#really gotta do a glow rewatch someday

[actuallylorelaigilmore]

You said you "do not understand" Yolanda in your GLOW post. Care to explain? I've always had a few problems with her character (even though I wanted to love her from the start 'cause representation), and I feel like people get all ~uwu~ about her & Arthie, but I kinda feel like A deserves better, and that their relationship wasn't the greeeatest. but maybe it's not so deep for you, I dunno. So I'm just curious!

Hi anon! That’s pretty much my reasoning as well. The actress who plays her seems really cool, and she (along with some of her costars) went public about having issues with the way Yolanda was written and how the group of them were treated as part of the larger ensemble cast, so I do wonder if maybe part of it was just the writing not being as great and layered for her. We definitely didn’t spend that much time with her; I came away from the show feeling like beyond her relationship with Arthie we don’t know much about her as an individual. 

I LOOOOOVE Arthie, and I fully supported her falling for Yolanda and I was definitely rooting for them. But as a bby gay I was a lot like Arthie so it’s very hard for me to understand Yolanda responding the way she does to the process of Arthie figuring stuff out. She operates under very black and white thinking, and her character seems like a cliche version of a lesbian, like, preemptively looking to protect herself from ‘questioning’ women who aren’t gay enough...

I haven’t watched the show in a while so I can’t remember the specific inciting incidents? but I remember completely understanding how baffled Arthie seemed when Yolanda reacted to her so intensely in fights. So I agree with you about feeling like Arthie deserves better, not because I hate Yolanda, but because it seemed in the end like it was up to Arthie to apologize and prove to Yolanda that she was gay enough, or ready to be out enough...instead of them both just having different experiences and needing to figure out if they were a good fit.

Just from personal experience I think it can be really tempting in your first relationship, especially if you’re young and questioning your sexuality as a part of that, to try and conform to the other person and make it work even if it means ignoring your own needs. That’s a really dangerous grey area for identity when you’re in love and I think as the show presented it, there should’ve been nothing wrong with Arthie working her shit out on her own terms, rather than because she felt guilty or pushed.

Basically I loved them together at first but by the end I felt like they weren’t the best match and both deserved somebody else who would be a better fit (or to not get together until Arthie was more secure in her identity). And instead of the show giving them room as people to figure things out, it just went ‘Yolanda is right and Arthie is wrong’ and went back to focusing on other storylines. GLOW offered a lot of nuance in their female dynamics throughout the seasons, and considering how little of Yolanda we saw outside of her&Arthie, besides her introduction where she’s was mostly just ‘Not Cherry And Nobody’s Sure If They’re Okay With That’...it was hard for me to love or understand her.