I love watching videos about Tumblr by people who actually understand Tumblr. I enjoyed learning about MOGAI and the youthful nature of “radical inclusion” from a kind and curious perspective. This video also prompted me to understand the power of punchy, historically significant and memorable words for actual global sociopolitical change. “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual” don’t have to be explained on the news, because even the most conservative small towns in non-English speaking countries have (often transliterated) whispers of them. It’s great to have access to microlabels too (I am demisexual myself), and personally explaining microlabels can be a great bonding experience, but on a larger scale, some words have a vast culture and history that just can’t be replaced.
For example, when I came out as bisexual in 2020 and then began dating my long-term girlfriend, I launched on a hunt to surround myself with WLW media that would help me feel represented and soothe my internalized homophobia, biphobia, and compulsory heterosexuality. However, I felt uncomfortable with all general sapphic things being labeled as “lesbian” ie lesbian media, lesbian fashion, lesbian couple, lesbian history even when the participants are clearly not all lesbians. I was delighted to not only find the term “WLW” (women loving women) to better describe my relationship status, but I adored the umbrella term “sapphic” and was passionate about popularizing it. (I immediately put it in my username when I made this account!)
Fast forward to 2025, both “WLW” and “sapphic” are relatively well known now beyond my wildest dreams from a few years ago. It’s crazy to think I once had to deep dive to find them when social media is now flooded with WLW couple creators and sapphic books. Interestingly enough (and at the risk of sounding contrarian), I am actually a lot more ambivalent towards the usage of “lesbian” for general sapphic things nowadays, because I’ve learned that before “bisexual” came along, lesbian was the well-known umbrella term for any sapphic. The separatist movement within western second wave feminism caused “lesbian” to become a more exclusive label, while “gay” remained a general term still. This was a fairly recent update, and I can confirm that many non-western countries will still use the (often transliterated) English term “lesbian” for bi sapphics too, and may not even have that much knowledge of by-definition fluid terms like “bisexual” and “queer”.
While “sapphic” is a great term, it doesn’t quite carry the historical significance of “lesbian” yet. Especially given how scared the patriarchy is of the term “lesbian” (it is way more stigmatized than “gay”), I am more than happy to embrace being considered a part of the club and contextually assume the old umbrella usage of “lesbian” sometimes just so the the word can continue to be used as much as possible, rather than being quietly replaced by “sapphic”. As the “bisexual” label is also often uniquely demonized (and it’s been documented that a good number of folks admit to using “queer”/“pansexual”/“fluid” or go unlabeled simply because they struggle with that), I understand the compulsion to scream your pride for your label from the rooftops. In fact, I feel pride in claiming the same term that my ancestor sapphics used to describe themselves, regardless of whether they were bi, just like me. I love being able to acknowledge my commonality with my lesbian peers, because turning the patriarchy on its head and being a queer femme is one of the most fulfilling experiences of my life and also the bravest thing I’ve ever done in the face of extreme opposition. (In return, I hope that internet users to stop patronising bisexuals that actively identify under the lesbian umbrella, when this isn’t even some form of MOGAI and has been a thing since the coinage of the terms “bisexual” and “lesbian”.) I’ve come to terms with the fact that “erasing” the traditional usage of such an important word is not only quite impossible in the short term, but preserving the original usage can also help maintain larger coalition and impact for sapphics worldwide.
