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[–]yousaythosethingsFind and Replace "gatekeeping" with "having boundaries" 16 insightful - 1 fun16 insightful - 0 fun17 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

Sapphic would be a useful word if it weren’t trans-jacked. I would like a nice word to refer to lesbians and bi women collectively. But yes these days it signals gender woo and anything other than actually being “Sapphic.”

[–]PenseePansyBio-Sex or Bust 11 insightful - 1 fun11 insightful - 0 fun12 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

I would like a nice word to refer to lesbians and bi women collectively.

That makes two of us :) I'd also like one which refers to all same-sex-attracted people collectively, and is a proper WORD, not just an acronym. (Can anyone think of something that fits the bill? I've racked my brain, but to no avail-- each one I manage to come up with seems more cringe-tastic than the last.)

And speaking of nice words (in terms of cleverness; nothing nice about what it describes of course!): "trans-jacked"! Yep, that's pretty much their signature trait, isn't it? Not just with an innocent and potentially-helpful word like "sapphic", but with lesbian spaces, and LGB in general, and women's sports/organizations, and liberalism/the left, and... well, pretty much EVERYTHING :(

[–]yousaythosethingsFind and Replace "gatekeeping" with "having boundaries" 8 insightful - 1 fun8 insightful - 0 fun9 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

I'd also like one which refers to all same-sex-attracted people collectively, and is a proper WORD, not just an acronym. (Can anyone think of something that fits the bill? I've racked my brain, but to no avail-- each one I manage to come up with seems more cringe-tastic than the last.)

Unfortunately there is no such word and we will never get rid of “queer” unless we can come up with one that sticks. No one wants to say same-sex attracted when we’re not being technical and analytical. The only other “word” I know is “lesbigay.” Funny bc it looks like “let’s be gay.”

On a similar note, something similar is also responsible for the gay/bi conflation issues. Many of us take the position that gay means homosexual but we do often mean for people to read “bisexual” into many of the ways we use “gay.” So I’m less militant on that point. Like it irks me that there may be bi people who are like Kinsey 1s and have no interest in anything beyond a threesome calling themselves “gay” left and right. But for a bi person who is mostly same-sex attracted or at least gets into relationships with the same sex, and might even marry a member of the same sex like Rosie Spaughton or Allie Conway, I feel like I have more in common with them than I don’t and it does feel weird saying “you can’t have that” to them with the word “gay.”

And like what do you call a relationship or sex between a lesbian and a bi woman? My inclination is gay or lesbian because that’s how it will be viewed. Or again, wish that Sapphic word was still viable.

[–]votkriscan 7 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 0 fun8 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Interestingly, in some places, people don't always automatically assume that just because two women are in a relationship, that they are lesbians. There are slang terms where people refer to themselves by dating types. Like, for example, femme/butch women in a relationship have a slang for themselves, and femme/femme women have a different slang for theirs.

But in English, Sapphic or wlw would work better to describe relationships involving both a lesbian and a bi woman. However, at this point, everything will likely just be hijacked.

[–]yousaythosethingsFind and Replace "gatekeeping" with "having boundaries" 6 insightful - 2 fun6 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

I need to update my foreign language fluency with respect to LGB things but yes wlw is as hijacked as sapphic and ironically includes non-binaries who supposedly don’t want to be women. I don’t get it, but I don’t think they do either.

[–]refusetoliein a time of universal deceit 5 insightful - 4 fun5 insightful - 3 fun6 insightful - 4 fun -  (0 children)

I cannot see "wlw" without hearing Dr. Zoidberg in my head. It seems like it's only pronounceable by a creature with tendrils over the mouth.