WLW Is an Acronym That's Been Around for a While — What Does It Mean?

When the internet is full of indecipherable terms and acronyms, like "brain rot" or "PMO," it can be hard to figure out exactly what people are talking about, especially on social media. TikTok, of all places, has become a breeding ground for confusing slang, and if you're not constantly swiping through videos, you may feel a little left out.

One recent acronym spreading across the app, however, has existed for much longer than the platform itself: WLW.

If you've seen people using the term "WLW" and been confused, you're not alone. Thankfully, it's pretty simple, and we're here to guide you! Here's a hint: It has to do with relationships.

No, it's not "winners love winning," "we love Walmart," or anything else of the sort. WLW stands for "women loving women," and it's a term used throughout the LGBTQ+ community to describe relationships between people who are non-men. This can be an umbrella term encompassing lesbians, as well as bisexual, pansexual, and generally queer women.

For example, if you see someone saying, "I'm in an WLW relationship," this would typically indicate that they're a woman dating another woman. You may also see someone describe themselves as being "WLW," which would mean that they are someone who identifies as a woman while being sexually and/or romantically attracted to other women.

You may even see someone use the term to describe media, like a "WLW show" or "WLW book" — this usually means that the piece of media contains female-centric, queer characters, themes, and relationships.

Examples of popular WLW media are films like But I'm a Cheerleader and Mulholland Drive or shows like The L Word or The Sex Lives of College Girls.

Some popular musicians also fall under that umbrella, like Chappell Roan and Hayley Kiyoko — not just for their identities but also because the music they make reflects something about the WLW experience.

While WLW may feel like an appropriate term for some, others prefer the word "sapphic," as they feel it's more inclusive to other gender identities as it doesn't explicitly include the word "women." Another term you may see used it "wuh luh wuh," which is just a humorous way of saying "WLW" while referring to the phonetics of the acronym.

When looking into the history of the term, things are a little fuzzy, especially because LGBTQ+ culture often had to exist quietly for decades before it became more socially acceptable and fully legal.

Many believed that the first uses of the term "women-loving-women" to describe queerness began in the 1920s within Black lesbian communities.

However, there's also speculation that it may have got its start during the lesbian separatist movement in the 1970s, a subgroup of separatist feminism in which lesbians would buy land and move there with other lesbians to remove themselves from communities containing men and heterosexual women.