A love letter to sapphic love
An inside perspective of the ethereal qualities of sapphic relationships.
“I hate it when dudes try to chase me
But I love it when you try to save me
‘Cause I’m just a lady”
– King Princess, “1950”
Sapphic love is the beauty of embracing my femininity in the arms of another woman. Lesbians and sapphics rejected femininity as a concept for quite some time. People believed that to love a woman in the “correct” way, there must be a masculine quality within one’s relationship. However, men have absolutely nothing to do with the way women choose to love each other, and thus, should not be centered within our relationships. Sapphism is not attempting to mimic heterosexuality; rather, it contains its own kind of love, an ethereal kind of love.
The ethereal quality of sapphism is emphasized in its softness, its innocence, and its purity. The mere act of longing for a woman’s touch reflects the purity contained in its essence. Sapphism is the adoration of all the small and delicate aspects of the woman you love: the way the corners of her lips perk up as she sees a dog passing by, the way she nuzzles into your neck and lets out a comfortable sigh, and the tingle you feel as she brushes her fingertips ever so gently against the back of your neck. It is in the comfort of the little parts of her, which only you know, that contain the miniscule escape from the world’s expectations, which you have always longed for. For in those moments, you are hers and she is yours; it is not for the judging stares or the objectifying smirks—it is simply for us, and only us.
Yet, there is a constant fear of loss in every form of sapphism—the fear of losing the woman you love to someone who can give her what you never can: societal normalcy. I cherish her, memorize every part of her, support her, praise her, give her the kind of love even the movies cannot recreate; but I cannot give her normalcy. This is perhaps the most heartbreaking part of it all, as the only way I can provide what she so clearly deserves is by taking away all that which we have built. In that respect, perhaps normalcy is something I cannot provide, but I will work tirelessly to give her a love that will fill that void. I will dedicate every moment of our bond as a love letter to sapphic love.
