggood
C’mon OP, every sort of human sexual interaction has dynamics like this. Top or bottom, submissive or dominant, switching it up, all that, we humans do it.
You sound like an alien on its first trip to earth trying to “blend in”
A lesbian couple on Twitch got asked who the top and who the bottom was. They said they switched.
No idea what that means mechanically.
Probably like a Nintendo Switch
No, at that time they didn’t have a Nintendo Switch yet. A PS5 for Baldur’s Gate 3 was their first console.
In addition to the cis lesbian explanations below, don’t forget about our trans lesbian friends.
How could I possibly.
You’ll find that in queer culture, there’s not just top/bottom but a wide spectrum to define or describe preferences; I’m sure this all also applies to the BDSM world as well. There’s a variety of tops and bottoms and preferences like Bambi lesbians who don’t want sexual dynamics beyond cuddling and kissing.
Ya, but why is everyone jumping to BDSM? That’s not what I asked. I’ve never heard the term before, but I feel like “Bambi lesbian” is kinda reinventing the wheel for the sake of a cute name. Isn’t that just a romantic asexual with a gay modifier?
I think the reason people are jumping to BDSM community terms is because BDSM people fucking love terms. They’ve got taxonomy for days, and they live to whip it out, so to speak.
You might want to differentiate between Top, Bottom, Switch and Top, Bottom, Versatile, i.e. BDSM vs penetration positions.
I’d also say that this is less about physiology and more about the individual acceptance of the concept of position.
Top, Bottom, Versatile is not necessarily a queer thing, since (cis&trans) heterosex can have positions as well. That is to say, not all queer relationships regardless of gender follow the concept of position.
It’s not just a position thing. It’s just that everyone exists either left or right of the center on the spectrum of ‘mostly giver vs mostly receiver/passive’ spectrum. The gay male community has taken to the terms of Top and Bottom to articulate ones usual preferences, and I was just curious if lesbians had come up with a similar canvas, or if it just doesn’t come up as much with them as it does for guys.
I’ve seen people (lesbians) talk about it, so I’m leaning toward “yes they can but not always”, but I cannot give an authoritative answer as I am not a lesbian.
If you do a little googling it is easy to confirm but there is the sexual definition like you where referring to and then there is just the more general relationship definition which is basically the Top is the more dominate / assertive partner and the bottom is the more passive partner.
If you “do a little googling” you can confirm anything you want wether it’s true or not. That’s why I came here to ask actual lesbian, and lesbian adjacent people.
So you asked a completely unverifiable public forum, full of users with ambiguous alts and user names and expect a BETTER answer?
You must be new to the internet.
Like a Nintendo Switch
what’s a power bottom in lesbian?
They generate all the power during scissoring.
The very real thing that lesbians do.
Daedalus threw his cousin off of a roof for inventing scissors, but jokes on him, lesbians invented power scissoring
I think in the second half you’re asking whether butches are more likely to be toppy and femmes are more likely to be bottomy.
I think there’s probably some positive correlation there but butchness and toppiness are distinct concepts.
Scissor-me-timbers
I don’t think there’s any group that doesn’t have some members who like domination. But I’m just speculating and am not an expert.
