justice for franchaela

screaming about queer fetishization

I said we’d mostly be covering horror here at Screaming, but we’re going to start with the horrific—and quite a doozy at that. Be forewarned that this piece includes generalizations. If you cannot read and see that there is nuance to everything, my writing might not be for you (and that’s okay)!

Blame it on my Scorpio rising, or perhaps years of conditioning by a blunt older sister, but I’m no longer one to mince words. Therefore, when many people online began to lose their minds over the next Bridgerton couple being confirmed—Michaela and Francesca—I was going to call it like I see it. The precise words I used with my mom were, “homophobes have gotten way too comfortable hiding behind their screens”. She agreed before posing the thought, “Maybe they might just want it to be book accurate.”

A very valid possibility, and yet, I shook my head, because if they were going to be strict about book accuracy, then they would have blown up the internet the second Shonda Rhimes made the numerous changes she has in previous seasons pertaining to race. Simon is not Black in the books. Kate is not South Asian. Sophie is not East Asian. In the novels, they are all white.

“Nope”, I told my sweet mother, for I’ve seen enough of this to know precisely what insidious nature lay beneath the surface of their comments.

• “I’m not homophobic, but justice for Michael!”

• “We want Michael!”

• “But what about Francesca and Michael’s child?? She can’t have a baby!”

• Or one of the many that said the quiet part out loud; “I’m going to skip this season because of the lesbian storyline👎👎👎”

Well, I say justice for Hannah Dodd and Masali Baduza, the very real women who have to deal with backlash from the keyboard trolls who are unable to separate reality from fiction. Two very real women who are thrilled to share the Franchaela story with the world.

Let us take a step back, back to December precisely, when Heated Rivalry began taking the world by storm. Romance novel lovers and fangirls (using the term in a gender-neutral sense) alike felt vindicated by the masses. People of all backgrounds flocked to support the show and for many of them, it was their first taste of the all-consuming joy of a fandom. The incessant need for more. The draw to fan-fiction and merch buying and TikTok edits and themed parties, just to keep the high going a little bit longer.

I was and still am a very active fan of Heated Rivalry—do not misconstrue this piece as a criticism of the show, because it is not. And whether you like the show or not, you have to admit it has been groundbreaking. It elicited a frenzied obsession like I haven’t seen since the days of One Direction in their prime; as someone who experienced that fandom then, and this one now, I say that with my whole chest. That, and much more importantly, it served as the impetus for some very necessary conversations about LGBTQ+ athletes, and empowered a few to come out of the closet themselves.

So… where is this support for queer women in media? I will make the lofty, and yet correct, bet that if Heated Rivalry had been Ilyanna and Shannon (bear with me) it would not have seen the same success. This is no shade or disrespect to Rachel Reid who wrote the books or Jacob Tierney who adapted the show, this has nothing to do with them and their beautiful creations—this statement harkens to the larger problem with society’s distaste for WLW media. Sapphic media does not usually perform the same way a show focused on a gay couple would. And when said sapphic media does well, ex. The Haunting of Bly Manor or Killing Eve, it’s not exactly like they’re getting happy, storybook endings. Queer stories often end in some form of tragedy or another. Don’t even mention Yellowjackets around me.

It’s often either a tragedy, or they’re cancelled after one season, ex. First Kill or I Am Not Okay With This.

First Kill; I think about them often

In May of 2024, a publication called Paste Magazine said the following.

The media watch-group GLAAD recently released their Where We Are on TV report, which measured another decline in LGBTQ+ representation on screen following a similar dip in 2022-2023’s report. Last year, there were 596 LGBTQ+ characters across cable, broadcast, and streaming. This year [2025] that figure dipped to only 468 characters. And while it’s undeniably concerning that these numbers are plummeting so quickly, the most heartbreaking statistic is the percentage of these characters that are gone for good: 36% of all queer characters counted across TV from June 1, 2023 to May 31, 2024 will not be returning, either due to unexpected cancellation, a planned series finale, or by simply being part of a limited series. The report states that 36 total series featuring LGBTQ+ characters were canceled in that timeframe.

It is harrowing to see just how significantly all representation is being affected by these cancellations, but GLAAD’s study reveals that 53% of the queer characters on these canceled shows were women, cementing what audiences of queer female characters have been feeling for months: sapphics on screen are disappearing at an alarming rate, more frequently than their counterparts.

Like, hello? This is incredibly concerning? TV has a serious lack of lesbian and queer female representation. Movies are much better, I’ll give the industry that, but I could still go for some more; I can’t keep watching Love Lies Bleeding and Bottoms and Carmilla adaptations until the day I die (even though I will). But people are generally more likely to sit down and watch TV than a movie—viewership is incredibly different, and this is important to note.

Let’s go back to a previous statement I made: that WLW media does not perform like MLM media does. Why, you ask? Well, queer women do not draw the same crowd that queer men do, because straight women will always show up for gay men more than they will show up for gay women.

This is because they can fetishize them.

If you’re one of the cis-women that dislike Bridgerton’s decision to make it Michaela and Francesca, but salivated epically over Heated Rivalry, I have news for you. You might not fit the general definition of what it means to be homophobic, but you are lesbophobic and yes, being lesbophobic does make you homophobic.

Because only supporting queer people that you can thirst over is not support. It’s fetishization.

Merriam-Webster defines fetish as “an object or bodily part whose real or fantasied presence is psychologically necessary for sexual gratification and that is an object of fixation to the extent that it may interfere with complete sexual expression”, and to fetishize is defined as “to make a fetish of : treat or regard with fetishism”.

Queer fetishization is nothing new, and nothing novel. In fact, if you are queer or have queer loved ones, this entire article is probably a big “duh” to you. But if you are not queer and haven’t spent much time around the community, a prevalent example of queer fetishization that you might know of is the normalization of men loving lesbian porn. Or as they have dubbed it, some ‘girl-on-girl action’.

Cis, straight people love to watch gay and queer people exist when said existence fits in the boxes that they are comfortable with. Nothing that threatens or challenges the cis, straight peoples’ norms. And if it challenges their norms, it’s selective queer people who will fit the bill—typically straight presenting, gender normative-appearing folks. These norms and boxes, as I refer to them, are often known as binaries. And we know how many cis, straight people feel about sticking to the binaries!

Generally, men love to see women make out, but really only if it’s women they find attractive (often femme-presenting). If they don’t find them attractive they’re probably going to call them a slur and casually hate crime them. Women after watching Heated Rivalry will go to gay bars and say “We just came to watch boys kiss!” because yes, they find it attractive. Women are oddly more flexible with basing it off how attractive they find the men, but there’s no doubt it’s a bonus if they’re as handsome as Shane and Ilya. That really gets them going.

Bringing this back to my original point; to take a show like Bridgerton, which was adapted from a well-loved series and caters distinctly to the female gaze, and shift something as astronomical as a main character’s gender, it was going to hit a nerve. Why? Because the women who love this series, who are overwhelmingly cisgender and straight, either cannot or do not wish to fetishize Michaela and Francesca. To be frank, they’re not going to go jerk off after an episode the same way they would after an hour of watching Shane and Ilya do the nasty.

There it is—my turn to say the quiet part out loud!

People on the internet are claiming that it’s not homophobic to want the original story as written in When He Was Wicked—the story of Michael and Francesca. That the comparison to Heated Rivalry is not apt because Jacob Tierney adapted it accurately to the book, and at the end of the day they just want to see the story they read and fell in love with come to life. They don’t want the core of the story—Francesca and Michaela’s grief, growth, love—to be overshadowed by society and the ton struggling to accept a queer relationship.

It’s almost as if Shonda Rhimes has not proven herself time and time again, that she and her team haven’t crafted beautiful storylines that bring us joy and tears in equal measure. I said it before and I’ll say it again; if these people were truly mad about it not being book accurate, they would have boycotted it from season one when it was announced that Simon, the Duke of Hastings, would be played by a Black man.

They claim it is not homophobic to want the original story as written in When He Was Wicked, and maybe they really believe that. Maybe in their heart of hearts, they believe this is true. And yet, they do not understand that when they live in a society like ours, that cancels queer shows and silences queer voices, claims like that carry significant weight. Claims like that perpetuate damage.

Lesbophobia is pervasive in our society. Why, you might ask? Well, it’s the ripe amalgamation of homophobia and misogyny, and in the case of Bridgerton, there’s some racism in there as well. A Black, lesbian, female character replacing who was, in the books, a straight, cis-gender white man? Lord help us all.

On the bright side, I am seeing an influx of support for Bridgerton from the queer community. There are comments on Netflix’s posts from people saying they’ve never cared about the show before but will definitely tune in now. Lesbians are thrilled to see such representation in a major, mainstream show. Not just any representation, but the main, focal relationship of the season. It’s a big fucking deal, and it deserves to be celebrated.

I should also say, just to be absolutely crystal clear, I am not claiming that if you loved Heated Rivalry you were fetishizing Shane and Ilya/Hudson and Connor inherently. Most of the fandom (that I saw, at least) was beautiful and joyous and respectful—just as the show itself was beautiful and joyous and respectful. But of course, there are always those in fandoms that take things too far. The women that went to the gay bar and said “We just came to watch boys kiss!”, for example; that was an actual thing that happened on multiple separate occasions.

Anywho, if at some point in this piece you have felt the need to argue my points, or get defensive, I would encourage you to pause and examine where that comes from. Then, go hug your local lesbian. Or maybe just Venmo them. Whichever.

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