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Q:Did some of the straight women report that after feeling some pressure, they ended up liking it?

A: Most of the heterosexual women who had engaged in this behaviour in my study really described the outcome in negative terms. They made comments like they were embarrassed – they felt awkward and regretful. Some of them said ‘I felt really coerced in this situation.’ One of the participants said ‘I was really confused because men asked us to do it and then called us sluts and nymphos after.’

Q: You point to that infamous Britney Spears and Madonna kiss more than a decade ago at the MTV Awards. Was that the beginning of this?

A: I think that might’ve been the most obvious place in terms of the media. It’s just continued on from there. We had Katy Perry ‘I kissed a girl and I liked it.’ Miley Cyrus is kissing everybody. Recently, Shakira’s video ‘Can’t Remember to Forget You’ [in which she lays on a bed with Rihanna and caresses her leg] caused an uproar, particularly back in Colombia where she’s from.

Q: Isn’t the lyric ‘I’d do anything for that boy?’

A: That’s the message – I’ll do anything for the boy, so I’ll subject myself to all kinds of behaviour I’m not comfortable with, I’ll do that for you, I’m willing to do almost anything for you. That’s maybe not the message we want to give to our adolescents and young women.

Q:Did you see any long-term impacts for these women?

A: Heterosexual women who had performed this girl-on-girl behaviour had less healthy perceptions of their sexuality. They felt more discouraged or unhappy about their sex lives. They weren’t as direct or assertive about expressing their sexual needs, they felt less confident. They were more likely to say their sexual behaviours were controlled by people more powerful than them. The heterosexual women between ages of 19-25 also described themselves as being more likely to take part in sexual acts in which they weren’t comfortable.