2017/10/12 by Erin B. Waggoner · 1 citation
Social Sciences · #Gender, Feminism, and Media #Media Studies and Communication #Media, Gender, and Advertising
paper · doi:10.1080/00918369.2017.1391015
openalex publication_date 2017/10/12 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/03
Although visibility has increased, there are still television tropes used that can have potentially harmful effects on LGBTQ persons seeking identification through television characters. This essay explores the representation of women-loving women (WLW) on television and how fans respond via social media with regard to their identity and representation. Specifically, by examining the fan culture through a communitarian ethics lens (with an emphasis on duty and mutuality), fans are explored before and after a lesbian character's death and how their responses created a social movement regarding the current television environment's treatment of WLW characters. Media anthropology and virtual ethnographic observations on Twitter and Tumblr were used to answer how fans were responding to WLW representation via social media and how they engaged with communitarian ethics. Implications and criticisms are discussed.