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)

Attachments area

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.

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”

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.