Posts tagged karen frost
Aria Bedmar on the Future of “Maitino,” Married Life and Civil Rights

By: Catalina Fuentes & Karen Frost

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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.

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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.

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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.

 

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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. 

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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.

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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. 

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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.

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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.

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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.

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How One Argentinian Telenovela Quietly Became the Most Lesbian Thing on Spanish Language TV

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

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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?

  

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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 RevoluçãoBabilôniaEm FamíliaFelizes Para Sempre?Mulheres ApaixonadasÓrfãos 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?

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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.”

 

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 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.

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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.

 

separadas pic 5 .jpg

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

Lesbian Economics
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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

LGBT American Airlines Marketing

Photo by: Subaru LGBT 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

Olivia Records Logo

Photo credit: Olivia Cruise

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:

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

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

Photo credit: Ginger’s Bar Brooklyn

Photo credit: Ginger’s Bar Brooklyn

Photo credit: Cubby Hole NYC

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.

  • 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: Dinah Shore

Photo credit: ClexaCon 2018

Photo credit: ClexaCon 2018

Photo credit: QFX Events 2020

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: Red the webseries

Photo credit: Tello Films

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

The road to representation on the Hallmark Channel is uphill, but there is hope…

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

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

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.

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