In this week latest instalment of “Ask a Homo,” Slate’s LGBTQ section editor and culture critic June Thomas, answered the age old question straight people seem to have about why we lesbians sometimes dress and cut their hair in styles traditionally adopted by men.

Thomas reply is simple, explaining that the reason lesbians dress and cut their hair in a style seen as masculine, is simply because they can, and because our lesbian foremothers set a bad-ass precedent of dressing however the hell they wanted.

Cutting your hair short is not for all women though. It’s important to remember, that there are lesbians out there who don’t cut their hair short or ‘dress like men’. Their are lesbian who want to wear their hair long and dress in a conventionally feminine way. Some lesbian’s dress femme, but have there hair short, or ‘shock-horror’ have long hair but, dress masculine.  Dressing and cutting your hair however you want is about freedom of expression

What society needs to understand is we are starting to live in a world where we can express ourselves how we want – be it as feminine and masculine presentation.

Also, there is no inherent reason for men to wear their hair short and women to wear dresses, so even the question “why do lesbians dress and cut their hair like men” should be be taken with the grain of salt because there is no real way of “dressing like men.”