Allen suggests that the star-fan relationship existing between these stars and their fans challenges a heterosexual notion of sex as determining gender, because of the function of the masculine woman as a powerful signifier of lesbian identity. Thus the way in which Martina and kd embody an ongoing and lived-out lesbian identity makes representations of them in the mainstream media an unprecedented phenomenon which undercuts the primacy of heterosexual gender relations. This is contrasted with the recent media popularization of lesbian chic, which is viewed rather as a homophobic recuperation of lesbians under the visual codes of conventional femininity.

The Lesbian Idol presents a multitextual and highly critical analysis of lesbian fans' personal accounts of their adoration for their idols, the ways in which Martina and kd have been represented in the mainstream media and the key discourses through which lesbian identity and culture have recently been theorized -- such as psychoanalysis, queer theory and feminism.