Killing Off the Lesbians

So, the film or television lesbian character dies. It seems to happen frequently. But does it really? If so, is it something new? Surveying the fates of numerous characters over decades, this study shows that killing off the lesbian is not a new trend. It is a form of symbolic annihilation and it has had an impact in real life.
When more women are working behind the scenes, what appears on-screen also becomes more diverse—yet unhappily the story lines don’t necessarily change. From the Xenaverse to GLAAD to the Lexa Pledge, fans have demanded better. As fan fiction migrates from the computer screen to the printed page, authors reanimate the dead and insist on happy endings.

Liz Millward is an associate professor of women’s and gender studies at the University of Manitoba, Canada.
Janice G. Dodd is a professor of women’s and gender studies and a professor of physiology and pathophysiology in the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, at the University of Manitoba.
Irene Fubara-Manuel conducts research in creative and critical practice at the University of Sussex, United Kingdom.

Liz Millward, Janice G. Dodd and Irene Fubara-Manuel
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 212
Bibliographic Info: bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2017
pISBN: 978-1-4766-6816-1
eISBN: 978-1-4766-2840-0
Imprint: McFarland

Table of Contents

Introduction 1
1. The Evil/Dead Lesbian—What a Cliché! 11
2. The Subtext Will Not Protect You 40
3. Who Poisoned the Box Office? 73
4. All the Dead Lesbians (IRL) 97
5. It Gets Better 105
6. Fans Demand Better 132
7. Rejecting Death Narratives 160
Conclusion 183
Bibliography 189
Index 203