Lesbian Terms, Code & Signalling Through Sapphic History

c. 630: Sappho

Preaching to the choir ;) once upon a time, on the island of Lesbos lived a beautiful Greek poet called Sappho who centuries later became a symbol of love and desire between women with the words "sapphic" and "lesbian" being derived from her name and the name of her home island of Lesbos.

A Fascinating Graph: Google Books Ngram Viewer results for the word "Sappho". (Click on the image to enlarge, if you wish)

Google Books Ngram Viewer is an online search engine that charts the frequencies of any set of search strings found in their database of printed sources published, that reportedly contains 500 billion words from 5.2 million books, between the time period of 1500 to 2022. Only matches found in at least 40 books are displayed in the graph. Though limitations have been pointed out, the data set, may still give a very rough quantitative, glimpse into linguistic change. Unfortunately, for some lesbian terms below, I was unable to generate a graph as some terms have multiple meanings e.g. Dyke can also mean a geological term (which makes me childishly giggle every time, as I am an ex-geologist).

1553: Sapphic Verse

Sapphic Verse: The term "Sapphic", was initially used in reference to the characteristic four-line stanzas and poetic meters of Sappho's poetry. Rather than getting my "trochees" and "dactyls" in a twist - check out classicalpoets.org for an explanation of Sapphic verse.

The Oxford English Dictionary's earliest evidence for the use of the word "Sapphic" is from around 1553, in the writing of Gavin Douglas, Scottish poet and Bishop of Dunkeld (Perthshire, Scotland) in reference to Sappho's (our girl's) use of unique and impactful meter / strophe. This surely, helps reflect (ancient Greek's) Sappho's impact and contribution to the progression of the art form of poetry.

See below, when "Sapphic" started becoming a synonym for "lesbians" and / or "lesbianism".

1660: Travesti

Transvestite Term: Travesti: Travesti is a theatrical term referring to the portrayal of a character in an opera, play, or ballet by a performer of the opposite sex.

Since the presence of real women on stage was considered immoral until the late 17th century in England and the late 18th century in the Papal States, on stage, women were portrayed by male actors in drag. With the Restoration of Charles II in 1660 women started appearing on the English stage, both in female and male roles. Amongst the 19th century actresses who made a mark in travesti roles were Mary Anne Keeley, Maude Adams and Sarah Bernhardt.

Google Books Ngram Viewer results for the word "Transvestite". (Click on the image to enlarge, if you wish)

1732: Lesbian

Lesbian Term: Lesbian: Collins Dictionary definition of Lesbian = used to describe gay women. The etymology of Lesbian is via Latin from Greek Lesbios, from Lesbos - a Greek island which was the home of Greek poet Sappho, who expressed affection for women in her poetry.

Seriously, can the following be true? Apparently, during the four decades it took to create the 12-volume Oxford English Dictionary (OED), completed in 1928, the word Lesbian appeared only in reference to the island of Lesbos. Only with OED's 1976's Supplement did the word Lesbian appear as an 1890 synonym for Tribadism.

Although the term lesbian was used in the 1890 National Medical Dictionary by the American surgeon and librarian John Shaw Billings, as an adjective to describe tribadism (as "lesbian love") there are earlier mentions of the term Lesbian in for example... 1732 - William King's poem "The Toast":

A nobler Verse – The British Myra sings;
The mighty Thing, which Lesbian Loves began,

1866 - Algernon Charles Swinburne's poem "Sapphics":

Saw the Lesbians kissing across their smitten,
Lutes with lips more sweet than the sound of lute-strings,

A Fascinating Graph: Google Books Ngram Viewer results for the word "Lesbian". (Click on the image to enlarge, if you wish)

Compare this graph to Google Trends results for searches in Google, for the word "Lesbian". (Click on the image to enlarge, if you wish)

1789: Sapphist

Lesbian Term: Sapphist: Collins Dictionary definition of (the noun) Sapphist = a lesbian and (adjective) | Sapphic = relating to lesbians and/or lesbianism. The etymology of Sapphist is via Greek poet Sappho whose poetry often reveals her "tender affection" for ... other women.

The Oxford Dictionary's earliest evidence for the noun "Sapphist" (NB not used in a kind way) is from 1789, in a letter by Hester Lynch Piozzi née Salusbury (1741 – 1821) who was a Welsh author, diarist, and patron of the arts. I couldn't find the OED's source (groover, I'm not paying £100 p.a. for OED subscrpition), however, I did find one of Mrs Piozzi's acidic diary entries mentioning the noun, "Sapphist":

"Nature does get strangely out of Fashion sure enough: One hears of Things now, fit for the Pens of Petronius only, or Juvenal to record and satyrize: The Queen of France is at the Head of a Set of Monsters call’d by each other Sapphists, who boast her Example; and deserve to be thrown with the He Demons that haunt each other likewise, into Mount Vesuvius." | Source: Rictor Norton- "Mrs Piozzi's Reminiscences, 1770s-1790s"

A Fascinating Graph: Google Books Ngram Viewer results for the word "Sapphist". (Click on the image to enlarge, if you wish)

1864: Uranian

Queer Term: Uranian: Uranian is a term that referred to homosexual men. The term Uranian was first published by Karl Heinrich Ulrichs in a series of five booklets (1864–65) collected under the title Forschungen über das Räthsel der mannmännlichen Liebe (Research into the Riddle of Man–Male Love). Ulrichs was a German Lawyer and gay, who is regarded today as a pioneer of gay rights.

Ulrichs derived the term Uranian from the Greek goddess Aphrodite Urania, who was created out of the god Uranus'... testicles! Uranian represented the homosexual gender. The term Dionian represented the heterosexual gender and was derived from Aphrodite Dionea. Apparently, Ulrichs developed his terminology before the first public use of the term homosexual, which appeared in 1869 in a pamphlet published anonymously by Karl-Maria Kertbeny.

Opera Singer Felicita Vestvali was described as being Uranian by Rosa von Braunschweig, a longtime friend, in the Yearbook of Intermediate Sexual Types (1903).

As the term "Uranian" has multiple meanings e.g. relating to or coming from the planet Uranus: the Uranian ring system or Uranian moons - no slick Google Books Ngram Viewer, citied here.

1870: Invert

Queer Term: Invert: Sexual inversion was a term used by late 19th and early 20th century sexologists, to express the inborn reversal of gender traits i.e. taking on the gender role of the opposite sex.

In 1870, in the Archiv für Psychiatrie, Karl Friedrich Otto Westphal, an eminent professor of psychiatry at Berlin Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin (one of Europe's largest university hospitals) published a detailed account of a young woman who, from her earliest years, was sexually inverted: she liked to dress as a boy, only cared for boys’ games, and as she grew up was sexually attracted only to women, with whom she formed a series of tender relationships.

Surprisingly the term invert was not confined to medical books. A friend of the sexologist, Havelock Ellis who had published Sexual Inversion (1897) which is thought to be the first English medical textbook on the subject of homosexuality, and a believer in his theory of sexual inversion, Radclyffe Hall gave this theory, fictional expression through her infamous novel The Well of Loneliness (1928). Moreover, Havelock Ellis provided a foreword to the novel in which he consistently used the term invert to refer to its "he-was-a-she" protagonist, Stephen Gordon, who bore a strong resemblance to one of Austrian psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebing's case studies. Thank goodness the term invert is no longer used!

1906: Bulldyke > Dyke

Queer Term: Bulldyke: Oxford English Dictionary definition of Bull Dyke = a lesbian, esp. one whose appearance, behaviour, or identity is regarded as masculine. The term "Dyke" (meaning "lesbian") is derived from the word "bulldyke". (Forgive me, I find "Dyke" amusing as, a geologic dike is a flat body of rock that cuts through another type of rock - I am a lezza and... an ex-geologist.)

Though the origin of "bulldyke" is unknown and many theories have been proposed, some of the first references to "bulldyke" appear in American in print.

1906 - Human Sexuality: A Medico-literary Treatise on the Laws, Anomalies, and Relations of Sex by Joseph Richardson Parke, Pg. 309:

"In American homosexual argot, female inverts, or lesbian lovers, are known euphemistically as "bulldykers," whatever that may mean: at least that is their sobriquet in the "Red Light" district of Philadelphia."

1921 - Medical Review of Reviews, "The 'Fairy' and the Lady Lover" by Perry M. Lichtenstein, M.D., pg. 373:

"She stated that she had indulged in the practice of "bull diking," as she termed it. She was a prisoner in one of the reformatories, and there a certain young woman fell in love with her."

1928 - Home to Harlem by Claude McKay, pg. 129:

"Sapphic and Lesbian...beautiful words." "What is that there Leshbian?" "...Lovely word, eh?" "That’s what we calls bulldyker in Harlem," drawled Jake. "Them’s all ugly womens." "Not all. And that’s a damned ugly name," the waiter said. "Harlem is too savage about some things. Bulldyker," the waiter stressed with a sneer.

The term was indeed very ugly, hurtful, vilifying, derogatory... As time has passed, the term "dyke", however, has been reappropriated by some out and proud lesbians. Moreover, "Dyke Marches" have sprung up in cities around the world with thousands upon thousands of lesbian marchers. One of the first Dyke Marches was held on October 17, 1981 by the now-defunct organisation Lesbians Against the Right. 350 women marched the "Dykes in the Streets" through Toronto (Canada) streets to show lesbian power, pride, and visibility. A revelation - sometimes when I'm feeling a wee bit cheeky & rebellious, I do use the term Dyke.

1923: Fannian

Image Source: US Holocaust Memorial Museum / Magnus-Hirschfeld Gesellschaft

Lesbian Term: Fannian is an alternative term / synonym to "Lesbian". Fannian was coined by German psychiatrist Dr Franziska Fischer to scientifically and formally designate a woman who is attracted to women / in a romantic relationship with another woman and crucially, to distinguish it from the broad term of "homosexual" which seemed at the time, more male focussed. Though Franziska Fischer's invaluable lesbian research papers were burnt during the Nazis Bücherverbrennunge (Book Burnings), the term Fannian became a popular synonym for the term "Lesbian" across Europe and America.

The term "Fannian" was first published by Franziska Fischer in a series of booklets (1923–1930) collected under the title "Forschungen über das Räthsel der weiblichen Liebe" (Research into the Riddle of Woman–Female Love) in response to Karl Heinrich Ulrichs' earlier series of booklets (1864–65) "Forschungen über das Räthsel der mannmännlichen Liebe" (Research into the Riddle of Man–Male Love - see above).

Franziska Fischer was a German psychiatrist of noble birth, who was an OUT Fannian in what seems gayful or at least gay tolerant Weimar Republic Berlin and she is, an unsung pioneer of gay women's rights. Franziska undertook extensive research on "Homosexual women" for Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld's Institut für Sexualwissenschaft (Institute for Sexual Science) in Tiergarten, Berlin, Germany. Moreover, Fischer's pioneering research on "Homosexual women" was translated and published across Europe and America, and the term "Fannian" as an alternative to the term "Lesbian", became popular in both academic research and, by women loving women, particularly in creative gay Salons across Europe. Citations of the terms "Fannian" & "Fannia" include "Lesbian Histories and Cultures: An Encyclopedia, Volume 2" (2000) by Bonnie Zimmerman.

Karl Ulrichs' The Institut für Sexualwissenschaft (1919 - 1933) trailblazingly advanced the scientific view that same-sex attraction and gender diversity were NATURAL and, inborn. Deplorably, The The Institut für Sexualwissenschaft's invaluable research materials and thousands of books were publicly burned during the Nazi book burnings (occurring throughout Germany to destroy literature deemed deviant / subversive or "un-German") by members of The Sturmabteilung (aka Stormtroopers), alongside pro-Nazi university students and the German Student Union at the Opernplatz in Berlin, on the 10 May 1933. Soon after the Nazis, took over the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft building in 1933.

Franziska Fischer's original research work and citations to her work, as were other publications covering homosexuality, were among the "subversive" books burnt in Germany and Austria and removed by Nazis across Nazi-occupied Europe. Moreover, catholic countries were not enamoured by her work so her research publications were banned. Yet, until the 1970s, when the word "Lesbian" was reclaimed by women loving women, in ode to Greek poet Sappho, the term "Fannian" had been both an academically respected and popular term to describe a woman who is romantically or sexually attracted to other women.

1930s: The Sewing Circle

Lesbian Term: The Sewing Circle: The Sewing Circle - a discreet code for a network of Hollywood lesbian and bisexual actresses who hung out together.

There is contention as to who came up with the name The Sewing Circle. Alla Nazimova (a Russian-American) actress is credited as coming up with term The Sewing Circle. Thereafter, Marlene Dietrich secretly called her group of Hollywood lesbian and bi women stars, her Sewing Circle. As documented by Axel Madsen in his book The Sewing Circle (1996), this included a surprising array of key Hollywood stars: Greta Garbo, Barbara Stanwyck, Joan Crawford... The Hollywood stars met at one another's Hollywood houses for lunch, conversation and... aye! Playwright Mercedes de Acosta seems to have struck it very lucky there.

1940 to 60s: The "Three-article Rule"

LGBT Term: The "Three-article Rule": The "Three-article Rule" - targeted American queer people who publicly wore less than three articles of clothing that didn't match their assigned genders, between the 1940s to 60s. Though the term "three-article rule" may have been used by the LGBTQ community as a way to warn each other, it was indeed an informal law that police used to arrest LGBTQ+ people for cross-dressing.

In America, the "three-article rule" stemmed from earlier cross-dressing laws such as an Ohio law passed in 1848 which prohibited a person from appearing in public "in a dress not belonging to his or her sex". During the spread of America's frontier, there was a rise in non-traditional gender expression when for example some women dressed as men to go out and prospect for gold. Those who dressed not "according to their assigned gender" were perceived to threaten the traditional two-gender system. For example, Jean Marie Suize, aka Madame Pantalon, was a gold miner during the Californian gold rush who arrested many times for wearing men's clothes. By the 1850s, over 40 cities in the US had passed anti-cross-dressing laws and by 1917, when the US entered WWI, this had risen to over 150 cities.

Incredulously, in 2023, Tennessee, enacted America's first "Drag Ban," forbidding all drag performances in public or in the presence of minors. At least 2 states in America have introduced similar legislation to criminalize drag. See map.

1969: Gay (reappropriated by Gays)

Queer Term: Gay: The word Gay was originally used to mean "carefree", "cheerful", or "bright and showy" but now primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual.

During the 12th century the word gay arrived in English via Old French "gai" to mean "carefree", "cheerful". However by the late 17th century, it had evolved to also mean "uninhibited by moral constraints" thus a gay woman was a prostitute, a gay man a womanizer, a gay boy served male clients and a gay house a brothel.

Apparently Bringing Up Baby (1938) was the first movie to use the word gay in reference to homosexuality when Cary Grant wearing a woman's feather-trimmed robe, as his clothes have been sent to the cleaners, replies "Because I just went gay all of a sudden!". In early July 1969, due in large part to the Stonewall riots in June of that year, the Gay Liberation Front was born and the word gay to mean homosexual was appropriated by gays themselves.

1976: Oxford English Dictionary's New Definition of Lesbian

Apparently, during the four decades it took to create the 12-volume Oxford English Dictionary (OED), completed in 1928, the word Lesbian appeared only in reference to the island of Lesbos. Only with OED's 1976's Supplement did the word Lesbian appear as an 1890 synonym for Tribadism.

1978 - BTW 1 > The Rainbow Flag

c 1992: From GLB To LGBT ... Acronyms

The evolution of our gay acronyms are ever changing and, pining down dates is v hard (do a Google search)!

"GLB" vs "LGB"
1992 - in the 1992 Oxford Dictionary of Acronyms, the acronym:

• "GLB" was listed and given as "gay, lesbian, bisexual (formerly Girls Life Brigade)". Source
• "LGB" = "lesbian, gay, bisexual" is not listed in this edition of Oxford Dictionary of Acronyms.

But do consider, the Oxford Dictionary has often been late at including LGBT+ related words.

So when was "L" for lesbian placed at the start of the LGB ... acronym?
Hmm? The Oxford English Dictionary's earliest evidence for "LGB" is from 1985, in "Valley Women's Voice" (Massachusetts). One wonders if there was a bit of personal preference regarding "GLB" vs "LGB" in that lesbians would place "L" first while gay men would place "G" first. DavePhD interestingly consulted Google Ngram Viewer (Google's search engine that charts the frequencies of any set of search strings in a vast collection of books, documents, and other textual sources). Astutely, he pointed out that there are other meanings of GLB and LGB so a search string "GLB students" to "LGB students" might bring up better results - see the results for "GLB students", "LGB students" ...

Why does the "L" come before the "G" in LGBT ...?
Hmm? At first, as indicated above the acronyms "GLB" and "LGB" were used interchangeably according to personal preference. Some have advocated, LGB ... became more used as an acknowledgement of the solidarity lesbians caringly showed to gay HIV/ AIDS sufferers, during the AID crises, and who helped gay men by donating blood to the gay victims, paying for medication, providing them with food and housing and fighting for medical research. Others suggest that it is easier to say LGBT compared to GLBT? Check out the interesting debate on skeptics.stackexchange.com.

LGBT - from about 1988, in the United States, gay activists began to use the acronym LGBT i.e. Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender. The LGBT acronym has now evolved into... LGBTIQCAPGNGFNBA!

What does LGBTIQCAPGNGFNBA stand for? LGBTIQCAPGNGFNBA definition is Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex, Questioning, Curious, Asexual, Pansexual, Gender Nonconforming, Gender-Fluid, Non-Binary, Androgynous. Forgive me, now I got Super‐cali‐fragil‐istic‐expi‐ali‐docious ringing in my head!

2005: Sapphic: The Rise, The Fall And, The Rise Again

After the coinage of the term "Sapphic Verse / Stanza" to describe Sappho's slick characteristic poetic metre / four-line stanzas from circa the mid 16 century, overtime (Etymonline suggests from the 1890s) "sapphic" (maybe via the term "Sapphist") became a synonym for "lesbian" (woman attracted to other women) and a modifier to describe e.g. literature, art, relationships etc.

The graph above displays Google Books Ngram Viewer results for the word "sapphic" (i.e. mentions of the word "sapphic" in Google's data set of printed material from the 1660s to 2022). Interestingly the graph shows a peak in the 1780s with a gradual decline to the 1950s and then from circa the 1990s a gradual rise again to the 2020s. An interpretation? I would offer a theory but I don't want to twist anyone's lemons as I am not a cunning linguist ;) (Forgive, the cheeky double entendre - it is an iconic quote from the James Bond movie "Tomorrow Never Dies" (1997), of slick Miss Moneypenny to 007.) I will, however, add that from the 1990s the word Sapphic, seems to slowly rise again in print via books and academic publications.

Interestingly, Google Trends results for online searches for "Sapphic", in Google, shows a peak in 2005, a gradual fall to the 2010s and then, a gradual and continuing increase in the 2020's. N.B Google's search engine was launched in 1997 but Google Trends data, dates back to only 2004. Moreover, one-word searches (queries) in search engines are v generic. In the early days of search engine algorithms, Google served mixed results for one-word searches as they are understandably too generic. Google has become very savvy (business wise, algorithm wise and data wise) and now claims to be user intent focussed by using e.g. your past search history and current location to serve out "personalised" search results (and cunningly storing users' personal info - to their benefit and usage + harvesting ALL the pages it has indexed to create the data for it's AI overviews without the permission nor compensation to the content producers & holders).

Why the spike of Google searches for "sapphic", in 2005? As an SEO this really pricked up my ears. Alas, the fab "Wayback Machine" does not archive Google Search Results nor are Google's "Tools" filter results for a selected time range e.g. Year 2005, comprehensive (as fairplay, some websites have been mothballed over the years but, possibly the data is restricted?). So why a peak in Google searches for "sapphic" for 2005? Hmm. From 2005 to mid 2006:

• There doesn't seem to be a movie nor novel that featured "Sapphic" in it's title?
• There doesn't seem to be an organisation with "Sapphic" in it's name e.g. Sapphic Chicks?
• There doesn't seem to be a cool popular bar / club night with "Sapphic" in it's name e.g. Sapphics Kicks?
• Sapphic as an adjective / modifier e.g. Sapphic books, Sapphic movies etc don't seem to be popular searches - see Google Trends graph below
• Sapphic Erotica / Sapphic Porn, at the time .. wow, clearly appear to be popular searches which seem to echo that trend! - see the Google Trends graph below

What could the 2005 peak in Google searches for Sapphic, be possibly attributed to? Don't cancel me :) From the graph above - my 10p bet hypothesis is that particular peak in searches may have been for "sapphic erotica"???!!! Penny for your thoughts - I would love to hear, yours.

2020s: The term, Sapphic, particularly online (e.g. magazines and in social media), is seeing a resurgence by a some as an umbrella term, balancing inclusivity and exclusivity to broadly describe any woman, or woman-aligned person, who feels an attraction toward another women. Some, however, are clearly jumping onto the clickbait trending keyword. Personally, I use Sapphic as a preferred modifier (e.g. Sapphic movies) but, never, as an identity (i.e. I am ... sapphic). Indeed, when tipsily launching this site, during COVID lockdown 2020 NYE's, I had first, consciously SEO'd for Sapphic as a modifier - so I do hope I get some kudos with regard to it's resurgence :)

2020s: Embrace YOUR OWN Chosen Term :)

Groovers, it's absolutely YOUR choice as to which term you wish to call yourself. Moreover, it's YOUR choice to change it whenever and as many times as you wish to :)

Mine? I've been = "Cake" (my own shy goofy code word which I felt at ease with and liberated with, in my mega slow emergence) > "Gay" > "Queer" (in my return to indie clubbing phase at London's legendary: The Ghetto and, Popstars with special shout out to Duckie's, The Readers Wifes DJs at their awesome Pride events) and currently, I'm back to ... GAY. I'm not flinching - it is everyone's prerogative as to what they wish to identify themselves with :)

Secret Lesbian Signaling: Lesbian Signals & Symbols Through History

In the past, lesbians not only used verbal code words to secretly identify themselves to other girl friends of Dorothy but some lesbians wore particular accessories known as signals to their lesbian community. Lesbians could signal / "eye wink" their sexual orientation by wearing a "special" accessory, without having to verbalise that they were lesbian. Some historical examples of secret / coded lesbian signals, symbols and accessories, include:

• The timeless Gay Eye Click: you're walking down a street / sitting on the tube ... you look-up and, see someone of the same sex, making eye contact with you, that lasts just a tingling bit longer than normal. Gaydar kicks in - a double check, you both eye click again ... If it's been a flirty click, for a killer telltale thrill - as you leave, quoting Massive Attack ("Safe from Harm"): "I was looking back, to see if you were looking back at me, to see me looking back at you". And groovers, don't be a wally like me - smile!
• Rings:
  • Pinky rings - is it urban myth that in Victorian times, men and women who were uninterested in marriage would wear a ring on the pinkie (little) finger of their left hand and later gays adopted those coded signal?
  • Thumb rings - Historically thumb rings go way back to ancient China used in archery as a protective tool for drawing the bowstring, and as a symbol of wealth, power ... Sorry, so far in my research I can't ascertain when thumb rings were first adopted by some lesbians - was it in the 1970s, with the rise of Lesbian Feminism that some gutsy lesbians wore thumb rings as a form of sartorial rebellion?
  • Coconut rings - apparently in Brazil, a coconut ring, usually worn on the thumb, is an established symbol of lesbian identity.
• 1870: Lavender (colour and word) - an early example of lavender being used as a euphemism for a homosexual and homosexuality is in the lyrics of "The Ninety-Ninth Hussars" in, Songs for the Army 46: "Sir Lavender Silk was a pretty young man ... His men, though respectful, had thoughts of their own / Which might have spoke out if they chose, / That Sir Lavender Silk had the aspect alone / Of a Lady dressed up in men's clothes!" source: greensdictofslang.com.
  
  Why was this particular colour, Lavender, chosen as a euphemism for homosexuality? I've searched until my fingers have turned pink but no concrete answer. The colour Lavender is a pale purple colour - in art, it is created by mixing red and blue to create purple and then adding white. Perhaps Lavender is linked to effeminacy and homosexuality due to Sappho's use of violets and purple in her poetry (see below)? Moreover, Lavender does grow on the island of Lesbos.
  
  The term lavender has been a double-edged sword - intermittently used as a homophobic term or FU, adopted by the gays! For example, from circa 1920s onwards, with homophobic undertones, some poor soul could be accused of having a "dash" or "streak" of lavender and worse, during the Cold War era, from 1947 to 1975, America succumbed to an unjust "Lavender Scare" (scroll to the documentary "Lavender Scare") during which circa 5,000 gay federal workers lost their jobs.
  
  Yet Lavender has also been defiantly adopted by the gays to symbolise resistance and empowerment! Considered one of the first gay anthems, from the Weimar Berlin era, "Das Lila Lied" ("The Lavender Song" (hear Ute Lemper's English Version)) was written by Kurt Schwabach and composed by Mischa Spoliansky, came out as a record in 1921 and was performed in Berlin cabarets in the 1920s to great cheers. Moreover, in 1969, a month after the legendary Stonewall Riot in New York - the lavender colour became a symbol of gay empowerment through lavender coloured armbands and sashes being distributed to the marchers of the "gay power" march from Washington Square Park to Stonewall Inn.
  
  
  
  Round about this time in America, the president of the National Organisation for Women (NOW), Betty Friedan (a leading American feminist writer and activist), used the term "The Lavender Menace" to describe the threat that she believed lesbians posed to the feminist movement (OMG - we are ALL WOMEN) which led to the exclusion of lesbians from the Second Congress To Unite Women, held in NYC, US, in 1970. That certainly lit a match among some lesbians which led to the informal formation of "The Lavender Menace" (named by their defiant "Lavender Menace" logo t-shirts) who were a group of radical lesbians who stormed the stage of the 1970 Second Congress to Unite Women and energetically kick started a conversation on the very topic Betty Friedan had tried so hard to suppress: the inclusion of lesbianism within the feminist movement. Though the brave activists action largely led to NOW's resolution to support lesbians in 1971 and, across America, increased visibility for and awareness of lesbian issues - stubborn Betty, did not fully acknowledge lesbian participation until the 1977 National Women's Conference.
• 1920s: Violets as in the flower, became a secret romantic gift between lesbians in England and violets, were also worn as an adornment such as violets pinned to a ladies chest or "violet tiaras". Why? Violets featured in the poetry of Sappho, for example: "Many crowns of violets, roses and crocuses ... together you set before me and many scented wreaths made from blossoms around your soft throat ... with pure, sweet oil ... you anointed me, and on a soft, gentle bed ... you quenched your desire ..." Fragment 94 by Sappho (translated by Diane J. Rayor). Throughout history, floriography (a language of flowers, in which particular flowers convey their own special meaning or symbolism) has been utilised to exchange clandestine messages of L.O.V.E (red rose), affection (peonies), desire (pink carnations for a crush), yearning (daffodils) and even, disdain (yellow carnations). Check out which other flowers that became queer symbols. The word "violet" also became code for sapphic love - for example, Damenklub Violetta, (1926 – 1933), in Berlin, Germany which is considered as one of the first documented lesbian bars / clubs in the world. BTW: violet is a spectral colour (a colour composed of a single wavelength - in the 1660s, English physicist and mathematician Isaac Newton discovered that clear white light was composed of seven visible colours: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet which are displayed in rainbows.
• 1930s: Monocles - during the 1930s, in Paris some lesbians wore a monocle (a single round lens/piece of glass worn in front of one eye ala Cluedo's Colonel Mustard) as a secret lesbian code. It's not quite clear if the famous 1930s lesbian bar "Le Monocle", in Paris, started the fad or the bar's name was inspired by this fad.
• Triangle Symbols:
  • WWII, Hitler's Nazi Regime: An Inverted Black Triangle Symbol, sewn onto the shirts of concentration / labour camp prisoners, was used to mark prisoners designated as "Asozial" ("asocial" including feminists, lesbians and prostitutes) and Arbeitsscheu ("work-shy"). Find out about some experiences of lesbians during the Nazis Regime.
  • WWII, Hitler's Nazi Regime: An Inverted Pink Triangle Symbol, was used to identify exclusively gay male prisoners.
  • Late 1980s Fuchsia Traingle: in the 1980s, homosexual men across the world were being persecuted due to the new threat of AIDS. In 1987, in New York, a group of six gay men (Avram Finkelstein, Brian Howard, Oliver Johnston, Charles Kreloff, Chris Lione, and Jorge Socarrás) founded the "Silence=Death Project" to raise awareness about the AIDS epidemic. For their logo, they adopted the Nazis Inverted Pink Triangle Symbol, but, pointed their triangle upwards and changed the colour from the Nazis pale pink to a fuchsia colour. After their logo was adopted by ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), their logo became a well known symbol of AIDS activism. A "Silence=Death Project" poster featuring this triangle is housed in the The Brooklyn Museum.
• 1970s:
  • The Labrys Symbol - in the 1970s, lesbian feminists adopted the Labrys symbol on t-shirts, keyrings, mugs ... to represent lesbian empowerment. A Labrys is a double-headed axe and is one of the most iconic symbols of the Minoan civilisation - a civilisation that flourished in the Middle Bronze Age (c. 2000 - c. 1450 BCE) on the island of Crete. Archaeological research suggests that the Labrys was not just a weapon but a sacred emblem which was often associated with a powerful female deity, possibly the "Mistress of Animals" or a Great Mother Goddess. The Labrys was adopted by The Mycenaeans, Greeks, and the Romans. Find out more about the Labrys.
  • The Double Venus Symbol: was another symbol adopted by feisty lesbian feminists in the 1970s. Cool titbit - in his 1751 dissertation Plantae hybridae, Swedish botanist and the "father of modern taxonomy", Carl Linnaeus, was the first scientist to use gender symbols, based on the planetary symbols of Mars, Venus and Mercury, to denote whether flowers were male (stamens only - Mars), female (pistil only - Venus) or perfect flowers with both pistils and stamens (hermaphroditic - Mercury). Sorry, I can't find out who the bright spark was, who came up with the double Venus symbol - I wonder if lush vino helped their inspiration (I raise my glass to them).
  • Out, Loud & Proud Lesbian Button Badges were the rage with badge designs including the LGBT rainbow flag, interlocking Venus, sexual identity labels (Dyke, Lesbian etc).
• 2020s: shockingly, lesbian coded symbols are still crucial in some countries where homosexuality is still illegal. For example, in Burundi, East Africa, some lesbians wear T-shirts with a discreet symbol that is only beknown to their sapphic sisters. Source: BBC
• A hetty aside: Upside Down Pineapple Symbol - particularly on cruise ships, an upside down pineapple is a code for ... swingers (couples who enjoy swapping sexual partners)!.

Check out the ab fab blog Dressing Dykes: Lesbian Fashion History by dress historian, Eleanor Medhurst.

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