Vent: The idea that using the word Lesbian in Fantasy is "unrealistic" is nonsense.
I've loved fantasy since I was a kid but there is a pattern that I can't help but notice, that fantasy works they will refuse to use the word at all. We can exist but never allowed to be called lesbian or other terms etc. This is an issue with so much media but fantasy and High Fantasy in particular annoys me because there is an argument I've seen in online circles over and over against ever using our terms, that saying lesbian in a fantasy setting is not realistic.
It's easy to just say these are just "fans" getting mad, except I see progressives pull this as well, I've seen actual creatives, even ones of progressive shows like Arcane (I really like that show and love V so I'm not insulting the show) pull this and... REALLY!? Yes because in a world with dragons, Elves, magic etc... the term gay is too far and "lore breaking", please; and in my experience the term lesbian REALLY winds people up. If the term lesbian used in a high fantasy film, game or RPG annoys you, I'm not going to trust you.
Some replies worth sharing:
Mikacchi11: Agreed. I just use our world’s sexualities in my dnd campaign (when it comes up). If anyone finds that immersion-breaking then that’s their problem. I mean I literally have a serial killer who was resurrected by the goddess of winter who doesn’t need to sleep walking around, I have a crystal that makes people go crazy when they touch it and one of my players is a bird stuck in a human’s body but the mayor being a lesbian is the unrealistic part? Silly
Unnamed_jedi: Same for Non-Binary. Say what you want about Taash from dragon age, they're a flawed character and definitely suffer from trying to do a lot with their writing while also not really fully doing any one concept...(they're still my favorite because they're the first ever enby rep in a fantasy game I've ever seen being explicitly nonbinary and I like them) They used Non-Binary as word and for some reason people get hung up over it.
Gretnablue: Not going to lie, feeling frustrated right now, the OP kept getting stuck in moderator approval because it used the term "LGBTQ+" that to describe how this affected other people with the community as well and the OP wouldn't go through until I deleted it and reposted it with that term removed. Did I do something bad there? Since Reddit didn't allow me to put this in the OP, I'll say it here: And there feels like there are so many of these "rules" when it comes to lesbian other representation, especially in fantasy. I've seen both conservative and progressive fans declare that our rep can't be "in your face", "forced" or just an "Option" etc and like, what the does that even mean? Why can't it be in your face? Hetero love gets to be in your face all the time in the mainstream, like their are entire subgenres, films, shows, games etc where hetero love is the core premise, why is that suddenly not okay if the focus is on non-cis and straight folk? I would love a mainstream film that was like a WLW/Lesbian take on Love Actually with all the corniness and camp that comes with it. I want video games with CANON lesbian leads (cis or trans, same with more games gay men leads, ace leads etc) that aren't afraid to show lesbian romance and love that is skippable or "optional". I want a fighting game made by and for lesbians and WLW where all the playable characters are lesbians, why is that not allowed, why is that not "respectable" enough to exist? I'm not even going to get into stuff like "lesbians and gay men can't be romance options in RPGs! because they ruin my power fantasy!" shit I see RPG fans pull where the very idea of a woman companion or squadmate who won't let a man touch them is deemed bad and that they can "Be gay in someone else's game!" (not a dig on pansexuals and bisexuals getting good rep, even if the games themselves are too cowardly to call them that, but why should lesbians and gay men be barred and from being romance options?). From the creator side, so much of it feels like trying to have your cake or depressingly that I suspect in some cases, creatives who WANT to be inclusive but are forced to compromise because we're still not seen as "marketable" enough, too much of a risk for profits if we're explicitly brought. And from fans, while right wing grifters will be toxic, from progressive, so
Halcyon-Ember: I mean, it’s like when historians etc are like “we can’t call them gay because that’s a modern interpretation” except for stuff we made up.
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Originally shared by Gretnablue on r/actuallesbians on August 10th, 2026 at 8:44 AM UTC.
