The Word Lesbian

I have a hard time with the word lesbian too. I like gay a lot more -- but maybe that will change as I gain more confidence.

 

Ive never liked the word lesbian.At first i just thought its cos i was only just starting to come to terms with my sexuality.But 26 years later and i still hate the word!

 

I don't love it, sort of feel similar.. much prefer it used as an adjective, rather than a noun, too

 

The word lesbian actually came from the greek lyric poet, Sappho, from the island of Lesbos. She is listed in the Alexandrian Archives (from the Hellenistic era under Alexander the Great) as one of the nine great lyric poets from ancient Greece. She wrote hundreds of poems to her female lovers and other women she pined after. Despite how revered she is in the archives, she was exiled from Greece when she was around 30 years old for her homosexuality, but this didn't stop her from producing great poetic works.

Not sure if that gives any alternative perspective, but I thought it's worth mentioning.

 

Here are a few more opinions on that:
http://emptyclosets.com/forum/chit-chat/12070-gay-girls-lesbians-5.html#87

I really like it... it reminds me of something wild and free... like amazon... and a long history...

hugs

 

There was recently another thread on the same topic. I think for me I prefer gay because it's an adjective, it describes one part of me, while lesbian is a noun, makes me just one thing.

 

Oh! I do love the word lesbian...I *do* find it to be a rather beautiful word! I *almost* wish the word applied to me (actually, to clarify that, I'll add that I wish it was the word for a bisexual woman, or for female bisexuality).

Sometimes society takes a really beautiful thing, and they throw so much crap at it that it looks ugly, all covered over with their crap. But it's still a beautiful thing. You need to either see beneath the crap, or (better) take it, clean the crap off of it, recognize its beauty for what it is, and put it on your mantle or some other prominent place in your house and enjoy it, and defend it from people who try to put more crap on it. Otherwise, you're just a victim of society's emotional vandalism.

Consider the word "Earth". Beautiful word, right? Big blue and green ball floating in space, providing life to all we love? Now envision 3000 years from now...we've crapped up our planet so much we nearly wiped ourselves out, and eventually found a way off, and migrated to other planets/moons, and finally out of our solar system. From that perspective "Earth" was that crappy place we were stuck on for so long...grey, brown, ugly, not nearly big enough, and it didn't even have [insert your favorite food, substance, or entertainment we found on another planet]! The word "Earth" becomes tarnished, almost a curse word...it's inferior, outdated, limiting. But it's still the same word...just has a lot of crap on it.

Get rid of the crap.

 

I completely agree. Before I came out, lesbian was an insult used to make someone feel like they don't belong. I've had it hurled at me before and I think that's part of why I hate it so much. Every time I've come out to someone I say "I'm gay" because "Lesbian" makes me flinch/cringe. It used to be something I was ashamed of - I felt I should be proud of my identity - but now I have no problem with other people using it for me or themselves, I just prefer the way 'gay' works as a word.

On a side note, I read that the people of Lesbos in Greece recently petitioned to change the meaning of the word lesbian because they have a very hard time finding a word for someone from Lesbos...

 

^It sure would be awkward being a straight person from Lesbos and having to explain that you're a "Lesbian", not a "lesbian".

 

I agree, 1) I don't like how it's a noun, like im not a lesbian. being lesbian is just part of who i am not the whole of who i am. but gay is an adjective like you dont say 'im a gay' you say im gay. but you say 'im a lesbian. and 2) honestly i just dont like to say it. like some people dont like to say moist, or jelly, or other words. i dont like forming the word lesbian

 

I don't ever call myself a lesbian, but I don't mind when others go. It is what I am, after all. It has just always felt more natural to use gay. The word lesbian is a bit awkward to me.

 

I find it to have sexual connotations because the word has been sexualised I guess. I dislike how it defines my gender. I also find it doesn't apply to me as I may be gay in my physical attractions but my emotional attractions I am attracted to more than the same-sex. to me lesbian means you identify your gender as female and are only physically/emotionally attracted to females.

 

I just hate how people link it with pornography and such when you say it out loud

 

this

 

I don't mind it though I think it sounds like a disease, like Leprosy>Lesbian.