Cameron Diaz Comes Out About Her Sexuality

Cameron Diaz, star of such girl power films like Charlie's Angels and the soon-to-be-released The Other Woman, has been under fire recently for expressing that she finds both men and women sexy. "All women have been sexually attracted to another woman at some point," she told Glamour UK. And in today's media, a line as simple and straightforward as this, has been a jumping off point for outlets to question Diaz's sexual orientation. Could America's sweetheart be... gay? Cameron Diaz clarified her comment to PrideSource, when they asked if she could see herself in a relationship with another woman. She responded: "That's not at all what I said. That's not what I was saying. That's what people are [saying]."

The Annie actress went on to explain: "I can be attracted to a woman sexually, but it doesn’t mean I want to be in love with a woman. If I’m going to be with a woman sexually, it doesn’t mean I’m a lesbian. We put these restraints and definitions on people, but it’s hard to define. I've said this forever: I think women's bodies are beautiful, all shapes, all sizes. Every part of a woman is beautiful and that's something that we've celebrated culturally throughout history."

She also thinks her sentiments towards women is something a man can express about another man. "If they're confident in themselves and know who they are, heterosexual men can look at another heterosexual man and go, 'Yeah, he's pretty hot. He's a sexy man.'"

To many, Cameron Diaz is stating the obvious: Straight dudes can appreciate the handsomeness of another dude (the term bromance is almost as widely accepted as the term "girlfriends" referring to two platonic female pals). But the closeness of men and women is still seen as threatening, even if these pairs are just friends. At Coachella Music and Arts Festival last weekend, a group of men were weaving through the tightly-knit crowd of festival-goers by holding on to one another's shoulders in a train-like line, as to not get separated. As they walked, they chanted: "We're not gay, we're not gay, we're not gay." I was struck by this proclamation for two reasons: One, the idea of their gay-ness or straightness did not even cross my mind. And two, the fact they felt it so important to broadcast their sexuality to a crowd of strangers. Would this happen anywhere else other than America?

But back to Diaz. This is a woman whose roles in the past (The Sweetest Thing, Being John Malkovich) have aligned her closely with the gay audience. "Gays and lesbians know what it's like to be discriminated against, to be the underdog and to have to fight to be seen. That's something that could be relatable. It's that feeling of beating all the odds and pushing through, and continuing to go on even though you get beat down and you feel like you can't possibly make it through," she said.

But just like other Hollywood celebrities who have an open view of sexual orientation, Diaz doesn't see the need for labels. "What I really think is a problem is that for some reason everybody needs to label. If we didn't put these labels on ourselves, I think we would probably live in a much better society. We would just let people be who they are and we wouldn't have to define them," she said, going as far as to say labels ruin relationships.

"Because we have to label it, because we make people choose who they want to be, people aren't happy. They're ruining relationships and friendships and marriages, and they're feeling like they can't have all sides of themselves. They feel like they have to choose. If we just allowed people to be themselves and to be open to it and not have to be absolute one way or another, life could be really full."

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