#(Fyi I’m sorry to disappoint but there’s not gonna be actual art

[anger-anon]

I!! I WANN SEE!! LE- LEMME SEE ‘EM!! PLEEEEEEEEEEAAAAASE!!!

-PT

Alright- Alright! Jus’ - just gimmie a minute! I gotta go get them!

[midnightvoss]

Idk, I think we’d have fewer narrative problems with characters discovering that they’re gay and then being locked IMMEDIATELY into a relationship with one character, and the fandom being completely heartbroken when they break up or inevitably swap spit with someone else if...

More showrunners considered from the beginning that gay people exist and allowed the characters to have a few misfires before meeting and starting things with their ENDGAME (hate that word). 

Pretty much all over the place. Glee, Supergirl, (lbr) FRIENDS (even though they gave no attention to Carol’s lesbian awakening so no cheating), Wynonna Earp, The Bold Type, etc etc etc.

God, this got so long.

There was no excuse for Melanie and Lindsey cheating on each other (especially how not sorry Lindsey was for cheating on Melanie during the latter’s pregnancy), or Bette and Tina’s, but you have to assume that for Queer as Folk and The L Word, they were just mimicking soap opera drama. The latter was never very well written, and the characters changed personality roughly once per season.

For the others, if it plays the same way every time, it’s because each show is giving only a certain amount of time to each couple and cheating is such an easy trope to reach for... especially when the characters have only ever been with each other... That’s not the only “REALISTIC” thing that might happen, but it’s one of them. So this situation exists as a mix of laziness and homophobia. It’s not far off from the choice to kill off a flamboyance of lesbians on every show... They don’t know what else to do with the characters. 

Granted, coming back to The Bold Type, I can tell they are actually trying to Do Something, and we can’t fault them as much as other shows for not devoting a lot of time to the plot and characters because everything else has a damn hour to work with, and The Bold Type only has half an hour. (It’s like when I cut some slack for Steven Universe having its characters move on from their HUGE ISSUES very quickly... because most of the time, the show runs for 11 fucking minutes.) Thus, to do ILUs, set up interest from Kat, have the moment of indiscretion, a confession, separation, and conversation, within like three episodes... 

It’s rushed, man. And I’m really disappointed by all the things we could’ve had exploring Kat’s sexuality besides this. I’ve literally never seen a representation of a lesbian/bisexual/queer woman connecting with the community for the first time in a lesbian bar and talking with her partner and getting to share that joy. I’ve seen gay boys get it occasionally (even Glee made it a horrible moment, but we all know Glee should’ve been titled Torture), women, never. No cool bars, no open dyke nights with slam poetry or acoustic guitars, no art showings.... like we do have culture outside of being unhappy. I’m hard up for Queer Joy instead of Queer Angst.

But I’m not going to say The Bold Type should be canceled because they stepped into this situation, nor am I going to hate Kat as a character. Honestly, I didn’t have much of an emotional reaction. It’s what I expected. How else are women characters going to have drama if they don’t cheat on each other?? Except maybe the drama that Kat and Adena have addressed already this season already... /snark 

Maybe when I go to rewatch the season, I can muster up a little emotion other than disappointment, annoyance, and feeling bad for Adena to be in this situation. I mean, when you’re thrown out of the narrative, it’s hard to really assess it, so I didn’t even bother with a write up after I watched.

It’s not really possible to evaluate how “well” the writers are handling the plot until we see the rest of the arc, but I will say, as much as I hate the plotline, they’ve put more nuance into it, and held back on more horrible behavior than I’m used to writers pushing onto the characters in this kind of situation. I stg, Lindsey was so caught up in her exploration of her sexuality that she couldn’t give a fuck how Melanie felt. Blaine straight out blames Kurt for not being in the state when he decided to fuck someone else, and it was clear he did it on purpose to hurt Kurt. Santana broke up with Brittany preemptively because she knew she was probably gonna screw another girl at college. Waverly hasn’t even had a second to address what happened with Rosita since you know, Nicole almost dying... alternate reality... end of the world... demon rising... her niece being born... But when are she and Nicole actually going to sit down and address that Waverly kissed someone else and Nicole HAS A WIFE????

I appreciate that Kat came forward with what happened immediately, and while what happened was about her, telling Adena was about Adena. She doesn’t blame Adena for her reaction. She doesn’t demand things from her. She lets her have her time. And Adena doesn’t go low and attack Kat. Of course, Adena would never, but that’s the way this is typically written. And they say you can find out as much about a couple’s strength by the way they fight as by the way they are day to day. Kat holds back and listens. Adena needs space and is tentative and deliberate. Neither wants to hurt the other. That’s so clear. They want to preserve the feelings of the other, and they don’t want to give up what they have, in spite of this obstacle.

I think that’s really important. That’s the reason they could get through this. Yes, Kat may be curious about what it would be like to work her way through the lesbian scene of New York... but she doesn’t HAVE to. That’s not a GIVEN, that in figuring out her sexuality, she has to get hands on and fuck every willing lady that crosses her path. Trust that in the rural area I grew up in, I figured out my lesbian nature on my own fucking no one. Granted, I’m more of an introvert, but it isn’t like I didn’t have interest in girls I met when I was in college.

But that girl was dating someone, and I didn’t try to flirt with her anyway, and she didn’t cheat on her girlfriend. Not everyone in the lesbian scene is just waiting to pounce on the “fresh meat.” Just... fyi to any lesbabies out there. There’s no destiny to these interactions. There’s many ways this can go down. I guess it’s nice that Kat was so welcomed, honestly. I’ve been to lesbian bars that were INCREDIBLY cliquey. No one you didn’t know was going to talk to you. One woman (a decade or two older than me) tried to teach me how to dance (leave me alone, I’m awkward and I’m okay with that).

So, yeah, I’m tired of the one story being told over and over. But at least Kadena act like adults in their relationship, rather than spiteful little assholes. I’ll see how well TBT manages to tell this one because Kat and Adena are worth the time and emotional investment.