What Does A Lesbian Look Like?

Would I know what I am looking for?

After all, could she really only look like the character 'Beebo Brinker,' from Ann Bannon's classic 1950s stories? Or 'Stephen Gordon' the Radclyffe Hall character from the book 'The Well Of Loneliness.'

Can I only 'get my head around' the lesbian film 'Do I love you' directed by Lisa Gornick, but not films like 'Kissing Jessica Stein', 'Thin Ice' directed by Fiona Cunningham Reid or 'Fire' directed by Deepa Mehta?

Would I pass someone like Samantha Fox, in the street, and say that she is too 'feminine' to be a lesbian? Or perhaps, dismiss Eleanor Roosevelt just because she happened to be married? Could I be the sort of person that would refuse to believe that a black woman who has given birth to children, such as Audre Lorde would be a lesbian? Or that a woman with Betty Berzon's history would ever be a lesbian?

Am I so closed minded in fact, that only the Martina Navratilova and Ellen DeGeneres of this world can be detected by my 'gay' radar? I hope not.

Whilst I personally view the lesbian writer of lesbian fiction, Karin Kallmaker, as one of my many role models. I don't know what she looks like. However, when considering the conundrum of what lesbians look like, the lesbian characters in Karin Kallmaker's books, (I started with 'Wild Things') produce food for thought.