Sapphic

The sapphic pride flag.

* Duaric (men who love women and women who love men/MLW and WLM, exclusively or not)
* Julietian (women who love men/WLM, exclusively or not)
* Romeric (men who love women/MLW, exclusively or not)

**Sapphic**, also known as WLW, is an umbrella term for women who experience attraction to other women. This includes women whose attraction is exclusive (such as lesbians and gay women), as well as women whose attraction is non-exclusive (such as bisexual, pansexual, and omnisexual women). Some sapphic people solely identify their orientation as sapphic, while others use additional labels.

Sapphic people may be cisgender women, or they may be transgender women. The sapphic label is also sometimes used by nonbinary people, including those who may not necessarily self-describe as women. Sapphic people may also be transmasculine or transfeminine.

## Etymology

"Sapphic" derives from the name of the Greek poet Sappho. This is due to the erotic poetry and love poems she wrote about women. The word shares its origins with the lesbian label.

## Distinction

### Lesbian

***Main article:** Lesbian*

The lesbian label is defined in many ways, but generally refers to women who are attracted to other women, often primarily or exclusively. While the lesbian label is sometimes defined synonymously with the sapphic label, not all definitions are synonymous, and many definitions of the lesbian label involve exclusive attraction. Lesbian is always included under the sapphic umbrella, but is not always the same identity.

## Flag

The original sapphic pride flag features three stripes, as well as two realistic violets in the center stripe. The top and bottom stripes are pink, and the middle stripe is very light lavender or white. Pink represents love, while the violet flowers sapphic desire. The white center stripe originally represented purity, but was later revised to represent sapphic desire as a light lavender stripe, due to concerns regarding racist connotations. Violets have traditionally been exchanged between women in romantic and intimate contexts, and lavender is often associated with queer identities.[*source?*] The flag was designed by Tumblr user lesbeux (later moved) on August 14, 2015.

A simplified version of the sapphic pride flag was later created by Mod Hermy of pride-color-schemes on June 25, 2017. The flag is identical to the original sapphic flag, save for the symbol. Rather than depicting two realistic violets, the flag instead has a stylized five-petal violet in the center, for the purpose of being easier to recreate.

The Sappho lesbian flag, also known as the sapphic flag, was designed by Lydia, a genderqueer lesbian, on June 26, 2018. The flag was also made in response to the problems with the existing lipstick lesbian and pink lesbian flags. It was initially intended to be an all-inclusive flag for lesbians, and later expanded to represent all sapphic identities. The flag was designed to be web-friendly and easy to produce physical copies of. Lydia also didn't want it to skew too feminine, as they wanted all lesbians to feel represented by the flag, including non-femme lesbians.

The colors were chosen from a poem by Sappho, and were specifically inspired by these lines: "*all the violet tiaras, braided rosebuds, dill and crocus twined around your young neck*". Thus, the stripes were violet (for violets), pink (for rosebuds), yellow (for crocus), and green (for dill). Each stripe also was given additional meanings: violet represents sapphic love, pink represents fragility, yellow represents strength, and green represents healing. The stripes were originally arranged in the order of purple, yellow, green, and pink. However, they were later rearranged into the order of purple, pink, yellow, and green, per the advice of Maya Kern.

The pink floral design of the previous flags can feel alienating to non-femme sapphics, and the Sappho flag isn't always interpreted as an all-inclusive flag for sapphics. To remedy this, an alternative sapphic flag was designed by Gay Breakfast on January 30, 2021. It was partially inspired by Lydia's Sappho flag, but was intended to unambiguously represent all sapphics, rather than lesbians specifically. It was also designed to be less bright, as to be inclusive to neurodivergent people, who may experience sensitivity to bright lights and colors. There are five stripes, signaling inclusion to different sapphic identities. This is based on the fact that the sunset lesbian flag has seven stripes, and several flags for common pluralian identities (particularly bisexual, pansexual, and polysexual) each have three stripes, resulting in five stripes being a "middle ground" of sorts. The stripes, from top to bottom, are red, yellow, white, green, and purple. Red represents centering sapphic experience, yellow represents nonbinary sapphics, white represents transgender sapphics, green represents gender nonconforming sapphics, and purple represents gender-expansive attraction.

## Symbol

The lesbian symbol (⚢) is two interlocking Venus symbols (♀), a symbol commonly used to represent women and femininity. This symbol can represent lesbians, sapphic people, and relationships between women. The symbol first appeared in the 1970s.

## Notes

1. ↑ WLW stands for woman-loving women, or women-loving-women.
2. ↑ Lesbian/gay attraction is not necessarily exclusive, but is often defined as such.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Sapphic Definition & Meaning. Merriam-Webster.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Hamou, Yasmine (2022-04-27). What Does It Mean to Be Sapphic?. Them. Archived from the original on September 20, 2022.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 pride-color-schemes (2017-06-25). Sapphic. Tumblr.
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Sotska, Julia. Sapphic - What is it? What does it mean?. Taimi.
5. ↑ About Sappho. Poets.org. Archived from the original on September 14, 2022.
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Lesbian Definition & Meaning. Merriam-Webster. Archived from the original on September 14, 2022.
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 lesbian | Etymology, origin and meaning. Online Etymology Dictionary. Archived from the original on September 20, 2022.
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Davis, Chloe O.. *The Queen's English*. Clarkson Potter, 2021. ISBN 9780593135013. ""Lesbian: adjective: As a woman, having a sexual and emotional attraction toward other women."
9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Huegel Madrone, Kelly. *LGBTQ: The Survival Guide for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning Teens*. 2018. ISBN 9781631983023. "Lesbian: A woman who is emotionally, romantically, and sexually attracted to other women."
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Institute of Medicine. *The Health of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender People: Building a Foundation for Better Understanding*. National Academies Press, 2011. ISBN 9780309210621. "Lesbian—As an adjective, used to refer to female same-sex attraction and sexual behavior; as a noun, used as a sexual orientation identity label by women whose sexual attractions and behaviors are exclusively or mainly directed to other women."
11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Institute of Medicine. *The Health of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender People: Building a Foundation for Better Understanding*. National Academies Press, 2011. ISBN 9780309210621. "Lesbian—As an adjective, used to refer to female same-sex attraction and sexual behavior; as a noun, used as a sexual orientation identity label by women whose sexual attractions and behaviors are exclusively or mainly directed to other women."
12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 McNabb, Charlie. *Queer Adolescence: Understanding the Lives of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, and Asexual Youth*. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2020. ISBN 9781538132814. "Lesbians are women or woman-aligned people who are sexually or romantically attracted to other women or woman-aligned people. Some lesbians prefer to identify as gay or as gay woman."
13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Holleb, Morgan Lev Edward. *The A-Z of Gender and Sexuality*. Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2019. ISBN 9781784506636. "LESBIAN — A woman who is sexually or romantically attracted to women. Lesbian can mean women who are attracted exclusively to other women, but it is also a broader term for women and femmes who are attracted to other women and femmes. This includes bisexual and pansexual women, asexual women who are romantically attracted to women, and non-binary people who identify with womanhood."
14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Ferguson, Ann. *Patriarchy, Sexual Identity, and the Sexual Revolution*. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 1981. "Lesbian is a woman who has sexual and erotic-emotional ties primarily with women or who sees herself as centrally involved with a community of self-identified lesbians whose sexual and erotic-emotional ties are primarily with women; and who is herself a self-identifed lesbian."....."[My definition] defines both bisexual and celibate women as lesbians as long as they identify themselves as such and have their primary emotional identification with a community of self-defined lesbians."
15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Lesbian. The Trans Language Primer. Archived from the original on October 22, 2021.
16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Miller, Trish. *Lavender Woman, Vol. 2, No. 5*. Lavender Woman Magazine, 1973. "What is a lesbian? To me, a lesbian is a woman-oriented woman; bisexuals can be lesbians. A lesbian does not have to be exclusively woman-oriented, she does not have to prove herself in bed, she does not have to hate men, she does not have to be sexually active at all times, she does not have to be a radical feminist."
17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Queen, Carol A.. *Strangers at Home: Bisexuals in the queer movement,*. 1992. "A great many bisexual women, particularly those who are feminist and lesbian-identified, have felt both personally and politically rejected and judged by the separatist sisters."
18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Kafele, Dajenya Shoshanna. "Which Part of Me Deserves to Be Free?". *Bisexual Politics: Theories, Queries, & Visions*. New York : Haworth Press, 1995. ISBN 9781560249504. "Personally, I am unable to separate out the various ways that I am oppressed (as a woman, as an African American, as a bisexual lesbian, as an impoverished single mother) and say that one oppression is worse than the other, or that I desire one form of liberation more than another."
19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 Wyeth, Amy. "Don't Assume Anything". *Bi Women: The Newsletter of the Boston Bisexual Women's Network*. Vol. 5, No. 2, 1995. "Unfortunately, many of my experiences as a lesbian-identified bisexual woman have said to me that having an appearance or demeanor that diverges from the expected means I will not be accepted as truly belonging in the lesbian community. Despite my attendance at gay pride parade, dollars spent at gay resorts and in support of gay causes, and numerous attempts to participate in gay and/or lesbian groups and volunteer events, I have often felt unaccepted by this community."
20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 Kafele, Dajenya Shoshanna (1991). Bisexual Lesbian. Archived from the original on July 25, 2022.
21. ↑ lesbeux-moved (2021-06-26). Sapphic / WLW / SGA Women Flag (thread). Tumblr.
22. ↑ lesbeux-moved (2015-08-14). Sapphic / WLW / SGA Women Flag. Tumblr.
23. ↑ Lydia. About. Archived from the original on June 2, 2021.
24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 Lydia (2018-06-26). A Lesbian Flag For Everyone. Archived from the original on October 6, 2019.
25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 Lydia (2018-06-26). The Sapphic Flag. Archived from the original on January 24, 2022.
26. ↑ Gay Breakfast (2021-01-30). A Sapphic Flag For ALL Sapphics. Instagram.
27. ↑ Stevens, Christy. "Symbols". *Lesbian Histories and Cultures*. Garland Publishing. ISBN 0815319207.
28. ↑ Symbols of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Movements. LAMBDA (2004-12-24). Archived from the original on December 30, 2005.