Lesbianism
What IS Lesbianism?
Lesbians are women and feminine aligned non binary people who are attracted to other women and feminine aligned non binary people. It is a mutually exclusive and static term to describe homosexuality for women and femme aligned enbies. Unaligned people and androgynously aligned people also fall under lesbian attraction. Genderfluid people fall under lesbian attraction as their gender is fluid. They may be a man sometimes, but that will undoubtedly change.
The meaning is commonly abbreviated to "non-man loving non-man" as it is people who are not men or masculine-aligned who can be lesbians, nor people who host attraction to them. It is quite an oversimplification however, but it is useful for an offhand understanding of lesbianism.
Pronouns do not equal gender, so people who use masculine or unaligned pronouns (such as he/him, she/he, they/them or it/it for example) can call themselves lesbians if they meet the meanings above. The same goes for presentation.
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History Of Lesbianism
Lesbianism is as old as human sexuality, as is with every sexuality experience. But we will start with more recent history.
600-500's BCE
This is the time of the Ancient Greek poet Sappho. She is a lesbian who writes poems and stories detailing her love for other women. She comes from the island of Lesbos (off the coast of Greece). The word lesbian originates from this island and the connotations to Sappho. Her works were edited by many men over history to include heterosexuality into her writing, but she wrote about a mysterious husband figure who's name translated to "Man-dick from Man Island", so it is widely known that he was nothing more than a shadow figure she included in her writings.
The words Sapphic and Sapphist (general term for all fem aligned x fem aligned sexualities) is also a derives from her name.
18th, 19th and Early 20th Century
All women who loved women were called sapphists. This word was not an early word for lesbian, but lesbians fell under and/or used this term before the advent of lesbian as its own exclusive term.
By the 1890's, lesbian in relation to female homosexuality was established.
Mid 20th Century
Lesbian as a term was growing amongst wlw communities as an alternative term for sapphist. This was a time before bisexuality, pansexuality and any other mspec (multisexual spectrum) label, and it was either homosexual or heterosexual. Terms within homosexual female communities are established such as butch and femme, and in black homosexual female communities, stud and fish.
1960's and 1970's
Queer people had started standing up for themselves more (note the Stonewall Riots) an the gay/lesbian movement had begun (also note how it is not called the LGBTQ+ Movement). At a time of close mindedness in the early 70's, cishet people called any woman who supported the lesbian movement a lesbian (supporter), but people within the Gay/Lesbian movement knew that there was a fine difference between being a lesbian (activist/supporter), a lesbian (homosexual) and a lesbian (resident of the island of Lesbos).
People also began making new terms to describe their sexualities, such as bisexual, pansexual and other mspec identities. These people also supported the lesbian movement, and thus were called lesbians themselves (such as bisexual lesbians and such). But once people learned that there was a difference and that mspec people are valid in their identities separate from monosexuals, mspec lesbian labels fell out of fashion. They were used still by political lesbians and political bisexuals (an uprising sapphic movement against lesbian (movement) exclusionism and political lesbianism that died out fairly quickly), but not at all besides this.
1980's,1990's and the 2000's
Lesbian began their own Pride marches in the 1980's and making their own flags and handkerchief symbols, They established newspapers and tried their hardest to show that lesbianism is a valid experience for women and enbies to have. The first ever lesbian flag (the Labrys Lesbian Flag-1999) was established and used, and the lesbian slur dyke was fully reclaimed during the 2000's.
2010's
Lesbian culture began to boom due to the rise of the internet. The Lipstick Lesbian Flag (obsolete) was created in 2010, the Sunset Lesbian flag was created in 2018, Lesbian Masterdoc was created in 2019 and as non binary people began to label their identities correctly, the meaning of lesbian shifted to what it is today.
Lesbianism is seen mostly as a very valid experience for feminine aligned people, and lesbians have good ties with other sapphic communities.
Well, Who Counts?
Lesbianism is an exclusive experience, thus meaning there is some "gatekeeping" to who is and who isn't allowed to identify as a lesbian. Here below is a list of people who fail to fit in the bracket of lesbian identification and/or attraction.
Men/Boys - Men cannot be lesbians. Transgender or cisgender. People who experience attraction to men cannot be lesbians, no matter in what capacity.
Masculine-Aligned Nonbinary gendered people - Masculine aligned people (eg. Demiboys, Paraboys, Semiboys, Bxys, Nonbinary-boys etc.) cannot be lesbians. Anyone who experiences attraction to these people cannot be lesbians, no matter in what capacity. Androgynously aligned people are not included in this, because they have a feminine part as well as a masculine part combined together into an androgynous gender.
Mspec People - Mspec people cannot be lesbians. No matter how they experience attraction. There is no way to be mspec and a lesbian, as they are mutually exclusive experiences. Multiromantic homosexuals, Homoromantic multisexuals and such experience mspec attraction, even with the SAM (Split Attraction Model), and thus are not lesbians.
Homo/Hetero-flexible people - Lesbian is a static identity, thus meaning it is not flexible in any way. Lesbiflexible is an impossible identity, due to the staticness of the label. If you have a partner who was fem aligned and then became masculine aligned during your relationship, all the time you are dating them you are homoflexible or bisexual, not lesbian.
Abrosexuals - Abrosexual is a fluid sexual identity, and lesbian is static. The same reasons for this is the same reason above. They cannot be lesbians.
This may seem exclusionary, and that is because it is. Lesbian is an exclusive term, therefore no one can call themselves a lesbian because they feel like it. Words have meanings and experiences are exclusive.
Labels and descriptive, not prescriptive, and lesbian is a masculine aligned exclusionary, static monosexual label.