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Lesbos islanders dispute gay name…

arkitect

arkitect

macrumors 604
Original poster
A whole island in denial… 🙄 😉
I wonder how they think they are going to stop the use?

Campaigners on the Greek island of Lesbos are to go to court in an attempt to stop a gay rights organisation from using the term "lesbian".

The islanders say that if they are successful they may then start to fight the word lesbian internationally.
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Link
 
Abstract said:
What do you call gay women from Lesbos? 😕
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Indeed.
Although judging by the tone of the comments there probably are no gay women from Lesbos. 😱
Only straight women from Lesbos.
Remember Queen Victoria and her declaration that sexual relations between women was inconceivable (to her) and so it was left out of the infamous Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885…
 
PlaceofDis said:
anyways.. Lesbian ≠ Lesbos. similar, yes, but not the same word in terms of pronunciation or spelling.
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Ahem. You might want to read up a bit on Lesbos and Sappho… 😉
Lesbian is derived from Lesbos, the island of the Greek poet Sappho who liked girls… a lot…
 
arkitect said:
Ahem. You might want to read up a bit on Lesbos and Sappho… 😉
Lesbian is derived from Lesbos, the island of the Greek poet Sappho who liked girls… a lot…
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thats good and all, but the words are not the same in a technical sense is all that i'm getting at. meaning might be there, but the usage between the two doesn't call in any confusion.
 
arkitect said:
Ahem. You might want to read up a bit on Lesbos and Sappho… 😉
Lesbian is derived from Lesbos, the island of the Greek poet Sappho who liked girls… a lot…
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So any word that is derived from Greek is now subject to having it's usage stopped? That seems problematic.

Oh, crap, problematic is from the Greek problematikos. Now we're really in trouble. 😀
 
emw said:
So any word that is derived from Greek is now subject to having it's usage stopped? That seems problematic.
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Apparently only if it casts aspersions on the sexuality of straight greek males and their straight greek women. 😛

emw said:
Oh, crap, problematic is from the Greek problematikos. Now we're really in trouble. 😀
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😀😀
 
Aren't people from Lesbos called Lebosians? Completely different thing. Anyway, they should have done this earlier, but now it's ingrained in the vernacular, so they're probably stuck. I could think of worse things to be called. They should just go with it and have some annual celebrations or something. That would increase tourism if that's what they're aiming for.
 
arkitect said:
Indeed.
Although judging by the tone of the comments there probably are no gay women from Lesbos. 😱
Only straight women from Lesbos.
Remember Queen Victoria and her declaration that sexual relations between women was inconceivable (to her) and so it was left out of the infamous Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885…
Click to expand...


and in 1916 (i think) it was, they said, to make issue of it would only highlight it to woman who may then take part in the activity. so again it was missed off the bill..
 
solvs said:
Aren't people from Lesbos called Lebosians? Completely different thing. Anyway, they should have done this earlier, but now it's ingrained in the vernacular, so they're probably stuck. I could think of worse things to be called. They should just go with it and have some annual celebrations or something. That would increase tourism if that's what they're aiming for.
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No, it's not a completely different thing. The poet Sappho was from Lesbos. She was called "the Lesbian" (with a feminine ending) because she was from Lesbos. She was also bisexual (at least, she used a bisexual persona in her poems). In the ancient world, the feminine form of the adjective for a person from Lesbos, when used as a substantive (i.e., a noun), came to be used as a euphemism for a homosexual woman (yes, even though Sappho herself, or at least the persona she projected in her poems, was bisexual, and not exclusively homosexual). In 19th century England, this euphemism came to be used as the normal word for female homosexuality.

In Modern Greek, the name of the island is pronounced "Lesvos" and spelled "Lesbos," so one could distinguish between the two uses by referring to the people as "Lesvian" or "Lesvosian" (or "Lesbosian" or "Mytilinean," after the capital city of the island, the name of which is also sometimes used as the name of the whole island).

Think of it this way: how does an English-speaker refer to a resident of Frankfurt? Of Hamburg? That does not mean that the cuisine of Frankfurt is well-represented by the frankfurter, or the cuisine of Hamburg is well-represented by the hamburger. Metaphors sometimes cause the associations of the tenor to become attached to the vehicle. It sucks to be them, but that's not going to change.
 
tny said:
No, it's not a completely different thing.
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I am aware of the connection (believe me, I know all about lesbianism) but I meant the word. While lesbian is technically correct as a female connotation, it's been associated with the current definition for quite some time now. To the point where it has become the standard definition. Lesbosian is also correct though, as you pointed out, especially being non gender specific, and would mean something completely different. Lesvosian even better. Suppose it still sounds the same, but they could just say when asked that they're from the Isle of Lesbos. Who wouldn't want to say that, it's a beautiful place.

Trying to change it now, well there's just no point.
 
I have just copyrighted the alphabet.

You all owe me money!!!
Drogar-DolarLBG.gif
 
Smart ass.

OK, I have just copyrighted the use of ink, electrons, paper punches (for Braille users), and the spoken word.

Have I missed anything (and I'm sure I have)??
 
Better Lesbian than Lemnian. As a result of Aphrodite's curse, the women of Lemnos smelled so bad that their men would not come near them; the women eventually killed their men for refusing their dubious attractions.
 
skunk said:
Better Lesbian than Lemnian. As a result of Aphrodite's curse, the women of Lemnos smelled so bad that their men would not come near them; the women eventually killed their men for refusing their dubious attractions.
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And then came Jason and the Argonauts... The island soon had a baby boomer's population to rival that of the pre WWII era.
 
They should totally be pushing this lesbian thing to tourists. A bunch of hot Lesbos girls shouting out "GooooooOOOO LESBOS!" would rock my socks.

skunk said:
As a result of Aphrodite's curse, the women of Lemnos smelled so bad that their men would not come near them; the women eventually killed their men for refusing their dubious attractions.
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And with no men around, THESE women all became Lesbians, right?
 
iJohnHenry said:
Smart ass.

OK, I have just copyrighted the use of ink, electrons, paper punches (for Braille users), and the spoken word.

Have I missed anything (and I'm sure I have)??
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I call Morse Code. 😎

Although I don't think I'll ever be able to retire on those royalties...
 
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