Over the last few weeks, the LGBT Fans Deserve Better movement has been advocating to achieve real change in the quality of LGBTQ representation in the media, giving hope to the LGBTQ community everywhere –that our stories matter and our lives are important.
In an attempt to create such a change and to improve the representation of the LGBTQ community in the media, the writers and producers of the CTV Network show Saving Hope co-created a pledge to the LGBTQ Fandom.
Sonia Hosko and Noelle Carbone were in the writers room when the ‘bury your gays tropes’ discussion had reached a focal point on Social Media. The Saving Hope crew were incredibly supportive, wonderful, open minded people who were really willing to listen and understand the problem and get behind a solution. After sitting down and taking into consideration what LGBTQ fans wanted to see in terms of change in representation, as well as things which were clearly unacceptable and needed to be voiced, all the creators of the pledge came together to put together to put together a list of 7 points which we believe will allow change as well as prevention in future writing of LGBTQ characters.
The entire Saving Hope writers room set precedent as the first to sign the pledge, showing the LGBTQ community that they are ready to take this journey with us and most importantly we have been heard.
LGBTQ representation is a complex issue that requires multi-layered solutions. Change is not an easy task. But with continued coverage, what started as backlash over Commander Lexa’s mishandled, trope-ridden on-screen death, has the potential to grow into a culture-shifting power: This movement has gone beyond the realms of fandom and into mainstream media, a vital step that has added strength and legitimacy to young LGBTQ voices.
lgbtfansdeservebetter.com is honored to have been given the opportunity to collaborate with its creators to present to you the Pledge to the LGBTQ Fandom, an important step towards achieving this goal.
I started to make a page just listing my femslash ships… I’ve done three. This is really hard work.
This went a lot faster once I stopped looking for pics as I added each ship. Still adding the screencaps, which is why I’m posting gifsets from random fandoms as I go through them, but I’m mostly done with the actual listing, I think. Every once in a while I’ll think of a new one but this is pretty near final for now.
The pics part is still taking super long, though. THERE ARE SO MANY. I wasn’t sure at what shipping intensity to set the limit at so this basically includes everything from “would pay a large amount of money to see happen” to “pretty active in the fandom” to “an author I liked wrote fic so I tried it and liked it” to “I appreciate the gifsets on my dash” to “I’d rather see this ship than with that other character”.
I’m just a very shippy person, always have been (I remember as, like, a four-year-old, wanting MacGyver and Teri Hatcher’s character to get together) and the bulk of these are where there are already strong relationships present, but a few are definitely more “hey, you know what’d be interesting…?” I’d try to make a similar page for het ships but I couldn’t even begin to make a list, it’d run into the thousands.
This whole exercise’s made me realize a few things, though. One, I don’t seem to overly favor the canon stuff? I obviously don’t hate it, but they usually just end up being not done the way I want. And I have a LOT of anime ships for someone who mostly stopped watching years ago.
I started to make a page just listing my femslash ships… I’ve done three. This is really hard work.
This went a lot faster once I stopped looking for pics as I added each ship. Still adding the screencaps, which is why I’m posting gifsets from random fandoms as I go through them, but I’m mostly done with the actual listing, I think. Every once in a while I’ll think of a new one but this is pretty near final for now.
The pics part is still taking super long, though. THERE ARE SO MANY. I wasn’t sure at what shipping intensity to set the limit at so this basically includes everything from “would pay a large amount of money to see happen” to “pretty active in the fandom” to “an author I liked wrote fic so I tried it and liked it” to “I appreciate the gifsets on my dash” to “I’d rather see this ship than with that other character”.
I’m just a very shippy person, always have been (I remember as, like, a four-year-old, wanting MacGyver and Teri Hatcher’s character to get together) and the bulk of these are where there are already strong relationships present, but a few are definitely more “hey, you know what’d be interesting…?” I’d try to make a similar page for het ships but I couldn’t even begin to make a list, it’d run into the thousands.
This whole exercise’s made me realize a few things, though. One, I don’t seem to overly favor the canon stuff? I obviously don’t hate it, but they usually just end up being not done the way I want. And I have a LOT of anime ships for someone who mostly stopped watching years ago.
