The state of television is in downright chaos with the ongoing writers’ strike, yet this doesn’t stop queer women from banding together and calling out the influx of cancellations for queer female-led shows.
August has seen a major queer pop culture moment in the release of gay rom-com Red, White, and Royal Blue on Amazon Prime. The film was always going to have a lot of traction as it was based on a best-selling novel by author Casey McQuiston. However, the film gained greater viewership after two conventionally attractive men were cast, and a heterosexual female audience was tempted to watch. This is a whole soapbox for another day, but it is important to our conversation. See, now that the cast and crew have received the flowers they so greatly deserve, let’s talk about the smaller Amazon Prime audience who are throwing tomatoes.
The general public might not have noticed that after the Red, White, and Royal Blue release on August 11th, the TV adaption of A League of Their Own was canceled the following Monday. This show was underground but spread widely in sapphic spaces upon release. It was a retelling of the story from the same-named classic from the 1990s about the female professional baseball league. Only now, in 2023, the scripts were delving into the players who were queer women and women of color. It still would be set in 1943 to enhance the importance of telling the unsung stories of the women.
Taking all of this into account, you could imagine this would be a controversial cancellation. At this time, Amazon Prime released an official statement that the cancellation was due to the writers’ strike. Things got messy when Abbi Jacobson, a lesbian lead of the show, posted a goodbye to her socials, undoubtedly throwing shade at Amazon and claiming that their reasoning about the strike was false. She goes on to say, “…but this post isn’t about all that. About all the ways this show has been put through the ringer. Not today.” These heated words have now garnered over 100,000 likes and over 3,000 supportive comments. Many supportive comments came from famous lesbian women who understood all too well— big names like Rosie O’Donnell, Wanda Sykes, and Hayley Kiyoko. Others brought attention to Amazon Prime’s previous cancellation of shows led by sapphic characters and actors: The Wilds and Paper Girls.
*Just Some Queer/Female Led Shows Canceled in Recent Years:
–First Kill, Netflix
–Genera+ion, Max
–The Wilds, Amazon Prime
–One Day At A Time, Netflix
–Paper Girls, Amazon Prime
–Warrior Nun, Netflix
–Grease: Rise of The Pink Ladies, Paramount +
It’s queer and female erasure before our very eyes, and it’s a disappointment to see. Nevertheless, I want to employ the same bright side thinking Abbi Jacobson did. Instead of dwelling, here are some ongoing queer female-led shows you can stream and support: Heartstopper, Heartbreak High, Atypical, Dickinson, The Last Of Us, The Sex Lives of College Girls, and Yellow Jackets (hopefully to be continued!)