#lword(original)

[ngardgni]

...So, we've been reading a few posts about how "Warrior Nun" is the best because it isn't like all the other queer shows, where apparently the queer couples have sex right away or non-queer shows that queer bait viewers, etc.

Let's just get something straight:

The original L-Word came out in 2004. That show was criticized for being too white, too narrow, too limiting in its depiction of gay women. In fact, it was mostly lesbians, and one bi woman (Tina) and most were femmes. Over the years, the show tried to course correct with the addition of other characters, most notably Max (Daniela Sea) and even that was fraught with controversy. At the time, Daniela Sea was interviewed about this and she had said (and we're paraphrasing here, that was a long time ago), that L-Word doesn't claim to represent all gay women, and she had hoped that there would be more representation of gay women, more movies, more tv shows to show the diversity, the variety, the spectrum of the gay experience.

At the time, pre-L-Word, there were only a handful of les/bi movies, mostly indie, some of questionable quality (there were a lot, we're not going to name names), some good (our favorite being "When Night is Falling" and "Incredibly True Adventures of Two Girls in Love"). On TV, we had "Ellen" which was groundbreaking and promptly cancelled, and there was "Carol the Lesbian" on "Friends", who was treated more as a joke, along with Chandler's trans-mom.

Cut to now - where we have so much more to choose from: we have period dramas with A-List directors and actors ("Carol", "Tell it to the Bees", "Portrait of a Lady on Fire"), we have shows on TV networks and online streaming platforms (tho the line between those are blurring). So we can watch Cyrano de Bergerac style movies ("The Half of It") or Asian American ones ("Saving Face") or pretty straightforward ones, really ("Imagine Me and You"), and though some, if not half or most series/shows have been cancelled ("Teenage Bounty Hunters", "I Am Not Okay with This", etc.), we still have more shows/series now that tell our queer stories than ever before ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer", "The 100", "Glee", etc.) and we still think that's better than the time the only thing we had was stories with only subtext to keep us company ("Fried Green Tomatoes", "Thelma and Louise", "A League of their Own").

So, whenever we feel like it's getting bad, let's also remember the time when queer stories weren't even mainstream, when directors and actors wouldn't even touch or go near our stories, when we didn't have as many allies in the industry willing to put our stories out there. A lot of our queer stories from before, though far from perfect, paved the way for stories like "Warrior Nun"to see the light of day. And we love that yeah, "Warrior Nun" is about a friends-to-lovers queer story, but that isn't just the one queer story that can be told. The diversity and complexity of the queer experience can hardly be encompassed by just one series and it's not fair to ignore or put the others down just because they don't fit what you like. We like that we have the more adult, they-had-a-one-night-stand-right-away-and-fell-in-love story of Kacy on NCIS Hawai'i, the sex-positive one of Leighton on "The Sex Lives of College Girls", the stranded-on-an-island one of "The Wilds", the vampire-and-vampire-slayer-falling-in-love narrative of "First Kill", etc.

So, let's keep celebrating the diversity and complexity of the queer female experience onscreen but still honor the stories that came before them. They may not have been perfect, hell, they were even problematic, but, again, at least we got these stories and our lives are better for it.

And let's keep pushing for "Warrior Nun"and other stories to keep getting made and renewed.

Like and reblog if you agree.

Drop your favorite queer women story (movie, series, show) below.

[underneaththecovers-au]

I was jumping around Spotify when I found this new podcast about the L Word original series. They’re quite funny, irreverent for sure, totally have fun with the show. Not sure about the rest of you, but they ask or comment on so many things I thought of at the time. Like why, Jenny, why?

Loving this podcast. Thanks, ladies. 

[melumieretwin]

Don’t get me wrong I’m so fkin grateful that we got lword gen q, but i feel like everything is super fast in these episodes.??? Like I get to live through each scene for like 35 second and then we are off to another couple that is doing poorly mostly due to bad communication (except you Gigi baby, you are doing great). I remember watching orginal series and thinking to myself “oh surely after 5 episodes we could stop seeing how is Jenny doing?”. We had to spend entire season watching Alice getting over Dana in really fucked up but brutally realistic way.??? We got whole episode of them being on lesbo boat, doing stupid shit and I absolutely lived for it??? I felt like i was truly there…. Honestly I love the new characters (yes, even SIN-ley had some moments) but it’s somehow lacking depth for me? Does anyone feel like something is missing? Cuz after watching some episodes from original my thoughts were like woooow ok that was a lot lets maybe pause for a sec and contemplate??

[esperastra]

Jumping on the ‘no drama’ bandwagon here. I grew up with original LWord and so my experience of the LGBT community was that we are unfaithful and unstable. To be totally frank . Meanwhile hetero couples were stable in most tv shows - loving couples with children and nice homes who just have nice lives. Lesbians and bisexual women were chaotic and problematic. It’s so nice to watch Avalance and see that stable representation I always saw with only hetero couples growing up. I’m glad it exists for younger people to aspire to. It’s a more fair way of portraying gay couples. I hope it doesn’t change. They are introducing a human Gideon and I’m so excited. Ten years ago that would have been a threat to a lesbian couple - one would have cheated with her. Obviously. Lesbians just can’t help themselves /eye roll. We can watch every week knowing that the writers are sensible and our lifestyle isn’t treated like a titillating joke. Well done Legends.

Hi, thanks for sharing! :)

I personally didn't watch the LWord, I think I can count the shows I watched growing up that had a LGBT+ character (let’s be real most were there for either just one episode or minor characters) on one hand, but those had cheating and overall problematic storylines as well so I get what you mean.

And you're right other shows would probably take the opportunity to create drama with human!Gideon, especially since Sara called her hot in the past.