The Brown in the Rainbow

Welcome back! I hope you enjoyed your self care week as much as I did. Now, let’s get into the representation of LGBTQ+ black women!

LGBTQ+? You’re probably wondering, “what do all those letters mean?”

LGBTQ+ is a phrase for Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, Transgender people, and Queer people. The “+” is there because there is no way to write out the letter for every sexual minority. So, the “+” is meant to include those.

Orange is the New Black

Orange is the New Black is a Netflix show about life in a women's prison. Poussey and Sophia are the LGBTQ+ black women on the show.

Poussey (Poo-say) Washington

Poussey was a masc lesbian in jail for marijuana distribution. Her character was one of my favorites on the show. She was the comedic relief. What I liked about Poussey was that we knew her as a person. Her entire personality was not based on her sexuality. We knew she loved to read books, she loved acting, and she struggled with depression which led her to an alcohol addiction.

I like the fact that Poussey is played by Samira Wiley, a lesbian. It’s nice to see LGBTQ+ characters on TV, it’s even better when the actors are LGBTQ+ themself.

What I did not like about her character is that she had to die a violent death. Young masculine black lesbians should not have to watch themselves die violently, especially for no reason.

Sophia Burset

Sophia was a trans woman in jail for fraud. Her character was the hairstylist on the show. Like any other hairstylist, she played the therapist. Each inmate would sit in her chair and they’d get all the life advice in the world.

Sophia’s character allowed us to see the struggles of trans women. We got to see the struggles she had with her wife and son. Sophia had to fight for her spot in a women's prison when many people argue trans women belong in men's prisons.

Just like Poussey, Sophia’s character is played by Laverne Cox, a trans woman.

Dear White People

A show I’ve talked about before, click here to read about it! This time, we’ll focus on Kelsey.

Kelsey Phillips

Kelsey is a feminine lesbian. She’s always dolled up. Her character reminds me of Cher from Clueless. What I love about Kelsey is that people assumed her character was straight because she’s a feminine. Kelsey breaks the stereotype that lesbians are Doc Marten lovers who wear flannel with every outfit.

With Kelsey, we got to see her have a crush. Unfortunately, Kelsey’s character went through what so many lesbians go through. She got played by a straight girl.

Just a little PSA: Lesbians are people, not toys to be played with to explore your sexuality just to dump them when you realize you’re straight. Be honest about your intentions.

This is Us

This is Us follows the lives of the three Pearson siblings and their families.

Tess Pearson

Tess hits close to home for me. Viewers learned Tess was gay later on in the show and we see the struggles of a young, gay black girl. She’s figuring out her style at the most awkward point of life, middle school.

Her mother, Beth is struggling to keep up with the times.

She has a non-binary partner whose pronouns are they/them, gets a major haircut, and changes her entire look. We see stories of teenagers going through puberty before, but Tess' story is different from theirs.

What I love the most about Tess is that her character is so young. The audience is gonna see her go through so many phases and watch how her family navigates the change.

Now, this was the hardest blog I’ve had to do. Why? Because I don’t have many characters to analyze. There were only so many characters I had to choose from and I tried my best to show a diverse set of characters.

This New York Times article talks about the decline in LGBTQ+ characters. We went from a sky high 10.2% to just 9.1%. And that’s just LGBTQ+ in general, I imagine the numbers of LGBTQ+ black characters to be even lower.

We deserve more. I want LGBTQ+ black women characters to become a norm. Young LGBTQ+ black women deserve to see themselves on screen. The characters we have now are okay, it’s a nice starting point, but it’s far from the amount of representation straight white people get.

One day, I wanna flip through TV channels and see a different looking group of people and different types of storylines as I‘m picking something to watch. I mean, who wants to see the same thing over and over?

That’s a wrap for this week. Tune in next Monday morning at 11 for a look at “She’s Not One of Your Little Friends,” a look at the representation of black mothers.