By: Catalina Fuentes & Karen Frost

Here at What About Dat? we’ve written a lot about Maitino. We’ve written about the world of the Maitiner fandom, and we’ve talked to Ylenia Baglietto (Matie Zaldúa). But, as has been repeated ad nauseum these last two weeks, Maitino is not just one actress. That’s why we couldn’t wait to take a closer look at Camino Pasamar and the woman who brings her to life, Aria Bedmar. In a pleasant conversation, she told us about how it’s been to play this role, her wishes for the future of the character, and more or less what’s coming in the coming weeks. So buckle up and enjoy the ride!

Aria plays Camino Pasamar, who transformed from a shy girl injured by a terrible trauma in her past to an icon of rebellion and a groundbreaker of the timeperiod in which the story is set. Having divested herself of learned social prejudices to free her heart, she ended up in a clandestine relationship with Maite, an older woman who was also her painting teacher. Camino, like Maite, conquered the Spanish and international public to the extent that there are Instagram, Facebook and Twitter accounts dedicated to the couple in different countries and in more than nine different languages, of which Russian and Chinese are just two.

Why are we so interested in writing about Maitino? Well, because it’s fantastic that a daily series (a soap opera), which is broadcast during family hours, raises such a controversial issue. In that sense, a not insignificant detail is that the story is set in 1914 and it is striking that, a little more than a century later, being a lesbian is still difficult. And while we have made progress in dealing with this issue in civil society and legal rights, the annoyance generated by the departure of Maite, (temporary or permanent? At What About Dat? we are inclined towards the former) shows us clearly that we still have a long way to go, since the frustration comes directly from the large number of women, of different ages and countries, that feel reflected on the screen.

One of the things that has galvanized social media the most, in addition to shy Camino’s fierce awakening, is the naturalness with which Aria lives her life, her sexual orientation and her daily life, which has made her a role model for many young women around the globe. After all, "Love is Love" is more than a slogan, right?

Before the world shut down, Aria's day was very hectic, but between filming and filming she answered some questions with her usual sympathy and good vibes. Here is what she told us:

1.  You mentioned in another interview that when you were growing up there wasn't much LGBTIQ representation. What are your top three LGBTIQ stories that you have seen on TV and are currently watching any stories?

Answer: Well, as I have said at other times, I have not grown up with a big influence of fiction stories of any couple that is not heteronormative, so it is difficult for me to find many influences that I may have or role models. But that I can highlight in Spanish territory Fer and David's story on “Physics or Chemistry” (“Física o Química”), which I have seen a lot of times, not only when they aired the series, but also when the series ended I kept watching their story on YouTube. I have seen it many times. I loved it. And also on the international scene, I also watched the series “Queer as Folk” in its entirety and I loved it. It dealt not only with homosexuality in men but also in women because there was a couple of girls. And, well, in fiction I have a bit of those role models and then among real people, people who are part of reality and not fiction, well, internationally I have the great Ellen Degeneres for example, or Ellen Page, too. I love Ruby Rose. People who work so that the LGBT community continues to have representation and is so included that the time comes that is not…that it is not worth naming, that it is part of normalcy and that's it. And in the national field, it suddenly occurs to me Mónica Naranjo, who is a great representative of the LGBT community, who was married to a man for a long time—the truth is I do not know her personally, I could not say if she really is bisexual or is... I really don't care, I don't care what sexual orientation she has. It seems to me that in her work, professionally, she supports the LGBT community a lot, so she seems very worth mentioning to me. And apart from those people, well, maybe if I think about it a lot longer, I will think of more role models, but, well, in general, those would be the people who would seem the most…to me as the role models continuing to fight for the LGBT community.

2.    What has been your favorite thing to play Camino Pasamar?

Answer: What I have liked the most about playing Camino...possibly is in her initial stage of muteness. It seemed to me a beautiful challenge, so I think it could highlight that a bit, the issue of how to communicate onesself with the rest of the world when you do not have speech. How to say, “I am hungry,” “I am cold,” “I do not like this,” “I am uncomfortable,” “I want to go,” “Give me a hug,” “Leave me alone.” How to say all that, without saying a single word, seemed to me a complicated job, but very, very nice to do. And then later on when Camino has been growing and evolving, well, to do precisely that evolution. This evolution from a fragile girl, from a traumatized girl, from a weak girl, to suddenly finding strength and finding a way to move forward and that willpower to continue and survive.

3.  In what ways do you think you are similar to your character and in which ones do you think they are not?

Answer: In what way do I seem like Camino and in what way not? Weeeeell, I think one of the points we have in common, apart from the fact that we are in love with a woman—in real life I am married to a woman. I have been with my girl for ten years, we married a few months ago—apart from that, at a stage in the past both of us, well, have had a very difficult time with anxiety, with uncertainty, bordering a little too on depression, anxiety attacks, fears, continually afraid… Mmm, well yes, fortunately or unfortunately I think almost everyone has been able to go through such a stage, no? A difficult stage, a hard stage. Well Camino and I have gone through it and I think that is also what can bring me closer to the character and that in some way helped me to give truth to the story. That is to say that I also went through the same thing. Fortunately, not rape, but yes... Well, for other reasons I also passed a rather bad stage and it is to understand the character from there, from personal experience.

4.  What would you like to see happen with Maitino in the future? And more specifically, which scene has not yet been filmed that you would like to be filmed?

Answer: What would I like to happen with Maitino in the future? Weeell...I am one of those who think that brevity is good, it is twice good, at the same time that it is twice brief, but I think it is important for the story to have a... a good closure, so that it has a good story. In general, it would seem to me to stay in one, because right now we are at a point that Maite is gone and Camino is alone, without her and with Ildefonso. She does not know very well what she is doing with her life, but, well, is in that uncertainty, in that solitude. I would very much like Maite to come to rescue her from the well she is getting into and to go to Paris together to live, to a country where they can be a little freer. But do not forget that we are talking about 1914, that independent of the area of the world where it is there is always a certain rejection of a female couple, but if at least they would be freer than in Spain, then, well, yes, I think so, that it would be very nice if it happened. 

And a scene that has not yet been filmed but I would have liked it to be filmed, ideally I would love that suddenly Maite and Camino kiss each other in the middle of Acacias, in the middle of the street, that all the ladies would see it. It would seem to me very scandalous and very fun to shoot, but I don't think that would happen in 1914, no matter how hard you try to be liberal, you wouldn't be so reckless to do it in the middle of the street, because based only on suspicion they put Maite in jail. I don't want to imagine what would happen if they really kissed each other in the middle of the world, but it would be very funny to film.

5.  What would you like to do once you have finished your time at "Acacias 38"?

Answer: Well, once I finish “Acacias 38,” the first thing I would like to do is rest a little, because a daily series is very hard, very hard to shoot, to work, to study, so I think the first thing would be to rest a little and later, once I’ve regained strength, I would love to continue working both on television and in movies, make more series, perhaps weekly that are a little less hard, perhaps for some time, and movies. Any project that comes, in short, if anything comes, everything that comes will always be welcome.

6.  You've been doing a lot of interviews as well as Instagram Live sessions with Kenzy. What is the question they haven't asked you and who do you think the Maitiners would like to know the answer to?

Answer: A question that they have not asked me or Kenzy is difficult to answer because they have really asked us a lot of things, and in fact one of the most repeated is always, "And Kenzy, you are not jealous that Aria kisses Ylenia in a scene?” or with her or with anyone else really. They ask me that question a lot and Kenzy always answers it with all the good vibes in the world and tells them of course not, that it is part of my work and that that will never suppose any kind of jealousy between… But something that we have not been asked, the truth I would not know what to say. Something that we have not been asked and that we want to be asked or that we think you may like the answer…I would not be able to find a question. We have been asked a lot and if there is something they would like to know that they have not asked or that they do not know, we are free to ask what they want and we will answer it without problems.

7.  After the end of the character of Maite Zaldúa in the series, all the Maitiners are crying in all corners of the network. Considering that the parting sequence was changed to add the red bow and thus leave an implicit promise and an open parting, do you think the return of Maite’s character is a real possibility?

Answer:  I think Maite's return is a real possibility, yes. I think so, mmm... I think it can really happen. I think the writers and producers of the show listen to the fandom a lot. They listen to the Maitiners a lot, and the Maitiners are really looking forward to it, so I really think it can happen perfectly. 

8.  What do you think will come to Camino in the future? We know that in the immediate moment she will get engaged and get married, but beyond those key elements to bring a much more dramatic arc, do you think that love triumphs in the end?

Answer: Hmm, Camino’s future… Well, Camino’s future is a bit black. It is a bit sad. Difficult times are ahead for Camino, but I want to believe that yes, that in the end love will triumph. Hopefully yes. Really we don't know yet...but I have hope that yes, that all this suffering that the Camino is going through and that the Maitiners are also going through and that…and that there is still a little bit to go through, well... Well, I think that the end is going to have a good turn and that everything can end well, I hope.

9.  How would you describe yourself to someone else?

Answer: Weeell I do not know. The truth is no one has ever asked me. I imagine that I am a person who is usually positive. I usually have good energy, except when I am very tired, then I am very quiet and I dedicate myself to trying not to fall asleep around the corners (I could fall asleep on top of a tree; it is very easy for me to fall asleep). I do not know, I suppose that I am an open person, I hope friendly, and that I always try to give my best. And when I see that someone needs help, I always lend it within my possibilities. I lend it without hesitation. I am very much a fighter of injustices. What else? More or less that, a person with a good energy, who fights for what she feels, for what she believes to be right and with few fears, truthfully. Always with the will to move forward, to not be afraid of change and that. Very much for changes. I love changes, I love getting out of my comfort zone and, well, more or less that. I wouldn't know much more to say.

10.   When you are not working, what do you do to have fun?

Answer: Well, when I'm not working I love spending time at home, because I spend so much time away from home that I love being at home with my doggies, with my girl. I love watching movies on the sofa, I love playing video games (PlayStation), I love reading... I like any activity I can do indoors, but, well, at the end, when you spend two days at home you already fancy the third, so when I'm not working and I'm tired of being at home, mmm, I really like going for a walk. I love taking walks in the sun, with my doggies and I'm… Spending time with my girl, really more or less that's my life.

11.  In the Acacias 38 series, the Red Thread of Fate was given as a symbol of Maitino. In another interview you said that the woman of your dreams is now your wife, when did you realize that Kenzy was your red thread?

Answer: When did I realize that I share a red thread with Kenzy, with my wife? What a beautiful question. How beautiful. They have never asked me. Perhaps this is a question that I would like to be asked or that I think the Maitiners would be interested in, since this is a beautiful question. When did I realize? Well there really wasn’t a single moment, from now if not now. Our story began when we were very young. She was just 18 years old, I was not yet 15, we were very, very young...mmmmm...and when we met and started dating, I did not have the feeling that this was going to be the person with whom I was going to spend the rest of my life. No, she was someone who amused me, who did me good, and then we were together as long as we wanted to be. And in fact in our history there have been several stops, we have broken up several times, we have returned, because, well, I consider that we met very young and in a stage that is of personal growth, of self-discovery, so it is very difficult to support yourself when you are at that age. In adolescence you do not understand yourself, nor the other person, right?

We went through some difficult stages, but, well, once we passed adolescence, as if we understood that we were the person for each other and possibly that moment, we could place it—at least from my point of view, because Kenzy perhaps lives it otherwise, but I lived it—once we were already settled in Madrid—because we met in Almería, living in Almería—and when we came to live in Madrid (it will be about five years ago)… I believe that in that first year of living together that was very difficult. The truth was very complicated, but once we had passed that first year of living together and began to relax and began to finish connecting, perhaps it was then I realized that she was the person with whom I wanted to spend the rest of my life. With whom I want to spend the rest of my life and who I want to be the mother of my children. So I think it could be there, perhaps in the second year of living together, when we everything fit. 

12.  You have shared the stage with your wife on several occasions. Have you thought about dedicating yourself professionally to singing as a parallel career to acting?

Answer: Ooof, no, no, no. That's not my thing. Have I ever been able to imagine it? Well yes, who hasn't? Have you ever taken a hairbrush or a deodorant in front of the mirror and started singing out loud and wanted to be a singer? I think everyone has once. But no, no, in reality there was a time when I was asked about an opportunity I had, but finally it did not happen and I am glad. The truth is I am very glad that in the end it did not turn out well, because although I learned a lot from that experience, ehhh... I think I would not be happy and I would not feel completely fulfilled if I dedicated myself to singing. I like acting and singing as a hobby too much...mmm… I can hone, I can sing, but it realistically is not something I want to dedicate myself professionally. If I wanted, for example, it would seem very nice to do a musical in which... Well, I was in a children's musical when I lived in Almería, which was like a few months that I was working with them, and the truth is that I liked it, very, very much. It seems to me a wonderful experience: singing, dancing, acting on stage all at the same time. I find it wonderful, but it seems to me a very complicated world—very, very complicated—and I prefer to leave it to those who really are singing professionals. That amazes me a lot: people who are able to control the voice so much. But no, no, I am not a professional singer.

13.  In a previous interview, you pointed out that you never had to hide your sexual orientation, how has it been for someone who has enjoyed that freedom to give life to a love story that must live in the shadows?

Answer:  This, too, seems like a very, very interesting question. Everyone tends to think that when you like women and are a woman then you can act any lesbian relationship in acting, but in reality it is very different, because my real story has nothing to do with it. My real story I have never hidden from anything. Mmmm... So it was an added difficulty. Maybe what I have been able to do the most is to understand the time perfectly. Understand that it is 1914 and not 2020, and maybe if there can be a connection point where, well… When I started with my girl in 2009, in Almería, of course people were not as open as they are today in Madrid. It has nothing to do with it, if it is true that the mind was much more closed, but more that to hide we had to measure a little and not expose ourselves too much, something I consider is not the same as not exposing ourselves to hiding, because I did not have to lie, I just did not have the need to tell who I did not feel like telling that I was with a woman. It is something that I have chosen and that my partner has chosen to say, but we have not had the need to proclaim it to the four winds.

Yes, there has been a time that we have been able to hide it with the grandparents. That of course is something that is good. My mother asked me, she said, "Look, they are people from another era who do not understand." Sometimes we have been able to test the waters of what would happen if they know about it, and then suddenly they didn't react well, so okay. As they are not people that I have had to live with, they are not people that I have met in my day to day, but simply when a grandparent visited. Because then I had to abide by the visits of the grandparents and how I felt when I I couldn't kiss my girlfriend in front of my grandparent for what they might think. That has been the closest thing to hiding. But they have been situations so specific, so specific that...that no, they did not hurt me in my day to day. But, well, maybe yes, the common point between a relationship such as my personal one that I have not had to hide and one that I have to play that, if it must be hidden, it is there, right? At those points where the grandfather or grandmother who does not know, then hide, but perhaps it was the closest thing I could live there.

14. Someone once calculated that less than 10% of same-sex female couples on television worldwide get happy endings, and almost 30% of queer female characters are killed. Do you, as an actress who plays Camino, have the ability to fight for a happy ending for Maitino, or the fans?

Answer: Fewer than 10% have a happy ending? Wow, I did not know that statistic and it seems brutal to me. It seems brutal to me. Mmmm… Would I would fight for a happy ending for Maitino? Of course. Of course and I know that fans, too, fight for it. And I trusted the ability of the writers to obtain these opinions and take them as a reference and not forget them. Take them as something to consider, and that from there they create the possible ending for Maitino. Because, well, it is not a question of it being an impending ending, it is simply that it is a story that at some point will have to end, and then we hope that on that day, the day that the end of Maitino comes, that it will be a happy ending. Please, trust the writers. 

15. The chemistry between you and Ylenia Baglietto is something celebrated internationally by fans, in addition to your acting skills. Do you think being part of the LGBTIQ community helps you better interpret Camino? If so, how?

Answer: Okay, the good chemistry with Ylenia is almost inevitable. In other words, Ylenia is a wonderful person, with a positive energy that radiates from her wherever she goes, and it is impossible not to have her, not to let that energy eat you, because she is wonderful. She is wonderful. So, well, apart from that chemistry, does being part of the LGBT community in my real life help me play it? Yes, I suppose it does. It helps me when there must be moments of passion that are unchecked, right? Without it, it gives me the feeling that I am kissing a wall. No, I am kissing a person, a person who has feelings, who has emotions, who has a beating heart, who has body heat. That I hug her and feel things, well, I suppose that, that being LGBT, yes, can help me, but I think that any actor, any actress, who really likes the world of acting and feels fulfilled with it can get to the same point. So it can help, yes, but I think that, that it is not necessary to be part of the LGBT community to play a character that, if they are, in the same way that it does not take many things to act…you do not need to be a drug addict to play a drug addict, is what I am trying to say.  Mmmm, I guess it helps, but it's not necessary either.

16.  Camino has discovered herself as a confident, fighter, feminist and certainly liberal woman for her time,that combined with your real life has made you a reference for many queer young people of our time. What message would you give them?

Answer: Okay, every time I read the word “role model,” or sometimes I read the word “LGBT icon” to describe myself, it is a little scary. (Laughter) Because I am usually a person who does not have much filter when speaking, and sometimes I say things that can be misunderstood or that can be taken literally. In short, it is always a little scary, no? But, well, leaving that fear aside, a message that I could say to the girls and boys who belong to the LGBT community and to those who do not, to all the people who advocate for freedom, what advice would you tell them? Well, I would give them the advice to continue fighting for what you believe, let nothing and nobody stop you. Fight for what you consider right, but never forget our own safety.

That seems very important to me: not only to send a message to fight for freedom, but also to be smart and not to expose ourselves to gratuitous danger, just to fight for our ideals, because perhaps they give us the reason, but when they give it to us we are already beaten, or they have beaten us or we have exposed ourselves to a dangerous situation. For example, in the feminist sphere there are many times that they advocate the desire to go out alone at 4 in the morning and that no one hurts me for it. “I want to be free and not be brave.” That is great and of course I think so, I am the #1 feminist, but girls, boys, let's not lose direction. Let's not go out, girls, in this case talking about feminism. Let's not go out alone at 4 in the morning, a Saturday on a dark street, because, although it is unfair, possibly what is going to happen is a scene of violence or a scene of rape. And although it is unfair that can happen and can put us in danger... Mmmm, the same thing happens with the LGBT community. If we see a person who is not tolerant of that, who views our way of being or our way of living as despicable, of course that does not prove him right, of course he is not right, but that does not mean that we should be fools to expose ourselves and say (things) in front of that person or kiss a person of the same sex in front of that person, because what we are doing is exposing ourselves to danger. Let's be smart. Let's fight for our rights but without putting ourselves in danger, please.

By: Karen Frost

The following article is a story about Argentinian telenovelas, Latin American societal attitudes towards homosexuality, and queer representation. It is also the story of how one awesome Argentinian telenovela, “Separadas,” quietly became the most lesbian thing on Spanish language television in 2020. Because the two stories, it turns out, are one and the same.

How “Separadas” is Intentionally and Unintentionally the Gayest Thing on TV

In January, Argentina debuted its latest telenovela, “Separadas,” about seven women whose lives unexpectedly intertwine in a shared story of love, loss, family, found family, and hope. It’s a fantastic show. All the characters are fun and interesting, and the show strikes a perfect balance between comedy and dealing with serious issues. But also, the show is the most lesbian thing on Spanish language TV. Not because one of the women, Martina Rivero, is introduced as a free love bisexual with both a boyfriend and a girlfriend. Nor because another of the women, Paula Kaplan, immediately falls in love with her and struggles to cope with this newfound attraction to a woman. Nor even because in one scene all the women gather together to watch lesbian porn.

No, “Separadas” is the gayest thing that will air on Spanish language TV this year because of the seven actresses playing the main characters, five have played high profile queer roles. Together, they represent almost every one of Argentina’s previous lesbian storylines. The actresses are:

·      Julieta Nair Calvo, who played lesbian Jazmín del Río on “Las Estrellas” (2017/18)

·      Celeste Cid, who played lesbian Malena San Juan on “Para Vestir Santos” (2010) and now plays bisexual Martina on “Separadas”

·      Gimena Accardi, who played lesbian Brenda Garay on “Sos Mi Hombre” (2012/2013)

·      Julieta Zylberg, who plays Paula on “Separadas”

·      Mónica Antonopulos, who played lesbian Greta Sáenz Valiente on “El Elegido” (2011)

This coincidental, serendipitous confluence of these participants in Argentinian LGBT representation history inspires two questions about the history of lesbian love stories on Argentinian TV. First, why does Argentina keep introducing queer female storylines on its telenovelas? Second, why have the lesbian couples all gotten happy endings so far? In other words, why are Argentinian telenovelas so good to their queer female viewers?

Julieta Nair Calvo as Jazmín del Río on “Las Estrellas”

Why Argentina Loves Lesbian Storylines

The perception that Latin America is too homophobic and too religious to air LGBT storylines is, at least for Argentina, both antiquated and wrong. Argentina has long been dubbed the most pro-LGBT country in Latin America. It was the first Latin American country to legalize same-sex marriage nationwide, beating out Brazil and Uruguay by three years and Colombia by six (Mexico has allowed gay marriage since 2010 but lacks national gay marriage). And Argentina leads the pack on lesbian representation on telenovelas. According to LezWatch.TV, since 2002, there have been eight Argentinian telenovelas with significant queer female storylines. Brazil has had seven (Amor e Revolução, Babilônia, Em Família, Felizes Para Sempre?, Mulheres Apaixonadas, Órfãos da Terra, and Senhora de Destino), Mexico has had three (“Amar a Muerte,” “Las Aparicio” and “El Trampas del Deseo”) and Chile one (“Perdona Nuestros Pecados”).

While a few LGBT characters appeared on Argentinian TV in the early 2000s, the presence and screen time for queer characters greatly increased during and after the passage of gay marriage in 2010. In fact, since then, there has been almost one telenovela a year with a prominent queer female storyline. This is, to put it mildly, statistically significant, because between 2002-2016, on average only nine telenovelas were produced a year. With such limited production, the allocation of screen time to queer female stories can’t be a coincidence. So why does Argentina love lesbian storylines so much?

Celeste Cid as Malena San Juan on “Para Vestir Santos”

Many Latin American telenovelas since at least the early 2010s have sought to tackle “modern” themes like rape and homosexuality, but the high incidence of queer female storylines in Argentina seems to suggest an additional reason. But what? As an outsider looking in, it’s impossible to know for sure, but one theory is that the success of lesbian pairings has led Argentinian telenovela writers to view same-sex love stories as a way to attract millions of viewers and generate thousands of social media impressions. As just one example, the most viewed video on YouTube for Brenda and Marisa of “Sos Mi Hombre” has 29 million views. The global queer female fan base is active on social media, a cohesive market segment, and hungry for representation; a writer’s dream. Facing that, why wouldn’t writers play to them?

Why Lesbians Get Happy Endings in Argentinian Telenovelas

Globally, only 8% of queer female pairings get happy endings. So why have all of the lesbian couples on Argentinian telenovelas gotten happy endings? The answer, interestingly enough, likely has nothing to do with Argentina and everything to do with the structure of telenovelas in general. To satisfy viewers, each storyline in a telenovela normally reaches a positive conclusion (historically, a wedding). This narrative structure means that almost all the main characters on a telenovela, gay or straight, get a happily ever after. In essence, queer female characters in Latin America have avoided the Bury Your Gays trope suffered by queer female characters in the rest of the world by the fortunate coincidence of being on a telenovela. Which is good news for Paula’s crush on “Separadas.”

 Gimena Accardi as Brenda Garay on “Sos Mi Hombre”

Why Queer Representation on “Separadas” and Other Telenovelas Matters

Telenovelas play a huge role in Latin American television and, by extension, Latin American society. Unlike American soap operas, their very distant and much less illustrious cousin, they represent the pinnacle of Latin American acting, writing, and directing talent. They air during primetime and form a plurality of the programming in most of Latin America. Viewership is so integral to Latin American culture, in fact, that 53% of people in Latin America ages 12-61 identify as regular telenovela viewers. Telenovelas form the touchstone of social conversations and link viewers across the diaspora to a shared viewing experience.

And telenovelas impact more than just their immediate locales and cultures. The telenovela industry is truly global, with shows being exported to places like Russia, the Balkans, Africa and the Philippines. It is estimated that two billion people spanning over 100 countries watch telenovelas each year. With millions to hundreds of millions of viewers watching, the content of popular telenovelas has the very real potential to influence entire societies, both in the producing country and outside it. This means that positive LGBT representation on shows like “Separadas” has a huge impact even though Argentina itself is already very socially progressive, and why it benefits everyone that Argentina continues to air queer storylines.

Julieta Zylberg as Paula Kaplan on “Separadas”

How to Publicize “Separadas” and Other Telenovelas

Argentinian telenovelas have been pushing the envelope for positive queer female representation for almost two decades, leading the charge on well-written, well-acted lesbian love stories. So why haven’t many people outside Argentina noticed this trend? Unfortunately, quality content alone isn’t enough to enable shows to truly “break out” in the international lesbian community and join the ranks of the best known and most beloved lesbian storylines. To successfully break out, a show (from anywhere and in any language) must catch the attention of both English and Spanish speaking fans. Since 2018, I’ve argued that queer storylines on Latin American TV shows are well positioned to break out internationally, and Flozmin, Barcedes, and Juliantina are all examples of successful breakouts. So how do we publicize “Separadas” and future Argentinian shows to give them the best chance at breaking out?

Two ways. First, queer news outlets need to publicize them. Although shows like “Separadas” are discussed on Argentinian news websites, many of them fall through the cracks of (Anglo-centric) lesbian news sites. It’s important for them to appear on these sites, however, because the sites have significant sway in the global lesbian community and can tip readers off to new storylines. Audiences can’t watch what they don’t know exists. Second, we have to leverage social media. Nowadays, most queer women seem to get their news through social media word of mouth. As I recently wrote, the most successful fandoms happened because they become symbiotic ecosystems between the cast, fans, and PR/social media managers. Flozmin succeeded because everyone involved in it pushed for it to succeed. For “Separadas,” that means more hashtagging, tweeting, and conversation in both English and Spanish that catches the attention of new potential fans.

Mónica Antonopulos as Greta Sáenz Valiente on “El Elegido”

“Separadas” is the best lesbian bait on TV. It has fan favorites from Flozmin, Brendisa, etc. It has an active queer female storyline. It has longing glances from one woman to another. Queer women should be watching in droves. So why isn’t it catching fire yet on social media? Because for now, its queer female fandom appears to be small and almost exclusively Spanish speaking. Hopefully, when the storyline between Paula and Martina (Pautina) really kicks into gear, it will start to transcend Argentinian viewers and draw in the global queer female community. Because the show has so much to offer queer viewers, and it’d be a pity for only a few people to see it.

Argentinian Telenovelas With Queer Female Characters:

“Culpables” (2001)—Sofía is a secondary character (El Trece)

“099 Central” (2002)—Marisa and Silvina (El Trece)

“Para Vestir Santos” (2010)—Male, Emilia and Laura (El Trece)

“El Elegido” (2011)—Greta, Paloma, and Gigi (Telefe)

“Sos Mi Hombre” (2012/2013)—Brenda and Marisa (Brendisa) (El Trece)

“Los Vecinos en Guerra” (2013/2014)—Augustina and Valeria (Augusleria) (Telefe)

“Las Estrellas” (2017/18)—Jazmin and Florencia (Flozmin) (El Trece)

“Pequeña Victoria” (2019)—Dolores and Valeria (Doleria) (Telefe)

“Separadas” (2020)—Paula and Martina (Pautina) (El Trece)

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Preview YouTube video Brenda y Marisa, envueltas en la pasiónBrenda y Marisa, envueltas en la pasión

Photo Credit: Custodio fotografia

Karen Frost and Catalina Fuentes

It’s no secret that we here at WhatAboutDat love us some Spanish language TV. From Chile to Mexico, Argentina to Spain, if it’s got queer women, we’re there with popcorn. One of our top picks right now—in Spanish or otherwise—is the queer storyline on “Acacias 38,” a Spanish soap opera. “Maitino,” the portmanteau for Maite Zaldúa (YlePHOTnia Baglietto) and Camino Pasamar (Aria Bedmar), tells the story of an artist and her young student falling in love in 1910s Spain. Like any soap opera storyline, there’s a clandestine relationship, a scheming mother, and of course, so many tears. (If you haven’t been watching, this YouTube fan video summarizes the beauty of the relationship.) We could wax rhapsodic about about the merits of just the storyline itself, but the real standout, what differentiates Maitino from most other lesbian storylines on air right now around the world, is the acting.

We’ve watched a lot of lesbian storylines. Hundreds and hundreds, in fact, spanning a solid twenty years of representation on TV and in film. What puts Maitino in the top echelon of lesbian storylines is the absolutely standout acting from Baglietto and Bedmar. It’s rare to have not one but two extraordinarily talented actresses, and they absolutely shine in their roles. The empathy they’re able to create through their characters and the chemistry between them is an absolute joy to watch.

It’s no surprise then that Maitino has been building an international fan base. Although “Acacias 38” broadcasts in Spanish, kind translators have helped spread the storyline in at least nine other languages through subtitling. Almost all of Baglietto and Bedmar’s video interviews have been translated into English, but we thought we’d help the English speaking Maitiners by doing a written interview that we translated from Spanish into English (even though Baglietto does speak English!). That way, anyone googling “Ylenia Baglietto English interview” would find it. Before we started, we didn’t know we could love Baglietto any more than we already did. We were wrong. You will, too. #BombaDeEnergía.

1. First of all, congratulations on the popularity of Maitino! Not all lesbian couples on TV are so loved automatically, and definitely not all couples develop international followers. What do you think makes Maitino so successful with LGBT fans?

Ylenia: Well, the truth is that I initially thought that the storyline of Maite and Camino was so successful among LGBT fans precisely because homosexual women, above all, need representation in the audiovisual (tv/movies). But it is true that after talking to the fans over the months, I have realized that what they really like and what they identify with is not a relationship between two stereotyped women, but rather a relationship between two human beings. That’s all. And it is not judged, either, by how they kiss or how they hug or how they relate to each other, but rather that they simply love each other; they love each other and I think what they (the fans) need is to see that reflected. So I think it's good that Aria and I in some way got...well, that Maite and Camino are a free couple in love.

2. What attracted you to the character of Maite?

Ylenia: What attracted me the most to the character of Maite is that she was a woman ahead of her time. A very modern woman living in the early twentieth century, in 1913-1914 in this case in the series. It seemed to me that she is a very brave woman. That despite what they say about her, she has her own ideas and she fights for them. She fights to make her ideas more popular in a more traditionalist society. And I also loved the fact that she was an artist, especially because I had to work on another artistic aspect that had nothing to do with acting or dance (which is more or less what I’m dedicated to), then suddenly being able to paint, sculpt, seemed to me very appealing in the character of Maite, too.

3. In an interview with RTVE about the program, you talked about the special chemistry you have with Aria. Many actresses have referred to this type of chemistry as something rare and unique that cannot be created. Can you describe to readers what it feels like to shoot a scene and experience that chemistry?

Ylenia: Well, what it feels like to feel chemistry with the other actor—with the other actress in this case—is that you find the truth of the character much more easily, because they look into your eyes and without wanting to find the emotion in what the other actor is giving you, he gives it to you—or she, in this case—gives it to you and you receive it. And the emotion that comes out of it is real. It is true because you are listening and you are in the here and now. Then it is almost like the words that flow were yours even though they are from a screenwriter, no? So it is marvelous when you find a partner who understands you and with whom you have chemistry, like in my case with Aria. It is impressive because I truly believe that it is transmitted outwards and that is why I believe that, well, that viewers are so in love with Maitino, no? Because I think that truth that we find with each other is transmitted.

4. In the same interview, you mention ad libbing dialogue in your scenes with Aria. Other than the famous “¡Cállate!", what other scenes or dialogue did you and Aria improvise or change?

Ylenia: Well, look, the truth is that another of the very funny moments that really happened was when the character of Ildefonso joins the series. And that is, all the time I said “Idelfonso,” but it was “Ildefonso,” so there was a moment in the sequence in which I was jealous and I say to Aria, "Well okay that Idelfon guy, Idel or whatever he is called!" And it came out of my soul, and when we cut, the director told me, “Ylenia has been fantastic indeed. In fact, we are going to leave it like that, because it is super, super good.” Because of course in the jealousy I was feeling I suddenly said, “Idel, Id-il…I-whatever his name is, whatever this guy’s name is...” Well, the truth is that later I liked it very much, so that's another of the super funny anecdotes we have, besides “¡Cállate!"

5. Do you have a favorite Maitino scene?

Ylenia: Well, the truth is that it is very difficult for me to always choose a scene among all the Maite and Camino scenes, because I think that each one of them is specia. And at the same time, it is very interesting for us to be able to work all kinds of emotions because since we started in the series, since Maite and Camino met, they’ve had all kinds of emotions. So it would be impossible for me to choose one. As we well know, “¡Cállate!" is a very special scene that we have, which I love of course, but I would not only stay with that one. I would stay with all the special moments that Maite and Camino have lived.

6. Aria brings something unique to Maitino in that she is herself LGBT. What have you learned from her about the LGBT experience that you apply to your role as Maite? Have the writers also incorporated her feedback?

Ylenia: Well, the truth is what I have learned about the LGBT community, since I play Maite, is that although we believe that no, there are many differences between being a gay male couple and a lesbian couple, I think it is a macho society and it has always been more difficult to recognize and accept two women who love each other than, like, two men, no? It is true that everything has been condemned for many years, any homosexual relationship or any free relationship, but I still believe that women still suffer more than men and that they still need to feel free at the sexual level and at the romantic level.

7. Has your understanding of the LGBT community changed having played Maite? And if so, how?

Ylenia: The truth is that my impression has not changed much. I have always had a way of seeing love very liberally and I believe that human beings should love each other. And if they love someone of the same sex, no matter where they live, no matter the culture, I think that people, all human beings, should feel free to love each other. So it is not that my impression has changed too much; it is true that now what I have done has been to live it from within, no? Living it from my own body playing Maite, but as such, as an impression, I think we are going to continue seeing love. I could see it if possible even a little more. I want, please, that the moment arrives in life where no one has to come out of the closet, because then we’ll have the day when none has to say who they love, just that they love. Then we will take a step forward.

8. LGBT storylines set in earlier generations are inherently about hiding and fear. However, Maitino is about bravery and courage. Is this a conscious approach by the show, or is this a reflection of you and Aria’s personalities?

Ylenia: It is the scriptwriters and the direction of the series, the direction, the production…the whole team decides how they want the characters to be. We simply listen to these guidelines and play the characters. Of course, if there is something you do not agree with, we talk and comment and reach different agreements; because sometimes you say, "It is a daily job," so sometimes the same, as there are many scriptwriters or many different directors. Well, sometimes the work may seem incongruous with what was done the day before, but, well, that's nothing more than talking about it and reaching agreements with the team. But it is they who decide how the characters are. Later we take care of playing them as best as possible and as close to what they ask us. Of course, that, in the end, is our job.

9. In the last twenty years, some of the most globally popular lesbian TV pairings have come from Spain. Why is Spain so good at lesbian stories?

Ylenia: Okay, apparently Spain is one of the countries where homosexuality is the most accepted, so I think that when it comes to telling stories in the audiovisual (TV/movies), the writers feel freer and with less censorship than in other countries. With this I do not mean that there is not (censorship) because surely there is and that is why I think that these types of stories of the LGBT community still triumph so much; because they are needed, of course. But good compared to other countries of the world…well, I think they are a little more free and that's why they can tell the stories as they are told.

10. In the RTVE interview, you discuss one difference between stage work and TV being that in theater, there’s immediate applause, but in TV, people approach you on the street or respond on social media. For Maitino, the majority of the fandom exists online. Can you talk more about how having such an enthusiastic internet fanbase influences you? Has Maitino's popularity affected you in your daily life?

Ylenia: Well, the truth is that of course I have been affected in my daily life by having fans on social media, because in the end it is true that now I spend more time looking at social media and trying to get as close as possible to the people who are giving us their support, who are the Maitiners, to all the people who are trying…well, okay, that this story is seen in more parts of the world, so to see, for me to see that it is having so much success and that it is a representation for many women in the world…well, what I want is to give thanks and continue participating in this phenomenon. And I believe that this is what has changed all my life, in that every morning I wake up and try to support this cause and thank all the fans, what they do for me, for Aria, for “Acacias” and for this community at the same time.

11. Maite Zaldúa is rather flashy and worldly; a painter who attended the most famous artistic salons in Paris. In her interview with RTVE, Aria described you as an energy bomb. Who is Ylenia Baglietto?

Ylenia: Okay, Ylenia Baglietto in her daily life is an energy bomb. I always try to see life positively, and I try to enjoy all the moments that life gives to me and that's why I try to take things in a very positive way. And, well, the more things I can learn and do every day of my life, well, I think the more I'm going to nurture myself and that's why I don't stop, for that reason. I want to do new things all the time, to meet new people, to have fun, to have fun and smile at life and, well, I think that's why other people see me like that, with so much energy, because I don’t stop for a second. I am very enthusiastic—very, very enthusiastic—and, well, I love to improve, in everything I do in my life, whether on a personal, emotional level, at the level of a couple, family, friends, work, everything. And since I want to improve in all that, well, I can't stop. I have to keep myself working tooooo long to get my little challenge in each area every day.

12. What do you admire the most about Maite? How much of Maite is there in Ylenia and how much of Ylenia is there in Maite?

Ylenia: Okay, well, as I said before, what I admire the most about Maite is how brave she is. She is a woman who knows what she wants in life and fights for it, and I think that has a lot in common with Ylenia. I, okay, sometimes I am not so clear about what I want, but as soon as I know and I clarify it and I know what I want, I fight to the death and I go for it until I can fulfill what I want, no? Sometimes it is not fulfilled. I do not get angry about it, but I like to at least give my best and feel that, well, if it has not come out, it is not because I have not worked hard to achieve it. And I think Maite has a lot of that, too. If there is something that Maite has, that maybe for Ylenia costs more, and that is she says what she thinks all the time, no matter if, well, it can land her in jail. I think Ylenia takes a little more care of that. Mmm, I don't always say what I think. Okay, there are times that I think it's better not to tell the whole truth. Of course, I always tell the truth, but I don't say the whole truth, because sometimes, okay, I can hurt someone or it can hurt me or those around me, so that is what I think could differentiate me from Maite.

13. Most English-speaking fans probably don't realize or don't know you're Basque. Can you talk a little about the Basque acting community?

Ylenia: Okay, well, the truth is that yes, I am Basque, and what I can say is that I speak Basque. I speak Basque and that has made me work a lot in the Basque country. Thanks to knowing Basque, I have been able to work on television programs in this language, do a lot of theater in this language, including movies. The truth is that there is a lot of work here. I think it is very important to speak Basque, to speak the Basque language, but I have been in the profession for 11 years; all the time I have had work here. During the last few years, I have been combining it with work in Madrid, but here I have worked a lot, a lot, also in Spanish. But what I’m saying is, knowing Basque helps a lot in order to be able to work here.

14. What is the most important thing you have learned from your time on "Acacias 38"?

Ylenia: Well, the most important thing I have learned in my time at “Acacias” is that if you work hard and you are constant, in the end dreams come true. Working in a daily series is hard and arduous work, and it is impressive how you notice the improvement every day; how you can challenge yourself every day and meet your challenges. And above all, you realize that acting is also a technique and is acquired by working. The moment you relax, the technique is forgotten and you have to recover it again. And that's why I think that actors, like athletes, have to continue training every day, and thanks to “Acacias 38,” I have managed to do it, to train every day. And one of the things that stays with me, that stays with “Acacias,” is all the colleagues and all the technical management and production team, because it really is a luxury to go to work every morning at “Acacias 38” and this wonderful set. Everyone is amazing.

15. Is there anything you want to say to the international community of Maitiners?

Ylenia: What I want to say to the Maitiners is thank you! I know that I say it in all the interviews, but I need to say it in all of them because I can't answer all the fans who write to me every day, every message. There are many who say, “Why don't you answer me? Why don't you answer me?” Because I can't read all the messages I receive. It's impossible, I really swear. So on the one hand I ask forgiveness for not being able to do it, and on the other hand I thank you for being there, for supporting me, for supporting our work, both Aria’s and mine, for always staying with Maite and Camino, and, well, for having created Maitino and for supporting us so much and making our dreams come true. Thanks to you.

Escrito por Karen Frost

Traducido por Catalina Fuentes

Ecosistema: Una gran comunidad de organismos vivos que viven en una red interconectada en una relación simbiótica y equilibrada entre sí.

Visto científicamente, los fandoms de la televisión son ecosistemas. Son comunidades vibrantes, coloridas y dinámicas que conectan a las personas a través del tiempo y la geografía en una red adaptativa y en constante cambio. Como todos los ecosistemas, son simbióticos: los fans obtienen energía del programa de televisión que aman, que luego reflejan de nuevo en el sistema. El programa y las actrices asociadas con él absorben la energía de los fans y la canalizan hacia una mayor producción en un ciclo de retroalimentación interativa. O, para usar una analogía diferente, la relación fan-show es como un fuego en un día frío: cuanto más se acumulan los fans, como la madera, más se calienta arde el fuego y mas calido se vuelve. Como señaló recientemente un fanático de la música, los fanáticos son esenciales para el éxito de un proyecto, pero los fandoms llevan ese éxito a niveles estratosféricos.

Hay tres componentes en los ecosistemas fandoms de TV: los fans, el elenco y las redes sociales / relaciones públicas. Este artículo describe cómo estos componentes trabajan juntos en el ecosistema para crear una relación positiva y simbiótica. Si usamos el fandom de Maitino (que está asociado con la pareja de lesbianas Maite y Camino en el programa español "Acacias 38") como un caso de estudio para mostrar estas ideas. El punto general es: los fandoms son dinámicos. Con actos intencionales, pueden crecer. Es probable que los fandoms más exitosos sean exitosos porque los tres componentes trabajan juntos en sincronía. Entonces, para cualquiera que sea miembro de uno de estos tres componentes, existe el potencial de tomar lo que ya es bueno y hacerlo aún mejor simplemente agregando energía adicional al ecosistema.

Componente 1: The Fans

Es evidente que un programa de televisión sin fans se cancela inmediatamente. Los espectadores son esenciales para cualquier proyecto. Pero no todos los espectadores son fans y no todos los fans son capaces de crear un fandom robusto. A continuación, se muestra un desglose de lo que los fans aportan al ecosistema de fandom, lo que reciben de él, y las dos figuras clave que surgen en los fandoms de la televisión lésbica para ayudar a nutrir y hacer crecer el fandom.

Lo que los fans aportan al ecosistema: según la etimología más ampliamente aceptada, la palabra "fans" es una versión abreviada de la palabra fanático, que significa "marcado por un entusiasmo excesivo y, a menudo, una intensa devoción". Lo que diferencia a los espectadores casuales de los fans es que el fanatismo de los fans se convierte en parte de su identidad personal. Asisten a convenciones, comentan en las redes sociales, cuelgan carteles, visten camisas, van a eventos de fanáticos, crean fan fiction / art / videos, etc. Colocan carteles publicitarios en Times Square para apoyar a sus actrices favoritas y usan campañas en línea para renovar los espectáculos por temporadas adicionales. Los fanáticos aportan pasión, energía y tamaño al ecosistema, lo que puede llevar a nominaciones a premios, espectáculos que duran más y que las historias se amplien.

Los fans de la televisión queer en particular, son un grupo grande y vocal. Se extienden por todo el mundo, trascendiendo la nacionalidad, el idioma y los continentes. Aunque la corriente principal aún no se ha dado cuenta en su mayor parte, las fanáticas queer femeninas han creado algunos de los ,as fertiles ecosistemas de fandom de TV del mundo. (Es una de las razones por las que he alentado a los shows a agregar más parejas de lesbianas). Las mujeres queer se cuentan por millones y tienen hambre de representación. Traen a sus ecosistemas de fandoms una pasión desenfrenada y un gran número.

¿Cuántos fans de la TV lesbica hay? Es imposible saber exactamente, pero causan una gran impresión donde quiera que vayan. En una entrevista reciente, por ejemplo, los creadores de la serie web #Luimelia, que dio a la pareja lésbica de Luisita y Amelia del programa español "Amar es para siempre" su propio mini spin-off, notaron que los Tweets que mencionan a Luimelia produjeron más de 40 millones de impresiones durante la temporada 2018/2019, que fue diez veces más impresiones que el programa de la temporada anterior. Aquí hay varias métricas de redes sociales de Maitino que muestran el impacto de las fanáticas queer:

• Twitter: según el sitio de seguimiento de hashtags Talkwalker, del 13 al 20 de febrero, hubo 30.900 conversaciones en Twitter que mencionaron "Maitino", con un alcance potencial de 135,2 millones de usuarios de Twitter. Por contexto, eso es casi el triple de la población de España (46,7 millones). El 17 de febrero, #LaResistenciaMaitino superó los 16,000 tweets.

• YouTube: el video más visto de Maitino, “Acacias 38: La primera vez de Camino y Maite # Acacias1161”, tiene 1.88 millones de visitas, lo que lo convierte en el sexto video más visto de YouTube para el canal de YouTube @RTVESeries y el video más visto "Acacias 38".

• Instagram:    Aria Bedmar (quien interpreta a Camino) mencionó en una entrevista que después del primer beso de Maitino, repetinamente comenzó a recibir miles de nuevos seguidores de Instagram al día. Al momento de escribir este artículo, ella tiene 27,100 seguidores. Ylenia Baglietto (que interpreta a Maite) tiene 15.400. La cuenta oficial de Instagram del programa solo tiene 15.200 seguidores, mientras que Susana Soleto, que interpreta a la madre de Camino, tiene 2.381 seguidores.

Qué reciben los fans del ecosistema: en la era de Internet, los fandoms han convertido lo que alguna vez fue un evento pasivo, en gran medida individual (sentado en casa viendo la televisión) en una experiencia comunitaria participativa compartida en línea. Ver lo que sucede en la TV es solo una fracción de la experiencia. Los fandoms ofrecen comunidad, compromiso activo con el material e incluso la oportunidad de interactuar con las actrices. Es una oportunidad para formar parte de un todo mayor. Particularmente para la comunidad LGBT, los fandoms podrían ser el único contacto que tienen con otras personas queer. Es un espacio seguro donde pueden compartir emociones, discutir sus vidas y sentirse representados.

Dos tipos clave de fanáticos hacen crecer el fandom: los mayores fandoms lesbicos de TV tienen cientos de miles, si no millones, de fans alrededor del mundo. Pero no todos los fans juegan el mismo papel en el fandom. Basados en la observación, dos figuras clave emergen rápidamente en la mayoría de los fandoms que actúan como puntos de reunión naturales para los fanáticos. Estas cifras fomentan el crecimiento del ecosistema al aumentar la visibilidad del fandom en línea. Ellos son:

1. El "primer compañero": todos los fandoms tienen animadores. Naturalmente, los fanáticos adoran su fandom y quieren gritar sobre lo genial que es. Pero en cada fandom hay una o más figuras con suficiente influencia para liderar el fandom. Al igual que las relaciones públicas gratuitas, son activos constantemente en las redes sociales y usan hashtagging para aumentar la visibilidad del fandom en la comunidad queer más amplia. Otros fanáticos buscan sus opiniones y reacciones, lo que los lleva a ganar cientos o miles de seguidores propios. El elenco puede retwittearlos y el equipo podría incluso desarrollar una relación informal con ellos. Yo llamo a estas figuras el "primer compañero". (Una aclaracion: las mujeres queer tienden a seguir "Ships" [Embarcacion traducido textualmente], la forma abreviada de “relación” [relationship]—, lo que significa que a menudo son fans de parejas románticas específicas en un programa, en comparación con el show en general. Las actrices que interpretan la relación son denominadas los "Capitanes de los barcos" [Ship Captains], y por eso creé el término "Primer compañero" para continuar con la metáfora náutica).

Normalmente, los primeros compañeros no están relacionados con nadie en el programa. Es posible que ni siquiera vivan en el mismo país donde se transmite el programa. En lo que probablemente sea el primer ejemplo de este tipo, uno de los primeros compañeros de Maitino es Kenzy Loevett, la esposa de Bedmar. Este es un escenario emocionante y único. Aunque Bedmar no es la primera actriz queer en un papel queer popular (Zoie Palmer en "Lost Girl" y Michelle Hardwick en "Emmerdale" inmediatamente me vienen a la mente), esta es la primera vez que otro importante (queer o heterosexual) ha sido Primer compañero, que yo sepa. Y es el epítome de la simbiosis fandom, en beneficio de los fanáticos de Maitino. Además de "fangirling" y lidera las principales campañas de hashtag de Twitter, como todos los Primeros Compañeros deben, Loevett brinda a los fanáticos acceso indirecto a Bedmar y Baglietto publicando videos y fotos detrás de escena.

Foto de boda deBedmar y Loevett de la cuenta de Instagram dearia_bedmar

2. Los traductores: los fandoms lesbicos son siempre internacionales. Cuanto más grande es el fandom, más idiomas se han traducido a los clips del programa. Maitino, por ejemplo, tiene traducciones al menos en inglés, francés, italiano, tailandés, turco, ruso, portugués, chino y alemán. Los traductores son un componente clave del ecosistema, que vale su peso en oro. La mayoría de los fandoms solo tienen una o dos personas que traducen y subtitulan en cada idioma. Sin traductores, un fandom estará limitado en lo grande que puede crecer internacionalmente.

Componente 2: El elenco

Para muchas personas, "fandom" es solo otra palabra para "fan", pero esta comprensión limitada del concepto margina el papel que desempeñan el elenco y las redes sociales / relaciones públicas del programa en el ecosistema. De hecho, el elenco y las redes sociales / relaciones públicas juegan un papel importante en el éxito de un fandom. Cuanto más involucrados están, más simbióticas son las relaciones en el ecosistema y más robusto se vuelve el ecosistema fandom.

En el caso de fandoms lesbicos de TV, el "elenco" se reduce a las dos actrices de la pareja de lesbianas. Esto es a la vez una bendición y una maldición. En el lado positivo, las actrices se benefician de la energía bulliciosa y sin diluir de los fans. La desventaja es que el intenso enfoque de los fanáticos coloca la carga del compromiso exclusivamente en ellos. Debido a que el centro de atención nunca se aleja de ellos, hay un constante atractivo para su atención, obligándolos a decidir cuánto tiempo y energía pueden dedicar a interactuar con el fandom.

Qué es lo que el elenco trae al ecosistema: si los fans aportan números y energía al fandom, las actrices aportan (además de sus deberes de actuación habituales) entusiasmo por el fandom y cierto grado de accesibilidad personal. En el mejor de los casos, las acciones tomadas por las actrices muestran a los fans que se preocupan por los fans y el fandom. Los fanáticos sienten que son "vistos" por las actrices y que todos son parte de una sola comunidad que se une por una causa mayor. Como sea que estas acciones se vean en la práctica varía significativamente, pero en su mayor parte implica una combinación de responder y retuitear Tweets de fans, Tweetear sobre cosas que suceden en la vida personal de las actrices, publicando shots tras bambalinas para el fandom en Instagram y participar en entrevistas centradas.

El uso de las redes sociales de Bedmar y Loevett es un ejemplo clásico y muy efectivo de interactuar con los fanáticos en las redes sociales para crear experiencia comunitaria de fandom. Bedmar ha respondido al fan art en Twitter, ha retwitteado entrevistas y ha publicado fotos de Maitino detrás de escena en Instagram. La cuenta conjunta de Instagram de Bedmar y Loevett, @wearekenzaria, anima a Maitino y comparte una historia de amor positiva (real) con sus seguidores. Yendo más allá, Bedmar y Loevett crean constantemente historias de Instagram para los fanáticos, y Loevett incluso creó camisetas de fanáticos de "Callate/me". Baglietto, mientras tanto, mantiene un perfil personal más bajo, pero es un prolífico reTweeter de artículos de noticias de Maitino.

En el pasado, escribí cómo las actrices pueden contribuir al ecosistema de fandom, utilizando estudios de casos extraídos específicamente de actrices en programas de televisión (para AfterEllen y GayBaeCo). La base de esos artículos es la siguiente: fandom lesbicos de TV pueden existir sin el compromiso de sus actrices, impulsadas por la energía de los fanáticos, pero cuanto mayor sea el compromiso del reparto, más entusiasta será el fandom. Dicho de otra manera, un "Ships" navegará sin "capitán", pero navega mejor cuando las actrices capitan activamente su barco.

Qué recibe elenco del ecosistema: en casi dos décadas de entrevistas con actrices en papeles queer, el consenso casi universal es que las actrices que han interpretado a un personaje queer obtienen una profunda gratificación personal de la gran cantidad de apoyo que reciben de los fanáticos. En Tweets, cartas, correos electrónicos y tarjetas, estas actrices reciben miles de mensajes de apoyo y amor (e inevitablemente, algunos acosadores). Inequívocamente, no hay paralelo cuando se interpretan roles heterosexuales. Por lo tanto, es una experiencia única en la vida. El impacto de ser parte de un fandom robusto también puede ser profesional. En todo el mundo, las actrices en roles de televisión queer han ganado premios nacionales de actuación, han sido promovidas de miembros recurrentes a miembros regulares del reparto, y han visto a sus seguidores en las redes sociales dispararse, todo lo cual puede tener beneficios tangibles para sus prospectos para participar en futuros roles.

Componente 3: Las redes sociales/Relaciones Publicas

El papel de las relaciones públicas de un programa de televisión es probablemente la parte menos reconocida del fandom y, sin embargo, en los últimos años, las redes sociales han aumentado drásticamente este rol. Ahora las cuentas oficiales de redes sociales de un programa pueden ser tan parte del fandom como los propios fanáticos. Estas cuentas actúan en varias ocasiones como animadoras, relaciones públicas y fanáticos. Los showrunners (como Emily Andras de “Wynonna Earp”) y los escritores (como Javier Grillo-Marxuach de “The 100”) también pueden formar parte del fandom, aunque este artículo no tratara sus historias.

Qué traen las PR/medios sociales al ecosistema: el departamento de Relaciones Públicas de TV trae al fandom una plataforma de medios sociales preestablecida y conexiones de la industria, que pueden usar para aumentar el fandom elevando su perfil. El departamento de relaciones publicas puede organizar entrevistas con las actrices, organizar material entre bastidores y compilar "lo mejor de" escenas,manteniendo a los fans enganchados y recompensados. Estos son algunos ejemplos de lo que RTVE y "Acacias 38" han hecho por el fandom Maitino:

• Twitter: cuando se trata de la cuenta de Twitter para “Acacias 38”, Maitino es el rey indiscutible. ¿Hay alguna otra pareja en Acacias 38? No lo sabrías por su feed de Twitter. El Tweet anclado para la cuenta @ acacias38_rtve es una entrevista entre Baglietto y Bedmar. Alrededor del 90% de los tweets que se originan en la cuenta tienen Camino o Maitino como la foto en miniatura. La cuenta tiene una cinta roja en su nombre, un guiño a Maitino, y la cuenta twittea regularmente con los hashtags #Maitino y #Maitiners.

• YouTube: además de subir entrevistas con Bedmar y Baglietto, "Acacias 38" ha creado fanvideos específicos de Maitino para YouTube. "Acacias 38: Maite y Camino, la historia de un amor prohibido #Acacias38", tiene 1.4 millones de visitas." Acacias 38: Los mejores momentos de #Maitino # Acacias38" también tiene 1.1 millones de visitas.

Qué reciben las relaciones públicas/redes sociales reciben del ecosistema: los fandom lesbicos mas populares producen grandes cantidades de rumores en las redes sociales y, como dicen en Estados Unidos, "Toda publicidad es buena publicidad". El Tweet promedio de @ acacias38_rtve sobre un tema que no es de Maitino genera alrededor de 75 me gusta y seis reTweets, pero los tweets de Maitino promedian más de 300 me gusta y más de 50 reTweets. Según todas las métricas de las redes sociales, Maitino es, con mucho, la pareja más popular en "Acacias 38" en este momento, y esta popularidad recientemente le valió a Bedmar y Baglietto una entrevista con Vodaphone Yu. Grandes fandoms significan más publicidad para el programa, lo que significa más espectadores y más ingresos publicitarios.

Crecimiento del Fandom

Juntos, los fans, las actrices y las redes sociales/relaciones públicas de un programa pueden crear un fandom capaz de tocar a miles e incluso millones de personas en todo el mundo. Para las mujeres queer, estos fandoms son oasis de comunidad en un mundo aún en gran medida homofóbico. Como pensamiento de despedida, los fandoms crecen cuando los nuevos fans son atraídos. Los fandoms como Maitino que aún están en las etapas iniciales pueden crecer exponencialmente al engancharse con otros fandoms. Un ecosistema más pequeño puede crecer aprovechando uno más grande. Además, los fanáticos no pueden ver lo que aún no saben que existe. Entonces, para cualquier nuevo fandoms, quizás la forma más rápida de crecer no es solo usar hashtags exclusivos de fandom, sino también usar los hashtags de otros fandoms. Después de todo, cada fandom es un ecosistema en un ecosistema lésbico global mucho, mucho más grande. #Juliantina #Luimelia #WayHaught #Creampuff #Flozmin #Barcedes

By: Karen Frost

Ecosystem: a large community of living organisms that live in an interconnected network in a symbiotic, balanced relationship to each other.

Looked at scientifically, TV fandoms are ecosystems. They are vibrant, colorful, dynamic communities that connect individuals across time and geography into an ever-changing, adaptive network. Like all ecosystems, they are symbiotic: fans derive energy from the TV show they love, which they then reflect back into the system. The show and the actresses associated with it absorb this fan energy and channel it into further production in an iterative feedback cycle. Or to use a different analogy, the fan-show relationship is like a fire on a cold day: the more wood fans pile on, the hotter the fire burns, and the warmer they get. As a music fan recently noted, fans are essential to the success of a project, but fandoms take that success to stratospheric levels.

There are three components to TV fandom ecosystems: the fans, the cast, and the social media/PR. This article describes how these components work together in the ecosystem to create a positive, symbiotic relationship. It uses the Maitino fandom (which is associated with the lesbian couple Maite and Camino on the Spanish show “Acacias 38”) as a case study to show these ideas. The overall point is: fandoms are dynamic. With intentional acts, they can be grown. The most successful fandoms likely are successful because all three components work together in synchronicity. So for anyone who is a member of one of these three components, the potential exists to take what is already good and make it even better just by adding additional energy to the ecosystem.

Component 1: The Fans

It’s self-evident that a TV show with no fans is cancelled immediately. Viewers are essential to any project. But not all viewers are fans and not all fans are able to create a robust fandom. Below is a breakdown of what fans bring to the fandom ecosystem, what they receive from it, and the two key figures that emerge in lesbian TV fandoms to help nurture and grow the fandom.

What fans bring to the ecosystem: According to the most widely accepted etymology, the word “fan” is a shortened version of the word fanatic, which means “marked by excessive enthusiasm and often intense devotion.” What differentiates casual viewers from fans is that the fanaticism of fans becomes part of their personal identity. They attend conventions, comment on social media, hang up posters, wear shirts, go to fan events, create fan fiction/art/videos, etc. They put up billboards in Times Square supporting their favorite actresses and use online campaigns to get shows renewed for additional seasons. Fans bring passion, energy, and size to the ecosystem, which can lead to awards nominations, shows lasting longer, and storylines being extended.

Queer female TV fans in particular are a large and vocal group. They span the globe, transcending nationality, language, and continents. Although the mainstream hasn’t realized it yet for the most part, queer female fans have created some of the most fertile TV fandom ecosystems in the world. (It’s one reason I’ve encouraged shows to add more lesbian couples.) Queer women number in the millions and they’re hungry for representation. They bring to their fandom ecosystems unbridled passion and huge numbers.

How many lesbian TV fans are there? It’s impossible to know exactly, but they make a huge impression everywhere they go. In a recent interview, for example, the creators of the webseries #Luimelia, which gave the lesbian pairing of Luisita and Amelia from the Spanish show “Amar es Para Siempre” its own mini spin-off, noted that Tweets mentioning Luimelia produced more than 40 million impressions during the 2018/2019 season, which was ten times as many impressions as the show got the previous season. Here are several Maitino social media metrics that show the impact of queer female fans:

• Twitter: Per the hashtag tracking site Talkwalker, from 13-20 February, there were 30,900 Twitter conversations mentioning “Maitino,” with a potential reach of 135.2 million Twitter users. For context, that’s almost triple the population of Spain (46.7 million). On 17 February, #LaResistenciaMaitino topped 16,000 tweets.

• YouTube: Maitino’s top viewed video, “Acacias 38: La primera vez de Camino y Maite #Acacias1161” (“Acacias 38: The first time for Camino and Maite”), has 1.88 million views, making it the sixth most watched YouTube video for @RTVESeries’ YouTube channel and the most watched “Acacias 38” video.

• Instagram: Aria Bedmar (who plays Camino) mentioned in an interview that after the first Maitino kiss aired, she suddenly started getting thousands of new Instagram followers a day. As of this writing, she has 27,100 followers. Ylenia Baglietto (who plays Maite) has 15,400. The show’s official Instagram handle only has 15,200 followers, while Susana Soleto, who plays Camino’s mother, has 2,381 followers.

What fans receive from the ecosystem: In the Internet era, fandoms have turned what was once a passive, largely individual event (sitting at home watching TV) into a shared, participatory online communal experience. Watching what happens on a TV screen is only a fraction of that experience. Fandoms offer community, active engagement with the material, and even the chance to interact with the actresses. It’s an opportunity to become part of a greater whole. Particularly for the LGBT community, fandoms might be the only contact they have with other queer individuals. It is a safe space where they can share emotions, discuss their lives, and feel represented.

Two key fan types grow the fandom: The biggest lesbian TV fandoms have hundreds of thousands if not millions of fans around the world. But not all fans play the same role in the fandom. Based on observation, two key figures quickly emerge in most fandoms that act as natural rally points for fans. These figures encourage the ecosystem’s growth by raising the visibility of the fandom online. They are:

1. The “First Mate”: All fandoms have cheerleaders. Naturally, fans love their fandom and want to shout about how great it is. But in every fandom there are one or more figures with enough clout to lead the fandom. Like free PR, they are consistently active on social media and use hashtagging to raise the fandom’s visibility in the wider queer community. Other fans seek out their opinions and reactions, leading them to gain hundreds or thousands of followers of their own. The cast may reTweet them and the crew might even develop an informal relationship with them. I call these figures the “First Mate.” (A word of explanation: queer women tend to follow “ships”—the short form of “relationship”—meaning they’re more often fans of specific romantic pairings on a show vice the overall show itself. The actresses who play the relationship on TV are dubbed the “Ship Captains,” and hence I created the term “First Mate” to continue the nautical metaphor.)

Normally, First Mates are not related to anyone on the show. They may not even live in the same country where the show is airing. In what is likely the first example of its kind, one of Maitino’s First Mates is Kenzy Loevett, Bedmar’s wife. This is an exciting, unique scenario. Although Bedmar is not the first queer actress in a popular queer role (Zoie Palmer in “Lost Girl” and Michelle Hardwick in “Emmerdale” immediately spring to mind), this is the first time a significant other (queer or straight) has been a First Mate, to my knowledge. And it’s the epitome of fandom symbiosis, to the benefit of the Maitino fans. In addition to “fangirling” and leading Twitter hashtag campaigns, as all First Mates must, Loevett provides fans indirect access to Bedmar and Baglietto by posting behind the scenes videos and pictures.

Bedmar and Loevett’s wedding photo from @aria_bedmar’s Instagram

2. The Translators: Lesbian fandoms are always international. The larger the fandom, the more languages clips of the show have been translated into. Maitino, for example, has translations in at least English, French, Italian, Thai, Turkish, Russian, Portuguese, Chinese and German. Translators are a key component of the ecosystem, worth their weight in gold. Most fandoms only have one or two people who translate and subtitle in each language. Without translators, a fandom will be limited in how large it can grow internationally.

Component 2: The Cast

To many people, “fandom” is just another word for “fans,” but this narrow understanding of the concept marginalizes the role that the cast and the show’s social media/PR play in the ecosystem. In point of fact, the cast and social media/PR play a significant role in the success of a fandom. The more involved they are, the more symbiotic the relationships in the ecosystem and the more robust the fandom ecosystem becomes.

In the case of lesbian TV fandoms, the “cast” boils down to the two actresses in the lesbian pairing. This is both a boon and a curse. On the plus side, the actresses benefit from the boisterous, undiluted energy of the fans. The downside is that the intense fan focus places the burden of engagement exclusively on them. Because the spotlight never shifts away from them, there is a constant appeal to their attention, forcing them to decide how much time and energy they’re able to commit to interacting with the fandom. 

What the cast brings to the ecosystem: If fans bring numbers and energy to the fandom, the actresses bring (on top of their regular acting duties) enthusiasm for the fandom and some degree of personal accessibility. In the best case scenario, actions taken by the actresses show fans they care about the fans and the fandom. The fans feel that they are “seen” by the actresses and that everyone is part of a single community pulling together for a greater cause. What these actions look like in practice varies significantly, but for the most part involves some combination of responding to and reTweeting fan Tweets, Tweeting about things happening in the actresses’ personal lives, posting behind the scenes fandom shots to Instagram, and participating in fandom-centric interviews.

Bedmar and Loevett’s social media use is a classic and highly effective example of engaging with fans on social media to create a shared fandom community/experience. Bedmar has responded to fan art on Twitter, reTweeted interviews, and posted behind the scenes Maitino photos to Instagram. Bedmar and Loevett’s joint Instagram account, @wearekenzaria, cheerleads Maitino while also sharing a positive queer (real life) love story with followers. Going above and beyond, Bedmar and Loevett consistently create Instagram stories for the fans, and Loevett even created “Caillat/me” fan shirts. Baglietto, meanwhile, maintains a lower personal profile, but is a prolific reTweeter of Maitino news articles.

In the past, I’ve written how actresses can contribute to the fandom ecosystem, using case studies drawn specifically from actresses on TV shows (for AfterEllen and GayBaeCo). The basis for those articles stands: lesbian TV fandoms can and do exist without the engagement of their actresses, driven by the energy of just the fans, but the higher the cast engagement, the more enthusiastic the fandom. Put another way, a “ship” will sail with no “captain,” but it sails better when the actresses actively captain their ship.

What casts receive from the ecosystem: In almost two decades of interviews with actresses in queer roles, the all but universal consensus is that actresses who have played a queer character derive profound personal gratification from the outpouring of support they receive from fans. In Tweets, letters, emails and cards, these actresses receive thousands of messages of support and love (and inevitably, some stalkers). Unequivocally, there is no parallel when playing heterosexual roles. It is therefore a once in a lifetime experience. The impact of being part of a robust fandom can be professional, too. Around the world, actresses in queer TV roles have won national acting awards, been promoted from recurring to regular cast members, and seen their social media followers skyrocket, all of which can have tangible benefits for their prospects for casting in future roles.

Component 3: The Social Media/PR

The role of a TV show’s PR is probably the least recognized part of fandom, and yet in the last few years, social media has drastically increased this role. Now a show’s official social media accounts can be just as much a part of the fandom as the fans themselves. These accounts act at various times as cheerleaders, PR, and fans. Showrunners (like Emily Andras of “Wynonna Earp”) and writers (like Javier Grillo-Marxuach of “The 100”), too, can become part of the fandom, although this article will not discuss them.

What the PR/social media brings to the ecosystem: The PR department of TV shows bring to the fandom a pre-established social media platform and industry connections, which they can use to help grow the fandom by raising its profile. The department can arrange actress interviews, organize behind the scenes material, and compile “best of” scenes, keeping fans engaged and rewarded. Here are some examples of what RTVE and “Acacias 38” have done for the Maitino fandom:

• Twitter: When it comes to the Twitter account for “Acacias 38,” Maitino is the undisputed king. Are there even any other couples on “Acacias 38”? You wouldn’t know from its Twitter feed. The pinned Tweet for the @acacias38_rtve account is an interview between Baglietto and Bedmar. Some 90% of the tweets originating from the account have either Camino or Maitino as the thumbnail photo. The account has a red ribbon in its handle, a nod to Maitino, and the account regularly tweets with the hashtags #Maitino and #Maitiners.

• YouTube: In addition to uploading interviews with Bedmar and Baglietto, "Acacias 38” has created specific Maitino fanvideos for YouTube. “Acacias 38: Maite y Camino, la historia de un amor prohibido #Acacias38” (“Acacias 38: Maite and Camino, the story of a forbidden love”), has 1.4 million views. “Acacias 38: Los mejores momentos de #Maitino #Acacias38” (“Acacias 38: The best moments of #Maitino”) also has 1.1 million views.

What the PR/social media receives from the ecosystem: Popular lesbian TV fandoms produce massive amounts of social media buzz, and as they say in America, “All publicity is good publicity.” The average Tweet from @acacias38_rtve about a non-Maitino topic generates around 75 likes and six reTweets, but Maitino tweets average over 300 likes and over 50 reTweets. By every social media metric, Maitino is by far the most popular couple on “Acacias 38” right now, and this popularity recently garnered Bedmar and Baglietto an interview with Vodaphone Yu. Large fandoms mean more publicity for the show, which means more viewers and more ad revenue.

Growing the Fandom

Together, the fans, the actresses, and the social media/PR of a show can create a fandom capable of touching thousands and even millions of people around the globe. For queer women, these fandoms are oases of community in a still largely homophobic world. As a parting thought, fandoms grow when new fans are drawn in. Fandoms like Maitino that are still in the nascent stages can grow exponentially by hooking into other fandoms. A smaller ecosystem can grow by tapping into a larger one. Besides, fans can’t watch what they don’t yet know exists. So for any new fandoms, perhaps the fastest way to grow is not to just use fandom exclusive hashtags, but to use the hashtags of other fandoms as well. After all, each fandom is one ecosystem in a much, much larger global lesbian ecosystem. #Juliantina #Luimelia #WayHaught #Creampuff #Flozmin #Barcedes

All business is predicated on a simple idea: demand and supply. If there is a demand for a product, the creation of a supply to meet that demand will result in monetary gain for the producer. The magnitude of that gain will depend on the size of the demand and the producer’s ability to effectively fill it. Everyone needs shoes. No one needed the 2001 model Adidas Kobe Two, which look like what Star Wars Storm Troopers would wear when lounging around in their off hours and was such a disaster Kobe ended up buying out his contract with Adidas and moving to Nike.

Producers tailor their production and marketing to key market segments: groups of people who share one or more common characteristic and to whom the product should be at best mandatory, at worst appealing. Consumers should need or want to buy the product, thus generating demand. Normally, the common characteristics of a market segment are things like interests, lifestyles, geographic locations, and demographic profiles. Ideally, these market segments should be measurable, large enough to be profitable, durable, and accessible. In summary, producers want a large and consistent demand that will last for years.

The global lesbian population is approximately 78 million people (1% of the global population of 7.8 billion, a little smaller than the population of Germany), while the total number of queer women statistically should be around 456 million (6%, a number greater than the total populations of the US and the UK combined). As a result of globalism, the individuals in this goliath market segment very likely have a similar psychographic profile and discrete, identifiable needs that producers could fill. Theoretically, they create a demand for particular, marketable products. This means that at least on paper, we’re an ideal customer base. And yet in practice, marketing exclusively to lesbians feels like it has a high rate of failure. Time and again, lesbian-oriented businesses fail. Why? Are lesbians really such terrible customers? Or is there another factor at play?

The “Pink Dollar” is a Huge, Lucrative Marketing Target…

As a market segment, the overall LGBT community punches above its weight. The purchasing power of the American LGBT community was estimated at $965 billion in 2018, making the queer community’s “pink dollar” the strongest of any minority group in the US.

Globally, the LGBT purchasing power was $5 trillion in 2018. This is largely because gay and lesbian couples tend to be DINKS: dual-income, no kid households, meaning they have more disposable income than their heterosexual counterparts. In addition, lesbians experience what’s called the “lesbian premium”: according to a 2015 meta-analysis done by Marieka Klawitter, a professor of public policy and governance at the University of Washington, on average, lesbians earn 9% more than heterosexual women (note that lesbians seem to have a huge pay disparity: they either make tons more than straight women or much less, which is why the average is 9%). Overall, this means gays and lesbians theoretically have more money to spend than straight couples with kids.

LGBT American Airlines Marketing

Photo by: Subaru LGBT Marketing

Indeed, two famous case studies prove there can be big money to be made when companies pitch sales to the LGBT community to capture those pink dollars. American Airlines saw its earnings from LGBT customers rise from $20 million in 1994 to $193.5 million in 1999 after it formed a team devoted to LGBT marketing. (In 2018, LGBT travelers spent over $218 billion a year, one reason the travel industry has laid a particular focus on wooing queer travelers.) Meanwhile, Subaru began marketing to lesbians specifically in the 1990s after it discovered that lesbians were its fifth largest purchaser group, and that lesbian niche market contributed to making Subaru the #2 car seller globally throughout the 2010s. With billions of pink dollars at stake, it’s no wonder that in recent years major corporations from credit cards companies to food companies to alcohol distillers have targeted ads to the LGBT community.

…So Why do Lesbian-Oriented Businesses Seem to Fail so Often?

Olivia Records Logo

Photo credit: Olivia Cruise

Olivia, better known as Olivia Travel, is the world’s largest lesbian-focused company. But 30 years ago, it was a company on the brink of folding. Olivia started in 1973 as Olivia Records, a women’s record label founded by radical lesbian feminists and dedicated to empowering women in the recording business. It made 40 albums and sold over one million records. In 1988, it hosted two sold-out 15th anniversary shows at Carnegie Hall, then the venue’s largest single-grossing event of all time. And yet despite this success, the company was sinking financially. Its founders were idealistic and inexperienced in business, and by the late 1980s, the lesbian separatist movement that had been the engine of Olivia’s success was starting to lose its momentum and be overtaken by a broader feminist movement. By 1990, Olivia was no longer financially viable.

Then it made what turned out to be a massively successful decision. In 1989, a concert attendee suggested a concert on the water. Olivia founder Judy Dlugacz seized on the idea and in 1990 chartered a cruise ship to the Bahamas. 600 women signed up and Olivia’s Travel empire was born. Today, Olivia averages revenues of around $20-$30 million a year. It’s a case study in identifying a market gap and building a product to fill that gap.

Olivia Records’ story mirrors the experiences of many lesbian businesses: despite identifying a market segment, putting out quality product, and trailblazing new successes, they ultimately are unable to proceed financially. Here are just a few examples of high-profile businesses catering to lesbians that have gone out of business in the last decade:

• Bars: Even the heterosexual press has noticed the death of the lesbian bar in America. The last lesbian bar in New Orleans, Rubyfruit Jungle, closed in 2012. Philadelphia's Sisters closed in 2013, and San Francisco lost the Lexington in 2015. The oldest continually operating lesbian bar in the United States, Phase 1, closed in 2016. Only a handful of lesbian bars now remain in the US, including Henrietta Hudson, Cubbyhole, and Ginger’s in New York City, A League of Her Own in the basement of Pitchers in Washington, DC, My Sister’s Room in Atlanta, the Lipstick Lounge in East Nashville and the Gossip Grill in San Diego.

The big 3 NYC Lesbian bars. All still open. Photo Credit Henrietta Hudson NYC

Photo credit: Ginger’s Bar Brooklyn

Photo credit: Cubby Hole NYC

• Magazines: Like the dodo bird, most American lesbian magazines went extinct before the 2010s. Girlfriends went out of business in 2006, and in an editorial in the 2010 September issue of Curve magazine, then-owner Frances Stevens wrote that without reader assistance in the form of a subscription, gift or donation, the magazine would likely not make it through the year. (Months later, Curve was sold to Silke Bader, who also owns Australia’s LOTL, which was how the magazine survived.)

• Websites: Small, independent lesbian blogs run as labors of love by their owners will always exist, but the larger, transnational lesbian websites have really struggled to stay afloat in the mid-2010s. SheWired.com was absorbed by Pride.com in 2016 after it failed as a stand-alone lesbian-centric venture for Here Media, the owner of The Advocate, Out Magazine, and Gay.com. In its perpetually tenuous efforts to stay solvent, Autostraddle implemented a business model with multiple revenue streams including A-Camp, the A+ Membership Program, merchandise sales, advertising, and affiliate commissions. AfterEllen also resorted to reaching out for contributions after it was sold by Evolve Media in March 2019 for failing to bring in sufficient ad revenue.

• Bookstores: LGBTQ bookstores peaked in the 1990s, with over 40 operating in the United States. Now fewer than half that number remain, and many have broadened their sales focus to stay in business.

• Clothing Lines: Many efforts to create gender neutral or transmasculine clothing lines have failed, although others have continued. At least nine of the clothing companies listed on Autostraddle’s list of 73 lesbian-owned businesses from mid-2018 have closed, including Grayscale Goods, I AM NO LABEL, Kipper Clothiers, Kreuzbach10, Saint Harridan, Ambiance Couture, Apule Town, Equal Period, and FYI by Dani Read.

Anecdotally, many people trying to establish small businesses catering exclusively or mostly to the queer female community have found the market to be less robust than the numbers would seem to suggest at face value. An effort to use indiegogo to fund a new LGBT bar in Philadelphia, for example, ended with only 15% of the funding met. Content creators for webseries and short films have also noted the absence of funding for queer projects. (The webseries “Different for Girls” only generated $1,754 from 16 backers in its Indiegogo campaign for season two, which was 9% funded.)

Success is a Numbers Game, Even for Lesbians

While some lesbian-centric ventures fail, others do spectacularly. Club Skirts Dinah Shore Weekend, popularly known as “The Dinah,” is the largest lesbian event in the world and it’s been happening since 1991. In 2018, over 15,000 women attended. ClexaCon, the world’s largest fan convention for LGBT content creators, allies, and fans, is now entering its fourth year and has been so popular and successful it’s inspired similar conventions in Barcelona (Love Fan Fest) and Tampa (QFX East). When it comes to major annual social events like these, queer women seem to be willing to turn out in droves.

Photo credit: Dinah Shore

Photo credit: ClexaCon 2018

Photo credit: QFX Events 2020

So what’s the secret to the success of lesbian-centric businesses like these? Perhaps the secret is that there is no secret. The queer female business market is, at heart, unpredictable…just as it is for heterosexual businesses. Some androgynous clothing lines fail while others succeed. Some Indiegogo campaigns for lesbian short films blast through their goals while others fall way short. Most queer bookstores are failing because in 2020 people just don’t go to brick and mortar bookstores anymore. And many lesbian business owners, like the founders of Olivia Records, have a good idea but lack the business experience to see that idea translated to financial success. According to the Small Business Association, 30% of businesses fail in their first year, 50% in the first five, and 66% in the first ten. 69-89% of crowdfunding projects (for example on Kickstarter or Indiegogo) don’t meet their funding goals. The truth is, business ain’t easy, no matter the industry or market segment.

Lesbian-Centric Businesses Probably Fail at the Same Rate as Everyone Else

So why does it sometimes seem like queer women aren’t doing enough to help the businesses created for them? Why aren’t they pouring money into failing bars, teetering websites, and cash strapped media projects to support queer causes? The demand seems to exist, so why is there discontinuity between the demand and the supply? A few reasons:

• First, there’s a relativity problem here. Most people don’t realize how often businesses fail and therefore they’re surprised when they see such high failure rates. Without data for comparison, however, it’s impossible to say whether lesbian-oriented businesses fail at a higher or lower rate than businesses that don’t primarily cater to the queer female community. Maybe we’re actually doing better than a 30% fail rate in the first year. Until someone does a study, we’re all going off of “gut feelings,” which are notoriously wrong.

• Second, as a result of a slew of articles in the last few years proclaiming the death of queer spaces, etc., at least some of us have an anchoring/confirmation bias: once we start to believe that lesbian businesses are being edged out by society, we begin to absorb any new datapoints about failures as proof of this belief while at the same time discarding success stories. If you know one lesbian store/website went out of business, every time you hear about more going out of business it will reinforce that belief. But as noted above, we don’t actually know whether we’re doing better, worse, or the same in terms of success and failure rates.

• Third, there is an expectation of altruism/support in our community that isn’t always met. Literature on philanthropy in the LGBT community suggests our community values building and supporting the community. If only 22% of Americans give to Kickstarter crowdfunding campaigns, we might expect our community to give more than that to LGBT projects in an effort to counteract historical marginalization. We might expect our community to prefer queer-run coffee shops or bike stores, for example, and donate to crowdsourcing projects because it gives back to the community. When we see these businesses fail, it may seem to be a reflection of the failure of that community altruism.

Good News, Bad News on Crowd-Sourcing

In the past, I’ve used crowdsourcing for the Brazilian webseries “RED” as an example of how the queer community could do more to support queer projects. Between Indiegogo and Catarse, a mere 156 backers financed season six, 163 backed season five, and 233 backed season four. The point I’ve made in the past is that the first episode of “Red” had approximately 369,000 views. If everyone had paid $1 per view, that $369,000 would have financed around 35 seasons of the show and everyone could have watched for free ever after. It would have been a spectacularly effective and easy funding mechanism.

It turns out, “Red”’s crowdsourcing data teaches us something else about lesbian-centric content, which is this: everything about “Red”’s experience is the norm for crowdsourcing. Nothing changed because it was a lesbian-centric project targeting lesbian consumers. According to 2020 crowdfunding statistics, fully funded crowdfunding projects have an average of 300 backers with an average pledge of $96. The $6,180 raised through Indiegogo for season 4 of “Red” came from 54 backers, which means an average of $114.44 per backer. If “Red” hadn’t had any queer content, it might have received the same amount of financial backing. This trend is borne out by other lesbian crowdsourcing projects, too. Tello films’ “Riley Parra” season 2 Indiegogo campaign raised $21,280 from 192 backers, or an average of $110.83 per backer, while tello’s campaign for “Season of Love” raised $61,157 from 586 backers for an average of $104. In short, lesbian-oriented projects do no worse than anyone else.

Photo Credit: Red the webseries

Photo credit: Tello Films

On the one hand, that’s good news. It shows that fears about lesbian ventures being underfunded may be overblown. But there’s bad news, too, and the bad news is we’re doing no better than anyone else. The queer female community talks a big game about supporting each other and forming an uplifting community, but the data suggests that at the end of the day…we’re as charitable, philanthropic, and consumer minded as our heterosexual peers. No less, but certainly no more. The solidarity within the queer female community does not translate to significantly higher contributions. (By the way, 87% of contributors to crowdfunding campaigns have only given to five campaigns or fewer, showing how hard it is to mobilize crowdsourcing.)

It’s Up to Us as Individuals to Make a Difference

The above indicates that as a market segment, queer women don’t behave in a distinctly different way from any other group. (For the most part. Clearly we love Subarus and Olivia cruises.) Absent further data, there’s no evidence they necessarily fight harder to keep something (“Wynonna Earp” is its own case study) or donate more money or buy more products. That means that while we can’t pull the community as a whole to spend more money at LGBT-run stores or on LGBT-centric projects, as individuals we can make the decision to support these things. Because demand drives supply, if you believe in something, put money toward it. Create demand. If you want to see more ladies kissing on screen, donate to Indiegogo campaigns. Want more androgynous clothing lines? Find the ones that exist and buy form them and promote them on social media. The real lesson here is that we might not be able to move mountains all the time as a community, but as individuals, we can do our best to lift each other up.

Want to make a difference? Here are some exciting web series to support with viewership or fiscally.

BIFL - https://www.bifltheseries.com

AVOCADO TOAST - https://www.avocadotoastseries.com

TWENTY - https://twentythewebseries.com

DELTA AND DAISY - https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/delta-daisy-season-1#/

New York Girls TV - https://www.newyorkgirlstv.com

By Karen Frost

Resulta que el secreto del éxito es ... lesbianas. Y los españoles lo tienen claro. Vamos a ver cómo. 

Several years ago, I made the following argument: TV shows can drastically increase the size of their viewership by adding a well-written and well-acted lesbian storyline. This is because well-publicized, popular queer female couples accessible internationally through YouTube or other streaming can rally domestic queer audiences while simultaneously drawing in hundreds of thousands of global viewers in a way that the show’s heterosexual pairings—except in extremely rare circumstances—don’t. To support my argument, I used four case studies: an American daytime soap opera, a primetime sci-fi drama on an American broadcast network, a Brazilian telenovela, and a supernatural Western horror on an American cable network.

Since the mid-2010s, while hundreds of TV shows throughout the Western world have introduced lesbian storylines, Spanish TV has done something extraordinary: it has become such a leader in lesbian storylines that it hasturned into a case study on the impact of LGBT inclusivity on viewership. More than that, Spanish TV has become a global gold standard for LGBT representation and queer fan engagement. How did this happen? Admittedly, probably the biggest factor is that Spanish TV leverages the global Spanish-speaking community, which at 400 million native speakers is actually larger than the English-speaking community, but that’s only part of the story. After all, the same could be said of TV programming coming out of Argentina or Mexico. So what sets the Spaniards apart? 

Camino and Maite on “38 Acacias”

The working theory of this article is that queer representation on Spanish TV has been so successful since the early 2010s because it has to a large degree avoided falling into toxic tropes, has treated its many queer female couples with dignity and equality, and has taken measures to highlight its lesbian pairings on social media so that they will attract international viewership. (It’s worth noting here that fans have created English subtitling on almost all queer Spanish storylines, making them accessible to the 1.5 billion English speakers in the world who may or may not speak Spanish.) Put another way, Spanish TV has supported and championed its lesbian couples more than is done in many other countries, and this has attracted millions of fans-domestically and internationally. In a world in which content transcends borders, languages and cultures, here is proof—in the form of quantitative metrics, at least—that Spanish TV has seen the potential of the global queer female fandom and is tapping into it by giving viewers with what they want: more lesbian content.

Below is an examination of how queer female content has drastically affected viewership patterns for the internationally accessible social media of two of Spain’s biggest corporations and how the corporations have both responded to and encouraged these patterns.  

La 1: Where Lesbian Content Rules

Corporación de Radio y Televisión Española, S.A. (RTVE, Spanish Radio and Television Corporation) is a state-owned, public corporation that happens to be the largest audiovisual group in Spain broadcasting in Spanish. Like the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), its offerings range from news to sports to reality TV to series. In the last decade, RTVE has added a bunch of queer female characters to its series on its La 1 channel and highlighted their storylines on their social media. The results speak for themselves:

• Nine of the RTVE Series YouTube channel’s top 10 most viewed videos feature queer female pairings (spanning three different shows). These nine videos beat out 4,710 other videos from at least seven other RTVE series going back two years. When it comes to La 1’s YouTube audience, the primary viewers are clearly being drawn in by lesbian content.

• The top six of the 1,643 “Servir y Proteger” videos on RTVE’s Series YouTube channel are of Nacha with female love interests. The most viewed video for the show, “Servir y Proteger: Nacha y Aitana pasan la noche juntas #Capítulo550” (“Serve and Protect: Nacha and Aitana spend the night together”), has over 8.2 million views. This is significant given the show only averages about 1.1 million viewers per episode. Meanwhile, the top video without lesbian content received only 564k views, or 1/15th the number of views.

• The lesbian storyline on “Amar in Tiempo Revueltos,”which ended for La 1 in 2012, was so popular and groundbreaking that even today, RTVE has dedicated a section of the video library on the show’s website to clips of Ana and Teresa…but no other couple.  

It’s possible to speculate that La 1 may have been inspired to proactively champion “Acacias 38” in particular—including through enthusiastic hashtagging and retweeting things associated with #Maitino, compiling “best of” Maitino scenes, sharing Maitino “behind the scenes,” and teasing future scenes—based on the overwhelmingly positive fan response first to Ana and Teresa and then to the pairing of Celia and Aurora on “Seis Hermanas” (2015-2017). The most viewed video of Celia and Aurora on YouTube (which was not uploaded by RTVE) received 14 million views. With massive view counts like that, it’s no wonder LezWatchTV counts six RTVE shows with queer female characters in the last three years. Queer content=viewers, and RTVE is more than happy to encourage international viewership by opening up its videos to anyone who wants to watch.

Antena 3: The Unmatched Global Juggernaut for Lesbian Storylines 

What has 45 million views and is the third most popular video out of 13,634 videos on the Atresmedia Youtubechannel? Sara kissing Luisita on “Amar es Para Siempre”(“Sara aprovecha la debilidad de Luisita parabesarla”—“Sara takes advantage of Luisita’s weakness to kiss her”). The fourth most popular video is Alba and Sophie kissing, also from “Amar es Para Siempre,” with 35 million views. It’s hard to contextualize view counts that high in a way that’s graspable. For Americans, 45 million views is almost five times as many views as Jennifer Lopez’s video “How I mastered the Pole Dance | Hustlers BTS Part 1” got and almost three times more views than the trailer for Beyonce’s “Lemonade.” A more graspable comparison for everyone, however, may be this: the population of Spain is 47 million people. View count and individual viewers aren’t the same thing (one viewer can watch a YouTube video up to 30 times before the views are no longer counted), but if every man, woman and teenager in Spain watched the clip of Sara and Luisita, that would be approximately how many times the clip was viewed.Utterly incredible!

Luisita and Amelia on “Amar es Para Siempre”

The tens of millions of views that Antena 3’s lesbian content has received is, to the best of my knowledge, unmatched by any other lesbian pairing anywhere in the world, in any language, at any time. It’s like the difference between Usain Bolt running the 100m at the Olympics and a high school student running it at a local track meet. Every other couple is simply left behind. Regardless of country of origin, the most popular queer female couples almost always max out at 7-14 million YouTube views (suggesting the approximate limitation of the global queer female fandom), but Antena 3 more than tripled this maximum twice in just under two years. Nor was it the first time a lesbian Antena 3 couple became stratospherically popular.The most viewed video of Pepa and Silvia from “Los Hombres de Paco” reached 30 million views even though it aired 10 years ago.

Antena 3 is continuing to lean into its queer content by doubling down on Luimelia, the pairing of Luisita and Amelia on “Amar es Para Siempre.” Beginning on Valentine’s Day, Antena 3 will be airing “#Luimelia,” a six chapter alternate-universe-style, spin-off miniseries set in 2020 on its premium streaming service ATRESplayerPremium. This may, in fact, be the first ever instance of a lesbian TV spin-off (even if in abbreviated form), given the failures of petitions to do the same for couples like Barcedes (Chile’s Perdona Nuestros Pecados) and Juliantina (Mexico’s Amar a Muerte). Leave it to Spain to trailblaze that, too.

Nacha and Rocío from “Servir y Proteger”

Spain’s Place in the Queer TV World Deserves More Recognition 

Unfortunately, three of the four shows mentioned at the start of this article, the ones I originally used to prove the size and potential impact of the global queer fandom, were ambivalent about their lesbian pairings. “General Hospital,” which never wanted to commit to its lesbian storyline and did so grudgingly, eliminated its queer female romance before it even had a chance to grow, and the show has never allowed lesbian content again (even though the storyline won one of the actresses an Emmy). “The 100” achieved infamy in the LGBT community by killing off its highly popular lesbian character after actively rallying queer viewers to the show, and in consequence, it lost approximately 1/3 of its viewers. On “Em Familia,” the lesbian couple was only allowed three kisses and no real physical intimacy. Only “Wynonna Earp” actively cultivated and rewarded its queer fan base, and for its trouble, its fans fought tooth and nail to get it a fourth season, filming now.

Unlike the three flawed original case studies, Spanish TV leans into its lesbian storylines, providing a better, less mixed case study for how lesbian storylines positively impact shows. And because its content is so accessible, it’s easy for viewers around the world to watch. Although not all Spanish lesbian TV pairings have been fantastically successful (La 1’s pairing of Ainhoa and Diana on “Centro Médico” never garnered a huge following, for example), nor have all had happy endings (Ana and Teresa when they were moved to “Amar es Para Siempre”, “Tierra de Lobos,” “Los Hombres de Paco”), nevertheless on the balance Spain has produced a lot of quality lesbian content.In the Anglo-centric English language press, Spain’s contributions to queer female pop culture are most often overlooked, but these contributions are significant and have spanned decades. It’s just just Spain’s quantity of lesbian storylines, but their quality. Starting with the extremely influential storyline of Maca and Esther on “Hospital Central” in the mid-2000s, Spanish representation has entertained and uplifted literally millions of queer women around the world. Based on view count alone, Spanish storylines are likely some of the most watched lesbian videos in the world.

And Spain’s not stopping. Based on the consistency of queer content now being added to Spanish shows across multiple networks (Movistar+’s “SKAM España”, “Hockey Girls” on TV3/Netflix, etc.), there’s every reason to believe that Spanish TV will continue to produce quality content in the future. ¡Viva España!

Silvia and Pepa from “Los Hombres de Paco”

By: Karen Frost

By now, everyone knows the story. The wedding planning website Zola.com submitted to the Hallmark Channel six wedding ads, four of which featured a wedding between a same-sex female couple. After one of the ads ran in December, the conservative Christian organization One Million Moms—a subsidiary of the American Family Association, one of the nation’s leading anti-LGBTQ groups—gathered a petition with 35,009 signatures and complained directly to Bill Abbott, CEO of Crown Media Family Networks, Hallmark's parent company, about both the ads and Abbott’s publicly expressed “openness” to Hallmark airing LGBT content. Crown Media responded by pulling the four lesbian ads but not the two straight ads.

The outcry was immediate in the LGBT community and throughout the more liberal parts of the Internet, the counterprotest dwarfing the size of the original protest. Every major news outlet ran with the story while #BoycottHallmarkChannel trended on Twitter. Sensing the direction of the public opinion winds, Crown Media backpedaled. The next day, Hallmark tweeted that it would not only air the ads, but that it would work "with GLAAD to better represent the LGBTQ community across our portfolio of brands."

Zola, a wedding website service features a couple kissing. Credit: Zola

In less than a day, the kerfluffle turned into a triumphant victory for the LGBT community (and Zola, which couldn’t have bought better publicity). Hallmark’s reversal demonstrated that at least some corporations can be influenced to reverse a publicly anti-LGBT stance by negative press and pushback on social media. The conflict brought the conversation about queer representation in TV ads and on the Hallmark Channel to the attention of the general heterosexual public, shining a spotlight on the discrimination the queer community still faces in 2019. And finally, it put the ball in Hallmark’s court for (one day) airing a much hyped/protested LGBT movie that gives a nod to tolerance and inclusivity without irretrievably angering the over 85 million viewers who watched Hallmark Christmas programming in 2018, a tall order.

Missing from most of the discussion about this flashpoint, however, is a way to convey to readers the sheer magnitude of the LGBT representation problem in holiday oriented films produced by the mainstream. It’s not about an ad or about a network, it’s about a much, much bigger problem. Everyone knows that “Hallmark style” movies are all but exclusively heterosexual, white, Anglo-Saxon Protestant stories about upper middle class protagonists (incredibly, Hallmark didn’t have a movie featuring people of color until 2018). That’s not news. But let’s look at what the numbers tell us about queer female representation across all holiday films:

As of December 2019, the Hallmark Channel has aired 232 Countdown to Christmas movies and Lifetime has aired 88 Christmas movies. The queer female community is 0 for 320 on that count. But those movies are just one part of a larger group of movies with a Christmas theme. This year, the Washington Post used an algorithm to search IMDb for “Christmas” movies and determined that 31,034 movies dating back to 1913 include Christmas themes. How many of those movies had queer female protagonists? I count five full-length movies: “Rent” (2005), “Carol” (2015), “Ghosting: The Spirit of Christmas,” “Let it Snow,” and “Season of Love,” the latter three airing in 2019. A tiny lesbian subplot was cut from “Love Actually” (2003) for time or it would have made six. (Some have argued that “Anna and the Apocalypse” counts, too, but although the character of Steph reads as queer, she’s never overtly identified as such in the movie.) Mathematically, that’s 0.016% of all Christmas-themed movies. Hallmark actresses Danica McKellar and Holly Robinson Peete have each been in that many Hallmark Christmas movies alone.

What these statistics effectively tell us is that when it comes to movie demographics, queer women don’t exist. If we assume that queer women make up around 6% of the global population, the current rate of representation is about 1/400th of what it should be. This isn’t just erasure. It’s intentional obliteration. It’s what happens when sexism meets homophobia. An entire segment of the population disappears on screen.

It’s no secret that for years Hallmark and Lifetime, avowedly conservative networks with no desire to “rock the boat” with their viewer base, wouldn’t allow queer female characters in their movies (or non-white people, or non-Christians, or disabled people, etc.). But to blame just those two networks for homophobia is to miss the forest for two trees. It’s not just them. It’s every major studio. A quick search of “LGBT Christmas movies” immediately reveals an outline of the problem: in the extremely rare instance mainstream Hollywood has added a queer presence to a Christmas movie, it’s been a gay brother/son—“The Family Stone” (2005), “Holiday in Handcuffs” (2007), “Twinkle All the Way” (2019)—or sassy gay friend—“A Christmas Prince” (2017), “A Christmas Prince: The Royal Wedding” (2018), “Christmas in Evergreen: Letters to Santa (2018),” and other gay coded Hallmark characters.

It’s not just Christmas. Lesbians have been excluded by major studios for other major holidays, too. “Home for the Holidays” (1995) has the prodigal gay son returning home for Thanksgiving. In the American “Love Actually” knock-off “Valentine’s Day” (2010), one of the storylines is about a gay football player struggling to come out. Freeform’s upcoming “The Thing About Harry” (2020) puts queer, teenage boys at the forefront of the network’s first Valentine’s Day rom-com. But queer women have only been represented in Thanksgiving movies by way of indie film: “What’s Cooking?” (2000) and “Lez Bomb” (2018). They haven’t been in any Valentine’s Day movies at all. (Queer women dominate Halloween movies, but that’s a separate conversation about the sexploitation of women and fetishization.)

Lez Bomb the Movie. Written & Produced by: Jenna Laurenzo

Make no mistake: the problem is not one of queer men vs. queer women. After all, the men aren’t doing much better, statistically. The problem is there’s only been one mainstream Thanksgiving movie made with LGBT characters and it was 24 years and four Presidents ago. All members of the LGBT community are being disadvantaged.

With the few one-offs noted above, there’s not a single major studio in Hollywood, Hallmark or otherwise, that has cast queer female characters in movies centering around holidays. It’s not a Hallmark problem, it’s an everyone problem. When it comes to Hallmark and Lifetime, the issue of LGBT representation is tied to the broader culture war. These networks have chosen a very narrow white, straight, Christian focus so as not to upset what they view as their core conservative Christian viewership (unsurprisingly, Hallmark as of 2018 was reported to have a policy against showing interracial couples even in the background, proof that 2019 is the new 1950). But the policy restrictions that apply to those networks don’t apply to the same degree to other studios. The creators of “Bad Santa,” for example, aren’t afraid to ruffle feathers. So what’s everyone else’s excuse for not having decking the halls with lesbians?

When tello Films created “Season of Love” to fill the queer female representation gap, it was a gift to the queer female community, but it also represented a failure of the mainstream. After years of organizations like GLAAD pushing for increases in representation across all genres and by all studios, movies with a holiday theme have remained steadfastly exclusionary. Put plainly, the queer female community had to crowdsource its own holiday film because of blatant, overt discrimination on the part of the entire film industry that went unchallenged for decades.

You can rent/purchase the movie here: https://www.tellofilms.com/products/season-of-love it's out now. From Tello Films and DASH Productions- Season of Love is a lighthearted rom-com featuring a large ensemble cast of diverse women and their connected love lives during the hectic holiday period just before Christmas through the New Year who discover love truly is the best gift of all.

The road to LGBT representation on the Hallmark Channel or on Lifetime is uphill. Hallmark aired 98 new movies in 2019 (not all holiday, of course) and has even more planned for 2020…none of which have queer characters. To match its content to global demographics, Hallmark would have to produce about 6 queer movies in 2021, something the network won’t do.

But there is hope. By coincidence, a huge number of actresses who have been in Hallmark channel movies have also been in high profile queer roles. These include: Ali Liebert, Jennifer Beals, Sarah Paulson, Katie McGrath, Kim Delaney, Teri Polo, Mia Kirshner, Alexis Bledel, Katrina Law, Chyler Leigh, Amy Acker, Heather Morris, Bridget Regan, Emmanuelle Vaugier, Rachel Skarsten, Jes Macallan, Kat Barrell, and Elise Bauman. As a result of the #BoycottHallmarkChannel movement, several of them spoke up in support of more queer content on Hallmark. Liebert offered to be Hallmark’s first lesbian bride. Regan requested to be in a “heartfelt lesbian Christmas comedy.” Barrell tweeted her disappointment and Bauman issued an open letter. Hallmark’s own stable of actresses is pushing for change.

What this means overall is that the talent for a queer female holiday movie produced by the mainstream is there. The willingness to act in that movie is there. The writers are there. So when the time comes, all Hallmark (or whomever) has to do is greenlight it.

Archive

In his wonderful book “Blink,” writer Malcolm Gladwell provides an anecdote about the field of classical music. In brief, before the 1980s, orchestras were dominated by men (largely due to the assumption that women have weaker lungs and/or are too timid and delicate to perform boisterous pieces at an elite level). However, when an audition system was put in place to prevent selection committees from knowing the gender of the auditioning musician, suddenly women began to win the majority of auditions for top orchestras. In the US, for example, the number of women playing in the top orchestras increased fivefold after a screen system became common. What happened? Social prejudices about women, as a group, had been interfering with the auditioners’ ability to objectively evaluate women. Put another way, a system to prohibit conscious and unconscious bias from interfering in the selection process allowed for a truly objective selection process. And in the process, it highlighted the pervasive and toxic effect of sexism in the field of classical music. 

What does this story have to do with minority representation on TV and movies in America? Well, a lot actually, because this article is about bias, homophobia, and its pernicious effects in Hollywood. 

Consider the following: According to Autostraddle’s internal accounting, in 2018 there were 128 scripted American shows with regular and/or recurring queer female characters. That was up 12% from the 116 shows in 2017, which was up 36% from 80 shows in 2016. There were 230 characters in 2018, compared to just 85 in 2017. If that’s not astounding enough, just eight years ago, in 2010, there were only 18 regular or recurring queer female characters on TV. In 2007, GLAAD counted a mere three. Now in 2019, both “Batwoman” and “Abby’s” feature a queer titular character played by an openly queer actress, and queer characters are 8.8% of regular characters on primetime scripted broadcasting (a demographic roughly proportional to the percentage of the general American population that is queer). By every conceivable measure, TV representation is progressing. More than progressing. It has exploded in a rainbow of support from networks and showrunners. 

Now consider this: According to the University of California Annenberg’s annual assessment of the top 100 grossing US films, in the last five years, lesbian characters have represented only 0.09-0.38% of speaking characters. In 2018, only 11 of the top 100 films had a lesbian character, for a total of 17 lesbians out of over 4,000 speaking characters. Including males, only 1.3% of all speaking/named characters were LGBT (this is roughly consistent with GLAAD’s findings for the year as well). The Annenberg study poignantly notes that since the start of the study over a decade ago, “the number of LGB characters on screen has changed but not the percentage.” Thus while in 2018 the number of LGBT characters in movies were more than double the number in 2014, the overall numbers remain so tiny that this change is much less than a percentage point, which is statistically insignificant. Representation in movies, in short, is not progressing an inch. 

“Blink” is in part an exploration of how manipulating variables can lead us to identify bias, and the above data clearly shows the presence of conscious bias. While the television side of Hollywood has identified a need for greater diversity and has taken steps to rectify decades of exclusion, the film side of Hollywood has continued to cling to…homophobia. For the last two decades, when called out for their lack of inclusivity, movie studios have responded that they can’t have queer content because viewers will reject it. “We can’t afford to show queer content” has been an oft repeated mantra (director Paul Feig alluded to the lack of queer content as official Sony Pictures policy when explaining why out lesbian Kate McKinnon’s character in “Ghostbusters” couldn’t be openly queer in 2017). Studios stress that same-sex content will be particularly rejected in China, India, and Russia—the lionshare of overseas sales—where homosexuality is largely outlawed. The problem is, there’s no data to support the contention that queer content will lead to lowered ticket sales. In fact, there’s significant data to support the argument that queer content has no impact at all. Here are just a few examples:

• “Deadpool 2” (2018) made $785 million (a sevenfold return on its $110 million budget) despite the fact that Teenage Negasonic Warhead is shown in a same-sex relationship with fellow student Yukio. According to the Times of India, seven scenes were cut for the Indian version. None of them involved references to their relationship. And when “Once Upon a Deadpool” was released as the China-safe PG-13 version, the relationship stayed. So much for the argument that foreign audiences will refuse to watch and foreign censors will refuse the content.

• “XXX: The Return of Xander Cage” (2017) brought in more than half of its $346.1 million revenue from China alone even though out queer actress Ruby Rose’s character Adele Wolff was openly lesbian (her character doesn’t appear to have been censored in any international version). In total, 87% of the movie’s revenue came from overseas.

• “Atomic Blonde” (2017), featuring a bisexual protagonist and a female love interest, tripled its $30 million budget for a global box office of $95.7 million. 46% of its revenue came from foreign sales, including almost $3.5 million from Russia and Central Asia, $1.8 million from Brazil, and more than half a million dollars each from Ukraine, Romania, Poland, the United Arab Emirates, and Turkey. Although India and the Arab countries censored out the movie’s sex scene, it clearly didn’t hurt the overall marketability of the film, suggesting that censorship doesn’t have to be a disqualifier for LGBT content.

At the same time that studios claim a sort of feigned helplessness to show queer content in their major releases, they display a painfully cynical hypocrisy when it comes to queer female content in their art house releases. Although it’s considered too “financially risky” to put LGBT content in mainstream movies, queer material has simultaneously become a shoe-in for Oscar nominations. Since 2002, 12 of the characters that spawned Best Actress nominations were queer (four wins), and five of the characters that led to Best Supporting Actress nominations were queer (one win).  This means that 17 out of 170 (10%) Best Actress or Best Supporting Actress nominations were for playing a queer character. Given that queer female characters are only around 0.25% of the characters in the top 100 grossing films each year as noted above, this isn’t just statistically anomalous, it’s intentional.

Studios are specifically using queer stories as Oscar bait. But in fact, the numbers are even more significant: in the last 17 years, 23.5% of Best Actress winners played a queer character, and approximately 30% of actresses who were Oscar nominated for playing a queer character won. Overall, since 2002, A List actresses in a queer role have approximately a 50-50 chance or better at an Oscar nomination. What does this all tell us? In Gladwell’s example, orchestral auditioners couldn’t “hear” the quality of women musicians because societal norms told them that women weren’t as good musicians as men. When they made a conscious effort to curb their bias, they found that women were just as good or better than their male peers.

In Hollywood, producers hear just fine the quality of queer stories when it comes to Oscar bait. Almost every year, it’s LGBT stories that are nominated for (and win) Oscars:

2002: “The Hours” and “Frida”

2004: “Monster”

2005: “Transamerica”

2006: “Notes on a Scandal,” “Brokeback Mountain” and “Capote”

2008: “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”

2009: “Milk”

2010: “The Kids are All Right” and “A Single Man” (“Black Swan” also had a lesbian sex scene)

2011: “Albert Nobbs” (and “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”)

2014: “Dallas Buyers Club”

2015: “Carol” and “The Imitation Game”

2016: “The Danish Girl”

2017: “Moonlight” and “Disobedience”

2018: “Call Me by Your Name”

2019: “The Favourite,” “Can You Ever Forgive Me?,” and “Bohemian Rhapsody”

The argument that diversity doesn’t sell is a lie. Given there has now been almost a decade of data indicating that the argument against diversity isn’t rooted in financial returns, social norms, or any other indicators of success or failure, the continued claim that diversity will hurt the bottom lie is a fig leaf for bigotry and homophobia. When we look at why TV is succeeding at becoming more diverse, it’s because TV studios are bringing on more diversity everywhere. More diverse writers, more diverse showrunners, more diverse casts. Diversity breeds more diversity. Hollywood’s movie sector, however, remains perpetually stagnant. In ten years, the percentage of women on screen hasn’t increased above 33%, the presence of women behind the screen has remained static, and huge populations of minority women remain invisible. 

Every year, the Annenberg study authors recommend that gender parity could be achieved by adding just five more female speaking characters per film. Every year, this suggestion is ignored. There is so much Hollywood could do to combat bias in movies, if it chose to. Scripts could be submitted namelessly. Character genders in scripts could be masked until casting time. Scripts would be chosen based on quality, not gender and race of characters. But so long as the film industry actively chooses to be homophobic, none of these measures will matter, and the queer community will have to continue to create its own independent content as a way of supplementing the few crumbs Hollywood produces each year. Sadly, this is what has happened to the African American community for decades, resulting in a largely separate and unequal second film industry. Rather than integrating all our diversity, we’re creating sub-industries. How do we solve this problem? By following TV’s example. And hiring diversity.