Diversity within Diversity

Words by Engla Hoelstad

I love Heartstopper, Young Royals,  and Red White & Royal Blue.

I love Love, Simon and Love, Victor.

I love Malec, Solangelo, Alex and Willie, Isak and Even, Elio and Oliver, Stede and Ed.

The list goes on.

But as tumblr-user horrorlesbians so eloquently put it “can the next big trending thing have lesbians in it, I can only care about so many fictional men.”

In recent years, the rise in queer media has been steep. And it’s good queer media too. As someone who will watch anything and everything queer, I’ve seen some average queer films from the early 2000’s. I  love today’s avaliability of major queer characters. The diversity is wonderful. But one can ask, how diverse are they really? My favourite queer teenage couples, the ones with interesting storylines and personalities, are all MLM (men loving men). Most are also white; shoutout to Love, Simon and Love, Victor for your strong contributions against that.

Lesbian stories exist, but they tend to be either dramatic or heartwrenching. Euphoria is cool, and so are Ammonite and Elisa y Marcela. I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t actually want to be any of those characters. Adorable lesbians are sometimes found as side characters, as is the case in Heartstopper and Love, Victor. But main character WLW (Women Loving Women) stories tend to involve older characters and adult themes, not fluffy teenage love. Would it be that hard to create wholesome main characters that are lesbian rather than gay?

As a femme asexual who experiences romantic attraction, I seek representatives of myself. I love the asexual representation that exists, and how visible aceness is beginning to be both inside and outside of the queer community. Yet this visibility is often limited. Many asexual narratives fail to appreciate the spectrum of asexuality. There are certainly aces who don’t want romantic love or a relationship, but also ones who do. There are aces who don’t appreciate kisses and cuddles, and there are ones who do. Even aces who enjoy sexual physical intimacy. Anthony Padilla’s video “I spent a day with ASEXUALS” shows a nuanced perspective on asexuality, with just three asexual interviewees. This proves it can be done. Going beyond the single, loveless stereotype of asexuality is possible.

Sex Education is awesome for including an ace character in a show that almost revolves around sex, even if they did very little with her storyline. In the show, Florence says that she “still want[s] to fall in love,” but we don’t actually get to see her do that. This is a little like calling a character gay without making any effort to show it. There are aces in happy and fulfilling romantic relationships, and I’d really like to see that story in a book or on screen one day.

This is a small call for diversity within the diversity. Show us happy lesbian couples, show us young ones, cute ones, ones that aren’t heavily influenced by sex, and relationships that last. Show us ace characters who get crushes, date, kiss, and who experience non-sexual attraction. Show us ace characters who are happy. 

I am looking forward to Heartstopper Season Two, as writer/director Alice Oseman has promised, “PLANS. BIG ASEXUAL PLANS.”  It’s a series that has handled topics so beautifully, and whatever is coming is bound to be great.