Pop Culture Fix: “Supergirl” Is Getting Gay With Detective Maggie Sawyer

Welcome to your the first post-camp Pop Culture Fix! Pass the DayQuil, please!


Teevee

+ Supergirl dropped some bombs this morning and the one I’m most interested in is the lesbian one. Detective Maggie Sawyer (aka Kate Kane/Batwoman’s girlfriend/ex-fiance, depending on which comic book you’re reading) is coming to season two! On the show, she will be an “out and proud detective for the newly formed Science Police, which deals specifically with metahuman and alien threats.” Maggie has always been in Gotham for a long time, so this switch should be fun! Superman will also make an appearance in season two or whatever, but that means nothing to me. Also, CW, you better fucking not kill Maggie Sawyer, you hear me? And don’t you Rene Montoya her, either! (Still glaring at you, Gotham.)

+ Pretty Little Liars is back again in just a few weeks, y’all. What are we going to do with this show?

+ Variety’s chief TV critic, Maureen Ryan, is doing the hard work this year. Today she posted a comprehensive look at the lack of diversity behind-the-scenes of TV. It’s no surprise that nearly all showrunners are white dudes, but it’s worth reading through these staggering statistics and marveling at the charts that show exactly how bad it really is.

Women of color remain largely excluded: There were no non-white female showrunners on new shows for ABC, CBS, or the CW as of press time. The small number of writers of color of either gender working as showrunners on new broadcast network programs demonstrate that in many ways, the path to one of the most powerful positions in TV remains obstructed for them.

+ Gillian Anderson is playing a shape-shifting deity in American Gods, duh.

Movies

+ This spoiler about Hermione in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child made my heart sing!

+ Here is a new sneak peek of Finding Dory for you!

Queer People, Out and About

+ Bobby Brown told Us Weekly that Whitney Houston was, in fact, bisexual and had a relationship with relationship with Robyn Crawford. It’s a rumor that’s been around a thousand years, but one that Houston, herself, denied in an interview with Out magazine in 2000.

+ Ghostbusters press is in full swing, which means Kate McKinnon is on the cover of Elle this month.

+ Our Once and Future Queen, Ellen DeGeneres, has taken another step in her her pursuit of global domination.

+ What do Tig Notaro, Margaret Cho, Cameron Esposito, Moms Mabley, and Wanda Sykes have in common (besides being gay)? Elle thinks they’ve told 13 of the most important and controversial jokes in recorded history.

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Heather Hogan

Heather Hogan is an Autostraddle senior editor who lives in New York City with her wife, Stacy, and their cackle of rescued pets. She's a member of the Television Critics Association, GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics, and a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer critic. You can also find her on Twitter and Instagram.

Heather has written 1718 articles for us.

28 Comments

  1. I didn’t really want to spoil myself for The Cursed Child, but since it was a GOOD spoiler, I HAD to check it out, and OH MY GOD THAT MAKES ME SO HAPPY!!!! I know there’s no way I’ll get to see it live, but just reading the script when it’s finally published will be enough. July 31st can’t come soon enough.

    Also, re: Pretty Little Liars. I don’t want to force you to watch it, especially because I’m not even sure if I’m gonna watch it or not. But I DO know that whether I watch it or not, I will still read anything and everything you write about it. So there’s that.

    • Me too. In fact – I’m counting on you to watch it, Heather, and then tell us if it’s worth watching. I’m too scared to go it alone.

  2. “I really feel that if Robyn was accepted into Whitney’s life, Whitney would still be alive today,” Brown says. “She didn’t have close friends with her anymore.”

    I have a lot of conflicting, mostly very gross, feelings about Bobby Brown. I have 100% bad feelings about pretty much everyone in the Houston/Brown family who enabled Whitney’s addiction and then profited off of her death.

    That said, I had to read this because it’s long been a discussion in my circles about what Whitney’s life could have been if she hadn’t been forced into the closet. If she hadn’t been forced to give up Robyn. Was her addiction in part to mask some of that pain (as is what happens in the queer community, where addiction is at a proportional high).

    Anyway, having those subscriptions confirmed, even if from Bobby, genuinely made me sad today.

    Rest In Peace, Whit. I will always love you.

    • *suspicions confirmed

      I really should always triple check for autocorrect when I post from my phone! Sorry y’all

    • I want to draw little hearts about this comment, which made me tear up. So many conflicting feelings about the Bobby Brown, but also so much sadness about welcome Whitney into the community too late.

      And also a lot of respect for what Whitney has meant to some black bisexual girls already and what she will continue to mean through her music.

  3. I’ve never watched Supergirl. I need to give it a chance. Jessica Jones might be my favorite series ever, but it can be pretty heavy and triggering. Nice to have some campy fluff from time to time.

  4. OMG THAT HERMIONE SPOILER WAS SO WORTH IT!!!!!

    My heart just kept out of my chest!

    Thank you for sharing, Heather.

    (I usually hate spoilers, but just couldn’t help myself. I didn’t even finish the article! That one rid but was good enough)

    Also Also:

    So excited about a queer character coming to Supergirl! If at the very least because that means Supergirl recaps in Boob(s) next year!!!! Yaaaaay

    Not gay, but Leslie Jones also has a cover for Elle in anticipation of Ghostbusters. So excited for representation for both Leslie and Kate.

    I really don’t know how I feel or if I’m watching PLL, but if you wrote something I’d read it. I would also be fine if you didn’t write anything and we all just let the show go to pasture and remembered the good times instead. **shrug**

  5. I’m hoping that the gay comes to “Supergirl” in more than just Maggie. I want Alex to be her girlfriend. It just seems like it would be so natural. Maggie is a cop who’s tasked with dealing with aliens and superhumans. Who’s another federal agent that does that? ALEX! And I imagine that it’s still true that most people meet their loved ones at work. They could work together, save each others lives, and fall in love. It’s the ideal set-up.

    • YES YES YES. Please. Alex is so gay. She needs a girlfriend. They could have such moral dilemmas about what info to share with each other. All whilst snuggling on a sofa after work.

    • Better yet, it would save Alex from the fate worse than death which is her current romance subplot with Max “I’m trying to kill your sister” Lord. Although I have trouble imagining that they’re actually going to let go of that.

  6. Looks like Spencer meets *drum roll* MARY DRAKE

    God that was a silly plot twist

  7. I like the idea of Maggie Sawyer coming to Supergirl, I love her, She can go to National City, she used to work in Metropolis before moving to Gotham, but what about Kate?!

    • After a year or two of not really talking about either character, DC has split them up in the comics. Maggie has left Gotham and is now back in Metropolis heading up the SCU, which is the same role she will have on Supergirl it appears. Kate is still in Gotham as Batwoman.

  8. Can’t wait to see GA back on the small screen.. first The Fall, and now American Gods?!! I can do without ‘less impressive’ The X Files for now..

    Oh, I’m not too sure if I’ll be watching PLL.. think I’m finally over that never-ending ‘who’s A again?’ and ‘who’s Emily new temp gf gonna be?’ baiting..

  9. Yes Supergirl. Bring the gay, all the gay. You cant have that many kick ass female characters without expecting me to ship at least one pairing.

    Or all of them…

    • Am I the only one who thinks they’re missing an opportunity to really harden the edges of Chyler Leigh’s character? Whenever she’s got that gun strapped to her thigh over her cargo pants I’m like YES MORE OF THIS PLEASE CUT HER HAIR OFF MAKE HER ANGRIER GIVE HER A GIRLFRIEND WE ARE READY FOR THIS.

      Or LEAVE HER HAIR ON GIVE HER A GIRLFRIEND WE ARE READY FOR THIS.

      (Really, her hair choices are her own.)

    • It looks like there are 2 other female characters being added to the show, but the other two ladies look like villains.

      Here’s hoping Maggie at least is cast with a woman of color and does not die! So far Supergirl hasn’t killed any non-villain women (except of course for the mom and everyone on Krypton).

    • I’m assuming this is about Kate Sawyer–and yes, Supergirl desperately needs to have more women with melanin in substantive parts!

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