Much like the Hernandez sisters, Vida is Tanya Saracho’s bar, her nightclub — and no one gets to push her out before last call without a fight. Few get to say that they’ve truly made history. That what they’ve touched won’t be the same after they’ve gone. Television won’t be the same after Vida. That’s just a fact.
Here’s what we loved this year and what we didn’t like very much at all. We’d love to hear your opinions too, obviously!
Over 30,000 votes later! Here are your winners and our critic’s picks!
Queer women’s television has grown significantly in recent years. Still, we’ve watched our best continue to be sidelined by a straight white male majority that won’t pay attention to queer stories, women’s stories, stories about people of color. Well, no more my friends!
“I was like Roberta, do your thighs hold both of you? Like if you slide down the wall? And she was like, let’s see. So we tried it on the sidewalk.”
We don’t get to define Emma’s queerness. We don’t get to tell her the terms of our understanding. She’s going to make those choices for herself.
Tanya Saracho demands more from her characters, from her audience. She requires our discomfort, our willingness to bring all of our messy selves in front of the television.
Vida’s second season promises to be deliciously complicated, sultry, and heart-wrenching. Dammit, I already want more!
“The L Word” was supposed to be the beginning of a new era of teevee shows about the real true lives of lesbian and bisexual women — and although we never quite got there, here are 15 examples of shows that don’t just have queer characters in them, but are also *about* being queer.
I considered titling this “Latinx Butches 2018: Welcome To The Thirst Trap,” but that didn’t seem very professional, you know?
These are the television shows of 2018 that stand out for their artistry and innovation AND also feature lesbian, bisexual, queer or trans women characters.
“Is this how cis white dudes feel all the time?”
There’s an awful lot of awful things we could be thinking of, but for just one day let’s only think about love.
I don’t know if you’ve felt it yet, but we certainly have. This is the year where lesbian, bisexual, queer, and trans women of color are taking over your television screens.
It’s Vida’s season finale, but already I want more. We need more of this thoughtful, gut wrenching, unapologetic, queer, brown show in our lives.
“Emma’s grief; her inherited, internalized homophobia; and her sexual frustrations — they are all tangled together. And that’s real, because in life how can you tell? Where does one pain stop and another begin? There’s no easy box to check or line to draw.”
Emma confesses that the scars of internalized homophobia can span generations. She also finally sleeps with Cruz. Lyn learns that you can’t turn your back on your own forever.
It isn’t just about the hot sex — though the sex is very hot — it’s about creating spaces where Latinx queer bodies can feel ownership. It’s tearing down shame. It’s about saying that our love, our sex, our sticky sweat is valid. It’s about fighting tooth and nail for pleasure in a world that would rather us be criminalized for waking up in the morning.
Do you know who’s a perfect human? Eddy is a perfect human! This is my hill and I’m willing to die on it.
We have six full weeks to dive deep into this queer Latinx prestige drama about family, sex, love, and grief. Let’s get this… funeral party?… started!
