This is true for all women who are exclusively lesbian, no matter how closeted they are and no matter how integrated they are into occupational and social roles with heterosexual people. The psychological research on physical attractiveness has found that the reason why physical attractiveness is important, particularly for women, is that it is related to being found socially and sexually attractive by men. Men's social status often results more from the physical attractiveness of the women they are with than with their own attractiveness. The fact that lesbians are sexually independent from men would argue that societal pressures regarding physical attractiveness may be less salient for lesbians. For example, lesbians may be less concerned with body weight.
Surveys indicate that society at large holds extremely negative attitudes towards lesbians.
The negative attitudes about lesbians include negative stereotypes about the appearance of lesbians. For example, lesbians are viewed as too ugly to attract a man and as women who don't wear make-up, don't shave their legs, or who look masculine. The two authors of a recent study described how members of minority groups become bicultural within the majority and minority cultures. The authors pointed out that lesbians and gay men differ from members of other minority groups in this process. Lesbians and gay men, however, are first socialized by the dominant culture and later identify with the minority culture.