The violence that turn-of-the-century authors wreaked on the lesbian is equaled only by the disturbing fascination that they had for this ambiguous figure. Even those who condemned sapphic love occasionally conceded that the sight of a female couple had a seductive sort of double charm for spectators. This ideal beauty was the point of departure for an aesthetic that rejected the caricatured image of masculine lesbians and their stereotypical associations in order to elevate sapphism to an artistic motif.

Decadent literature improvised on this theme with innumerable variations, sometimes playing on similarities, sometimes on differences in the image of two women lovers whose “divergent beauties complemented each other.” Fictitious lesbians pursued an artificial resemblance to each other that did not end at physical similarities or shared hair color. They developed all sorts of incestuous twinnings, a sisterhood that represented the ultimate expression of their sapphic love.

This perfect couple would engender another set of representations focused on self-contemplation, especially since the mirror had become popular in women’s boudoirs and bedrooms at this time. For Decadent writers and artists, the mirror inevitably took on a role in sapphic excesses. They also adopted other metaphors to express narcissistic doubleness, but those expressions rapidly degenerated into clichés.