hello!
I just wanted to spill out some feelings and thoughts about the LGBT fans deserve better movement.
(Image from http://lgbtfansdeservebetter.com/ and used with permission)
When Dana died I was heartbroken, she was one of my favourite characters and her storyline could have gone on to be so good and helpful for hundreds of girls. However once I wiped away my tears I was fine, I still had about seven other women, gay women, to watch and love.
When Lexa died I was heartbroken and angry, she was one of my favourite characters and her storyline could have gone on to be so good and helpful for hundreds of girls. However when I wiped away my tears I was still angry, I no longer had any one I could look to, to watch and love. No one that represented me as a lesbian, as a girl who just happens to love other girls.
Watching Friends Carol & Susan gave little gay me hope, hope that I could one day figure out what I was feeling, that I could one day fall in love with a girl, that I could be happy and in love and loved. But since Friends? I've only had a handful of onscreen wlw; even fewer in relationships and even fewer still who are alive at the end of the shows run.
Since Lexa's death I've lost count of the number of women-loving-women (wlw) who have died or been killed (one of which was thanks to the creator of the L word, Ilene Chaiken), and yes many of them have been from under the same TV company- but the company itself is completely irrelevant.
This movement is starting to really become something; media outlets are taking notice, companies and taking notice and potential future writers and showrunners are taking notice. If we stop now we go right back to invisibility and/or death; and if we start arguing amongst ourselves about what to trend then this movement will fizzle out, people will stop taking us seriously and we go right back to invisibility and/or death.
It doesn't matter what we trend, it only matters that we do trend, that we stay together and we stay united. Our moment is now; let's make it count.
It's not about one character or one company. It's about us. It's about us standing up for ourselves and standing up for those who can't. It's about us standing up and standing together. It's about us fighting back and showing that they can't just throw us a bone every now and then and think it counts. It's about us hurting every time they kill off the only person we relate to because they got bored, or couldn't be bothered to work out a schedule. It's about us deserving better and it's about us getting what we need.
It's about us.
USEFUL LINKS
~If you want to find out more about the movement I recommend these two sites:
LGBT Fans Deserve Better
We Deserved Better
~To donate to the Trevor Project Leskru fund:
https://www.classy.org/fundraise?fcid=625415
~ Learn more about why the Trevor Project is so important:
http://www.thetrevorproject.org/
~My previous post on why minorities deserve better:
http://isthateloise.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/minorities-deserve-better.html
MINORITIES DESERVE BETTER..why I hear you ask; well this is why: (although if you are genuinely asking why then you need to take a long hard look at the world around you and open your eyes a little bit)
~Minorities deserve better because out of hundreds of tv shows and hundreds of characters the only ones who keep repeatedly getting killed are the lgbtqia characters and the characters of colour and we have had enough!
~minorities deserve better because we are people who have lives and dreams and hopes and ambitions
~because I am more than a plot device to gain views and statistics
~because although it is just a show to you, to us it is the only time we see ourselves portrayed and represented
~because my friends have never had to watch their onscreen representation get killed over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.
~because there are fourteen years between Tara's death on Buffy and Lexa's death on the 100 and people are asking why we are angry instead of shocked.
~because we are people
~because most people don't have to look for hidden messages or meanings or subtext in their onscreen representation; most people don't have to take everything they see with a pinch of salt and a hint of queerbait.
~because this has been happening FOR YEARS.
~because this is what we meant by 'the fight doesn't end with equal marriage' when you asked why we weren't satisfied.
~because a happy ending shouldn't be solely reserved for the straight white couples on the show
~because we are people
~because it isn't just one show and it isn't just one character; it's most of the shows and the majority of the characters.
~because if I have to die then at least let me die with honour and some originality.
~because even in the stories where my sexuality is the main plot point the two characters will often end up apart, dying, dead or going back to their husbands.
~because I can count the number of onscreen lesbians who are alive, happy and in a female relationship by the end of the show/film on two hands. two. hands. less than ten female same-sex relationships that last the duration of a show and last happily
~because we are people
~because shows and films are meant to be entertaining and a form of escape but I don't feel very entertained when my representation ends up dying..again.
~because. because. because. because. BECAUSE. BECAUSE. BECAUSE. BECAUSE.
do we really need a because? do we really need a reason? do we really need to feel so completely let down and unsurprised everytime we turn on our tv. do we really need another generation to grow up thinking they will never fit in and they will never be happy and they will never find love because that's all they ever see?
"Minorities Are Not Disposable" is currently trending on twitter and I ask that you at least take a look at the tweets even if you don't post one of your own; because although yes- this was sparked off by the death of a fictional character; the truth of the matter cuts much deeper than TV and runs for much longer than a season. This uproar, this outrage has been building and building and we could now have the power and the possibility to make a start; make a change; make ourselves heard and refuse to let this terrible treatment of our represented selves go on. It started with fiction but it shall end with reality; and if we make enough noise, make enough mess and refuse to be contained in the trope boxes in which we have been placed then it shall end with a positive reality.
-we are not disposable . we deserve better -
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