Lexa

This increase in representation has not had fully positive press. The 2016 death of TV character Commander Lexa sparked a strong oppositional force within the queer online community. This resistance took the form of petitions, pledges and new forms of internet ‘fandom’ in the form of fan art. The fans argued that her character's lesbian relationship had been a slow burner over the course of 3 seasons; when the relationship finally felt ‘solid’ she was killed in a pathetic and accidental way with no heroism attached. This death was one of many in the TV lesbian community as statistics show that; out of 11% of shows featuring lesbian/bisexual characters, only 16% have happy endings. Thats 166 dead lesbian/bi characters and counting in American TV alone. (Hogan, 2016) The staggering statistics lead to the ‘Lexa Pledge’; A list of rules by which the producers and directors of Film/TV can pledge to follow in order to protect the LGBT community and its fragile media visual representation. The pledge includes rules such as; ‘We recognise that the LGBTQ community is underrepresented on television and, as such, that the deaths of queer characters have deep psychosocial ramifications.’ and ‘We refuse to kill a queer character solely to further the plot of a straight one.’ (LGBT Fans Deserve Better, 2016) The creative activism surrounding the cause has been mostly illustrative, ‘fantasy’ based***. Many illustrations of the lesbian couple in ‘real life’ situations have appeared bringing promotion and media coverage of the cause further than just LGBT audiences. This occurrence is an example of queer culture reacting creatively to something other than political change.