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Head's Up: This post contains artwork that may be considered NSFW
To embrace one’s identity as a lesbian, and a sapphic more generally, is to reject the roles patriarchy has defined for women and reclaim the pleasure that women are discouraged from prioritizing. It is to construct our own balance of household labor, of sex and pleasure, of domination and submission, of partnership, of communication and intimacy, and of trust and vulnerability. As a community, it is vital we acknowledge that which binds us together, but always through an intersectional view that centers our distinctions and unique identities.
Throughout the pandemic, I was living in the US and China, with vastly different experiences. While in the US, I feared for my safety and health, particularly due to a lack of health insurance; when I returned to China I was able to live in relative safety, with others in public masking and the COVID cases nearly non-existent. In the US, I found myself alone for the majority of it, with far too much time to think; when I returned to China I fell in love and began my first gay relationship. I was broken open in the best way, and inspired to create after a long period of believing I was no longer an artist.
The female gaze is something precious and underrepresented in media and arts, separate from the dominant viewpoints through which we have been conditioned to view the female form. What is sexuality without deep patriarchal power imbalance? What is desire without domination, without debt? What is communication and community without competition or fear? What is pride without ego and self-centeredness? The sapphic has the opportunity to discover this, and more, through the abundance of experiencing life as a queer person.
What I seek is every opportunity to connect with other sapphics, to share our experiences, and put words and images to our experiences so we may make sense of both our traumas and triumphs, and all that is in between. There is power in images and power in words, but neither is sufficient to fully express all that we have touched, grown, and sustained. To exist now, as we are, is to connect to and carry on a long history of sapphic love and identity, to transform it and take up new space. I am indebted to those who came before me, who sacrificed so we may live in greater safety and love, but there is much still to do.
As written by Audre Lorde, “The erotic is a measure between the beginnings of our sense of self and the chaos of our strongest feelings. It is an internal sense of satisfaction to which, once we have experienced it, we know we can aspire.”
The erotic is powerful, transformative, and liberating. In times of difficulty, I find solace in my communities, and I can only hope and work toward greater safety for us all.
ABOUT SAPPHIC SCENES
SAPPHIC SCENES (she/her) is a 27 y/o lesbian artist originally from the Southern US and now living in China. She is inspired by queer love and liberation and identifies as a long-time sapphic and late-in-life, out lesbian. During the pandemic, she came to terms with her sexuality and began making artwork again after a 5-year hiatus. In addition to the visual arts, she is an avid language learner, reader, and writer, also making poetry and prose centering sapphic experience and identity. SAPPHIC SCENES is interested and active in kink and BDSM dynamics and practice. She is pro-trans, pro-sex worker, and pro-woman.
More on Instagram: @sapphic.scenes
All words, original artwork, and photos courtesy of SAPPHIC SCENES.
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