IT'S TIME TO TALK ABOUT PROBLEMATIC SAPPHIC REPRESENTATION ON TV AND FILM

Long before streaming confined us to our separate bedrooms, a shared family television kept the entire household entertained.

- By VALERIE PERALTA

It was my after-school routine to watch GMA’s Dramarama, a series of afternoon teleseryes often with melodramatic plots, before I caged myself with my Araling Panlipunan homework.

But like in a teleserye, my emerging interest in TV only served as an establishing plot device, a foreshadowing of what was to come. The more I grew up and steered my identity, the more I sought it in the media I consumed and hoped to see myself in the characters. But apart from The Rich Man’s Daughter, which had a time slot that met my 11-year-old self’s bedtime, I certainly did not see an ounce of sapphic-ness in the dramas of my family TV set.

Come streaming, I desperately looked for anything to “justify” my identity. I rummaged through episodes, dissecting the 10-second screen time of the sapphic characters I watched it for, relentlessly pressing play, all for the sake of representation.

This exploration opened me up to a newfound sense of identity. I learned more about the sapphic— or women-loving women—experience through different lenses. However, a problematic pattern soon revealed itself. I repeatedly noticed harmful themes, such as unreasonable character deaths, queerbaiting, and hypersexualized scenes.

So I asked other young sapphic women: How can we redefine existing sapphic narratives?

Elle, 27, recalled a conversation with a coworker about sapphic shows and films.