I kicked off Pride month by watching Booksmart, a charming and funny coming-of-age story that explores identity, sisterhood, and queerness. In my favorite scene, one of the protagonists has sex for the first time. She’s drunk, nervous, and it’s not just her first time getting laid – it’s also her first time acting upon her attraction to women. It starts out fine, but then in the middle of it all, she pukes on her partner. Her partner screams in disgust, she runs out, and my best friend and I squirm in our seats from the worst case of secondhand-embarrassment we’ve ever had.
After it ended, I realized how magical it was. Not the vomiting, reader, but a queer woman having a romantic scene that was funny in ways that didn’t serve to make her more appealing to the audience.
In the media, women are rarely allowed to mess up and be humorous – especially at the same time – and romances for queer people have often been wrapped in mystique, tragedy, and melodrama. As we near the end of Pride month, I find myself fondly remembering Undertale, Night in the Woods, and Butterfly Soup for each having a scene in which queer women actualize their feelings, or reminisce on a time they attempted to do so, and fail spectacularly or embarrass themselves. In an industry that most often represents straight men, it’s not only refreshing, but also vital for queer women to have stories that humanize us through concepts like comedy and authenticity that are often made to feel inacessible.
