Several tabloids have recently been reporting that Kristen Stewart and Alicia Cargile went on a "romantic vacation" together in Hawaii over the holidays. Certain sources were also careful to note that Stewart had donned a "baseball cap and baggy jeans" for her return to LAX, and that she "forewent a bikini" in favor of "men's Y-fronts" while spending quality time with Cargile. As Jezebel points out, we're witnessing a favorite tabloid sport, known as "How Close Can We Get To Calling This Celebrity A Lesbian Without Actually Calling Her A Lesbian?"
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The trend of insinuating that women who spend time together are romantically involved isn't new: Think Oprah/Gayle, Michelle Williams/Busy Philipps, and recently Taylor Swift/Karlie Kloss — and then there are the women who did turn out to be dating, such as Ireland Baldwin and Angel Haze, which we knew because they told us.
You could argue that the media's willingness to entertain the possibility that female acquaintances might conceivably be dating represents progress, that it's a sign we're expanding our ideas of how women can relate to other women — but we could do without the conclusion-jumping. Romantic involvement between women does not automatically mean they're lesbians, and we're not sure how anyone knows KStew's and Cargile's trip was "romantic" in the first place. For all we know they spent the entire time hashing out their master plan to smash the patriarchy, which, by the way, isn't a "lesbian" activity. Neither is wearing men's Y-fronts. Neither is (gasp) not wearing makeup. The only thing that's "lesbian" is being a lesbian.
So, hey, speculate away about the existence of romance if you absolutely must, but let's leave the self-satisfied sexuality stereotypes out of it — and stop slapping people with labels they haven't chosen for themselves.
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