TW: this carrd will mention pedophilia and transphobia
Hello!
This carrd will explain why the term "achillean" and the green and blue gay flag are harmful and wrong to use
i decided to make it into an easy to digest carrd since it's apparently the only way twitter users can retain information. feel free to repost it
for a more pleasant experience, view on desktop
carrd made by @gensolunar
Why's the term "Achillean" bad?
The major reason why the term Achillean should never be used to describe mlm/nblm is because Achilles is shown in many ancient Greek works to be a pedophile, specifically having taken part in pederasty, which is defined as a romantic and sexual relationship between an adult man and a prepubescent or adolescent boy.
Pederasty was widely accepted in ancient Greece and the most common form of (publicly shown) homosexuality there at the time. Achilles was depicted to be in a romantic relationship with Patroclus, an adolescent boy, in many works after his first appearance in Homer's Iliad. While these depictions may not be the exact character Homer meant to portray in his original story, they're the most widely accepted version of Achilles today.
Using the term Achillean to describe mlm/nblm directly relates them and their sexuality to Achilles, an adult man who was in a romantic relationship with a teenage boy. I shouldn't have to explain why this is bad.
The first recorded use of the word "Achillean" to describe men attracted to men is from a 2016 Tumblr post.
Something also worth noting is that the term Achillean was created to mirror the term "Sapphic" which describes women attracted to women and is in honor of Sappho. In my and other sapphics' opinions, this comes off as trying to copy the term Sapphic simply because some Tumblr user was jealous of the fact we had a term based on an important greek figure.
Why's the green and blue gay flag bad?
The flag on the left is a newer version of an older flag that was an ACTUAL recolor of a blue/purple butch lesbian flag, created by an anonymous tumblr user and a mod of this blog
This flag was later reposted without credit by a (now deleted) discourse tumblr account who was notoriously a transmed/truscum, and the flag was then popularized under the belief that the admin of said account was the flag's creator.
this is the original version of the blue and green gay flag
Since the creation of the flag's first version, the point was explicitly to make it look like the lesbian flag created by Emily Gwen, but with different hues (the stripes also had no meanings). This new "revamped" version is, still, a hueshifted version of the lesbian flag (although the stripes on the new flag do have meanings).
This is bad for a handful of reasons. Many people would argue that this is "solidarity" but I, as well as many other lesbians, can assure you this is far from solidarity. Someone took the lesbian flag and shifted the hues around a bit and decided it was enough to serve as a gay flag. This completely downplays the struggle our whole community went through to settle on a good enough flag to represent ALL of us. Not only that, but it also implies lesbians and gay men are polar opposites, which is a notion both communities disapprove of.
Then, what flag should we use?
