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this post was submitted on 30 Jul 2024
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Love the post, don't live the headline.
Since when do we use Sappho to refer to all things queer and not Lesbian specific?
Sappho was the OG lesbian (as far as history remembers) from the island of lesbos. That's why we call lesbians lesbians. And the whole "Sappho and her friend" thing comes from centuries of historians calling her love poems to be about "friendship".
I know there is gay erasure too, but why do we have to make everything about men?
"Sappho and her friend" is used as an ironic term by queer people, specifically to make fun of cishet people calling an Obviously queer couple friends. There was/is a subreddit called that.
As well, Sappho does not mean "Lesbian-specific", it just means between two women. That definition is pretty important to people like myself and other bi/pan women, as we already get marginalised enough by people like "gold-star" lesbians.
Sorry, thought it was an (or the) appropriate umbrella.
You got me curious -
Had to see if I was the only one and see the top two posts of all time on the original sub are about men. Second top post from this week is the OP. Saying this to share a tidbit of perhaps how widespread this misconception of mine is, certainly not to take away from your point.
i recall following a sub called r/AchillesAndHisPal; if the other person is really trying to gatekeep homosexual lingo for lesbians only, i suppose you can use this instead.
Now I went and had a look at reddit too and I must say that r/SapphoAndHerFriend has become a lot more "male" since I left reddit. I'm quite sure that back when reddit was still fun and somewhat authentic, this sub was mostly female.
Maybe I missed some development here and the meaning did change. I'm far from being an authority on this. It just rubs me the wrong way, that a tool to point out female queer erasure now puts women to the back again in favor of queer men.
There used to also be r/achillesandhispal, but I haven't checked.
There is no male version of the meme.
There’s Achilles and his friend, but that clearly came later as a counterpart
I wasn't aware Achilles was gay.
Either way, Achilles mainly communicates a single thing. Fragility. Wouldn't be surprised if the alternative was cooked up by a misandrist who hated the Sappho appropriation.
It’s certainly possible, but Achilles and Patroclus have a lovely story that shouldn’t be dismissed.
I think it mostly came from the same circumstances: this is an obviously romantic relationship, but historians are cagey about whether Achilles feels friendship or admiration for Patroclus. Achilles calls him the feminine form of “beloved” and dies because he violently avenged him.