There is a certain treatment and backlash of female queer literature, specifically regarding how it is not afforded the same reaction as male queer literature. There are stark contrasts in how it is received in society and accepted – female queer media is continuously a horror, thriller, or tragedy, and is less focused on romance. Reading is political, and this imbalance is a direct reflection of that.
When you think of female queer media, whether it be books, film, or art, there is not much that immediately comes to mind unless you already exist in those spaces. This is likely due to the stigma surrounding female queer literature, which does not exist in large popular spaces, but only in niches, ones that are much harder to find and relate to.
The recent boom in popularity following Heated Rivalry is not new; it has been found many times before, for example, in Call Me By Your Name and My Policeman, just to name a few. However, this surge is not often found on the other side of the aisle. Female queer media depicting romance rarely receives the same virality, and typically falls under the less trendy horror or tragedy genres.
Books such as Paradise Rot, by Jenny Hval, or Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke, by Eric LaRocca, focus on horror. These two books present lesbian or queer relationships as co-dependent, where partners are unable to live, quite literally, without one another due to inevitably dark plot points. Lesbian or female queer relationships are often framed in this specific way to make it to mainstream media, not just depicting love, but primarily depicting intense fear.
This is not to say that there aren’t romance books, but oftentimes they don’t find a mainstream space the same way that male queer media does. Lesbian romance books are often addressed as not having enough of an audience or are often held to a much higher standard than other romance books.
When you start to wonder why this is, you can begin to notice that homophobia and misogyny are interlinked. Women in same-sex relationships may not face as much outward hostility as gay men, but this really only pertains to femme-presenting individuals, with the view being that this relationship exists only for male sexual gratification, not as an actual relationship. This view of female relationships could be one of the main reasons why they do not often find themselves in the spotlight of the media.
Women do not solely exist for male gratification and pleasure, which is commonly lost in the media. In various forms of media, women are only involved to be a love interest or a side character, and when the relationship happens to be a queer one, the women still seem to exist for male gratification. This, therefore, leads to female queer media commonly being scary, or having horror roots. Misogyny is present in all parts of media and focuses heavily on a male character, or a male presenting character, two women are only ‘allowed’ to be in love if one of them is somewhat male in nature. With societal and patriarchal conditioning it is hard to escape this constant need to have a man, or masculine person, present. Although lesbian relationships are often viewed as free from male-perpetrated misogyny, women are not immune to cultural training that devalues femininity and rewards toxic masculinity.
This shift away from romance to horror pushes aside the notion that women are only for male gratification and that they, especially queer female relationships, are their own complex beings. Look at queer tv show, Heated Rivalry, with a mass following and view, and is in some ways a romance, depicting two athletes struggling with being queer. Yellowjackets, while not inherently queer as the main focus, is a piece of female queer media, depicting horror that has been so heavily pushed for female queer media. The only place where female queer media can thrive and not be sexualised.
Female queer media deserves to be present in all spaces of media, not just pushed to one genre so they can exist peacefully. It deserves to be centerstage and have all those fleshed out and developed storylines, not just horror.
Some books to expand your view of Female Queer lit:
- Last Night at the Telegraph Club by. Malinda Lo
- Sunburn by. Chloe Michelle Howarth
- Stone Butch Blues by. Leslie Feinberg
- Carol by. Patricia Highsmith
