morceaux replied to your post: siren-song- replied to your post: I’ve never been…
i preferred using “lesbian” (and labeling myself as such) because i found it more feminine and liked the history of it, and because it was unique to women, whereas “gay” is not.
that’s a nice perspective on it. i’ve always found the word sort of gritty and clinical but i can see how it could be seen as more feminine. i do agree that in some ways it’s nice to have a word for women specifically. i just think “sapphic” sounds nicer! but that’s my own ear, so to speak. i don’t actually know much of the history of the word lesbian (besides the island of Lesbos, where Sappho was from) — maybe that will be my next wikipedia reading adventure since i have no friends in this city and nothing to do*.
*thank god i’m moving back in with my amazing roommates soon!
I’ve never been a person to call for a change in popular language (e.g. gender neutral pronouns, ‘womyn’ rather than ‘women’, that sort of thing) — I mean, I can see where those people are coming from, and if it actually happened I wouldn’t do anything to stop it, but honestly I’m pretty apathetic about it. But I’ve always disliked the word “lesbian” … not for any personal reason or offense, really, just because I don’t like how it sounds, and how it’s a noun instead of an adjective (consider “He’s gay” versus “She’s a lesbian”). And I happened to be reading about Sappho and thought, maybe it would be cool if the female-specific analogue of “gay,” if there has to be one, was “sapphic”? Like, “she’s sapphic.” Again, not for any real reason. I just like that word better.
