Sapphics pay tribute to queer female characters who’ve been killed off – and there are… a lot
Sapphics on X are discussing the deaths of their favourite characters (BBC/Chuck Zlotnick/Marvel/Netflix/Cate Cameron/The CW/PinkNews Archive)
Please be aware, there might be spoilers here.
The latest sapphic discourse on Elon Musk’s hell site that is X/Twitter is the many, many lesbian and bisexual ladies we have lost on my favourite television shows, and… there are a lot.
Lady-loving-ladies being brutally killed off for no good reason, aka the “bury your gays” trope’s sapphic edition, is the bane of every queer woman’s media experience. Honestly, I still don’t think I am over Villanelle’s death in the finale of Killing Eve – years of build-up between her and Eve, for what? For what, I ask.
Research has shown that dozens of lesbian and bisexual female characters, usually fan favourites, are killed off year after year, show after show, further perpetuating the idea that LGBTQ+ folks can never have a happy ending. No wonder so many people turn to fan fiction to write out better endings for their queer faves.
On X, @rqseblush posted a picture of a headline from a TV list recounting sapphic characters we’ve lost and asking everyone “to quote or reply with their favourite dead lesbian or bisexual character(s)… I’m tryna see something!”
The post quickly gained traction with the gay girlies of social media, amassing more than 1.7 million views and some 40,000 likes, while thousands of people named the character they wish wasn’t six feet under.
Unsurprisingly, a lot of people mentioned Agatha Harkness from Agatha All Along, which ended last mont after weeks of palpable sexual tension between her and former lover Rio Vidal.
In the finale, anti-hero Agatha, played by Kathryn Hahn, sacrifices herself with an uncut smooch: the first WLW kiss in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), which had the gays losing their collective minds.
As hot as this kiss of death was, it was still a kiss of death which meant another not straight female character was killed off.
This should be unsurprising given the MCU’s poor track record with LGBTQ+ characters and on-screen romances, which Joe Locke, who played Billy Kaplan/Wiccan, in the hit Disney+ show described as “behind the times“.
Others mentioned Maya St Germain from Pretty Little Liars, Lexa in The 100, Dana Fairbanks from The L Word, Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Tara and Orange is the New Black‘s Poussey Washington.
I never stopped to think about it, but Doctor Who has WAY too many 😭 https://t.co/TyJhx6OleT pic.twitter.com/yuWTm5IN8t
— 🩷Eddie Who🩷 (@LPOTHC) November 4, 2024
the only answer……. these writers will pay for what they did https://t.co/bGzIxQtg3i pic.twitter.com/NShcMyNkog
— Lydia Wang (@lydiaetc) November 4, 2024
20 years and I have still not recovered https://t.co/UMP42u3ElJ pic.twitter.com/OBtopXDz64
— 🍂stacy (@fin__amour) November 4, 2024
More controversially, one person brought up Jennifer Schecter from the The L Word who died in Bette and Tina’s pool towards the end of the show’s original run. The character was not the most popular among fans, presumably because of her multitude of undesirable traits (to put it lightly). Even more than a decade after the series ended, she elicits strong opinions, the X thread shows.
“Jenny is the only death I wish happened sooner,” one user put it bluntly, going on to describe her as annoying.
Another said: “Nah, they could have gotten rid of her way sooner, my least favourite character of any show ever.” And someone else agreed, writing: “Nuh uh, she can go.”
someone replied with jenny from the l word and i just wanna say: https://t.co/Z7iIeLq1ed pic.twitter.com/6LK9ux6yCt
— jazz/효원이 (she/her) jazzafraz on bluesky (@jazzthefraz) November 4, 2024
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