Femslash Friday: Saving Face

You know how with some movies featuring lesbian, bisexual, trans, or queer women you have to stop them before the tragic ending hits? (Is that just me who does this?)

For instance, in the Xenaverse, I pretend that the final episode, in which Xena dies, is not canon. In High Art, which features Ally Sheedy as a lesbian artist (yes please) I stop the movie when it has about 10 minutes left so as to avoid the tragic ending. I'm still not caught up on The 100, and am not sure I'll ever finish the series given Lexa's infamous fate. I've watched every episode of Buffy numerous times, with the exception of "Seeing Red," in which Tara is killed, which I don't ever need to see again.

I recently gave Saving Face a re-watch. It's really a gem, from 2004, if you've not seen it! And, it has, refreshingly in this genre, a great ending. We need more romantic comedies like this - I would throw money at more movies like this - especially featuring more women of color.

Some randos tried to tell me on Twitter late last year that pop culture is not political,because made-up stories have no impact on "real life." This argument is often made in the context of people with certain privileges telling other people that sexism, racism, or homophobia in TV doesn't matter because it's "not real."

I suppose these unexamined arguments are easy to say with a straight face if one is used to seeing representations of oneself everywhere in pop culture: books, games, TV, film. I mean, straight people get a billion and a half romantic comedies riffing off of every conceivable "Men are From Mars, Women Are From Venus" gender stereotype featuring clueless privileged white hetero characters. (That many of these are bad and sexist also matters, I argue).

Queer women, meanwhile, have about a good dozen to re-watch over and over again. Women of color and trans women, even fewer. All of this matters. The conservatives who call for banning books and pop culture that show affirming representations of same-sex love know this. Why don't some on the left seem to get it?

Anyway, if you need a teaser, somebody made a fan music video of the romance between the two main characters, Wil and Vivian, because of course they did [NSFW]:



P.S. - Both lead actresses are great. Michelle Krusiec is divine. That is all, HAVE A GOOD WEEKEND!