These two pictures of Thunder from Black Lightning, signed by Nafessa Williams, are up for a giveaways from me and my girlfriend! But first, story time.
So here at ClexaCon, everything has been amazing. I’ve met writers and creators and artists, watched awesome, enriching panels, and was lucky enough to be on a panel with some amazing people. The crowds here are immense: the thousands of passionate fans are a testament to the strength of f/f fandoms.
And yet…fandom is not without issues. First came the modest attendance for the Queer Women of Color panel because it was followed by an actress panel; second, was what happened today:
My girlfriend and I got back to our hotel room Saturday afternoon after we finished watching our last planned panel, only to open up Twitter to several stories about how the lovely and amazing Nafessa Williams, who plays Anissa Pierce on Black Lightning, had an empty autograph line. She was being totally sweet, chatting and taking selfies with people, but she wasn’t getting too many fans coming through.
Meanwhile, at the table next to her, Emily Andras had an autograph line overflowing with people. A straight white woman with a history of questionable comments about rep and BYG had a massive line.
Nafessa is playing the first ever black lesbian lead character on television. Anissa is an out and proud lesbian; she’s a strong, complex woman of color; she’s a young activist; and she’s one half of an interracial relationship.
And she’s bulletproof! And badass! She is the rep people have been crying out for, and yet when it actually came down to it, people would rather pay to meet a straight, white, historically problematic woman.
Come on. Do better.
So as soon as my girlfriend and I found this out, we left our hotel and headed back to the con, agreeing to split the cost of an autograph. My girlfriend and I are both white women. The only time in my life I’ve ever bought an autograph was from Eliza Taylor; my girlfriend never has. But we realized that we’re part of the problem in not supporting actresses like Nafessa and shows like Black Lightning—especially when everyone is so eager to support other people at the con.
Anyway, along the ten minute walk from our hotel back to ClexaCon, one autograph turned into four. We each got one for ourselves, and we have two left over for a giveaway!
My girlfriend will be hosting the giveaway on her twitter in the next few days. Her twitter is @ABCs_of_theLoo. Please reblog this to spread the word!
Arrow Season One: What are queer people?
Arrow Season Two: Here’s Sara, we’re going to introduce you to her ex-girlfriend Nyssa, who is a remorseless assassin who plays into both the predatory lesbian and psycho ex-girlfriend trope, then have her spend the rest of the season banging Oliver. At the end of the season, she’ll sell herself back to her ex-girlfriend to buy help for Oliver.
Arrow Season Three: Surprise, bitch, Sara’s dead, and Nyssa, a canon lesbian, is forced into a marriage with a man. Oh, and Curtis is gay, I guess.
The Flash Season One: Um… Joe’s boss is gay, and getting married.
Arrow Season Four: Nyssa is clearly crushing hard on Laurel, who’s maybe sort of crushing back, but Laurel is going to betray Nyssa to raise Sara from the dead, only now Sara is a crazy killing machine, who we’re writing off the show, and Nyssa will be abandoned to prison. Oh, and Curtis is still gay, and has a husband. And we’re going to kill Laurel because she might flirt with Nyssa again in the future. Oh, and we’ll let Nyssa out of prison so she can cry prettily over having another woman she loves murdered.
The Flash Season Two: Joe’s boss is still gay *and* married to a guy! We have rep, really!
Supergirl Season One: No Homo! Look, Alex has chemistry with Maxwell Lord! SEE!!! She’s totally not gay! And neither is Kara!
Legends of Tomorrow: Here is Sara. Sara is going to walk into a bar in the 70’s and trash talk a think necked asshole by telling him she’d totally bang his girlfriend. Then she’s going to seduce a nurse in the fifties, and flirt with Captain Cold while having a deep character arc about struggling with her mental health. She’ll have setbacks, but eventually take huge steps towards recovery, and become pretty much everyone’s favorite character on the show, and the emotional core of the team.
Arrow Season Five: Curtis! Totally Gay! Of course, we’re going to destroy his marriage, and leave him single and basically sexless so he’s non-threatening to our straight viewers while we rub the hetero all over the screen.
The Flash Season Three: Um, Joe’s boss is still gay, but we’re never going to bring that up. But we have Rep!
Supergirl Season Two: Here is Maggie Sawyer. She is very, very gay. Here is Alex Danvers. Alex Danvers is going to take one look at Maggie Sawyer, and there will then be an Alex shaped hole in the closet door, because any time Alex things of Maggie, she becomes too gay to function, and you have to function to upon a door. Here is Kara Danvers and Lena Luthor, both of whom look at each other like they hung the moon and stars, and are super straight. Look, Kara even has a boyfriend. He’s such a great guy. He used to own slaves, and is a selfish, misogynistic sack of shit, who treats Kara terribly. It must be true love!
Legends of Tomorrow Season Two: Here is Sara Lance. Sara Lance is going to seduce or be seduced by women through every single period in history. She’s going to be nearly executed for seducing every girl in a puritan village. She’s going to seduce Queen Guinevere. She’s going to bang the Queen of France while the rest of the team is having a superhero fight. Because Sara Lance just loves rubbing her grubby little bisexual hands all over your straight washed history. Also, Sara is in charge now, and she’s the star of the show.
Arrow Season Six: Um… Curtis is still gay.
The Flash Season Four: Joe’s boss is still gay. We will never actually mention or refer to it, but it’s still rep!
Supergirl Season Three: This is Alex. Alex is super gay, and her engagement fell apart. She’s struggling to deal with that. Also, Kara and Lena are both still super straight.
Legends of Tomorrow Season Three: This is Sara. She is still hella bisexual. She totally banged Supergirl’s sister, hooked up with John Constantine and get an Enemies to Friends To Lovers arc with Ava that’s straight out of fanfic. Also, we’re introducing an alternate version of Captain Cold who’s hella gay. Gideon is going to write Avalance fanfiction and show it to Zari until Zari becomes an Avalance shipper. Mick Rory is going to cheer Sara on every time she hooks up with a girl. Also, John Constantine is going to show up, flirt with Alternate Universe Captain Cold before the Sara hook up, and Ava Lance is going to be a completely useless lesbian in multiple episodes. Yes Homo. ALL THE HOMO!
Black Lightning: This is Anissa. Anissa is hella gay. Two episodes in, and you get a sex seen with her and her girlfriend that’s hot and sweet. Then, she meets Grace, who is totally into her from the get go. Also, Anissa has superpowers, and gets a superhero origin arc this season, and it is awesome. She’s brave, she’s bad ass, she’s afraid of dead rats, but that isn’t going to stop her from kicking ass and taking names and God help you if you get in her way.
Question of Smoke 