Representations of lesbian and bisexual women’s sexual and relational health in online video and text-based sources

Abstract

The Internet is the preferred source of health information followed by healthcare providers, friends and family, print media, and television (Baxter & Egbert, 2008). Yet, previous research about online sexual health resources for LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, queer) groups, especially lesbian and bisexual (LB) women, primarily consists of introductions and reviews of related websites rather than critique of the quality of the information present (e.g. Clark, 2003; Finlon, 2002; McKay, 2011). Thus, the goals of this study were to examine the LB women’s sexual and relational health content in online sources and identify the degree to which the online sources considered LB women’s identity and standpoint when presenting sexual and relational health messages. The analysis includes a comparison of text-based and video-based online messages related to LB women’s sexual and relational health. We argue that there is an overall lack of quality in the online sexual and relational health messages for LB women, and that websites are not comprehensive enough in their coverage of LB women’s sexual and relational health.