It’s absolutely batshit insane that in 2015, a woman says that she is in a happy, loving, caring relationship with another human being, and the first response out of many mouths is ‘it must be a phase’.
Cara Delevingne announced a little while ago that she had started dating musical superbabe Annie Clarke A.K.A. St. Vincent.
They are very happy together. That’s great, right? ‘Yes, of course it’s great, PEDESTRIAN.TV! Good for them, I’m glad they’re happy,’ is the correct answer.
Unfortunately, Vogue decided to do a stupid, stupid thing, and publish an article written by feature writer Rob Haskell, which didn’t exactly have those same sentiments. The feature implied that Delevingne’s attraction to women is more than likely a phase, childhood trauma may be involved, and she could be able to get past those pesky homosexual urges and get back to being a nice normal girl that settles down with a man. Caution: reading this may cause your eyes to roll so far back in your head that you see brain:
“Cara says she felt confused by her sexuality as a child, and the possibility of being gay frightened her. ‘It took me a long time to accept the idea, until I first fell in love with a girl at 20 and recognized that I had to accept it,’ she explains… Her parents seem to think girls are just a phase for Cara, and they may be correct. ‘Women are what completely inspire me, and they have also been my downfall. I have only been hurt by women, my mother first of all.’”“When I suggest to Cara that to trust a man, she might have to revise an old and stubborn idea of hers—that women are perennially troubled and therefore only women will accept her—her smile says she concedes the point.”
In case you’re a little confused: perpetuating the idea that homosexuality obviously stems from childhood trauma of some kind is very damaging, as is the assumption that any young person with an attraction to the same gender is ‘just a phase’. It has the dangerous potential to alienate young people who may be nervous to make their sexual preference known to family and friends.
Cara seems extremely happy, and head over heels. In the same article, she gushed that ‘being in love with [her] girlfriend is a big part of why [she’s] so happy these days’.
A petition has now been started, calling on Vogue to apologise for reinforcing harmful, untrue stereotypes, and marginalising the identity struggle of LGBTI youth.
“The idea that queer women only form relationships with other women as a result of childhood trauma is a harmful (and false) stereotype that lesbian and bisexual women have been combating for decades… People are quick to assume queer women’s identities are a “phase” and to refuse to recognise the important relationships in their lives — an attitude which can cause depression, result in families rejecting their daughters (or forcing them into abusive conversion “therapy”), and even put young women at risk of suicide. Vogue should have taken this opportunity to combat negative stereotypes, not reinforce them. We should be applauding Cara for coming out as queer, and being open about her relationships with men and women.”
If you wanna add your name to the 14,000+ who agree, the petition is here: thepetitionsite.com/895/990/572/
via The Petition Site & Vogue
Image: Andreas Rentz via Getty Images
