Thursday 14 April 2022

TV Memories

On Tuesday night we held a special session at People's History Museum, with Manchester Pride.

We talked about bi representation on television, and below are the names of all the shows people shared for our timeline of TV memories.  Where people included notes about the character portrayal I've added those.

As you'd expect - SPOILERS AHEAD! 

Buffy The Vampire Slayer - Willow (dates Oz and Tara, B word isn't said specifically)
Powerpuff Girls - HIM is a villain who is camp, fun, cartoon fake and cool.
VMA Awards 2003 - the kiss with Madonna Britney and Christina.  Fetishising of sexual contact between women?
Brooklyn 99 - Rosa Diaz is a really positive and 'real' feeling; coming out episodes really well done and relateable
She-Ra (netflix remake not the 80s version) - Sea-Hawk is canon bi
Euphoria - Jules' bisexuality is addressed later in the show when she starts dating a woman
The 100 - Clarke is but it's unaddressed same as other LGBTQ characters in the series
Glee - Brittney - her (lesbian) girlfriend and other gay characters were discussed, however her sexuality was not addressed
Shadowhunter - Magnus is actually described as a "freewheeling bisexual"
Schitt's Creek - David is described as pansexual but very welcoming portrayal and the wine analogy is everything
 and I use it to explain bi/pan all the time
The Bi Show (side note: I think the writer means "The Bi Life") & RuPaul's Drag Race. In particular Courtney Act - bisexuality was not brought up in RuPaul Drag Race but later CA hosted a show on bisexuality.
The Bold Type - Kat Edison. Addresses the invalidation of the bi experience even within LGBT spaces and being called "fence sitter" or "piut stop before coming out as gay".
The Good Place - Tahani and Elanor. No labels placed but it is implied and no one bats an eyelid
Killing Eve
Gentleman Jack - hard to tell motivations due to being a period drama with social expectations of the time
And coming soon: Heartstopper starts 22 April 2022. Nick Nelson, it's based on a comic which explores Nick realising he is bi and his journey coming out.

When you've watched all of them (it might take a little while) there're even more suggestions on https://bicommunitynews.co.uk/bimediawatch

(And if you ever want to write up some bi rep on TV for that column it'd be very welcome!)