Beloved by viewers, Lexie and Nicole were the first queer couple to appear on Undressed. Lexie is a 28-year-old sex educator and burlesque performer from WA, and is bisexual. Nicole is a 24-year-old comedian from NSW, and is pansexual. Nicole is proudly polyamorous; Lexie reveals she has recently become interested in polyamory. But more than just a super cute dating session, their pairing – in between singing and giggles – provided some important conversations on female queer experiences.

The format of the show demands that immediately after meeting a couple must undress each other, get onto a bed and follow instructions, such as being asked to perform a song, or to kiss. And yet out of all of this – the undies, the singing, the kissing someone you just met – the most uncomfortable part of the date for Lexie was simply holding hands, explaining to Nicole that she has learnt to avoid doing it publicly.

“It’s true that in same-sex relationships you get noticed a little more if you show affection to your partner in public,” Lexie says. “It’s taken a lot of practice to hold any of my girlfriends’ hands without feeling too self-conscious. It’s an everyday assessment of whether or not the people around you are going to be accepting of a same-sex relationship, or if they are going to take it in the opposite direction and fetishise you as a lesbian.

“Being instructed to hold hands on the date felt unexpectedly a little ‘too intimate’ for me,” she says, “but really interesting that it brought up all of these conscious thoughts about it that I hadn’t really verbalised before.”

Another important moment in the date came when Nicole explained that while she is pansexual, she had until that point only had sexual relationships with men.

“I knew the importance of having these conversations in a more public space,” says Nicole. “I’ve spoken about this with friends a number of times, and I see bi- and pansexual erasure all the time, so I knew I had to mention it and be honest. People do erase others’ experiences and orientations if they don’t feel they’ve ‘proven’ their sexuality, and that goes for the mainstream culture and within queer spheres.”

So Is There A Future For Lexie and Nicole?

Sadly, being on opposite ends of the country (and now opposite ends of the world, with Nicole having moved to London), they didn’t become an item, but an enduring friendship formed, with the two staying in touch on Facebook and supporting each other’s performance careers.

Nicole says her experience on Undressed hasn’t changed her views too much on love and dating. “I was always a clear and open person, and not one to be too restricted in terms of meeting people and five minutes later saying ‘Hey, I really dig your vibe, let me know if you wanna make out later’. But then again, a lot of that is informed by being in a creative and/or queer space where the lines of relationships, gender, and sexuality are more blurred and I feel free to be open with people I like.”

But for Lexie, it helped her to learn a little more about herself, and have a great time doing it. “I went on the show with the attitude to just have fun and roll with it. I was open to meeting someone, but I had no expectations and wasn’t really banking on meeting ‘the one’. I think that’s my general attitude when it comes to dating and relationships, so the show hasn’t really changed my views in that respect.”

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Undressed is a relationship experiment with a difference: what happens when you put two strangers in a room, dressed down to their underwear and ask them intimate, challenging questions about who they are? Undressed screens every Monday at 9.30pm AEST on SBS, or right now on SBS On Demand.