Fandom

When my instructor suggested going to youtube and looking up video compilations of the couple-y characters we’ve been watching in class, I knew perfectly what she was talking about. I am no stranger to the youtube fandom videos. In fact, when I first discovered “The L Word”, I could only depend on the youtube compilations of the viewers’ favourite couples to catch a glimpse of the show because there was no way I could watch the episodes at home -where homosexuality is condemned- or school -where awkward encounters with friends will most likely happen.

youtube became a phenomenal source of compilation videos of prominent lesbian couples on television shows or in mainstream media, and they’ve all been given nicknames from combining parts of each of the couple’s individual names (which is obviously the trend in celebrity news/magazines). To name a few: Calzona (Callie and Arizona from Grey’s Anatomy), Tibette (Tina and Bette from The L Word), and Sharmen (Shane and Carmen from The L Word)… I’m sure there are plenty more. And I hope I’m not wrong when I say that these media representations of queer couples are characters who someone who identifies as queer look up to. These couples might be the only ones in the mainstream media who are  models for the younger generation. And my beef with that is these couples, being in the mainstream media, were mostly likely created by producers who are not queer to cater towards the heterosexual audience so that they think they have a fair representation of the queer community (bar The L Word, but that show has its own representational politics behind it).

I suppose some representation is better than none at all. Plus those people are pretty to look at. So it’s not all a loss… maybe?! Let’s just say they are my guilty pleasures. When I see queerness in mainstream media, I almost always dismiss it because I feel they are not “fair representation” regardless how much their stories can resonate with a queer person’s experience. They are a heterosexual committee’s idea of what queerness is.