My 16-year-old self would never believe me if somebody told her that in a couple of years, she’d get to watch a Romeo and Juliette kind of love story, BUT with the main characters being two girls and with a mix of vampires and monster hunters! She’d probably laugh her ass off (quietly cause she's not out yet).
I have never felt so spoiled. Last November 2021, I had a show about the GOAT poet Emily Dickinson’s life and romance with Sue Gilbert in ‘Dickinson’ Season 3. This year I had a cute high school coming-of-age romance about a love triangle between an aspiring artist and two track-athlete-siblings in the movie ‘Crush’, Then there’s this extremely cute (yet traumatic) cartoon show on Disney, which explores Bisexual and main character Luz finding out how she can go back to the human realm after being trap on the Boiling Isles where she meets her Lesbian witch girlfriend Amity, called “The Owl House”. And it doesn’t stop there! First Kill (Vampire x Monster Hunter) just came out on Netflix earlier this month, and in the next couple of months, several GL series from Thailand and the Philippines are soon to premiere on different streaming platforms like Viu and Iflix.
LET'S GO LESBIANS! LET'S GO!
We (the queer community) feel so spoiled. However, personally, it’s not enough. I kind of wish to feel what straight people feel whenever straight media with overused plot structures is used over and over again but still patronized by many despite its redundancy. I want to say “Ugh, another lesbian rom-com” or “Ugh, can we stop it with the enemies to lovers but make it a gay- trope, again? There’s already like 198 of it just his year, quit it!” I kind of want that, because we deserve it.
However, what holds all this from continuing to happen is –*drum roll* you ready? The prevalent and still existing Homophobia.
Just recently, a same-sex kiss was featured in the movie ‘Lightyear’ Starring Chris Evans. It’s a movie based on the toy Buzz Lightyear from the Toy Story franchise, and you guessed it! Homophobic parents made an uproar, scared that this specific kiss would immediately turn their 9-10-year-olds into hormonal monsters, unaware that in a few years, they would be like that naturally.
Going specifically, it’s obvious that there is an obvious and unnecessary boycott when it comes to WLW media in comparison to MLM (men-loving men) media. It’s obvious that up to this day and age, lesbians or sapphics are still frowned upon, due to overly sexualized media that surfaced in the early years of the start of Queer movies and shows.
“Nobody minds two chicks kissing, we would have wanted to see them scissors lmao” Carlos Felix of YouTube under the video of Chris Evans calling homophobic critics of his animated movie Lightyear ‘idiots’. Another comment from Person 1 (that’s the username, yes) says “My problem is that it’s women. Disney is getting weird with sexualizing women lately”. One word. Yikes.
You can see this dichotomy even on porn sites. Gay porn’s usual patronizers are gay men, whilst lesbian porn is mostly patronized by straight men. In a study by Louderback and Whitley (1997), men placed a much higher erotic value rating on female same-sex sexual behavior than on male same-sex sexual behavior. Further, Palys (1986) observed that around 10% of pornography is marketed to heterosexual men. This is why movies involving two women having intercourse are mostly made by male directors and writers with the male audience in mind thus creating the term “Male gaze”. As seen in supposedly WLW movies like “The Handmaiden” “Blue is the warmest color”, “Below her mouth”, etc.
Now that WLW media, created by women and queer film directors are becoming frequent with less of the “male gaze”, the dilemma being faced now by lesbian or sapphic creators is the constant comparison when it comes to MLM and WLW media, and the constant backlash that is specifically targeted to the latter.
‘Crush’ was compared to ‘Love Victor’, then was criticized for being too predictable. ‘First Kill’ was compared to ‘Heartstopper’ and then criticized for being cringy and constantly pointing out ‘ugly’ CGI, etc.
A headline from one article by Variety said “Netflix’s ‘First Kill’ is a Tired Take on Teens, Lesbians, Vampires, and Teen Lesbian Vampires” like there had been a thousand lesbian vampire shows before it – like there had been thousands of lesbian shows before it.
These criticisms whilst probably right with their claim (except for the latter) fail to see how little to no attention is given to the WLW by producers or streaming platforms. i.e. A lot of shows had been cancelled on Netflix most of which contain WLW relationships. One example is ‘Everything sucks’. They initially think there is no audience when it comes to this, thus low budget and less promotion. To prove this, let me test you, out of all the shows I’ve talked about in this essay, which of the shows have you heard the most?
It’s weird because representation isn’t something to be fighting over who should get more. After all, we equally both need it.
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