“I knew about it before The 100—that they kill off lesbians. That lesbians are either dead or crazy by the end of anything.”

“I just feel out of place in this time. I feel like the world is slowing to a crawl and doesn’t want to catch up with where, morally, I feel it should be. I definitely feel a sense of displacement, for sure. It’s like, are we still having these same arguments about whether we’re people? Can we please move on?”

Interview subject @raedmagdon​ in “Feeling Backward” - The Clexa Fan Documentary Trailer

By exploring how queer female fans experience time, my research challenges assumptions about how much society has progressed from the homophobia and oppression of the past. 

As Carillo Rowe et al (2015) discuss, that while progress has been made for some members of the LGBTQ community (namely white, economically mobile gays and lesbians) others continue to be excluded and oppressed by systems of power such as race, gender and class. Rather than promising a future ‘hospitable to all’, the progress made in contemporary gay and lesbian politics merely promises that ‘it gets better for some’ (p. 36). 

Popular cultural memory and history tells us that homophobia has been overcome and exists only in the past. But despite this apparent triumph and the increasing number of rights afforded to members of the queer community, these feelings of displacement persist. For Rae, these feelings point to a lack of progress and a continuation of the homophobia of the past. 

Interview subject Dr Elizabeth Bridges on her experiences in the aftermath of Lexa’s death - from “Feeling Backward” - The Clexa Fan Documentary Trailer

I’m looking for more interviewees to film in New York and LA in December/January! 

I’m looking for self-identifying queer female fans aged 18+ who are willing to participate in a filmed interview for my documentary project. 

Did Lexa's death bring back any painful memories from your past? Did her death cause you to relive any past trauma you've experienced due to being queer? If you had a similar experience to Dr Bridges and are available to film an interview, please get in touch, I'd like to hear from you!