Within the vast amount of labels in the LGBTQ+ community, the label “lesbian” doesn’t seem too complex on the surface. It Gets Better defines lesbian as, “A woman (or non-male) who is attracted to other women (or non-males).” There’s debate over the nitty gritty of some masculine gender identities and whether they can claim the label or not, but to put it simply, lesbianism excludes cisgender (cis) men. Cis men cannot be lesbians, and lesbians are not romantically or sexually attracted to cis men. 

So what happens if a “lesbian” claims she sleeps with men?

Recently, an old podcast clip featuring indie pop artist King Princess (KP) resurfaced, in which she explained that she’s not bisexual (bi) but when she’s bored, she sleeps with men. This clip sparked a lot of outrage from members of the lesbian community, seeing as King Princess has long been one of the biggest lesbian artists in the queer music scene. In a string of now deleted videos, she defends herself by saying that she’s only ever been in committed relationships with women and that sleeping with men is “no big deal.” She claims that it would be disrespectful to claim the bisexual label because the amount she actually cares “about men romantically or sexually is so small, it would be inappropriate to call [herself] bisexual.” 

Is it not disrespectful towards lesbians to claim the lesbian label while acknowledging an attraction to men and actively sleeping with men, however? King Princess attempted to use the “gold star” argument to her advantage, and while the pedestal “gold star” lesbians—lesbians who have never slept with a man—get put on is unnecessary and invalidating of later-in-life lesbians. The argument is that lesbians who slept with men in the past are still lesbians, not women who are currently sleeping with men but still claiming the lesbian label. 

Even if her attraction to men is “so small,” she has still admitted attraction to men, and any attraction to more than one gender is exactly what being a bisexual or other variations of queer means. People are asking KP to work on her internalized biphobia, especially those concerned about how this scenario continues to push “d*kebreaking” agendas. Mallory Harrington coined the term “D*kebreaking” in her essay, “D*kebreaking: The Homophobic Rape of Lesbian Woman and the Next Frontier of Hate Crime Laws,” and it refers to the corrective rape of lesbians by men who think they can “fix” their homosexuality. 

In other deleted videos, KP also threw shade at other sapphic artists, claiming in her comments, “You guys also might wanna check on the pop divas who are actively lying about being gay… in fully committed relationships with men on the DL.” This unnecessary comment has sparked a witch hunt against lesbian pop artists, prompting people to claim certain artists are lying about being lesbians.