This morning there was an article on the CNN website proclaiming that more women are leaving men for other women. The implication throughout the article was it was more accepting for women to be with other women, so this was a trend that would sweep the nation. Since the article was tied to Oprah’s magazine and I recently saw an Oprah show about the same subject, it must be right.

Well, not quite yet.

The article, as many like this do, focused on the celebrity and not the reality. The big example in the article was Cynthia Nixon, one of the stars from Sex in the City. It was noted how she left her husband for another woman many years ago and how this became a trend. The trend was measured by Lindsay Lohan’s recent lesbian relationship and with the song I Kissed A Girl and shows like Work Out and The L Word showing lesbians are accepted by society.

Stories like this focus so much on the glamour aspect they neglect the real world factors. This story could have been done years ago, when Anne Heche, who had dated a number of men, started dating Ellen Degeneres. At the time, shockingly, there was another I Kissed A Girl song by another artist and there were reality shows like The Real World which constantly had lesbians. At the time it could be said this was a trend that women would follow, yet almost 10 years later we’re back at the same point, trying to make a trend out of something its not.

There’s no doubt gay and lesbians are more accepted today than it has in years past, but using celebrities as a barometer to lifestyles is never a good monitor. Anne Heche eventually left Ellen and now is married and has children, so does that mean Cynthia Nixon may, at some point, decided she’s tired of her lesbian lover and find a man? She may, but it’s a situation unique to her and she doesn’t define a trend. If you go past the shocking headline and the few paragraphs deep the article that so boldly claims women leaving men for women doesn’t give numbers nor does is clearly says this is a trend. It’s more of a noticeable blip that more people are talking about.

We cannot give a blanket proclamation of sexual trends based on a few anecdotal incidents. A long term look, such as in the case of Heche, can show the recent lesbian chic declarations could be more of a whim than fact.