LGBTQ Representation in Media

Lesbian films are still so far and few between that when people make them, they think they’re doing the community a big service and try to make the character represent the community as a whole instead of making a full dimensional and flawed character. They focus most of the film around this deep, coming-of-age story of the main character coming to terms with sexuality or facing discrimination. This creates a sense of otherness to lesbian relationships that even though they have representation in media, they're still being presented as something "not normal".

Lesbian representation is also different than gay relationships since wlw relationships have been sexualized by straight men/the male gaze while mlm relationships can be marketed to straight women since it’s “nonthreatening”. This eroticization of wlw relationships is also a form of harmful representation in film since, especially in high school movies, they use these relationships as a sense of sex appeal to the heterosexual male audience. You see wlw videos in porn marketed to men as well, further sexualizing lesbian relationships.

There's minimal young lesbian representation because a young queer women's sexuality is supposedly an experiment or phase, something noncommittal. When we see representation of lesbians in high school, it's seen as "oh they're just trying something out" or seen overcoming problems like this. I think there needs to be more representation of lesbians who are strong-minded about their sexuality and aren't questioned about it, there should be representation where this is normalized and presented as typical, not other.