Okay, so we have sapphic for wlw folk and achillean for the mlm folk. Is anybody able to suggest an equivalent term for bi and ace folk?
I propose mercurian for bi folk.
And it seems that the Bis have it. (Eh,eh, see what I did there?)
SECONDED.
MOTION PASSES.
I’ve been using malted up to this point, but… Mercurial is daaaamn tempting.
So I take it it’s supposed to mean “gender doesn’t factor into attraction?” Or something similar? Also, hell yes, it’s a way to subtly remind people that Mercury was bi, plus he’s not a semi-mythical ancient Greek, plus it underscores the conceptual similarities between bisexuality and asexuality and linguistically paves the way for ace acceptance.
If it’s “gender doesn’t factor,” I’m out. It does, it matters so much for a lot of us.
I like it not just because of the Freddie Mercury associations, but because… my attraction is mercurial. It is unpredictable, it refuses to be constrained. It surprises me on a regular basis.
I’d take associations with a Roman god. Why not.
I’d take it to mean “people who have multiple attractions” and be very happy with it
Also if you look at the roman/greek god, he is the god of boundaries, and frequently crosses over them, which I find fitting.
Ngl I like mercurial/mercurian better than anything proposed before it
The only reason I’m iffy on this is that it implies sapphic/achillean are only for monosexual folks, which they aren’t.
I am, however, 100% up for describing myself as mercurian.
The limitation with sapphic/achillean is that we use those terms to describe media that showcases same gender relationships. Sometimes we want to talk about queer media that’s not relationship-centric.
Magic Mike XXL, for example, is a mercurial movie. The cast contains more than one bpq actor. The film features more than one canon bpq character in a major role. It’s not a sapphic movie, nor is it an achillean movie, because same-gender romance/romantic relationships are not central to the film’s plot.
Torchwood features both mlm relationships and bpq characters, so it’s both achillean and mercurial. I only saw one season so I don’t know if it ever featured a sapphic relationship.
It’s good for bpq people to have a term to describe media that features bpq characters, regardless of what relationships they may or may not be in. BPQ people don’t define ourselves by our relationships, so why should we define our media be the relationships it features?
Thoughtfulfangirling 