this is not the wonderland

BOTTOMS (2023) dir. Emma Seligman

netflix just released the film ‘ek ladki ko dekha toh aisa laga’ which is an indian movie about a girl who’s into girls and how she gets the courage to come out and face her family and be with the woman she loves. sound familiar? yeah, i know it’s the basic plot of most hollywood lgbtq movies but that’s not the point. 

this is literally the first indian movie i’ve seen on a famous platform, accessible by anyone, that actually represents the lgbtq community in all its beauty and love and affection, rather that scorning or mocking it. 

the movie is beautiful and the scenes and the fluff and the cute couple and the emotions just make it so worth watching, and that’s not all.

i’m an indian bisexual teenager and i would’ve been so happy to have been exposed to a movie like this when i was younger. if i had seen this kind of portrayal in the film industry, i doubt that i would’ve been the afraid young girl i was and i would’ve had the courage to do what the main characters did and just BE MYSELF. 

all i hope is that someone sees this movie, some little girl out there sees it and knows that she is not alone, that she is not abnormal. with a topic such as this, which has been treated as taboo for decades now in my country (still is kinda), when it is actually being represented and being represented well, i can’t help but wanna scream about it from the rooftops. 

also just look at this adorableness:

I would like to point out that this moment right here is so cleverly put and genuinely beautiful that it could work for everything people want and need to take from it.

I legitimately cried, because I didn’t only see how a healthy and respectful relationship should work, I also saw a beautiful and respectful way to legitimate and support asexuality, which is something I’ve never seen in a show, especially related to a same sex couple (a lesbian one nonetheless).

As an ace lesbian this means the world to me, because I always have to deal with over-sexualized characters and stories, and though I’m kinda used to it by now, it still bothers me, because I just wish people understood that not everything revolves around sex, and that you can be in a healthy and happy relationship regardless of it involving sex or not, as long as you really love each other.