"I cannot weave – slender Aphrodite has overcome me with longing for a girl"
Sapphic recs for Pride Month
I was inspired by this post written by
and so I decided to make a recommendation post of my own, but with sapphic media (books, TV shows and movies). I chose to focus only on sapphic media for a lot of reasons, one of them being the fact that I surround myself with it on a daily basis. I have a document filled with poems I've read and loved, I have three public lists on Letterboxd with over 300 sapphic films, a watchlist filled with over 150 films, and I spend several hours researching and creating threads about historical lesbians on X. Surrounding myself with women, whether online, irl or in the media, is like a warm embrace, an oasis where I am supported and loved just as I am. Apart from nature, nothing makes me feel more alive and inspired than women.Before I get to the recommendations, I want to make a quick recommendation: this post where
writes about how wlw vs mlm media is treated is a must read. It's an ongoing phenomena and it's hurtful, frustrating and sad to see the lack of support and love that sapphics/lesbians still get. We have a history of being undermined and erased throughout history, our love has never been taken seriously. It has always been a substitute, a phase that will pass when Prince Charming rides in. (Yes, even among the LGBTQ+ community). Check yourself. Why is the only media you engage with and share mlm? Why do you not support wlw media in the same way?Disclaimer: please check trigger warnings for the titles before reading/watching!
The life of an artist
We Are Lady Parts (2021–)
Tv series depicting the highs and lows of the band members that make up a Muslim female punk band, Lady Parts.Portrait de la jeune fille en feu (2019)
Marianne, a painter, is obliged to paint a wedding portrait of Héloïse on an isolated island in Brittany at the end of the 18th century.Tove (2020)
Follows the painter and author Tove Jansson during the 1940s. While she’s focusing on her dream to become an artist the Moomins gain popularity and brings her international fame.Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (2020)
Set in a recording studio in 1920s Chicago, this film follows Mother of the Blues, Ma Rainey.Shirley (2020)
Shirley Jackson finds inspiration for her next book after she and her husband takes in a young couple.Siren Queen (2022) by Nghi Vo
Follows Luli Wei who is living in Los Angeles during the transition from silent movies to Hollywood’s Golden Age of talkies when she’s discovered by a director on the street.Sirens & Muses (2022) by Antonia Angress
Follows four artists connected to Wrynn, an elite art school in their quest for success.
City life
Harlem (2021–)
Tv series following four best friends (a rising star professor, a tech entrepreneur, a singer, and a fashion designer) in Harlem, NYC.Hacks (2021–)
Tv series that follows the mentorship between a legendary Las Vegas comedian and a 25-year-old who is hired to write for her.The Watermelon Woman (1996)
Cheryl works in a video store while trying to make a film about a black actress from the 1930s.
Imagine Me & You (2005)
Rachel notices Luce during her wedding ceremony and is instantly drawn to her.Sleep With Me (2022)
Tv series that follows Harry, a radio DJ, and her crush Luna navigate current as well as past issues when they start their romance.Rafiki (2018)
Follows friends Kena and Ziki who are trying to pursue their dreams in a conservative society.Notes of a Crocodile (1994) by Qiu Miaojin
Depicts the coming-of-age of a group of queers in the post-martial-law era of late 1980s Taipei.Last Night at the Telegraph Club (2021) by Malinda Lo
Set in 1950s San Francisco and tells the story of Lily Hu as she begins to explore her sexuality.
Be gay do crime!
Killing Eve (2018–2022)
Tv series following two women, an assassin and intelligence agent, on their game of cat and mouse.D.E.B.S. (2004)
One of the girls from the teenage crime fighters falls for the villain.Voleuses (2023)
A pro thief does one last job with her partner in crime before retiring.Love Lies Bleeding (2024)
Gym manager Lou falls hard for ambitious bodybuilder Jackie while they’re pulled into the web of Lou’s criminal family.Bound (1996)
Corky meets a couple living next door, a paranoid mobster and his girlfriend Violet, who is immediately attracted to her.They Never Learn (2020) by Layne Fargo
Follows a female professor who murders men who have committed unspeakable acts of abuse against women.The Water Outlaws (2023) by S.L. Huang
A story about 108 rebels who come together to form a rebel force against a corrupt government during the Song Dynasty.
Set at a school
I Am Not Okay With This (2020)
Tv series following Syd who’s trying to navigate high school awkwardness, family drama, an unrequited crush and her budding superpowers.Teenage Bounty Hunters (2020)
Tv series following twin sisters at an elite Southern high school while being bounty hunters.The Children’s Hour (1961)
Martha and Karen who run a private school for young girls are accused of having a lesbian relationship by a student.Mädchen in Uniform (1931)
A girl is sent to an all-girls boarding school and develops a romantic attachment to one of her teachers.Blue Jean (2022)
PE teacher Jean’s double life is threatened to be exposed by a student.A Lesson in Vengeance (2021) by Victoria Lee
Two girls starts digging up the past of a boarding school, haunted by its history of witchcraft.Ace of Spades (2021) by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé
Set at an elite private high school. Follows Devon and Chiamaka who are being targeted by an anonymous bully that goes by the name Aces.
Sports fan
Las Pelotaris 1926 (2023)
Tv series following three successful athletes Chelo, Idoia and Itzi as they try to achieve their dreams in the 1920s.Rookie (2023)
Follows a teenager who joins the Catholic school’s volleyball team and falls for the star player.Skate Kitchen (2018)
Follows Camille who befriends a group of girl skateboarders in NYC.Betty (2020–2021)
Tv series inspired by Skate Kitchen. Follows the same group of skateboarding girls.A League of Their Own (2022)
Tv series following a group of women who dreamed of playing professional baseball.Naissance des pieuvres (2007)
Marie joins the local synchronised swimming team to get close to Floriane.Marinette (2023)
Traces the career of soccer player Marinette Pichon over three decades.She Drives Me Crazy (2021) by Kelly Quindlen
Enemies to lovers. Follows a basketball player and cheerleader.You Don’t Have a Shot (2023) by Racquel Marie
Enemies to lovers. Follows two soccer players.
Summer lovers
My First Summer (2020)
A film that depicts 16-year-old Claudia and Grace during the summer they find their first love.Een Vrouw als Eva (1979)
A housewife takes a holiday to relax and falls in love with a guitar-playing hippie who lives in a commune.Sunburn (2023) by Chloe Michelle Howarth
In a small Irish town in the 1990s, Lucy falls in love for the first time.That Summer Feeling (2023) by Bridget Morrissey
Summer camp romance following a divorced woman who falls for her roommate.Our Wives Under the Sea (2022) by Julia Armfield
Follows Miri and Leah, who are separated for six months when Leah's deep-sea mission encounters issues and she is stuck under the sea.Deadloch (2023)
Tv series following two detectives, Dulcie and Eddie, who are trying to find the serial killer in seaside town Deadloch.The Wilds (2020–2022)
Tv series following a group of teenage girls who must fight for survival after a plane crash strands them on a deserted island.
Historical
The Confessions of Frannie Langton (2022)
Tv series/novel set against the Georgian era, follows Frannie’s journey from a Jamaican plantation to the Mayfair mansion where she meets Madame Marguerite Benham.Dickinson (2019–2021)
Tv series that depicts the coming-of-age of Emily Dickinson.Ratched (2020)
Tv series following a nurse who arrives in Northern California to seek employment at a leading psychiatric hospital where new and unsettling experiments have begun on the human mind.The Color Purple (2023)
Musical based on Alice Walker’s novel The Color Purple. Follows the hardship, resilience and love of Celie through three decades.Fried Green Tomatoes (1991)
Tells the story of Idgie and Ruth who experience hardship and love in Alabama in the 1920s.Summerland (2020)
Alice, a writer, takes in an evacuee during World War II, and realise their pasts are connected.Desert Hearts (1985)
Literature professor Vivian travels to Reno to get away from a relationship breakup when she falls in love with Cay.Dead Dead Girls (2021) by Nekesa Afia
Louise, abducted as a teenager, has to help the police solve the case of dead girls in 1920s Harlem.Stung With Love: Poems and Fragments (551) by Sappho
She Who Became the Sun (2021) by Shelley Parker-Chan
Follows Zhu Chongba as the reimagined emperor of the Ming dynasty rising to power.
Real life, true stories
Nelly och Nadine (2022)
Film that follows Nelly and Nadine who met in Ravensbrück concentration camp and spend the rest of their lives together.Forbidden Love: The Unashamed Stories of Lesbian Lives (1992)
Four dramatised chapters from the pulp novel Forbidden Love discovering the pulp fiction of the day about women in love.In the Dream House (2019) by Carmen Maria Machado
A memoir of Machado’s abusive relationship with an ex-girlfriend.Between Us: A Legacy of Lesbian Love Letters (1996) by Kay Turner
As the title suggests, this book is a collection of lesbian love letters written over the past 140 years.The Girls: Sappho Goes to Hollywood (2000) by Diana McLellan
Read all about a chain of lesbian affairs in Old Hollywood: Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Tallulah Bankhead et al.
omg thank you for recommending my article! i'm glad you liked it! this is such an amazing masterlist of so many things i'd never heard of and i will be making my way through it!
Omg i’m so glad I inspired you! I love these recs and will be looking into the ones I haven’t already 💌💌