Sapphism

Then what about it beyond that? It's just about women loving women? Yeah, so like if

you're reading a book that's like a lesbian romance, it'll be like, this is a WLW book.

If you're watching a show, it's a WLW show.

If you're in a relationship, it's a

WLW.

Yes, yes, yes.

And some people sound it out.

say it.

The word today, as it's used for sexual perversion between women, that didn't start coming into the English lexicon until about the 17th or 18th centuries, or it started getting used as a word to describe erotic relationships between women around that time.

The word Sappho or Sapphic was also used at that time, and the reason why...

So either Sapphic or lesbian, those two terms were interchangeable, and the reason is because of a Greek poet named Sappho, who lived on the island in the 6th century BC.

So all of this was hundreds of years before Paul was there.

Sappho's poetry had e- e- expressed an erotic desire for women, and so later writers and scholars associated that island with erotic relationships between women.

So you would have these two words that would describe that.

You would have lesbian, and you would have Sapphic.

So it would also be said that a woman who had a sexual desire for another woman, she would be called Sapphic.

Yeah.

But then also with a focus on an older woman, the Reverend Mother, who's was like, "This is how it is, this is how it's always been, I don't wanna change it." But then also through a more, a younger nun coming in here, Margaret Qualley's character, and who happens to be also WLW, WALWA, right?

Yeah.

So to me it was cool, but I feel like, I feel like I maybe would've liked to have seen more of Margaret's story.

Maybe her story with someone that she had a connection with on the movie.

Yeah.

I don't feel like there was enough of the WLW, um-

No, there wasn't

[upbeat music] Hello, and welcome to another episode of Sapphic AV Club.

I'm one of your hosts, Alice Clark, and here are our other hosts, Jess Zamitt.

Hello.

It's not six, it's three.

[laughs]

That's the kind of commitment we're looking for at Sapphic AV Club, the club that's kind of like a book club, but we watch movies 'cause books are too long.

What kind of movies, though, Alice?

This week we watch one of your picks, Jess.

Between this and the bar, this has been a bad week for women love women.

Yeah, WLW taking hit after hit.

Stay strong, my lesbian comrades.

You have overcome great odds, great trials and tribulations.

You will overcome this week, which will be known as WLW 9/11.

Ironic because the, the bar that, uh, made the decision, the Western Massachusetts COVID-conscious bar that made the decision to have one mask optional night, made that decision, and then had a struggle session on the 25th anniversary of 9/11.

All of this ties back to one another.

Welcome.

This was the Sapphic segment that turned into a Sapphic soapbox of its own.

The world needs more podcasts, Ali.

There aren't enough.

There were some amazing trans ones specifically, but not all.

A lot were, you know, Sapphic or Killian or things like that.

And then in Moments of Euphoria, it was really about the individual trans experience or the experience of being loved as a trans person.

So it just kind of focused a little bit more on that.