Representation of LGBT Couples in Canadian Web Series

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Introduction

Positive representation of LGBT couples are often hard to come by in mainstream television and film. While it is not impossible to find, the couple is much more likely to be centered around miscommunication, drama, and lies, things that are generally seen to be negative and unhealthy aspects of romantic relationships. Furthermore, the lack of representation of queer people of color in healthy relationships[1] causes further disparities between accurate representation of demographics, and non-diverse media.

Often times, it is not actually a couple at all, but a clever tactic called queer-baiting, when there is no explicit interest shown between characters but just enough implied for people to perceive it as queer.[2] Despite mainstream television and film's refusal for more than a few LGBT on-screen couples, online media has taken off in the last few years in Canada with low budget, locally shot and produced web series on easily accessible platforms such as YouTube. This new medium has proven to not only provide space for positive queer representation but also allow for diverse casts, contact with fans, and ease with broadcasting.

Online Presence

Social media has become a platform of constant progression and contact. Information being shared at such high speeds has allowed groups of people to band together under common ideologies. Here is where we see where such avid support for queer web series. The online queer community had been pushing for mainstream shows to include positive representations and to actively engage with their LGBT audience. Through a multi-platform schematic[3], the web series Carmilla[4] was created and began to grow in popularity. Content for the show was on other social media sites such as Twitter and Tumblr rather than just YouTube, which gave the creators unique access into their own fan base, and allowed fans to tell them more of what they wanted to see[5]. This then lead to the next season of the show having many more actors of color. They were able to hear that there were areas of their fanbase that did not feel properly represented, and adjusted accordingly.

Accessibility

With this easy uploading, there is also easy access for people who don't have cable or even reliable access to the internet. Episodes are short, so watching a five minute episode while sitting in an internet cafe is simple to do. While there are some that are longer, such as The Gay and Wondrous Life of Caleb Gallo[6], the lack of payment and access at any time is extremely convenient. This allows for people who aren't usually able to watch mainstream television or films to have access to something that is free and easy to consume.

Accountability

While this ease in communication is not exclusive to web series, it does allow for a more balanced power dynamic. Another show with a heavy online presence is Wynonna Earp, with the portrayal of one of the main characters realizing she is gay leading to a heavy increase in the queer folk watching the show. In the second season which came right after the beginning of the Bury Your Gays[7] movement, it appeared that one of the lesbian characters who was in a healthy relationship was going to be killed off. While with Carmilla the fans were able to take direct action and prevent that with the kind of give and take relationship that comes with a web series, the queer fans of Wynonna Earp had to put all their trust in the show runners. With web series, often the funds for the whole show are crowd sourced, and so if the writers do something the fans don't like, they can boycott it. However this same accountability is not present with shows on television like Wynonna Earp and The 100.

Positive Representation and Casting

In recent news, there has been a push back from the LGBT community and its allies against the casting of cis actors to play trans roles. To expand accountability past a show's content, we must examine the way in which casting straight and/or cis actors in LGBT roles is damaging to the community. Specifically, the cis actors are of the gender that the trans character was assigned at birth. This proves problematic because trans folk already have a hard enough time finding acceptance in the gender they identify as, without this clear message from the film industry, reducing them to "men pretending to be women" or vice versa. While this is still a big fight in the world of offline media, the online web series have a much better tract record for casting actors in roles they fit. Trans people in trans roles, lesbians in lesbian roles, and so on. With this close knit interaction between the producers, cast, and audience, this kind of accountability to cast trans actors in trans roles is heavily enforced. As a result of this, many of these web series gaining popularity and have been brought to the attention of offline media. The pressure is on for them because the standard has been raised. Audiences begin to ask, "If these little, no budget shows can cast LGBT folk in LGBT roles, why can't Hollywood?".

LGBT Web Series

Carmilla was based off of the 1871 novel by the same name, in which the overall meaning is that lesbians are demons. The creators of the web series had it take place in a modern university setting and flipped the message, having the two main female characters fall in love. Eight out of the ten characters are explicitly shown to be queer, with majority female actresses and one non-binary actor (as well as their character) simply because they could. While these characters are explicitly queer, that was not the plot of the show, nor was it depicted to be out of the normal in any way. This kind of approach has worked for many of the web series to come, having narratives with queer characters that were not entirely focused on their identities.

Many of the biggest LGBT web series are all posted to the same Canadian channel, KindaTV. This channel is run primarily by female identifying people as well as a good number of queer folk[8]. They are mainly crowdfunded but also have support from U by Kotex. They have come out with various other web series since Carmilla's release in 2015, such as All for One[9], Barbelle[10], and Inhuman Condition[11]. Each of these have an extremely diverse cast of characters, with plenty of representation for LGBT people, people of color, disabled people, and combinations within.

Other, smaller LGBT web series often have less funding, but just as much representation, as evident in Couple-ish[12].

  1. ↑ Johnson, Amber, and Robin M. Boylorn. “Digital Media and the Politics of Intersectional Queer Hyper/In/Visibility in Between Women.” Liminalities, vol. 11, no. 1, Jan. 2015, pp. 1–26, http://ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ibh&AN=122199941&site=ehost-live&scope=site.
  2. ↑ Greer, Stephen (30 November 2014). "Queer (Mis)recognition in the BBC's Sherlock". Adaptation. 8: 50–67.
  3. ↑ Monaghan, Whitney. “Starting From … Now and the Web Series to Television Crossover: An Online Revolution?” Media International Australia, vol. 164, no. 1, Aug. 2017, pp. 82–91, doi:10.1177/1329878X17708842.
  4. ↑ KindaTV. Carmilla - The Series | S1 E1 “Disorientation.”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4QzRfvkJZ4. Accessed 20 July 2018.
  5. ↑ Fox, Jesse, and Katie M. Warber. “Queer Identity Management and Political Self-Expression on Social Networking Sites: A Co-Cultural Approach to the Spiral of Silence.” Journal of Communication, vol. 65, no. 1, pp. 79–100, doi:10.1111/jcom.12137. Accessed 20 July 2018.
  6. ↑ “Brian Jordan Alvarez.” YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0bBXn_fmXlleQAdRH6wHQw. Accessed 20 July 2018.
  7. ↑ “‘Bury Your Gays,’ Queerbaiting, And TV’s LGBTQ Problem.” HuffPost Canada, 30 June 2017, https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2017/06/30/queerbaiting-bury-your-gays-tv_a_23005000/.
  8. ↑ Whitt, Jan. “Queer Media Images: LGBT Perspectives.” Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly; Thousand Oaks, vol. 91, no. 4, Dec. 2014, pp. 869–71, https://search.proquest.com/docview/1626776964/abstract/93C130AE33A84024PQ/1.
  9. ↑ KindaTV. All For One | S1 EP1 | “Best Foot Forward.”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orlWDoUxdl8. Accessed 20 July 2018.
  10. ↑ KindaTV. BARBELLE | S01 EP1 | Starring Gwenlyn Cumyn + Karen Knox | KindaTV. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQvThGbWTSo. Accessed 20 July 2018.
  11. ↑ KindaTV. Inhuman Condition | Episode 1 | Supernatural Series Ft. Torri Higginson. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWWgVZFzr4w&vl=en. Accessed 20 July 2018.
  12. ↑ Kaitlyn Alexander. Couple-Ish - Season 1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwJv22M7ROA&list=PLL2lDb-eVLsjzpJmj4iyZrqqjH742WPiu. Accessed 20 July 2018.
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