A touching testimonial to the power of television. And, of course, BUFFY:
by Anon
During the process of writing my last essay of my undergraduate degree in film, focusing on representation of queer women in Orange is The New Black and how it shows more diversity than earlier tv shows, one show that kept coming up was Buffy The Vampire Slayer. It surprised me. Buffy has been a huge part of my life, and I thought I knew everything there was to know about the show. But through the course of my research, I learned something I didn’t realize before: How much trouble the creator, Joss Whedon, had to go through to write about Willow and Tara, one of the first lesbian couples shown on TV.
Because I started watching Buffy when I was about 8 years old, I’d never realized just how groundbreaking some of it was until I started studying film and understanding representation in the media. I remember when Willow announced that she was in a relationship with Tara. I remember feeling so happy for her because she was one of my favorite characters and she was in love! My parents had never taught me that same sex relationships were anything but normal so it didn’t feel like a massive revelation or even something important. Instead, it just felt like life. Something within me just understood that Willow could love a man and a woman. No questions asked.