In recent years, media has included more representation for the LGBTQ+ community. However, we believe that the world is reverting in their progress, as we watch lesbian representation in even the most famous of shows slowly die out. This is seen most popularly in streaming services such as Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max.

This problem seems to find itself mostly in WLW (woman loving women) relationships and rarely in MLM (man loving men) ones. For example, shows such as Netflix’s Heartstopper with two white, male leads have been renewed for two more seasons. However, a show that factually garnered more streams, Netflix’s First Kill (featuring a biracial lesbian couple as the leads), was canceled about two months after its initial release in June. Meanwhile, Netflix claims that “its low viewership didn’t warrant the price tag of making a second season.”

There’s also a variety of shows that didn’t get canceled, but instead fell victim to the trauma of queer women as shock value. The finale of Killing Eve murdered their main characters after seasons of WLW build-up. It’s possible this isn’t the intentions of certain show runners, but killing off lesbians makes them appear expendable, as if they’re an easy loss that doesn’t truly affect the show. Sure, it’s fine if the character happens to be a lesbian, but every single time? There seems to be a constant pattern here. Maybe it’s time to consider what kind of effect this has on real-life lesbians.

Even the luckiest cases, such as Dana Terrace’s, The Owl House, are not out of the woods. Disney allegedly cut their third and final season short on account of the show’s content “not fitting the Disney brand.” Interestingly, this announcement was made after the main love interests were set up to finally get together. There are millions of young queer women, even some in this school, who watch this show and truly see themselves in the characters, that won’t have that representation anymore. It’s impossible to tell the world that being a gay woman is normal if there’s no proof.

Not every streaming service is following this pattern, however. Hulu doesn’t seem to have nearly as many, if any, cases of this possible bias. We can watch the shows that have been canceled in the hopes of supporting the actors and producers who worked on this show. We can stop praising companies for the crumbs of representation that they begrudgingly give us.