sapphic central!! for the gays who love girls discussion

Hi folks,
Just wondering if there are any older members in this group? I have noticed most of the peeps here are quite a bit younger than I am, and wondering if I need to find a group with more of a mix of ages? Recommendations welcome! PS Nothing against the younger folk, just hoping to make some friends closer to my own age. :)

Yeah, I'm an "elder millenial" myself!
Though, honestly, I feel like the discussion thread structure might really be more of a barrier than age in terms of connecting over similar reading interests (eg I've noticed the same questions coming up multiple times, each becoming a different thread, and so the conversation on one doesn't cross over to the other).

Hi Emily, I do agree, I find it hard to navigate past threads and did wonder if someone might have asked this already....
But thanks for the response and nice to meet you! :)

Australian, SA - 74y young. Avid reader. Mostly Awards Nominated books, but lately more into Sapphic fiction.

Over 50. Wishing sapphic fiction had been a thing when I was growing up

Hi Wendy, hi Emé, me too!

I'm following everyone who's messaged here so I can get your recommendations! Glad to know I'm not the only post-millennial on here. :)

Emé wrote: "Over 50. Wishing sapphic fiction had been a thing when I was growing up"

Indeed! Nice to see all the new stuff that's available now, as well as older works getting a wider audience.

For instance, I'm kinda mad I didn't know about/have access to the anime 'Revolutionary Girl Utena' in 1997 when I was 100% the target audience...but now you can watch the whole thing properly translated in sub or dub on YouTube! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TQFl... (If you've never seen the intro, I'd recommend checking it out just for that. The vibes, my goodness!)

Indeed! Nice to see all the new stuff that's available now, as well as older works getting a wider audience.
Thanks for sharing!

I always thought I just hated romance and stuck to non-fiction cause everything else had an MF awkwardly shoehorned in.

Haha. I had similar feelings about romance-focused works vs ones where it is more of a minor subplot.

Although it turns out that for me it’s not about the gender of the characters but more the way that straight romance tends to be written - a lot of the tropes (eg the bad boy, the giant man/tiny woman) just don’t appeal at all!

I gotta say, though, I’m finding a lot of sapphic stories fall into one of those patterns that doesn’t work for me: Neither telling nor showing why these characters like each other, but just jumping straight to the part where you are supposed to swoon. For some reason it feels like M/M stories have the best statistical likelihood of me going: “Oh these characters are independently cool, and they are fun to watch interact!” I have a sneaking suspicion that it’s because more writers know how to make male characters interesting (including through being both active and imperfect)…and that makes me sad!

Hi Emily, oh no, it really seems like you've read the wrong stories so far. I confess I haven't read so many M/M stories, but I know a great many of sapphic/lesbian stories with interesting or even fascinating characters! (Just check out my virtual bookshelves :-))

Emily wrote: "Haha. I had similar feelings about romance-focused works vs ones where it is more of a minor subplot.

Although it turns out that for me it’s not about the gender of the characters but more the wa..."

Yeah, it might surprise you to learn that a lot of sapphic romance is written by either straight women or bi women whose last wlw experience was in college. A lot of it is just not good and carries those same MF tropes.

Sapphir wrote: "Hi Emily, oh no, it really seems like you've read the wrong stories so far. I confess I haven't read so many M/M stories, but I know a great many of sapphic/lesbian stories with interesting or even..."

Oh, it's not like I haven't found any I like! I was just a bit surprised at how many seemed to lean a bit too much on the reader's "yay, two girls who kiss!" response instead of actually making me care about the characters, somehow especially when that aspect is a bit hyped. But I will definitely check out your recs!

A few I'd recommend that DO have the kind of character development I like (since I don't have a specific shelf for "does the sapphic relationships well"):
A Master of Djinn - magical mystery in steampunk Cairo. The dapper investigator Fatima gets both a badass girlfriend AND an odd-couple-friends relationship with a female partner, so best of both worlds.
In the Vanishers’ Palace - basically Vietnamese beauty and the beast with a lady dragon. And also aliens.
The Salt Grows Heavy - carnivorous mermaid with some justified anger x NB plague doctor
This Is How You Lose the Time War - kinda like if Doctor Who fanfiction met Good Omens fanfiction, but beautiful lyrical writing and sapphic
Fingersmith - Dickensian enemies to lovers
泾渭情殇 Jīng Wèi Qíng Shāng (Clear and muddy loss of love) - Probably the closest I've found to those addictive and often highly political M/M danmei novels, but featuring women. The ending kinda...fizzles (it sorta feels like the author couldn't quite figure out a plausible happy ending and so just hand-waved some stuff), but relationship between the undercover barbarian lady and the princess of the enemy kingdom is pretty interesting.
Our Wives Under the Sea - Do not read if you want HAPPY gay vibes, but the depiction of the relationship that was lost is what makes this story work so well
The Gilda Stories - There isn't like one particular ship in this one, but I do like seeing the adventures of a Black lesbian vampire just out there living an ethical life with her extended vampire family
The Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics -This is the closest to a traditional romance novel (of any gender combo, I think!) that I would rate this high. Having it actually explore multiple women being excellent at what they do, not just the Regency(?) scientist MC, is partly why!
Women of the Silk - This one doesn't market itself as Sapphic at all in the blurb, so I got it for "1920s silk workers go on strike"...so that was a nice surprise!

Hi Emily, wow, thanks for all these interesting and unusual recs! The only one I know (so far) is Fingersmith, but I guess I definitely need to check the others out too. :) Added all of them!

Hi, 43-year-old here. I guarantee not a single Taylor Swift reference 😇

Sapphir wrote: "Hi Emily, wow, thanks for all these interesting and unusual recs! The only one I know (so far) is Fingersmith, but I guess I definitely need to check the others out too. :) Added all of them!"

Thanks! I see you enjoyed Affinity and The Night Watch too - Sarah Waters is very reliable! (Those ones are not exactly romances as such, but the characters are all very well fleshed out)

Can't read the German ones, unfortunately (unless they get translated; my grasp on the language is limited to muddling through the Zurich tram newspaper), but Flowing like Water looks good, and Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit has been on my TBR for a while!

Oh ya, knocking on 50's door over here

Emily wrote: "Sapphir wrote: "Hi Emily, wow, thanks for all these interesting and unusual recs! The only one I know (so far) is Fingersmith, but I guess I definitely need to check the others out too. :) Added al..."

Hi Emily,
yeah, Sarah Waters is one of my favorite sapphic writers and has been for quite a while! And yes, I think you should definitely read Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit and Flowing like Water: the first one is undoubtedly a lesbian classic and the second one might have what it takes to be a future lesbian classic as well. :) And for all I know, some of the German books have been published in English, too.
(But it's interesting to learn that you can speak/read some German!)

Hi, Everyone. Send me a friend request please. I would love to connect and share our love for reading.

Would love to be your friend Wendy :)
And anyone else who wants to connect!