Autostraddle March Madness: Final Four
Well, the college basketball season is officially over.
It’s always a weird time for me because March Madness is this period that I absolutely love… and, in North Carolina, it’s a time of year unlike any other (so much so that lawmakers here are trying to build a holiday around it). The pace is fast and frenetic but then you hear “One Shining Moment” and then it just stops. No more games to watch, no more commentary about the match-ups, no more predictions to make… it’s all over.
My first, post-championship activity is to check how I did in my bracket competitions. For the men’s tournament, things did not go well early: of the teams in the Sweet 16, I only picked six correctly. I thought for certain that that would doom me in our group’s contest but I was able to rebound in the subsequent rounds, finishing in a distant second place overall. Over on the women’s side, I did much better, guessing 90 percent of the games correctly, including the eventual national champion.
How’s my luck been in our Challonge competition? Respectable. Of the 891 brackets submitted in the competition, I’m currently sitting at #97. I struggled a bit early but, with each round, I’ve climbed my way up to the leaderboard. My correct predictions of 3 of the 4 final couples boosted me almost 50 spots in the standings. Unsurprisingly, my TV teammate, Valerie Anne — expert at all things fandom — is doing better than me: ranked #63, having made accurate predictions in 40 contests thus far.
For a better view, you can use the full-size version of the bracket or check out our updated Challonge bracket.
How does your bracket look? Will anyone catch Autostraddle reader, Ava, who currently sits atop the leaderboard? How about we get started on making our picks for the Canon vs. Fanon finals?
On the Canon side of the bracket in the Elite 8, I thought the match-up between Waverly and Nicole and Cosima and Delphine would be a hard-fought one but that proved not to be the case. WayHaught carried their momentum past the Science Girlfriends to advance to the next round. On the other half of the Canon bracket, Juliana and Valentina got their first real challenge of the tournament in their Elite 8 match-up with Callie and Arizona. Juliantina advanced to the Final Four, but their margin of victory was the smallest of their run thus far.
That sets up at Juliantina vs. WayHaught final in the Canon region. It feels serendipitous to have these two couples in the final: if ever there were two pairings that have been sustained by their fandoms, it’s these two. Both fandoms fought for their favorite ship and won: earning Wynonna Earp another season and securing Juliana and Valentina a spin-off. They are a testament to the power of a (canon) story well told.
CANON: #1. Waverly and Nicole – Wynonna Earp vs. 8. Juliana and Valentina – Amar a Muerte
Over on the Fanon side of the bracket, the match-up between Supergirl and Xena turned out to the most competitive match-up of the Elite 8. Still, though, Kara and Lena were able to comfortably dispatch Xena and Gabrielle and move onto the Final 4. They’ll meet with another “are they canon or are they fanon” ship in the Fanon Finals: Eve and Villanelle. The Killing Eve couple was able to easily able to brush off a challenge from Betty and Veronica of Riverdale.
This should be an interesting match-up. While Supercorp would seem to have an advantage, Eve and Villanelle’s dominance in the last few rounds suggests they’ve got some momentum behind them too.
FANON: #2. Lena and Kara – Supergirl vs. #2. Eve and Villanelle – Killing Eve
As always, you’ve got 48 hours to cast your ballot in this round of Autostraddle March Madness. We’ll be back on Friday to unveil who will represent CANON and FANON in the final Canon vs. Fanon showdown!
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Autostraddle March Madness: Canon vs. Fanon — Elite 8
Ever wonder where the phrase “March Madness” comes from? Famed broadcaster Brent Musburger made March Madness part of the broader lexicon when he used it to reference the NCAA tournament in the 1980s, but the phrase actually dates back to 1939. According to the lore, Henry Porter coached the Athens (IL) High School Warriors to a second place finish in the annual statewide high school basketball tournament. Describing the fans’ excitement about the tournament, Porter wrote, a “little March madness may complement and contribute to sanity and help keep society on an even keel.” The sentiment resonates right now: if ever there was a moment where we all needed something to keep society on an even keel, it’s this one.
That “contributing to sanity” part, though? After the excitement of of the weekend’s games, I’m not sure March Madness is doing much for my sanity.
All three women’s games this weekend — the semifinals on Friday, the finals last night — were phenomenal (mediocre refereeing notwithstanding). South Carolina came within inches of beating Stanford, the tournament’s overall #1 seed. It was heartbreaking to watch Aliyah Boston and the Gamecocks fall just short of their season-long goal. Then, in the nightcap, basketball fans had a fairytale realized: David slew Goliath, as Arizona — an undersized, underappreciated team that had never been to the Final Four before — came in and defeated perennial powerhouse, UCONN. The Wildcats’ defense suffocated the Huskies and ensured that no one would overlook them ever again.
And then the Finals? ARE. YOU. KIDDING. ME?! The Cardinal had beaten the Wildcats twice already this season — both times by double digits — but this time, Arizona just would not give up. Everytime Stanford went on a run, Arizona would answer: ramping up their defensive pressure and turning their defense into offense. In the end though, Stanford’s defense collapsed on Arizona’s Aari McDonald and dared anyone else to beat them… and the Wildcats just couldn’t do it.
𝐂𝐑𝐎𝐖𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐀𝐑𝐃𝐈𝐍𝐀𝐋 👑🌲#GoStanford pic.twitter.com/h08aAU0s3y
— Stanford WBB 🌲🏀 (@StanfordWBB) April 5, 2021
Also? There was a men’s semi-final that was very exciting. Not as exciting as Morgan William’s buzzer beater to end UCONN’s 111-game win streak in 2017 or Arike Ogunbowale’s back-to-back buzzer beaters in 2018, but you know, it was nice.
But now that those women are done (for now), we should get back to the business of selecting our final four competitors? Here’s how your Sweet 16 votes winnowed our field:
For a better view, you can use the full-size version of the bracket or check out our updated Challonge bracket.
Since we’re getting down to our final eight choices, we’ll break down the match-ups in their respective regions: Canon and Fanon.
On the Canon side, we had our closest match-up of the Sweet 16 between Cosima and Delphine and Brittany and Santana in the Classic sub-region. At one point, the girls from GLEE stormed ahead by a few hundred votes but then Orphan Black fans came back to give them the lead. It’s the second close match-up that Cosima and Delphine have survived, as they narrowly defeated Tara and Willow in the Round of 32… perhaps, they’re the Arizona Wildcats of our March Madness?
In the Sci-Fi/Fantasy sub-region, Waverly and Nicole easily dispatched Alex and Maggie in the Sweet 16. I was a bit surprised by the ease of the victory — after all, Alex made her way to the March Madness finals two years ago — but given that Wynonna Earp may be completing its run, perhaps I should have expected the fervent response. It’s worth noting that the past two winners of this competition have been part of shows that were also concluding. Is that a good omen for Waverly and Nicole in this competition?
#1. Waverly and Nicole – Wynonna Earp vs. #5. Cosima and Delphine – Orphan Black
In the Grown sub-region, Callie and Arizona easily fended off a challenge from Kat and Adena in the Sweet 16 and moved onto the Elite 8. The Calzona fandom came out strong in the third round of competition and they’ll need all that strength when they meet Juliantina in the Elite 8. The pair from Amar a Muerte dominated through the Baby Gay sub-region but have they met their match in the longest running lesbian couple on television? We’ll see.
#3. Callie and Arizona – Grey’s Anatomy vs. #8. Juliana and Valentina – Amar a Muerte
Over on the Fanon side of the bracket, I’d picked Buffy and Faith to win the Classic sub-region in our Challonge competition but when all the votes were counted, it was Xena and Gabrielle who came out victorious. They’ll meet the great ship, Supercorp, in the Elite 8. The Supergirl /Once Upon a Time match-up was one of the most anticipated match-ups of the entire tournament… and while it was closer than some of our other match-ups in the Sweet 16, the fandom still gave Supercorp a 400-vote margin over Snow Queen.
#2. Lena and Kara – Supergirl vs. #6. Xena and Gabrielle – Xena: Warrior Princess
Betty and Veronica continued their dominance in the Baby Gay sub-region, edging out Spencer and Aria by 300 votes. But our favorite Riverdale ship may have met their match in Eve and Villanelle. The pair from Killing Eve easily made their way through the Grown sub-region, even scoring an overwhelming win over Alex and Olivia in the sub-region’s finals. It was amazing to see a ship that kicked off in 2000 and still has a fervent following be dispatched so easily.
#1. Betty and Veronica – Riverdale vs. #2. Eve and Villanelle – Killing Eve
As always, the clock’s set: you’ve got 48 hours to cast your ballot in this round of Autostraddle March Madness. We’ll be back on Wednesday to unveil the couples that have made it to the Final Four!
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Autostraddle March Madness: Canon vs. Fanon – Sweet 16
Tonight, the NCAA women’s tournament kicks off their Final Four on ESPN. Stanford and South Carolina will tip off first. It’s tough to know who will come out on top, these teams are so well-matched.
South Carolina’s playing their best basketball of the year at exactly the right moment, with Aliyah Boston anchoring their offense in the post. Their defense has been stellar all tournament long — they held Texas scoreless in the fourth quarter in the Elite 8 — and can bring their brand of physicality to tonight’s game, I give the Gamecocks the edge.
But don’t count out the Cardinal: they play true team basketball and, on any given night, anyone can step up and lead them to victory. They’re no slouches on defense either, ranking second in the country in FG percentage defense, so we could be in for a defensive slugfest tonight. The thing I like about Stanford is their ability to shoot the ball from three, averaging 38.3% from long range this season. If they can get going from behind the arc, Stanford could win this thing handily.
I’m truly torn: my head’s with Stanford, my heart’s with South Carolina. We’ll see what happens.
The nightcap’s going to be a fun match-up as well: UCONN vs. Arizona. It’s hard not to think the Huskies have the advantage going in: they are, after all, perennial national championship contenders and that have been on this stage 21 times before (compared to just once for Arizona). But I like an underdog…and this Arizona team’s coming into this game with a chip on their shoulder and absolutely nothing to lose. I like what the Wildcats can do from three and, if they can draw the UCONN posts into some foul trouble, we might have and upset on our hands.
But while we get excited for the women’s games tonight, we’ve got our own bit of March Madness business to handle. Over the last 48 hours, you’ve cast your ballots and winnowed the 32 remaining couples down to 16. Here’s how things look for the CANON VS. FANON Sweet 16:
For a better view, you can use the full-size version of the bracket or check out our updated Challonge bracket.
In the Classic sub-region, the canon battle between Tara and Willow and Cosima and Delphine was one of the closest contests of the tournament thus far. The lead volleyed back and forth multiple times over the past 48 hours but ultimately the couple from Orphan Black pulled it own.
Meanwhile, Brittany and Santana coasted to a relatively easy win against the L Word powerhouse, Shane and Carmen. The win isn’t entirely unexpected — we do love Brittana around these parts after all — but the announcement of GLAAD’s upcoming tribute to Naya Rivera and news of her final role in the upcoming animated Batman movie….well, that’s enough to provoke a lot of nostalgia for even the non-GLEEks among us.
Canon: #3. Brittany and Santana – GLEE vs. #5. Cosima and Delphine – Orphan Black
Over on the fanon side of the bracket, things shook out a little differently: both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Xena: Warrior Princess easily fended off challenges in the Round of 32. Apparently, GLEE nostalgia doesn’t extend to everyone.
Fanon: #4. Buffy and Faith – Buffy the Vampire Slayer vs. #6. Xena and Gabrielle – Xena: Warrior Princess
The canon side of the GROWN sub-region offered some of the toughest choices in this tournament: Emma and Nico or Kat and Adena and Petra and JR or Callie and Arizona? I thought it interesting that voters went with the “older” couples in both cases: Emma and Nico got together on Vida during its second season in 2019, while Kat and Adena connected during The Bold Type‘s first season in 2017. Callie Torres first met Arizona Robbins in the bathroom at Joe’s during Grey’s fifth season (2009), while Petra didn’t hire JR to defend her until until 2018. We’ll see if that trend holds in this final match of the sub-region.
Canon: #3. Callie and Arizona – Grey’s Anatomy vs. #4. Kat and Adena – The Bold Type
Our other most competitive match-up of the second round came in the Grown fanon sub-region. After battling back and forth, Alex and Olivia edged out Callie and Addison. Admittedly, I’m surprised that the Callie Torres love didn’t carry over from canon to fanon, but I’m chalking it up to the inescapable advertising for the Benson and Stabler Law and Order reunion. Personally, if Alex Cabot isn’t involved, I am not interested.
The Special Victims Unit team will meet Eve and Villanelle in their Sweet 16 match-up. The Killing Eve pair easily dispatched a challenge from the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling to make it to the third round.
Fanon: #1. Alex and Olivia – Law and Order: Special Victims Unit vs. #2. Eve and Villanelle – Killing Eve
In the battle of the former March Madness champions in the Baby Gay region, Juliana and Valentina of Amar a Muerte came out on top. The fandom is definitely proving themselves stronger than their #8 seeding. They’ll face Emily and Sue from Dickinson in the Sweet 16, who pulled off what I’d consider to be a bit of an upset by dispatching Casey and Izzie. I guess that long wait between Atypical seasons — the show just started shooting its fourth and final season — took some wind out of the sails of the fandom.
Canon: #6. Emily and Sue – Dickinson vs. #8. Juliana and Valentina – Amar a Muerte
Over on the fanon side of the bracket, Betty and Veronica of Riverdale continued their dominance, despite an incredibly strong showing by Maya and Riley of Girl Meets World. The battle between the top two Pretty Little Liars fanon ships was closer than I’d anticipate with Spencer and Aria eeking out a victory. That makes for an interesting match-up in the sub-region’s finals: which fanon couple from a murderous town will reign supreme? Who’s your money on: Riverdale or Rosewood?
Fanon: #1. Betty and Veronica – Riverdale vs. #2. Spencer and Aria – Pretty Little Liars
It’s been all chalk — that is, all the higher seeds have won — and the trend continued during the Round of 32 in the Sci-Fi/Fantasy category.Wynonna Earp‘s Waverly and Nicole easily defeated AvaLance from Legends of Tomorrow. With each round, WayHaught seems to be picking up strength so I like the couple’s chances as we head into the final rounds of this tournament. Standing in their way, though, will be the equally strong pairing of Alex Danvers and Maggie Sawyer, who advanced to the Sweet 16 despite a formidable challenge from Nomi and Amanita from Sense8.
Canon: #1. Waverly and Nicole – Wynonna Earp vs. #2. Maggie and Alex – Supergirl
Let’s be honest: we all knew it was going to end here. No matter how many great couples there were in the fanon portion of the Sci-Fi/Fantasy sub-region, this final match-up felt inevitable: Emma and Regina vs. Lena and Kara. Swan Queen vs. SuperCorp. Both easily dispatched their opponents in the last round, ultimately earning almost the exact same vote totals. This will be the match to watch in the Sweet 16.
Fanon: #1. Emma and Regina – Once Upon a Time vs. #2. Lena and Kara – Supergirl
Autostraddle March Madness: Canon vs. Fanon – Baby Gays
A few numbers from this year’s Autostraddle March Madness, through our first two sub-regions: 8, 23, 2 and 891.
Eight is the number of votes that separated Shane and Carmen from The L Word and Root and Shaw from Person of Interest in the Battle for Sarah Shahi Sapphic Supremacy.
23 is the number of votes that separated Callie and Addison from Grey’s Anatomy from OG Jane and Petra from Jane the Virgin. Callie Torres’ canon pairing, Callie and Arizona, had a smooth ride to the second round: easily dispatching another Jane the Virgin combo (Rose and Luisa).
2 is the number of brackets, out of the 891 that were submitted in Challonge competition, that are sitting at 100% accuracy through two rounds. Just two!
With only eight competitors in every sub-region, every match-up’s going to be tough so it feels like anyone can win at any point. The only real surprise for me, through two rounds of voting, is Debbie and Ruth’s upset of Emily and JJ in the Fanon region; I may have underestimated the G.L.O.W. fanbase. I worried about Brittana overcoming the allure of Bettina but the favorites from GLEE were able to advance with no problem. And, on behalf of the TV team, let me thank you for advancing Emma and Nico of Vida over Alice and Nat from The L Word: Generation Q…I think the team would have mutinied if you hadn’t.
So let’s take a look at that updated bracket, shall we?
Canon #1. Syd and Elena – One Day at a Time
Elena and her Syd-nificant Other got Heather’s vote for Best Queer Couple of 2020. Here’s what she wrote:
It’s funny that I’ve seen a hundred queer couples on TV at this point, and it was finally these two teenage dorks who really reflected my own reality back to me for maybe the first time. They’re sweet and they’re silly and they communicate and work to balance their own needs with each other’s needs and each have their own hopes and goals for the future, and personalities, but they make such a match together too. They make each other better and they make each other happier and they make each other feel safer and those are some of the greatest things anyone in your life can ever do for you.
Canon #8. Juliana and Valentina – Amar a Muerte
Juliana’s walking with her mother when she first spots Valentina and though not a word between them is spoken, her entire life is changed in that moment. When they meet later in the park, the chemistry between the two is palpable. They find refuge in each other: as Valentina copes with the loss of her father, Juliana stops her from giving into her worst impulses. When Juliana’s mother is kidnapped by the cartel, Valentina offers her sanctuary. Theirs is one of the greatest love stories ever told.
And, just in case Juliantina’s improbable love story wasn’t amazing enough already: the fan effort to have their story go on, even after Amar a Muerte‘s end, was successful. Production on the Juliantina spin-off has resumed after a prolonged COVID pause.
One of the consequences of Lisbeth being off-screen so often is that Bess has more time to build chemistry with other people on the canvas. That, of course, has its consequences. As our intrepid Nancy Drew recapper, Valerie Anne, wrote last year:“Someone please explain to me why I still ship Nancy and Bess even though Bess has a perfectly lovely girlfriend RIGHT HERE?”
Pondering it further, Valerie told me: “Nancy and Bess is just a fun ship because Nancy is so SERIOUS so often and Bess is a little more breezy and instead of being annoyed by it, Nancy is charmed by it. They’re an unlikely duo and it has the endearing feeling of those videos where like a panther and a puppy have become best friends.”
Canon #2. Cassie and Izzy – Atypical
There’s something beautiful about crushing on someone…it’s idyllic…you get to imagine the best version of you and the best version of them and the best version of yourselves, together, without thinking about the outside world. But the moment that it becomes real and suddenly, you’re at the mercy of all these forces that you’d never considered before and that can be scary, so you act weird. That’s what happens to Cassie and Izzy in Atypical‘s third season and, for a while, it looks like they won’t make it.
“I’ve been thinking, you’re right, I’ve been awful to you and you’re so good and solid and wonderful, but I get it if you don’t want do this,” Izzie concedes. “I know I’m not easy.”
But Casey, who’s not sure about a lot, is sure about this one thing, “I’m not looking for easy.”
Canon #7. Bess and Lisbeth – Nancy Drew
When Bess first meets Lisbeth, she’s acting as a distraction: keeping Lisbeth busy while Nancy Drew breaks into the morgue. They flirt as Lisbeth fixes Ace’s car and, at some point, Lisbeth slips Beth her number. Asked about it later, Bess claims she doesn’t date — boys or girls — because she’s been on her own for so long, she never lets herself get that close to anyone. But, after running into Lisbeth while out on a mission, Bess thinks maybe she ought to let herself get close to someone and invites Lisbeth to dinner.
Though Nancy Drew hasn’t given Bess and Lisbeth nearly enough screentime — Lisbeth is gone more than she’s around, according to resident Nancy Drew expert, Valerie Anne — the couple compliment each other nicely. Lisbeth sees through Bess…past the fancy clothes she wears to play socialite and into her thoughtful, anxious insides. In Lisbeth, Bess finally finds her anchor: someone who serves as constant in a way few other people in her life have.
Canon #3. Rue and Jules – Euphoria
From Drew’s magnum opus on Euphoria‘s first season:
Rue (Zendaya) is a 17-year-old bored with everything in life but drugs. She’s a regular teenager, trapped in the suburbs, annoyed with her family, alienated from endless high school drama, and struggling with mental illness. Drugs are her escape. Unfortunately, this escape led to an OD and a stint in rehab. The show opens with her returning home from this stay, less invested in staying clean than immediately finding her next fix. That is until she meets the new kid in school, an enigmatic trans girl named Jules (Hunter Schafer). They meet, they become best friends, and then, they become something more.
Canon #6. Emily and Sue- Dickinson
From Valerie’s review of Dickinson‘s second season:
In the season finale, Sue goes to see Emily and tries to explain why she tried to push her off on Sam Bowles. She was afraid of the way she felt about Emily, the way Emily and her poems made her feel. She was afraid because she didn’t feel it anywhere else, not at her parties, not with Austin, not with Sam. Just Emily.
And then Sue comes out and says it. It’s not poetic but it’s crystal clear: “I’m in love with you.”
Emily doesn’t believe it. She’s been hurt by Sue before. But Sue shouts it. Emily pushes back, pushes her, but Sue says it again and again. She’s not backing down, not anymore. And then Sue says the thing that could be a line from one of Emily’s poems, “The only true thing I’ll ever feel is my love for you.”
Canon #4. Cheryl and Toni- Riverdale
It’s hard to draw close to someone like Cheryl Blossom. Over the years, she has honed her ability to keep people at arm’s length. It becomes almost a natural instinct when even Cheryl’s mother doubts her capacity for love and dismisses her as “a jealous, spite-filled, starving, emotional anorexic.” So when Toni tries to get to the root of why Cheryl called Jughead to tell him about Archie and Betty’s kiss, Cheryl lashes out at the attempt to draw close: “Get your Sapphic, serpent hands off my body!”
But Toni persists…and, eventually, Cheryl starts to relent. Cheryl admits she used to be such a carefree kid but then her mother crushed her spirit by taking away her first love: her best friend, Heather.
“You’re not loveless. You’re not deviant. Okay?” Toni assures her. “You’re sensational.”
Canon #5. Kate and Emaline – Everything Sucks!
As confident and brash as Emaline appears, when her boyfriend, Oliver, absconds to New York to become a famous actor, she’s at a loss. She had been doing all of this — drama club and acting in the A/V Club’s movie — for him and now she doesn’t know who she is. Thankfully, Kate’s there to reassure her and offer Emaline a glimpse at herself through Kate’s eyes. Kate offers niceties, at first — Emaline’s funny, confident and talented — but when Emaline accuses her of being effortlessly cool and cute, Kate finds the confidence to make bolder admissions.
“I think you’re the most sexy and attractive person I’ve ever met,” Kate confesses.
“You really think so?” Emaline asks.
“I think you’re perfect.”
Fanon #1. Betty and Veronica – Riverdale
In Riverdale‘s pilot episode, Betty and Veronica kiss. They’re in the middle of cheerleading tryouts and Cheryl is looking for some sizzle and so Veronica gives it to her…and while their “faux lesbian kissing” doesn’t lead to anything in canon, it launched (or re-launched, if you follow the comic books) the Beronica ship. But perhaps Beronica’s biggest moment comes during Riverdale‘s musical episode, “A Night to Remember.”
Here’s how Kayla described it in her recap:
Veronica and Betty also sing it out after Archie convinces Betty that Veronica’s bad deeds are the result of pressure from her parents and reminds her how quickly Veronica forgave her after the Black Hood manipulated Betty into being mean to her. Archie and Betty start singing Tommy and Sue’s love ballad to each other rehearsal, and then the show just seamlessly shifts to BETTY AND VERONICA SINGING THE LOVE SONG TO EACH OTHER in what is definitely fuel for the Beronica ship. Somehow, this is the gayest scene to happen in the episode.
Fanon #8. Penelope and Eloise – Bridgerton
It was surprising to step into the world of Shondaland — Bridgerton is the first Netflix project from the great Shonda Rhimes — and not find out that one of the main characters was canonically queer. Sure, the entire show (and its source material) is about 19th Century London’s marriage market…which doesn’t lend itself to being anything besides a testament to (or indictment of?) heterosexual marriage…but this was Shondaland, right? But then we meet Eloise who so fervently resists the trappings of the patriarchy that you can’t not hope that she’s just not queer yet. A baby gay Anne Lister, perhaps?
The friendship between Penelope and Eloise is one of the highlights of Bridgerton‘s first season. There is no competition them, only the shared longing for a different life than they have been afforded. They are different — Penelope is far more amendable to society’s demands of women — but they are only truly seen by each other.
Fanon #2. Spencer and Aria – Pretty Little Liars
I’ve got to admit: even as I’ve revisit Pretty Little Liars patheon — watching old clips and reading episode recaps — I still don’t have the foggiest idea what would cause anyone to ‘ship Spencer and Aria. But people do: of the fanon femslash pairings for Pretty Little Liars, Sparia generates the most fanfic.
Obviously, they cute together: Spencer’s small frame fits perfectly beneath Spencer’s chin. I suppose, insomuch as any of the Liars were good at solving clues, I suppose Spencer and Aria were the best at it…and the show plainly encouraged the ‘shippers by referring them as Team Sparia on-screen (which feels like faux pas to me…like a band wearing their own t-shirts). But shipping? I don’t know about that.
Fanon #7. Bess and Nancy – Nancy Drew
One of the consequences of Lisbeth being off-screen so often is that Bess has more time to build chemistry with other people on the canvas. That, of course, has its consequences. As our intrepid Nancy Drew recapper, Valerie Anne, wrote last year:“Someone please explain to me why I still ship Nancy and Bess even though Bess has a perfectly lovely girlfriend RIGHT HERE?”
Pondering it further, Valerie told me:”Nancy and Bess is just a fun ship because Nancy is so SERIOUS so often and Bess is a little more breezy and instead of being annoyed by it, Nancy is charmed by it. They’re an unlikely duo and it has the endearing feeling of those videos where like a panther and a puppy have become best friends.”
Fanon #3. Josie and Hope – Legacies
In her reflection on the queer legacy of Legacies, Valerie Anne charted the series’ history: from Rebekah Mikaelson’s 2014 threesome to the current Salvatore School where everyone seems just a little bit gay. During this iteration’s first season, Josie reveals that she used to have a crush on Hope. And while it takes a while for Hope to admit it: she had a crush on Josie for like a week when they were 14.
Here’s how Valerie captured what followed that admission:
Hope opens up to Josie in a way she has a hard time opening up, and it’s beautiful and heartbreaking to watch. Josie considers her carefully as she talks; because the thing is, people don’t often let Josie make decisions like this. They don’t take HER feelings into consideration as much as they should, because she’s usually the one who is catering to someone else’s feelings. But Hope is willing to upend her ENTIRE LIFE if Josie says so, just to save her some pain. While Josie fights back tears and takes Hope in, the song croons about not wanting to forget. “How could I blackout you?” Appropriate, given Hope’s recent journey of being unknown. In the end, they hug, and it’s decided Hope will stay. Josie misses Hope, too. And Landon is leaving, so they are both sharing a specific pain; they need each other. They were two points of a love triangle, but when the third point disappears, they find themselves on a straight line toward each other.
Fanon #6. Hanna and Mona – Pretty Little Liars
In Pretty Little Liars‘ second season finale, Spencer figures out that Mona is “A.” Mona corrects her: she’s a part of the A-Team and invites Spencer to join. As Mona drives frantically to Lookout Point, Spencer asks if A’s torture has just been Mona’s payback for the Liars’ tacit acceptance of Alison’s bullying. But Mona swears that she’s been over all that.
“[Ali] was never my friend, but Hanna was and you bitches took her from me,” Mona explains. “It’s not about betrayal, Spencer, it’s about revenge! You deserved everything you got! You stole my only friend.”
Torturing, blackmailing, committing violence…totally something you do because someone stole your “friend.” Sure, Jan.
Fanon #4. Lydia and Allison – Teen Wolf
Soon after Allison arrives in Beacon Hills, Lydia spots Allison at her locker, expresses appreciation her fashion sense and dubs her her new best friend. Over the years, they grow closer and fiercely protect the the other from whatever supernatural force threatens them. But when Lydia’s captured by the Nogitsune in the show’s third season, she begs Allison not to come find her: according to her premonition, the battle could be prove fatal.
Of course, Allison won’t let anything stand in the way of getting her best friend back. In battle, Allison summons unimaginable strength — killing an Oni with her homemade silver arrowhead, a feat once thought impossible — but, in turn, gets stabbed in the abdomen. As she lays dying, she worries about Lydia — “Did you find her? Is she okay? Is Lydia safe?” — and Lydia, who senses Allison’s death from afar, lets out a Banshee scream in grief.
Fanon #5. Maya and Riley – Girl Meets World
When I’m writing these blurbs about shows I’ve never seen, like Girl Meets World, I’ll watch some scenes on Youtube and read a lot about the couple, just to get a sense of who they are so I can write about it sensibly. But as I watched Rilaya scenes, I kept checking my notes over and over again: “are we sure that this couple isn’t canon?”
In the series finale, as Riley’s parents consider a job offer that would take their family to London, Maya can’t stomach thinking that her best friend might leave. There’s no way Riley could leave, Maya rationalizes, because there’s no replacement for her and no cares about her like Riley does. Later, they make a pledge to each other: “Time and distance have no power over us. You and I are together for as long as we live.”
As always, the clock’s set: you’ve got 48 hours to cast your ballot in this round of March Madness. We’ll be back on Monday to unveil the updated bracket and vote in our final sub-region: SCI-FI/Fantasy.
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Presenting the Winners of Autostraddle’s Second Annual Queer TV Awards!
The Autostraddle Gay Emmys began with a relatively simple goal: Despite the rapidly changing television landscape, the Television Academy itself continues to heavily favor TV that’s made for and about straight cis white men. We wanted to help change the conversation. So, we rolled up our sleeves and got to work.
As a team, our writers spent weeks arguing and voting on what we considered to be the very best in lesbian, bisexual, queer, and trans women’s storytelling. We pleaded for our favorites, we reasoned with logic, and passionately argued with each other about the depth and quality of LGBT women’s stories this year.
Then, when we were down to our top six nominees in each category, we wrote our For Your Considerations and opened up the field to you. We believe that television only works if it’s connecting to its audience, and so we wanted to make sure that our audience had their say.
Wow, did you all have a say! Over 30,000 votes worth! (That’s a new record for these awards, so thank you.)
For regular categories, the individual TV Team votes were weighted heavily alongside our reader votes. For fan favorite categories, the winner was 100% determined by reader votes.
And without any further ado, here are the winners of Autostraddle’s Second Annual Gay Emmys!
Outstanding Comedy Series
Jane the Virgin
Runner Up: One Day at a Time
Other Nominees: Derry Girls // Vida // The Bisexual // The Good Place
What else is there to say about the perfection that is Jane the Virgin? As a team, we’ve laughed and cried and discussed and debated as the show wrapped up its last season this summer. There certainly hasn’t been a shortage of celebration.
But there’s something special about a show that meant so much to so many, winning this award. You may be shocked to discover that Jane the Virgin’s only “Straight Emmy” nominations were in the category of “Best Narrator”… and they lost. It’s not as if this particular award never goes to women-led work (the last two years The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Veep took the top prize), but there’s something unapologetic about Jane the Virgin that denied these kinds of accolades.
Staying true to its telenovela roots, Jane the Virgin was big in its romance, big in its comedy, big in its style and plotting and feelings. This is a show about three generations of Venezuelan-American women, each with their own flaws, each with the best intentions, facing the challenges of life with the help of each other. This is a show with male characters who aren’t perfect, but who listen and learn and support the women in their life. This is a show that got gayer and gayer every season until it ended with two queer love stories to rival its straight romance.
With bright colors to match its core goodness, Jane the Virgin made an argument that serious doesn’t have to equal dark, in any sense of the word. This argument may not have played with the Straight Emmys, but it sure has with the Gay Emmys. This year’s winner for Outstanding Comedy Series was a women of color-led, queer women-dominated show that took creative risks and dealt with a range of serious topics. It was never afraid to be what it was: a sweeping romance, a tribute to women, a celebration of stories. – Drew Gregory
Outstanding Drama Series
Pose
Runner Up: Gentleman Jack
Other Nominees: Killing Eve // How to Get Away With Murder // Riverdale // The Good Fight
It was enough that Pose existed in the world. A show with the largest cast of trans women — and trans women of color, most notably — in television history. The first show to have a trans woman of color in the writers’ room. The first show to have a trans woman of color serve as director and producer. If that had been it, if that had been all that Pose had done, that would’ve been historic and earned its place in the record books.
But, oh no, it had to go and be great, too. There was near unanimity among TV critics — including ours — that Pose was one of the best shows of 2018.
What separated Pose from the other nominees in this category is the unique way it balanced the darkness out with the light. They grappled with examinations of homophobia, transphobia (both from within the LGBT community and outside it), homelessness, HIV/AIDS and the seemingly omnipresent threat of violence — but none of the characters are defined by that. The characters of Pose create their own families and offer each other the tenderness, joy and love that the outside world denies them. And then there are the balls, the lavish celebrations “of a life the world does not deem worthy of celebration” that turn competition into an expression of pure joy.
As Al(aina) wrote when the show debuted: “Pose is about radical hospitality in the face of oppression, and the result is overwhelming joy.” — Natalie
Outstanding Sci-Fi/Fantasy Series
Wynonna Earp
Runner Up: Sense8
Other Nominees: Supergirl // The Haunting of Hill House // Charmed // Black Lightning //
The Gay Emmys is where Sci-Fi really gets to shine, since they don’t usually get the spotlight at other industry award shows. Luckily the Autostraddle Gay Emmys are the most important awards, and sci-fi gets its place in the sun. This Wynonna Earp win feels extra special this year, since they’ve been on an unusually long hiatus for reasons outside their control, and especially right now because the fandom is in a bit of a lull since the #FightForWynonna has been won, but filming hasn’t started up again yet. But Earpers are known for their lack of chill and sticktoitiveness, so I’m not surprised at all they pulled off this win. Besides, the show speaks for itself. With so many queer people on screen and behind the scenes, it’s no wonder the queer storylines on the show feel like they’re treated with such care. – Valerie Anne
Outstanding Lead Actor Playing an LGBTQ+ Character in a Drama Series
Mj Rodriguez, Pose
Runner Up: Suranne Jones, Gentleman Jack
Other Nominees: Indya Moore, Pose // Sandra Oh, Killing Eve // Jodie Comer, Killing Eve // Viola Davis, How to Get Away With Murder
This Sunday, when presenters take the stage and announce the nominees for Best Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, Mj Rodriguez’s name won’t be among them. It’s hard for me to fathom why that is… how Pose warranted a nomination for Outstanding Drama Series but the actor who gives the show its heart, Mj Rodriguez, did not. But what the Academy missed, the Autostraddle community recognized: Mj Rodriguez’s turn as Blanca Evangelista earned our Outstanding Lead Actor Award.
As I wrote last year, Pose asks us to see ourselves in characters who, on their face, might not be like us – to believe in our common humanity. The depth of Mj Rodriguez’s performance makes that easy: “She’s woman who, instead of being content to inherit something, someday, took a step out on a ledge, and built something of her own. She is a woman who wants to leave a legacy, to leave some proof that she was here. She is a woman who, in the face of discrimination, keeps coming back over and over again, to move us a little closer to justice. She is a woman who cares for others and works tirelessly to secure their future.” She is me, she is us.
“Do you know what the greatest pain a person can feel is, the greatest tragedy a life can experience?” Blanca asks in Pose‘s pilot episode. “That is having a truth inside of you and you not being able to share it. It is having a great beauty and no one there to see it.”
We see you, your truth and your beauty, Mj Rodriguez. Today and everyday. – Natalie
Outstanding Supporting or Guest Actor Playing an LGBTQ+ Character in a Drama Series
Angelica Ross, Pose
Runner Up: Judy Reyes, Claws
Other Nominees: Isis King, When They See Us // Laverne Cox, Orange is the New Black // Sophie Rundle, Gentleman Jack // Dominique Jackson, Pose
It’s been a big week for Angelica Ross. Earlier this week it was announced that she’s hosting the 2020 Presidential Candidate Forum on LGBTQ issues. And now she’s an official Autostraddle Gay Emmy Winner.
There’s a long history of actors who aren’t cis, straight, and/or white being involved in activism, using their platforms for change, and, sometimes, shifting their attention completely to social justice. But what makes someone a great activist and what makes them a great actor aren’t always separate. They certainly aren’t with Ross.
Candy was never the heart of Pose. She was sometimes a dramatic foil, sometimes the comic relief, sometimes, even, underwritten. But Angelica Ross made her real. She understands when portraying a character, or fighting for the community, one has to lead with humanity. Every joke, every big reaction, every moment of physicality, Ross found Candy’s motivation. Candy may not have been the star of the show, but she was the star of her own show and Ross allowed Candy a sort of meta-narrative where she fights not to be ignored in real life and in television life.
Episode four, “The Fever,” may be my favorite of the show, largely due to Ross’ performance. Determined to compete in the Body Category, Candy seeks out dangerous, low-cost implants and Ross plays her somewhere between desperate and determined. She wants to be seen by others as she knows herself to be – and Ross made sure, we, the audience, did just that. – Drew Gregory
Outstanding Lead Actor Playing an LGBTQ+ Character in a Comedy Series
Mishel Prada, Vida
Runner Up: Isabella Gomez, One Day at a Time
Other Nominees: Desiree Akhavan, The Bisexual // Yael Grobglas, Jane the Virgin // Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Fleabag // Stephanie Beatriz, Brooklyn 99
Mishel Prada is a Capricorn. And while actors can certainly play characters with different birth charts than their own, I don’t think it’s a stretch to read this Capricornness in Prada’s performance as Emma on my very favorite show, Vida. Emma is stubborn and determined. She’s sometimes cold but never thoughtless. She’s hesitant to share her feelings, yet underneath she has so many. And, without fail, she gets the job done.
Prada balances all of Emma’s contradictions and her complex personal history in every moment of the show. The intimate handheld cinematography captures every shift in purpose, in feeling, every decision to maintain or stretch her boundaries. It’s all visible in Prada’s deep brown eyes and her selectively cracked smiles. As the show goes on, it’s less that Prada reveals Emma’s vulnerability and more that she redefines what vulnerability means to Emma.
Since this is a comedy category I’d be remiss not to mention that within Emma’s emotional journey, Prada finds plenty of humor. Emma may be the queer sister but up against the chaotic Lyn, she’s the obvious straight man. With just a glance or an eyeroll, Prada heightens Lyn’s absurdity, aligning the audience with Emma, and making us laugh at the whole situation. She shoots off deadpan insults with shifting humor whether they’re aimed at Lyn, a lover, or anyone on her growing list of nemeses. Emma is self-destructively intelligent and with that comes an equally destructive wit.
Within Vida’s first two seasons, Prada has created a person we can relate to, get frustrated with, and lust after. She’s created a person who is ever-changing, yet remains exactly the same. She’s created a person who feels like just that, a person. It’s a remarkable, must-see performance on a remarkable, must-see show. – Drew Gregory
Outstanding Supporting or Guest Actor Playing an LGBTQ+ Character in a Comedy Series
Rosario Dawson, Jane the Virgin
Runner Up: Roberta Colindrez, Vida
Other Nominees: Ser Anzoategui, Vida // Yara Martinez, Jane the Virgin // Sheridan Pierce, One Day at a Time // Alex Borstein, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
When Rosario Dawson joined Jane the Virgin it felt like the ultimate consolation prize. No, the writers weren’t going to have the titular Jane hook up with Petra, her occasional rival and sometimes friend. But they were going to introduce another character, also named Jane, and have her reveal Petra’s bisexuality. And, as if to quiet complaints that this wasn’t enough, they cast Rosario Dawson.
But what began as possible stunt casting, or a simple gift to the horny queer audience, became a reminder of Dawson’s actual talent. As Jane Ramos (a.k.a. JR) Dawson alternates between Petra’s baby gay fantasy of a dominant, experienced, and intimidating queer woman, and her own experience dating a baby gay, especially one as complicated as Petra. You can sense in Dawson’s performance the conflict between her logic and her feelings. She doesn’t want to be Petra’s experiment. She doesn’t want to trust that what they have is real only to be proven wrong. She thinks of herself as beyond that. But feelings are feelings.
Dawson is so good at making it obvious why Petra is in love with her and making it equally obvious why JR has doubts. She makes sure we understand why they might not work as a couple, all the while desperately hoping that they do. It’s a fun, sexy, deeply felt performance, and it’s a big reason why Jane the Virgin’s queer love story became more than just another subplot. – Drew Gregory
Outstanding Lead Actor Playing an LGBTQ+ Character in a Sci-Fi Series
Jamie Clayton, Sense8
Runner Up: Chyler Leigh, Supergirl
Other Nominees: // Melonie Diaz, Charmed // Nafessa Williams, Black Lightning // Kate Siegel, The Haunting of Hill House // Lyrica Okano, Marvel’s Runaways
I love to see a show win on its way out, as a sort of parting gift for all the hard work put into it. Sense8 may be over, but Jamie Clayton’s Nomi won’t soon be forgotten. A queer trans woman dating a queer woman of color, played by a trans woman – when Sense8 started in 2015, these things were revolutionary. And maybe they still are. Sense8 was always a big jumble of labelless queerness and this final season was no exception. As Kayla mentioned in her review , it was like a love letter to the fans, and this Emmy is a love letter right back. Because in 2019, we still can’t take queer happy endings for granted. – Valerie Anne
Outstanding Supporting or Guest Actor Playing an LGBTQ+ Character in a Sci-Fi Series
Nicole Maines, Supergirl
Runner Up: Kat Barrell, Wynonna Earp
Other Nominees: Chantal Thuy, Black Lightning // Lachlan Watson, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina // Mayko Nguyen, Killjoys // Hannah John-Kamen, Killjoys
I never really knew what people meant when they said “breakout star” until I saw Nicole Maines playing Nia Nal in Supergirl and all I could think was: This isn’t the last we’ll see if this girl. She’s charming and cute and funny, and her social media presence is hilarious. She seems to be having fun, and that fun shows on screen. And having watched some of her talks on YouTube, she seems to be a strong, smart young woman who is a superhero in her own right; I can’t think of anyone better to play trans superhero Dreamer. – Valerie Anne
Outstanding Performance by a Straight Actress in a Straight Role
Justina Machado, One Day at a Time
Runner Up: Melanie Scrofano, Wynonna Earp
Other Nominees: Rita Moreno, One Day at a Time // Sunetra Sarker, Ackley Bridge // Gina Rodriguez, Jane the Virgin // Logan Browning, Dear White People
I am so honored that we get to give this sort of silly titled award to such phenomenal actress. Justina Machado is one of the most gifted comedic actresses of our time, but the fact that “mainstream” Hollywood continues its stubborn refusal to recognize her work is no laughing matter. When you watch the “Straight” Emmys this Sunday, pay attention to the Lead Actress in a Comedy Category; there is not a single person nominated that Justina Machado couldn’t go toe-to-toe with and win.
What Justina Macahdo has accomplished with the role of Penelope Alvarez is nothing short of a marvel – scripts often require that her portrayal of the single mom and Army vet living with PTSD change emotional beats at the drop of a pin. Not only can she go from a laugh to a cry faster than you or I take breaths, she does it without ever losing track of Penelope’s core honesty. Even her broadest moments never feel forced. Hollywood racism may continue to keep Justina Machado from all the bigger and fancier awards that she rightly deserves, but I hope this acknowledgement and “Thank You” from the Autostraddle community helps just a little to let her know that she’s seen. She’s appreciated. – Carmen Phillips
Outstanding Individual Episode with LGBTQ+ Themes
“Love Is the Message,” Pose
Runner Up: “Touch,” The Haunting of Hill House
Other Nominees: “Ghosts,” One Day at a Time // “Reunited,” Steven Universe // Episode 9, Vida // “Scream,” Claws
Pose’s first cabaret episode captures the true heart of the show, which is inherently joyful and celebratory of queer life, making it a rare gem on prestige television where queer and trans lives are far too often treat as tragic. Pose is a very special show, and this is a Very Special Episode without trying too hard to be one. But I’d also be remiss not to mention this category’s runner-up: the exceptional “Touch” from The Haunting Of Hill House, which captures queerness, trauma, grief, and otherness in such a beautiful, heartbreaking way. I’m thrilled that such a radiant and ultimately positive episode won this category, but I think these two episodes work beautifully in tandem and are exemplary of how diverse and nuanced this category overall ended up being this year. – Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya
Outstanding LGBTQ+ Coming Out Story
Tess Pearson, This Is Us
Runner Up: Clare Devlin, Derry Girls
Other Nominees: Eve Polastri, Killing Eve // Tamia “Coop” Cooper, All American // Alice Kwan, Good Trouble // Grace Hanson, Grace and Frankie
There is a great value in seeing our stories told on television. There is power in seeing our identities affirmed and comfort in seeing the oftentimes difficults journeys we have to take to fully live our truth showcased. And, in Tess Pearson’s coming out story, we get that: A young black girl coming out to her family on the most watched show on broadcast television? We have never seen it, and for girls who recognize their attraction to other girls at an early age, seeing Tess Pearson is confirmation that you’re never too young to embrace your own truth.
“People, um, at school have been having crushes and stuff and lots of girls have boyfriends, but I don’t want one,” Tess confesses to her parents one night. “It’s because I think I might like girls, not boys.”
But there’s something else about Tess Pearson’s coming out, particularly that scene with her parents, that makes me choke up everytime I watch it. In her, we have a possibility model. Tess’ story resonates, not because it is my story, but because it is the story I wish I had — it is the story I wish every queer person who was brave enough to share their truth had, it is the story I wish every queer person who hasn’t yet come out to their family has in the future.
With every step Tess takes outside the closet — a closet that had already become suffocating to her, as a 10 year old child — she’s met with love and grace: first from her Aunt Kate, then from her grandmother and, finally, from her parents. They will love her no matter what, they assure her, and both Tess and the audience walk away believing them. Tess’ coming out and the reaction to it should be be a model for every family in 2019. – Natalie
Outstanding Performance by an LGBTQ+ Actor in a Comedy
Stephanie Beatriz, Brooklyn 99
Runner Up: Lily Tomlin, Grace and Frankie
Other Nominees: Desiree Akhavan, The Bisexual // Roberta Colindrez, Vida // Gillian Anderson, Sex Education // Natalie Morales, Abby’s
Last year, Stephanie Beatriz was nominated in and subsequently won so many categories in these here awards that I’m surprised we didn’t rename them as the Autostraddle Stephanie Beatriz Emmys. Once again, she has deservedly won in the LGBTQ+ actor in a comedy category. Beatriz is funny, inspiring, and compelling. She has done incredible work on and off screen for bi visibility, and it has been delightful to watch Rosa come into her own on Brooklyn 99. – Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya
Outstanding Performance by an LGBTQ+ Actor in a Drama
Mj Rodriguez, Pose
Runner Up: Indya Moore, Pose
Other Nominees: Angelica Ross, Pose // Laverne Cox, Orange is the New Black // Rutina Wesley, Queen Sugar // Dominique Jackson, Pose
As the kids say, “GIVE Mj HER THINGS!!” 💫💫
No, but seriously, if there is one thing that LGBT+ critics have agreed on across print and the internet, it is this: Mj Rodriguez is the most overlooked performer of the last year. The Television Academy’s biggest mistake this year was its complete shut out for the actresses Pose. In particular, Mj’s work as Blanca Evangelista is the pounding heartbeat that allows Pose to come alive in the first place.
It’s so easy to talk about all the ways that Pose breaks records – and we should! The largest trans woman of color cast in television history, the first trans woman of color TV writer in history, first trans woman of color director and producer! – but I sometimes worry that doing so allows straight critics to miss the real headline: LGBT+ creators’ work isn’t just important because it’s representational, it’s important because having honest representation makes for damn good television. (On that note, I’d like to recognize all of this category’s nominees – all six are black LGBT+ people who represent a full fabric of black queerness in a way we’ve never had the opportunity to experience before.)
I’m a black Puerto Rican with a chosen queer family of my own and New York roots, and I have never ever seen myself on television the way I have in Blanca Evangelista. That’s not something I am saying for “diversity points,” I’m saying it because it means there is a lot of Blanca’s story that I intimately relate to, and I can tell when there is a false note. With Mj there is not one.
At least once a day I have to stop myself from tweeting “I HOPE Mj RODRIGUEZ KNOWS HOW MUCH I LOVE HER!” but I think today might be the day to shout it from the rooftops – go ‘head mamí, come here and collect all your things. You deserve it. – Carmen Phillips
Outstanding Performance by an LGBTQ+ Actor in a Sci-Fi Series
Nicole Maines, Supergirl
Runner Up: Jamie Clayton, Sense8
Other Nominees: Tig Notaro, Star Trek: Discovery // Kate Siegel, The Haunting of Hill House // Kat Barrell, Wynonna Earp // Ariela Barer, Marvel’s Runaways
Gosh it feels so good to give a trans actress playing a trans superhero TWO awards in these here Gay Emmys! Because I think it’s true that she deserves both; I think she deserves an award for her stellar portrayal of Nia Nal, for channeling that Season One Kara energy and making the New Superhero track her own. But she’s also, just in general, an outstanding LGBTQ+ actress. She lives her life out loud, and has since she was a kid fighting for the right to use the girls’ bathroom at her school. She’s an outstanding person, an outstanding actress, and well deserving of this and any awards thrown her way. – Valerie Anne
Outstanding LGBTQ+ Director / Producer / Showrunner
Janet Mock, Pose
Runner Up: Rebecca Sugar, Steven Universe
Other Nominees: Desiree Akhavan, The Bisexual // Lena Waithe, Boomerang // Tanya Saracho, Vida // Leslye Headland, Russian Doll
Janet Mock showed the fuck up for her directorial debut (Pose’s “Love is the Message,” which already won this year’s Gay Emmy for Outstanding Episode), and I’m so excited that she ended up winning this category. As a director, Mock captures romance, trauma, growth, and complicated interpersonal relationships with equal strength. She brings an authenticity to her telling of queer and trans stories that feels meaningful. And she understands her actors’ individual strengths as well as how to make them work well together. In short, she’s a powerful director who pulls the best out of her cast and tells a visually immersive story. We should all feel thrilled about her future work as a director. Did I mention that she’s also a writer and producer on Pose? A triple threat. – Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya
Most Groundbreaking Representation (Show)
Pose
Runner Up: One Day at a Time
Other Nominees: Vida // Boomerang // She-Ra // The Bisexual
Pose dominates in so many of these categories, because it really is a singular show. No other show celebrates queer and trans—and specifically QTPOC—lives like this one. While it is real and sometimes devastating in its portrayal of QTPOC lives in late 80s-early 90s nyc, it’s also a strikingly joyful show. It doesn’t resort to tragedy porn and instead rather shows the full range of these characters’ lives, which include romances, evolving friendship and familial dynamics, and self-discovery. It’s as fun and spectacular as ball culture itself. – Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya
Outstanding Male Character
Rogelio de la Vega, Jane the Virgin
Runner Up: Pray Tell, Pose
Other Nominees: Captain Holt, Brooklyn 99 // Evan Huang, Fresh Off the Boat // Ari Thomas, Boomerang // Lincoln Rice, Broad City
“We consume culture through television now,” Vida‘s creator, Tanya Saracho once said. “If you live in a place that doesn’t have a lot of access to Latinx people, then television becomes a great equalizer, like a normalizer, that lets you into these worlds.”
I think Saracho’s right about television’s ability to serve as an equalizing force but, particularly when it comes to the representation of Latinx men, Hollywood is increasingly normalizing a stereotype of those men as criminals. We see this trend in shows like Narcos, Queen of the South, Mayans M.C, Better Call Saul and Ozark. Without personal interactions or varied portrayals of Latinx men on television, ideas about Latinx people — like those espoused by the president — having an easier time taking root.
That’s why I’ll miss Jaime Camil’s portrayal of Rogelio de la Vega, the two-time winner of our Outstanding Male Character category, so much. Though we barely noticed it through our laughter, every time he embraced fatherhood with Jane and Baby, cheered on Xiomara, forged friendships with Michael and Rafael and chased his own dreams of American superstardom — Rogelio was undoing the damage of those harsh tropes. I regret we won’t have more years of him and his lavender shirts to serve as the normalizer we need. – Natalie
Outstanding Animated Series
She-Ra and the Princesses of Power
Runner Up: Steven Universe
Other Nominees: Love, Death & Robots // Bojack Horseman // Adventure Time // Tuca & Bertie
The greatest compliment that I can give She-Ra is that I had not watched an original animated series in probably over a decade, and She-Ra is the one that changed all of that.
What can I say, there’s something addictive about watching queer princesses kick so much ass. She-Ra is healing and delightful for the childhood Disney Princess stan in me (seriously – once, in Kindergarten, I wore my Cinderella costume for a month straight), but it’s also supremely written and animated television. It takes its villains seriously; I’d argue that Catra and Shadow Weaver have some of the greatest anti-hero storylines written this year. It’s not afraid to teach children about darkness that looms, but also that friendship and sparkles and a willingness to just try your best and do good in this world will always be worth the fight. We joke a lot that She-Ra is the “gay agenda,” but honestly? Teaching kids to forgive, love each other, and always fight for the good is not a terrible agenda to have. – Carmen Phillips
Outstanding Hairstyling for an LGBTQ+ Character
Alex Danvers, Supergirl
Runner Up: Angel Evangelista, Pose
Other Nominees: Lena Adams-Foster, The Fosters/Good Trouble // Eve Polastri, Killing Eve // Nova Bordelon, Queen Sugar // Kat Sandoval, Madam Secretary
I have to give it to Chyler Leigh – this haircut is commitment. Not every actor is willing to change their hair for the part, but this hair is so pitch perfectly Alex Danvers that, from where we currently sit, it’s hard to even remember what she looked like in Supergirl’s earlier seasons. There’s the “before” and the “after.” Alex’s haircut signaled a bright, shining new day for Supergirl, accompanied by not only a new queer love interest for Director Danvers – but the first trans superhero on television with Nicole Maines’ Dreamer! And sure, maaaaybe it’s an overreach to say that a single gay haircut helped make an already gay show just that much gayer, but you know what? I’m willing to put my foot down about this. Most Import Haircut Of The YEAR. – Carmen Phillips
Fan Favorite Categories
Fan Favorite Couple
Juliana and Valentina, Amar a Muerte
Fan Favorite Runner Up: Waverly and Nicole, Wynonna Earp
Fan Favorite Out LGBTQ+ Actor
Kat Barrell, Wynonna Earp
Fan Favorite Runner Up: Stephanie Beatriz, Brooklyn 99
Most Devastating Cancellation
Jane the Virgin
Fan Favorite Runner Up: Fleabag
Fan Favorite New Show
Amar a Muerte
Fan Favorite Runner Up: Gentleman Jack
Fan Favorite Character
Valentina Carvajal, Amar a Muerte
Fan Favorite Runner Up: Juliana Valdés, Amar a Muerte
❤️ ❤️ ❤️
The “Straight” Emmys are this Sunday, September 22nd on FOX. Sadly they won’t have the depth of queer roles and queer talent recognized that we already know deserve it, but hey – maybe pop a bowl of popcorn and check it out anyway?
Juliana Valdés of “Amar a Muerte” Is the National Champion of Coming Out Stories!
We started with 64 characters and their coming out stories, across four regions, and went through six rounds of voting, with thousands of votes cast, all to crown a National Champion of Coming Out Stories. And, now, we have our winner: congratulations to Juliana Valdés of Univision’s Amar a muerte on being selected as the best coming out story by Autostraddle readers.
Bárbara López collects her award for Best Coming Out story Best Young Lead Actress at the TVyNovelas Awards.
Juliana looked like an early favorite to win the region, right out of the gate: easily besting Liv Flaherty of Emmerdale in the first round and Sara Millán (Oscar) of Las Chicas Del Cable in the second. With each round, Juliana seemed to pick up steam, even besting the other half of her portmanteau, Valentina Carvajal, in the International regional finals. At that point, it became increasingly clear that the #Juliantina fandom would not be denied. The same fan energy that drove Amar a muerte to a record setting 14 wins at the TVyNovelas Awards — including one for Juliana’s portrayer, Bárbara López, in the Best Young Lead Actress category — earned Juliana the easy victory and the championship.
It is, admittedly, a little bittersweet to see the March Madness victory go to another storyline that’s run its course. Last year, we crowned our March Madness champion just after Netflix decided not to renew Everything Sucks for a second season. Our contest became a conduit: a way for fans to express their love for the show, to share their grief over losing such valuable representation and to urge Netflix to reconsider their decision. It wasn’t about the contest or anything I wrote, March Madness was about the fans…and so it is this year, with Juliana Valdés of Amar a muerte. A way for fans to express love for the show, and for this character in particular, and engage in the public mourning over the representation that’s been lost. Fans of the Juliana and Valentina have launched a petition to urge the production company to consider a spin-off. They absolutely should.
Back in 2017, GLAAD released a report called Still Invisible that looked at programming on the three major Spanish-language broadcast networks (Univision, UniMás and Telemundo) and found a dearth of LGBT representation. Of the 698 characters on the networks’ scripted primetime series, only 19 were LGBT characters — or, roughly, 2.7% of characters — and, of those, just 6 were women. To put that in context, GLAAD’s annual “Where We Are on TV” report noted that American primetime television achieved that same feat nearly a decade ago: with LGBT characters making up 2.6% of primetime characters during the 2008-2009 season and 3% of character in the following season.
Juliana and Valentina share their first kiss. A groundbreaking moment on Spanish-language television.
Those numbers are evidence that Spanish-language television needs to do better by its audience. Viewers deserve more programming that’s reflective of the world they live in. While some people will point to the strain of conservatism and religiousity that exists in Spanish-language households as justification for limiting the inclusion of LGBT storylines, the numbers tell a different story. At the same time Juliana and Valentina’s love story was ramping up on Amar a Muerte, Univision was experiencing its one of its most successful quarters to date. The network finished 2018 not only as the leading Spanish-language channel on network television but also as the only broadcast network — Spanish or English — to post audience gains during the fourth quarter. Univision’s success, particularly among younger viewers, should serve as a lesson to television writers and creators: there is no assumption about an audience that cannot be undone by deep and thoughtful storytelling.
Amar a Muerte gave audiences that with Juliana and Valentina. It isn’t a ratings ploy. It isn’t a sensationalistic storyline that ends in death. It’s love and, given the opportunity, any audience would embrace it. Even if you don’t speak Spanish, let go of whatever reluctance you might have about consuming a love story via subtitles, because the things that defy words — the connection, the chemistry, the longing — are so palpable, you barely even need them. You’ll see yourself in the touches and glances between friends that start out platonic but become something more. In the scene where Juliana comes out to her mother, her defiant stance tells you everything you need to know: Juliana refuses to let anything come between her and the woman she loves.
“This isn’t wrong. Love is not a perversion, okay? And you know what? This is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever felt in my whole life,” Juliana insists, as she slips her hand into Valentina’s.
That coming out scene stands out for two reasons: first, it’s another opportunity for Juliana to showcase her strength. From the moment she meets Valentina in the park, she’s her anchor: a steadying and calming force even as the world throws one calamity after another at them. Juliana is willing to risk her relationship with her mother to hold onto this love she’s found…and there’s not a second of indecision on her face, as she puts herself between her girlfriend and her mother’s threats. Second, it’s another example of Amar a Muerte being forthright in affirming the identity of queer women. Everytime Juliana and Valentina are confronted with homophobia, it’s batted back with a full-throated defense of their right to love who they want.
I hope that Juliana and Valentina live on, on-screen, one day. While I’m thrilled that they got their happy ending, there is so much more story to be told with these two fully-realized characters, that it’d be a shame to lose them after one series. That said, Juliana and Valentina have emerged — like a rose from concrete — from a genre that hasn’t been hospitable in its depictions of LGBT stories and, maybe — hopefully — they will usher in change…even if they’re not around to lead it.
Autostraddle March Madness — Best Coming Out Final
A few years back, the NCAA started doing a thing called “teamcast” as part of its Final Four coverage. If you just wanted to watch the regular game, called by Jim Nantz, Grant Hill and Bill Raftery, you watched on CBS, but if you were a fan of either of the two teams involved, the NCAA promoted “teamcasts” on their partner networks. So, for example, in 2018, the NCAA championship final was between Michigan and Villanova. If you were a Michigan fan, you could watch the championship on TNT and hear the game called by a slate of analysts directly connected to Michigan. If you were a Villanova fan, you could watch the championship on TruTV and hear the game called by a slate of analysts with intimate knowledge of ‘Nova basketball. It always struck me as a blantantly obvious grab for more advertising dollars but maybe I’m just salty that my alma mater hasn’t gotten close to the national championship game in 25 years.
I’m mentioning all this because, I’m switching things up a little bit this year… instead of giving my own takes of what makes our finalist worthy of your vote for the national championship, I’m doing my own version of the teamcast. After Alex Danvers and Juliana Valdés won their respective semifinal match-ups — neither of which turned out to be close, surprisingly — I reached out to two Autostraddle readers, Emily Danvers and Jessica Vazquez, to talk about their personal connections to the characters’ coming out stories.
March Madness is a fun contest to put together… finding 64 participants means rewatching a lot of stories I’d forgotten about and unearthing new ones that I hadn’t made time for or that I hadn’t even been aware of. I always end up learning a lot. When the voting commences, I know it often ends up being one fandom between another and while that’s the nature of the game, it overshadows what’s really important: our connection to these stories…which, especially with respect to coming out stories, is often so deep and palpable. So, in this last round of voting, I want to center that again.
#4. Alex Danvers – Supergirl
As it happens, Emily Danvers hadn’t seen a single episode of Supergirl before she witnessed Alex Danvers come out to her sister. She’d never watched the show before, she’d never read the comics, she just happened to walk into a room at work at that exact moment. A moment of pure serendipity. It was the first time she’d ever seen Supergirl and she fell in love with it, and Alex Danvers, in particular, right away. She rushed to catch up, binge watching the entire series, and saw herself in Alex.
“I’d only been able to tell a few people I liked girls at that point and only if they asked. I absolutely couldn’t call myself gay or a lesbian out loud,” Emily explained. “Those scenes could have been me and Chyler Leigh made it so powerful with her hesitation and her body language and the way she could barely look at Kara or Maggie. I’d had so many conversations in the months before where I wanted to come out but just couldn’t say the words.”
Like Alex, Emily tried to avoid dating and, in the rare instance that she did date, she didn’t enjoy it. Like Alex, she’d almost convinced herself that she just wasn’t built for love. Like Alex, she’d repressed feelings of attraction for women until she found her Maggie: the person for whom she could no longer deny her feelings. Like Alex, she was scared to come out to her family and friends, worried that the admission would tarnish the image of the person they’d known. But, as good representation does, Alex Danvers’ coming out story offered Emily not just a reflection of herself but a glimpse into the possibility of it all. Seeing Alex Danvers, the ass-kicking agent at the DEO, be vulnerable and fearful, gave Emily space to be that too. Seeing Alex Danvers — someone, in her late 20s, already with an established, successful career — come out, gave Emily a reprieve: coming out can happen at any age and no one should feel guilty about what age they do it.
Alex comes out to her sister, Kara, on Supergirl.
“Maggie telling Alex ‘we should kiss the girls we want to kiss’ and Alex kissing her back was the final bit of permission I needed to choose to be out,” Emily told me. “A couple of weeks after seeing that episode I finally came out to my best friend, something that I’d been trying to do for months. Then over the next few months I told more friends, my sister and some people at work. I couldn’t use the word gay at first so I practiced saying ‘I’m gay’ and ‘I’m a lesbian’ alone in my car where nobody could hear me until I could say them confidently and without stammering and could say them to actual people. Without Alex I don’t think I would’ve found the confidence to do any of that, certainly not for months or years.”
For Emily, Alex Danvers’ story stands out as a rarity among coming out stories because of its authenticity: all of Alex’s emotions — the fear, the excitement, the passion, the heartbreak — echoed everything Emily felt as she navigated her own coming out. Alex Danvers’ story was beautiful in its simplicity, “it was just Alex getting to figure out who she was, over several episodes, with the love of her family and friends and then getting to be happy about it,” Emily pointed out. And, in a television landscape that too often consigns coming out stories to high school students and tries to convince us we have to have it all figured out by adulthood, Alex Danvers stands out: the rare adult character who finds this thing about herself that she never knew she was hiding.
#4. Juliana Valdés – Amar a Muerte
Jessica Vazquez was reluctant to embrace Amar a Muerte at first. She’d been down this road before — first, with Los hombres de Paco and then with Tierra de lobos — of investing in a telenovela’s queer love story only to watch it devolve into recycled tropes and end in burying one or more of their gays, so she resisted. Who could blame her? The show’s literally called “Love to Death.” But, after seeing the show’s lesbian couple, Juliana and Valentina (portmanteau: Juliantina), recur on her twitter timeline: Jessica finally relented and did a deep dive into the couple’s history, including discovering clips of their scenes, translated by a community who wanted to give Juliantina a wider audience.
Julia comes out to her mother by reaffirming her love for Valentina on Amar a Muerte.
For Jessica, Juliana’s coming out story evokes a lot of nostalgia. She sees herself and her high school best friend in Juliana and Valentina’s love story on Amar a Muerte. The wistful stares and the dreamy gazes that flash across Juliana’s face reminded her of her own. Like Juliana and Valentina, Jessica and her best friend would spend countless hours together. Jessica wrote songs for her friend and comforted her with all-night movie marathons when her best friend broke up with her boyfriend. She’d fallen in love with her best friend even if, at the time, she didn’t realize it.
“To say I was clueless to how I felt would be an understatement. One time she kissed me and she asked me if I thought we could be bisexual. I froze and didn’t say anything and her mother came in so we quickly moved away from each other and we never talked about it after that,” Jessica shared, her story slightly mirroring how Juliana’s mother found out about her daughter’s relationship. “Seeing Juliana and Valentina struggle with their feelings for each other by talking to one another about it reminded me of that time of my life.”
When Juliana’s mother, Lupe, finds her daughter together, she tries to tear them apart but it doesn’t work. Juliana’s tenaciousness — her “unwavering drive to make her own way despite all obstacles” — is what makes her coming out story worth stand out, Jessica told me. There’s not a moment of equivocation from Juliana. When Lupe and El Chino object to her relationship, she is unwavering: what she feels for Valentina is real love and not something she should be ashamed of. Those affirmations are powerful on their own, but in a genre and on a channel that hasn’t been thoughtful in its depiction of lesbian storylines, they were groundbreaking.
“I have witnessed many perfectly good queer romances fall apart on screen because one character was made to use the intensity of their feelings as the weapon. Thankfully, Juliana’s stubbornness wasn’t used as a way to denounce her feelings for Valentina,” Jessica said. “Instead, it was used as a way to orchestrate one of the best endings any fan of queer television could hope for. Juliana Valdes got the storybook ending she deserved, and so did everyone who was rooting for her.”
Maybe if she’d been able to see Juliana’s coming out story, and the story of her love for Valentina, when she was younger, maybe Jessica’s story would have ended differently. Perhaps a younger generation of women can watch Juliana’s story and have the words she lacked. Maybe a younger generation can find their own Valentinas and get their own storybook endings.
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Autostraddle March Madness — Best Coming Out: Final Four
“What makes a good coming out story?”
That’s the question that’s hung over this entire contest since we began and it’s one that I’ve been thinking a lot about recently. Personally I’ve always been a fan of emotional coming out stories like Bianca’s tearful confession to her mother on All My Children… not because I saw my own experience reflected — my parents’ response to me coming out was the rhetorical equivalent of a shrug — but because it offered an external representation of everything that I’d been grappling with internally.
With the addition of the CLASSICS category, I’ve been wondering about how our expectations of what makes for a good coming out have changed. When I was one of the 42 million people watching Ellen‘s puppy episode, I couldn’t have imagined a world with Elena Alvarez’s coming out story — which spans the entire first season of One Day at a Time — was even possible. Is the future of coming out stories on television extended story arcs like Denise on Master of None or, as we come out to a more accepting society, are we going to see more subtle coming out stories like Kate Littlejohn on For the People or the titular character on Abby’s? What’s the future of coming out on Spanish-language television after Juliantina has made such an indelible mark? What do you think?
Or do you not care at all and just want to see which coming out stories have earned a spot in our Final Four? Okay, okay…
Remember: you’ve got 48 hours to summon all the fandom to Autostraddle to select the two competitors for the Best Coming Out story. Feel free to revisit my earlier write-ups — Classics, Baby Gays, GROWN and International — and the video links (where available), if you need some help making up your mind.
We’ll be back next week to announce the competitors in the National Championship!
In the CLASSICS region, the battle between the #1 and #2 seeds lived up to every expectation; I watched this week as the lead volleyed back and forth between Ellen and Santana. The GLEE songstress has had an impressive run in the tournament but ultimately met her match. Ellen Morgan managed to fend off two L Word alums in Carmen and Lara and then bested Santana Lopez in the regional finals. It’s interesting to think about Ellen Degeneres: last year, she retook the stand-up stage in a comedy special called Relatable, which, in some ways only emphasized how un-relatable she’d become. But here we have the groundbreaking “puppy episode,” which audiences still find so relatable.
Ellen will take her #1 seed into the Final 4 and into a match-up with Alex Danvers of Supergirl who, miraculously, beat out Wynonna Earp‘s Waverly in the regional finals of the GROWN region. I thought for sure that the #FightForWynonna fandom would carry their favorite to victory — after all, they’d managed to survive challenges from three fan favorites: Kat Edison, Rosa Diaz and Petra Solano — but no such luck. Perhaps I should’ve anticipated Alex advancing to the Finals. After all, one thing I’ve learned about March Madness is that its hard to sustain a fandom over multiple instances of voting: the better scene usually does win out in the end. The same fate befell Wynonna Earp in last year’s contest.
#1. Ellen Morgan – Ellen vs. #4. Alex Danvers – Supergirl
While I may have seen the International regional finals match-up between Valentina Carvajal and Juliana Valdés on Amar a Muerte coming, I freely admit, I had absolutely no idea which of the girls would win. On the one hand, you had this great coming out scene with Valentina coming out on national television, thwarting efforts by others to out her and asserting that she has nothing to feel ashamed of; while, on the other, you had Juliana standing up to her own mother — putting her body between Valentina and physical danger — and affirming her love. How do you even choose between those? Somehow y’all did, though, giving a narrow victory to Juliana, who moves onto the Final Four.
To advance to the Finals, Juliana will need to upset the most formidable competitor in the field: the Baby Gays regional champion, Elena Alvarez. After dispatching Willow Rosenberg in the Sweet 16, it seemed like a given that Elena Alvarez would be the last of the baby gays standing but even I didn’t anticipate that she’d do it so handily. Nia Nal’s success in the early rounds had me convinced that television’s first trans superhero would give Elena her first real test, but it was not to be… Elena won easily and now has to be the prohibitive favorite to win it all.
#4. Juliana Valdés – Amar a Muerte vs. #1. Elena Alvarez – One Day at a Time
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Autostraddle March Madness — Best Coming Out: Elite 8
Did you watch the women’s Final Four games over the weekend? Three games over two days decided by a grand total of just 11 points…which is just slightly closer than last year’s epic Final Four which had been decided by a grand total of only 15 points? We got three amazing games, some epic performances — Sabrina! Kalani! Brianna! Arike! Chloe! — and more than our fair share of heartbreaking moments. The no call foul against Sabrina Ionescu in the waning moments of the Oregon-Baylor game. The knee injury for Lauren Cox of Baylor which allowed Notre Dame to storm back in the national championship game. Arike Ogunbowale missing the front end of a 1-and-1 that would’ve sent the national championship into overtime.
It was an amazing…but also? Agonizing. Oh, so very agonizing. I think my heart rate is just beginning to come back to normal. In short, it’s everything that basketball fans have come to expect from the this time of year that we call March Madness.
Our version of March Madness hasn’t been nearly as maddening — well, except maybe one decision in the GROWN region, but we’ll talk about that later — but we’ve still had our share of excitement. Here’s the updated look at the Best Coming Out Story bracket:
Now it’s time to make your picks! You’ve got 48 hours to summon all the fandom to Autostraddle to vote for whom should represent the CLASSICS, Baby Gays, GROWN, and International regions. Feel free to revisit my earlier write-ups — Classics, Baby Gays, GROWN and International — and the video links (where available), if you need some help making up your mind.
We’ll tabulate the votes after Thursday’s deadline and announce the Final Four on Friday.
In the CLASSICS region, early on, it looked like our favorite soup chef, Lara Perkins, would capture some of the L Word reboot energy and pull the upset of the tournament, defeating the region’s #1 seed, Ellen Morgan. After the first few hours of voting, Lara Perkins had built a fairly sizable lead. But, perhaps angered by the reverse puppy episode of Will & Grace, Ellen stormed out in front over the weekend and advanced to the Elite 8.
Likewise, early voting in the Santana Lopez vs. Naomi Campbell contest had me thinking that it’d be our closest match-up in the third round but that turned out not to be the case. The GLEE songstress’ road to the Elite 8 has been as impressive as anyone in the field: beating Anna Taggaro, one of the first queer women of color on television, in the first round, overcoming the strength of a reawakened Pretty Little Liars fandom in round two, and now handily defeating Naomi’s poignant coming out scene from the Skins finale (Yes, it’s the finale. Skins Fire? I don’t know her).
#1. Ellen Morgan – Ellen vs. #2. Santana Lopez – GLEE
Over in the Baby Gays region, Elena Alvarez may have pulled off the upset of the tournament by beating Buffy‘s Willow Rosenberg in the Sweet 16. Elena continues to be one of the top vote getters in the field — only edged out by Ellen — which I think is reflective of the enthusiasm that remains for One Day at at Time (#SaveODAAT) and how resonant her coming out story was to a lot of Autostraddle readers.
Two of March Madness’ biggest surprises — Supergirl‘s Nia Nal and Atypical‘s Casey Gardner — met in the Sweet 16. It was interesting to see two of the regions most subtle coming out stories advance this far in the region and I’m curious how much it represents changing expectations for what coming out is. The lead in the Nia vs. Casey match-up volleyed back and forth between the two over the weekend but ultimately Nia won out.
#1. Elena Alvarez – One Day at a Time vs. #10. Nia Nal – Supergirl
It’s also interesting to wonder if Nia Nal’s success in the Baby Gays region is due, in part, to the success of Alex Danvers in the GROWN region. Both of Supergirl coming out stories have advanced to the Elite 8 Much to my dismay, the director of the DEO beat Denise’s Emmy award winning coming out story on Master of None. Winning an Emmy should get you an automatic bid to the Final Four I’d think…but no such luck…and Alex Danvers will dance on.
One of the most interesting parts of March Madness is to listen to people bemoan how agonizing the match-ups are — like Waverly vs. Petra in the Sweet 16 — only to get lopsided results when the votes are tabulated. Waverly beat Petra by a comfortable margin…which I take both as a referendum of how vigilant the #FightForWynonna effort is and disappointment that Petra and JR split in the first episode of the new season of Jane the Virgin. A vote for Waverly as a rebuke for not-Michael’s ogling of Petra? Totally valid.
#3. Waverly Earp – Wynonna Earp vs. #4. Alex Danvers – Supergirl
The Elite 8 match-up in the International region seemed inevitable from the outset: both parts of a beloved couple, whose show only recently conclude, on opposite ends of the bracket…of course they’d end of meeting in the regional final. But, if I’m being honest, I was a bit surprised not to see Mercedes Möller not pull off the win. I know a lot of March Madness becomes about one fandom versus another and Perdona nuestros pecados‘ Barcedes fandom has had eight months to die down…but, still, I thought Mercedes coming out to her father was so awing that it might prevail.
But Juliantina was not going to be denied: not against Mercedes and not against Luisita Gómez from Amar es para siempre. Luisita put up a strong fight — actually garnering more votes than Mercedes did in the third round — but ultimately, she fell short as well. Both Valentina Carvajal and Juliana Valdés advanced to the Elite 8 and now Amar a Muerte fans will have to choose between their faves to find out which coming out story earns a place in the Final Four.
#3. Valentina Carvajal – Amar a Muerte vs. #4. Juliana Valdés – Amar a Muerte
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Autostraddle March Madness — Best Coming Out: Sweet 16
A funny thing happened after I posted the match-ups for the Round of 32 earlier this week: I became, quite possibly, the most hated person at Autostraddle. Even my own TV Team colleagues turned on me. First, Carmen said, “Wow Natalie!! I didn’t know our friendship was ending today, but here we are,” when she saw her faves — Denise and Kat Sandoval and Erica Hahn and Petra Solano — pitted against each other. Then Valerie chimed in calling the Waverly Earp vs. Rosa Diaz match-up the rudest things I’d ever done to her. I got messages from lots of Autostraddle readers telling me how painful the match-ups were and how much time they spent agonizing over the right choice.
Meanwhile, I’m over here like:
It’s not my fault.
This is why they call it March Madness, right? I’ll save you the basketball nerdery for why it’s called March Madness or when the regional semifinals got dubbed the “Sweet 16,” and instead, let’s hop right into reviewing the havoc you reeked in Round 2 of our March Madness competition…and seeing what match-ups cause me to lose friends this time.
In the CLASSICS round, everyone’s favorite soup chef continues to pull out upsets, as Lara Perkins follows her upset of Bianca Montgomery with an upset of #5-seed Paige McCullers, in the closest match-up in the region. Paige wasn’t the only Pretty Little Liars alum to taste defeat, as GLEE‘s Santana Lopez defeated Emily Fields pretty handily. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that Ellen’s managed to advance through two rounds — she is the #1 seed, after all — but defeating Carmen de la Pica Morales? I definitely thought she might stumble.
#1. Ellen Morgan – Ellen vs. #13. Lara Perkins – The L Word
#2. Santana Lopez – GLEE vs. #3. Naomi Campbell – Skins
In the Baby Gays region, one-half of our reigning March Madness champion, Kate Messner, is taken out in the second round by Willow Rosenberg. It’s not a surprise, really — it may have been an impossible match-up — but still, I’m a little heartbroken to see one of my favorite baby gays bow out this early.
Meanwhile, I may have underestimated the staying power of Casey Gardner from Atypical: first she upsets Coop from All American in the first round and then she upsets Nicole from Fresh Off the Boat in the second?! Clearly, I’ll have to pay more attention to Atypical when it returns later this year. She faces a real test in the Sweet 16, though: Nia Nal of Supergirl has pulled two upsets of her own, winning both of her match-ups in overwhelming fashion.
#1. Elena Alvarez – One Day at a Time vs. #5. Willow Rosenberg – Buffy
#10. Nia Nal – Supergirl vs. #14. Casey – Atypical
I try not to pick favorites when it comes to March Madness but I couldn’t help rooting for Erica Hahn in the GROWN region. I loved that character so much and even though it’s been ten years (!!) since she was on Grey’s Anatomy, watching the video of her coming out to Callie still gets me every time. But, hey, I get it…it’s hard to side with a character that’s been off the show for 10 years than a character that proudly proclaimed her bisexuality to her ex-husband a few weeks ago.
Petra’s win means that she advances to the Sweet 16 to face Waverly Earp, who was propelled into the round by the #FightForWynonna fandom, over a formidable Rosa Diaz. So, yeah, you have that right: Petra Solano vs. Waverly Earp. I think we just found the new rudest thing I’ve ever done to Valerie.
Alex Danvers has been the lead vote-getter in GROWN region but now she faces her biggest test of March Madness thus far: the Emmy award winning coming out story of Denise from Master of None.
#1. Denise – Master of None vs. #4. Alex Danvers – Supergirl
#3. Waverly Earp – Wynonna Earp vs. #7. Petra Solano – Jane the Virgin
In the International region of last year’s March Madness competition, Kate and Rana of Coronation Street had a relatively easy path to the Final Four. I attributed their advantage to the fact that they were slightly more accessible (read: English) than some of the other shows in the field. But this year, the votes have gone a different way: the four contestants left standing in the International are all from Spanish speaking novelas.
Despite a valiant late push from Derry Girls‘ star, Nicola Coughlan, our favorite wee lesbian couldn’t pull off the upset of Valentina Carvajal. Her fellow Channel 4 lesbian, Nasreen Paracha also tasted defeat in the Round of 32, going down to Amar es para siempre‘s Luisita Gómez.
So now we’re left with three amazing ships, with three unrelenting fandoms behind them: #Barcedes vs. #Luimelia vs. #Juliantina. It’ll be fun to see how this shakes out.
#1. Mercedes Möller – Perdona nuestros pecados vs. #4. Juliana Valdés – Amar a Muerte
#3. Valentina Carvajal – Amar a Muerte vs. #7 Luisita Gómez – Amar es para siempre
Remember, you have 48 hours to cast your ballot. If you’re not familiar with a character or show, check out my earlier write-ups — Classics, Baby Gays, GROWN and International — and the video links (where available) to help you make up your mind. We’ll be back on Tuesday with an updated bracket and the results of your voting.
So who’s going to the Elite 8?
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Autostraddle March Madness — Best Coming Out: International
Last year, when I was putting together our first March Madness, I noticed some comments from readers on one of our weekly Boobs on Your Tube columns alerting us to a surprise coming out story on an episode of a relatively new British sitcom called Derry Girls. It was long before the show would show up on Netflix and capitivate us all but it really got me thinking about the representation more globally. So I decided I’d add an International region to March Madness…both as a tribute to our international readers and as a way to expand the conversation about LGBT representation on television. I set off to find 16 competitors for the International region and was shocked by what I found.
I found Las Estrellas, an Argentinian telenovela that afforded its lesbian couple every bit as much depth and screentime as its straight couples. I found shows like Vis a vis which, though comparable to Orange is the New Black in terms of subject matter, was doing what OITNB did but on network television. I found shows like Perdona nuestros pecados and Jugo Duplo that featured some of the most provocative lesbian scenes I’d ever seen on television. I found communities of queer women sharing these stories on widely on the Internet — on twitter, Tumblr and Youtube — and even translating the scenes so that language wouldn’t be a barrier to seeing our love showcased.
That’s not to say it’s all amazing: after all, Coronation Street did just kill one of the few lesbian Muslim characters on television (RIP Rana Habeeb) and I’m pretty sure Neighbours is engaged in some of the worst queerbaiting I’ve seen in a while. But still, there’s plenty of good stuff out there…and, perhaps, one of this year’s International regional competitors will pique your interest.
As always, you have 48 hours to vote for your favorites in the International region. If you’ve seen the episodes, vote accordingly. If not, check out my descriptions or links to video of those scenes (where available). We’ll be back on Monday to review which 32 characters have advanced past the first round and will compete for a shot at the Sweet 16.
#1. Mercedes Möller – Perdona nuestros pecados
Just before Mercedes Möller comes out to her father, the fictional Chilean town in which the show is set, Villa Ruiseñor, is struck by an earthquake. Left alone in the living room while her girlfriend, Bárbara, looks for candles, Mercedes’ home is broken into my two thugs looking for money and jewels. They try to assault her but before things can get to far, Bárbara swoops in and saves her. She clings to Barbara like a life raft after that, drawing the suspicions of her father, and is heartbroken when he pushes Bárbara out the door to go check on her husband. Later when her father confronts her about Bárbara, Mercedes tries to paint their relationship as purely friendship but, eventually, she can’t abide the lies anymore.
“I am a woman and I love her. I love Bárbara Román,” Mercedes says, adding later, “Don’t you think it’s hard for me to admit? But I don’t want to lie to you anymore. I don’t want any more lies.”
Mercedes’ father reacts angrily to having his long-held suspicions confirmed and slaps Mercedes twice but it only makes her more resolved to stand in her truth.
#16. Sophie Webster – Coronation Street
Before Sophie Webster comes out to her father, she, her girlfriend, Sian, and her family attend the wedding of Roy Cropper to Hayley Patteson (who was, coincidentally, the first trans character on a British soap and the first trans character to be a series regular worldwide). At the wedding, Claire Peacock outed Sophie and Sian to the entire congregration but Sophie’s overbearing mother, Sally, called Claire a liar and assures Sophie and Sian that no one thinks they aren’t “normal.”
Later, alone with her father, Sophie confesses the truth: “Me and Sian — what Claire said — it’s true, we’re together.”
#2. Nasreen Paracha – Ackley Bridge
Just before Nasreen comes out to her mother, she’s agreed to get married, to a man, at the behest of her absolute bum of a father. Nas’ mom, Kaneez, is totally opposed to the marriage, worried that her daughter will fall into the same trap that she did. It’s not her dad that convinces her to do it, though…nor is it the money that marrying into this well-off Pakistani family might provide; she agrees to marry a man because a woman’s broken her heart.
Once Nas affirms that getting married is really what she wants, her mother acquiesces and they begin to make arrangements. But when Nas is forced to look at herself in the mirror with her mother’s wedding jewelry strung across her hair, she realizes she can’t do it. Her mother assumes that she’s reluctant because she likes and English boy but Nasreen tearfully admits that’s not the reason.
“I love a girl,” she says, “I love…I love another woman, Mum. I’m a lesbian.”
Nas’ mother doesn’t respond well in the moment but her journey to accepting her daughter is best coming out arcs I’ve seen on television.
#15. Bernadette Taylor – Eastenders
After the death of one of their friends last May, Bernadette and her friends sneak into a local nightclub to celebrate the way their friend would have wanted with a good party. The teens get drunk and play the requisite drinking games: first truth or dare and then spin the bottle. The first time Bernie’s best friend, Tiff, spins the bottle, it lands on her and, after some prodding from the boys, the two girls kiss…which leads to confusion from Bernie about her feelings. Then, when it’s time for Tiff the spin the bottle again, it lands on her brother, and Bernie watches with jealously as Tiff kisses him. Seven months later, less confused about her feelings about Tiffany, Bernie comes out to her mother during a New Year’s celebration.
“I think I’m in love…with a girl,” Bernie admits pensively. “Do you hate me?”
“How could I ever hate you?” her mom replies, beaming at her daughter like she just hung the moon. “You are who you are, Darling. I’m so proud of you.”
#3. Valentina Carvajal – Amar a Muerte
Coming out is difficult for anyone but coming out when you’ve got the whole world watching? That’s a pressure that most people can’t even fathom. But Valentina does it, for herself, for Juliana and for all the people who’d try to shame them for the love they share.
Valentina is part of a prominent family: until his murder, her father, Leon Carvajal, was a successful, rich and powerful media mogul. Some paparazzi are out to cash in on the details of her personal life — revelations that they think will cause harm and embarrassment to her family — and, before they tell her story for her, Valentina decides to do it on her own terms. In a television interview, she admits to falling into a depression after her father’s death and turning to alcohol to help her cope. She was finally able to escape the darkness thanks to an incredible person…an incredible woman.
“Valentina, so you came to this show to reveal that you’re openly gay?” the interviewer asks.
She takes a moment and then answers the question directly, “I’m not a fan of labels to be honest but the truth is that I’m in love with a woman and her name is Juliana Valdes.”
#14. Vanessa Woodfield – Emmerdale
Vanessa Woodfield’s history with Charity Dingle is fraught (though, in fairness, that can pretty much be said for nearly everyone in Emmerdale). Charity once worked with Vanessa’s father, Frank, to steal some diamonds and in the post-heist haze, the pair share a kiss and it leads to a one-night stand. When word gets back to Frank’s fiancée, Megan, she joins forces with Charity and sets abaout to have Frank arrested on a trumped up fraud charge. So, like I said…the history is fraught…
As a result, there’s no one more surprised than Vanessa when a drunken kiss with Charity just a few months later re-awakens an interest in women. Fearful that the word will get out — or, at the very least, that Charity will continue to torment her with their secret — Vanessa tells her father and the entire town about her burgeoning sexuality.
“To save you from gossiping and for anyone she hasn’t yet announced it to, I slept with Charity,” Vanessa announces in the town pub. “Right now I don’t know if I’m gay, straight, bi, curious, I’m just having fun finding out. So, no labels, no gossip and no laughing.”
#4. Juliana Valdés – Amar a Muerte
In a lot of ways, Juliana’s coming out feels reminscient of Spencer Carlin’s on South of Nowhere: mother finds her daughter kissing her girlfriend and angrily tries to separate them. But what makes what happens on Amar a Muerte a thousand times better — and what makes Juliana’s coming out scene feel really triumphant — is Juliana’s willingness to stand up to her mother and take a firm stand for her love for Valentina.
When her mother tries to grab Valentina, Juliana pushes her away and plants herself between her girlfriend and the danger. When her mother argues that what they’re doing is wrong, Juliana confidentally asserts that there’s nothing wrong about the love between her and Valentina. No one took advantage of her, she says when her mother suggests otherwise, and reminds her of Valentina’s generosity to them both. Juliana is willing to fight for her love.
“This is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever felt in my whole life,” Juliana proclaims, as she slips her hand into Valentina’s.
#13. Liv Flaherty – Emmerdale
Television has not been kind to asexual characters and, in particular, asexual women. Of the limited number of portrayals of asexuality in pop culture, most of the characters have skewed male with the exception of Poppy on the short-lived Huge and Val on Sirens. I’m grateful that asexual women, especially asexual teens, now have representation again in the form of Liv Flaherty on Emmerdale.
Two things struck me about Liv coming out to her brother: first, it does a good job at explaining asexuality in an organic and conversational way. Emmerdale balances representation of underrepresented communities with education as well as any show I’ve seen. Second, it’s notable that Liv’s this conversation with her brother, Aaron, who is gay…because being part of the LGBTQIA community doesn’t always mean we don’t need educating on other facets of sexuality.
#5. Sara Millán (Óscar Ruiz) – Las Chicas Del Cable
Carlota becomes suspicious of her girlfriend, Sara, when she discovers that she’s meeting in hotel room with a man named Óscar Ruiz. She follows her, discovers Sara dressed in men’s clothing and confronts her about it. Sara admits that she is Óscar Ruiz. She recounts a part of her childhood — her dressing up in her brother’s clothes — and how, initially, her father though nothing of it. But after a while, she’d done it so often that people started to talk and her father threatened her to get her to stop.
“One day, I stood up to him. I told him how I felt: a man trapped in a woman’s body,” she admits to Carlota. “He gave me a terrible beating. He told me I was sick, and he made me swear I’d never do it again. I managed to control my impulses out of fear of my father, but now he isn’t here.”
#12. Hailey Yarner – The Bletchley Circle: San Francisco
When Hailey Yarner comes out to her mentor, Iris Bearden, they’re using their code-breaking skills to thwart a drug-smuggling ring and some corrupt police officers. The drug-smuggling ring has been using the codes of the Mattachine Society — one of the first gay rights activist groups — to cover their elicit activity. As they work, Hailey comes out to Iris in a whisper and Iris doesn’t mince words when she tells her to keep it quiet…it’s still the 1950s after all. Her reaction infuriate Hailey until finally
“I like women,” Hailey tells Iris in “Iron in War.” “In ways that I shouldn’t, but so much so, I stopped giving a damn. And I know you’re worried about me saying it out loud, worried the truth’ll go and wreck everything. But not saying it, that’s wrecking me worse, in a million different ways.”
Eventually, Iris realizes her folly and accepts her apprentice for who she is.
#6. Sydney Katz – Saving Hope
It’s been nearly two years since the Canadian medical drama Saving Hope went off the air but I wanted to highlight this storyline which illuminates the challenges of coming out in the Orthodox Jewish community. Plus, I’m happy to celebrate any time Stacey Farber plays gay as a way to console myself over the fact that Ellie Nash wasn’t gay on Degrassi (#stillmad)…but I digress…
Before she comes out to Maggie officially — the pair had already shared a kiss before this conversation so it wasn’t exactly a secret — they get a patient who’s having baby with her partner. The patient recognizes Sydney immediately and orders her to stay far away from her. Sydney explains later, that the patient, Neshema, was her first crush and, as a child, when she saw her kissing another girl, she ran and told Neshema’s mother…not because of what the Bible says but because she was so heartbroken. As Sydney grieves over all the pain she caused, Maggie reminds her that Neshema is happy today.
Later, Sydney comes back to Maggie and admits, “I like girls. There. I said it,” before they kiss again.
#11. Clare Devlin – Derry Girls
Short on material for the new issue of The Habit, Erin decides to steal an essay from the school’s “Searching For Myself” writing competition and pass it off as actual journalism. She stumbles on an entry entitled, “Suffocation: the secret life of a gay teenager” and knows right away that it’s the one they want to print. Clare objects and Erin asks, “You’re not afraid of a bit of controversy, are you?”
At which point, I yell, “have you even met her?” at my television. Because, of course, Clare is afraid of controversy. No one even suspects her of being the “wee lesbian” because Clare hyperventilating over getting in trouble is a given in almost every circumstance. But Erin doesn’t need Clare’s approval and opts to publish it anyway. Clare Devlin comes out, anonymously, in the pages of the school magazine. The experience helps her realize that the fears that she’s been carrying about coming out weren’t legitimate.
“I’m the wee lesbian,” she admits. “I’ve never been brave enough to say it out loud before, but I think that’s why I wrote the story, and then it all got too real, I got too scared, but now, well, you’ve made me realize it’s all OK.”
#7. Luisita Gómez – Amar es para siempre
There’s a moment, just after Luisita Gomez comes out to her mother, Manolita, on Amar es para siempre where her mother’s discussing Luisita’s revelation with her other daughter, Maria. Despite Luisita’s unequivocal admission of love for Amelia, Manolita’s skeptical. Luisita is prone to impulsiveness and Manolita’s convinced that this is just another example of it. She doubts that her daughter has really thought this through.
“But you always told us about Teresa and Ana, and you told us they were really happy,” Maria points out. The mere mention of Teresa and Ana gives me a bout of “Bury Your Gays” PTSD but later Maria adds, “I think, step by step, things are changing…we are not in the same situation as when Teresa and Ana fell in love.”
It’s as much an admission about the times that Amar es para siempre depicts as it, seemingly, is about the show itself and its commitment not to repeat the mistakes of the past. But, I digress…
Manolita’s worry about Luisita is unfounded because her love for Amelia has put everything into perspective for her. She’s thinking as clearly as she ever has…a fact made abundantly clear when she contemplates coming out to her father.
“Love exists,” Luisita tells her father, as sure as she’s ever been about anything. “And I’ve found it and I have also found that special person. Dad, the person who I’ve falled in love with — the love of my life — that person is Amelia.”
#10. Manuela “Manu” Gandia – Like, la leyenda
The best way I can think to describe Like, la leyenda is as a cross between Degrassi and GLEE…or, if you’re a fan of Mexican telenovelas, consider Like a modern Rebelde reboot. The show centers around the happenings of a large cast of young people at a prestigious prep school (LIKE stands for “Life Institute of Knowledge Evolution”) and, of those students, eight kids perform as part of the school’s band. Almost immediately, the show cements Manuela “Manu” Gandia as an someone that’s unapologetically herself and who doesn’t hesistate to speak her mind and push the limits of everyone else around her. It’s fitting then that when she comes out, about a third of the way through the telenovela’s run, it’s not really about her. Manuela’s always been sure of who she is; instead, she comes out to defy some else’s homophobic father.
Manuela’s classmate, Pablo, brings her home to meet his parents and participate in the family’s annual awards show competition. Pablo’s father is relieved that his son has finally brought home a girlfriend, as he was starting to worry. She and Pablo quickly set his parents straight about the nature of their relationship — they’re just friends, obviously — and his mother assures Manuela that she’ll find a guy one day.
“Or a girl,” Manuela quickly adds, revealing her bisexuality to these parents whom she’s just met. Pablo’s father doesn’t take the revelation well and chastises Manu for her choices but she stays firm. Unbeknownst to her, by standing in her truth, she’s given other people the power and permission to do the same and, in the very next episode, Pablo comes out to her as gay.
#8. Umang Singh – Four More Shots Please
There’s something familiar — and slightly derivative, if I’m being honest — about Four More Shots Please, the original Indian series from Amazon. It’s a more modern take on Sex and the City, complete with its own Carrie (Sayani Gupta’s Damini), Miranda (Kirti Kulhari’s Anjana), Charlotte (Maanvi Gagroo’s Siddhi) and Samantha (Bani J’s Umang). Of course, telling those stories through the eyes of four Indian women — Four More Shots Please is groundbreaking in its foregrounding of those stories — makes it a very different show than SATC or its contemporaries, Girls and Insecure.
In FMSP, Bani J plays Umang Singh, a 20-something woman from a Punjabi village who escapes to Mumbai to lives as an out bisexual woman and advance her career as an in-demand personal trainer. The most relatable thing about Umang? She falls in love with Lisa Ray’s Samara Kapoor. Yes, that’s Lisa Ray of I Can’t Think Straight and The World Unseen fame. Queer women have been falling in love Lisa Ray for years…totally relatable content.
I don’t want to give too much of the plot away — FMSP is still relatively new content, after all — but it’s Umang’s love for Samara compels her to finally come out to her family….even as they’re trying to introduce her to the man they want her to marry and her closeted ex-girlfriend sits nearby.
#9. Morgane Guého – Demain nous appartient
When Sandrine meets Morgane, the connection between them is almost instanteous…Sandrine literally starts seeing stars after Morgane walks through the door. But when Sandrine’s son feels unsettled by his mom’s new relationship, she puts the breaks on their budding relationship. Morgane’s reluctantly acquiesces, saying that she’s never had a connection like this with anyone so she’s willing to wait.
It takes just a couple of weeks for Sandrine to change her mind and rather than take things slowly, she moves fullsteam ahead: renting a hotel room for the two of them. Morgane never shows. The next day, she tries to apologize but her apologies are full vague platitudes and Sandrine has zero interest in hearing her excuses. If Morgane can’t be honest about the complicated things in her life, Sandrine asks, what’s the point of continuing their relationship? That’s when Morgane decides to come out to Sandrine as trans.
“All my life, I felt like I was stuck in the wrong body and I kept this for myself. I was scared to be rejected so I didn’t say anything. But I started to hate myself, I couldn’t love anyone or love myself,” Morgane admits. “It took a few years but I became myself.”
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Amar a Muerte’s Juliantina Is Your New Favorite Queer Couple
If you’re a queer woman on the internet you probably already know about the new ship of dreams in town, but if you don’t, please allow me to introduce you to Juliantina! Juliantina is the ship name of Juliana and Valentina – a queer couple from the Mexican telenovela Amar a Muerte, which is, essentially, a story about love and destiny, with occasional turmoil and violence. What’s not to love about that combo!
The two women who encompass these characters, Macarena Achaga as Valentina Carvajal and Bárbara López as Juliana Valdes, take the show to another level. Their instant chemistry, from the moment they meet in episode 11, sets the tone for the entire telenovela. Destiny and ultimately the love that blossoms between the two supersedes, and transcends, the very idea of how love works! From instant best friends to lovers, Amar a Muerte get’s Juliantina’s story right! And for a Mexican telenovela to do just that is a feat in itself, since Mexico, like most Latin American countries, is very religious. To have a network put this kind of love story on air — not just as a ploy for ratings, but as an actual story line — is amazing.
Here’s a quick backstory of the two: Juliantina began as a friendship. Juliana is the daughter of a hitman who is on the run from the cartel that hired him. Juliana and her mom, Lupita, moved to Mexico, broke yet determined to get away from the cartel and to start their lives over. Valentina, is the daughter of a successful, rich, and powerful media mogul. Upon her father’s murder, she spirals into a deep depression with alcohol as her coping mechanism.
It’s Juliana who first sets eyes on Valentina. She’s walking with her mother, talking about finding a job, and right as they’re crossing the street, Valentina walks by with her very unsupportive, full of himself, selfish boyfriend, Lucho (but I digress). Juliana, immediately noticing how sad and despondent Valentina looks, can’t help but stare at Val. At this initial quick sighting from Juliana’s perspective, you can sense the beginning of an attraction. However, it’s not until the meeting in the park that the deal is really sealed.
Valentina is sitting on the bench, crying, lamenting over her father’s death and Juliana, remembering her from earlier, comes over and introduces herself. At that moment, the sparks fly. From their simple introductions to each other, you can feel the chemistry starting to emanate from the screen. The magic of their connection is palpable. From that point on, the audience knows that these two are something, that they are meant to be in each other lives, some way, somehow!
Throughout the show, Juliana and Valentina go through their ups and downs, some more ridiculous than others, as this is a sci-fi telenovela. They go through some real and honest times as well. Homophobia is tackled and brought to the forefront immediately. Amar a Muerte takes the time to deal with the topic. I found it particularly refreshing because it seemed genuine. And this coming from a telenovela was, to say the least, quite shocking to see.
Going back and re-watching the series, I kept revisiting Juliana and Valentina’s first kiss. Juliana’s mother had been kidnapped by the cartel who employed her father. Knowing the stress Juliana was in, Valentina invites her over to her house, to relax and go in the pool and to get away for a moment. As they’re in the pool, Valentina reiterates that this will be a good time to take Juliana’s mind off of what is happening. She asks her if she wants to practice her floating again (this was not Juliana’s first time in Valentina’s pool). Juliana reluctantly agrees and Valentina helps her stay afloat. She floats next to Juliana for a few seconds before a laughing fit ensues.
After they both come up out of the water, still laughing, Valentina has an intense look towards Juliana. They both pull closer to each other. They slowly make contact. The kiss starts off awkward before the connection quickly takes over! The entire scene is about two-and-a-half minutes, but the kiss only lasts for a few seconds. However, in those few seconds, nothing short of pure magic happens on screen. In that moment the show turns a major corner from being just another telenovela to being a major game changer in the telenovela world. I’m not sure the show or the actresses knew, at that moment, what they did and what was about to happen — the moment Juliantina became a worldwide sensation/phenomenon.
From the slow burn leading up to the kiss to the actual deed, it was by far one of the best first kisses by any couple I have ever seen on screen. It was nervous, slow, tentative, purposeful, intentional. It had so much meaning and power behind it. The very natural, organic way it unfolded was an art in itself.
In the end, Juliantina is not just another queer love story. It has layers. It was written with intention. Their love never comes off as forced or made to seem super sexual. And each kiss, each love scene is done with care and honesty. It all feels genuine and real and, in those moments, engages the audience in a way that makes it all okay, even if it’s not okay in their own lives. To see this on screen was very validating.
Both actresses, Macarena Achaga and Bárbara López, gave it their all with each scene. They left no doubt as to how they wanted to portray these characters: with love, realness, and honesty. It was beautiful to watch. And they are just as amazing off-screen as they are on screen. They’ve taken their roles in LGBTQ history very seriously. They are constantly posting support and love on all their social media outlets and the fans, myself included, have taken to them even more.
In the end, it all boils down to love. Having the freedom to love without labels. To be yourself. Juliantina did that for me. I don’t look at gender as a basis to decide if I am or am not going to fall for a person. Love without limits. Amar a Muerte and Juliantina gave that to me and I will forever be grateful for the show, the writers and these two amazing souls who portray this wonderful relationship.
Juliantina fans have started a campaign for a spin-off, which you can read more about here.