Skip to main content

Sapphic Representation: Why is it so hard to find?

 Lesbian is not a dirty word. Sapphic is not a dirty word. 

But somehow, it is still much more acceptable to be a gay man than it is to be a queer* woman, and this is represented in literature; it is much easier to find well-written books about gay men than it is to find their sapphic counterparts. 

In recent years, though, sapphic literature has become more popular and been better received, and hopefully one day soon this will no longer be true. 


I think a lot of the issue goes back to one that stands at the core of gender studies, queer studies, and cultural studies, among many other literary disciplines. For much of literary history, female characters have simply not been as fleshed out as male characters. Virginia Woolf wrote about this phenomenon in A Room Of One's Own, back in 1929, and Alison Bechdel drew our collective attention to it again in the creation of the Bechdel test in 1985. 

Both authors, interestingly, can be considered sapphic writers. Virginia Woolf's same-sex relationship with Vita Sackville-West is well known, now, and Alison Bechdel is a self-identified lesbian. 

Due to the lack of representation (and truly, the history of the criminalization and repression of sexuality), there is relatively little good sapphic literature to be compared to, and therefore some authors can get away with writing extremely surface-level, poorly structured, and stereotypical books. I have seen multiple people online, recently, say that they want to read more sapphic books but cannot find many well-written works. They say they would rather not read any sapphic literature at all than keep reading the same poorly done plots and shallow characters, which I totally understand.

Who wants to read about their identity in a way that is poorly done, and just makes the divide between a minority identity and a majority identity even more clear?  

Thankfully, more and more sapphic media is created every year, and I have hope that one day the genre will be full of amazing books that can rival any other genre. And of course, so many fantastic sapphic books do exist. Here are some of my favorites, in no particular order:

1. This is How You Lose the Time War, by Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar

2. A Bluestocking's Guide to Decadence, by Jess Everlee


3. The Absinthe Underground, by Jamie Pacton

4. Scorched Grace, by Margot Douaihy

5. The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea by Maggie Tokuda-Hall

6. The Thistle Grove series by Lana Harper

I also post recommendations on my sapphic bookstagram @thesapphicreaderclub, however many of those are not vetted by me. 

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Incorporating the Archaeology Aesthetic into Fashion

I'm not sure why I'm so drawn to the aesthetic of academia, but it's undeniably part of who I am.  To be specific, I like the subtle aesthetic of archaeology. It could also be referred to as light academia. I have several Pinterest boards dedicated to this aesthetic, and in this post I will be sharing ways to incorporate it into your life, through fashion! The first major component of aesthetic archaeology fashion are button ups. Both patterned and plain look amazing and give me strong "hot archaeology professor" vibes.  An example of a patterned button up: (via @femmeduart on Twitter) An example of a plain button up: (via Pinterest) As for pants: neutral, solid colors are perfect. Khaki pants are my personal choice, but black pants as shown above work as well. Shorts will fit this aesthetic as well; don't forget that many archaeology expeditions take place in very hot & dry climates. Here's an example of an outfit with shorts! (via Pinterest) This spe...
1 comment
Read more

Catholic School Inspired Fashion: by a Catholic School Girl

For a lot of people, a plaid skirt is synonymous with a uniform. I wore a lovely red, white, and navy blue plaid patterned pinafore as a child, and then graduated into polo shirts in middle school.  At that time I was also going through my emo phase, as most preteens are. It was challenging to be a young emo in religious school; Instead of being able to wear the black that I so desired, I had to settle for navy blue.  Anyways, this post is not about my experiences in Christian school, nor is it about going through your emo phase in a school uniform. Keep reading to see how to draw fashion inspiration from a Catholic school uniform! One of my favorite simple outfits is a plain black shirt and a plaid patterned skirt.  Here are two examples: (via Pinterest) (via Flickr) Both of these outfits are relatively simple, consisting of only a high waisted skirt and a black long sleeve shirt. In the second picture, you can see the top of the model's knee high socks.  Knee high ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Why You Should Boycott Brandy Melville

Brandy Melville has recently come under fire for their minuscule clothing sizes, as they should. It's completely unacceptable to exclude people from purchasing your clothing because of their body shape/size.  Brandy Melville has also become a big trend lately, and people with larger body types should not be excluded from following this trend. First of all, from a capitalistic standpoint, it is illogical to cater only to very small girls. Only a tiny percentage of potential customers will fit that physical description. As a business, they're losing billions of dollars.  From a social standpoint, it's absolutely unacceptable.  Here are a few examples directly from the Brandy Melville website for reference.  (via Brandy Melville, Skylar Tank, $14) As you can see with this screenshot of the listing on their website, the only option is extra small / small. I did not crop the image or alter it in any way, and if you'd like to see for yourself, all links will be at the bott...
Post a Comment
Read more