So, I’m no expert on horror shit. I like it, I’ll go watch it. But I’m not about to sit here and analyze that garbage and pretend it’s some hugely academic thing. MTV has got some shitty shows, but this one was actually pretty enjoyable once you got passed the first few minutes of the white suburban high schooler onslaught. God. One thing that was pretty exciting at first ended up being pretty goddamn annoying, though.
There’s this character, Audrey, played by actor Bex Taylor-Klaus (who is awesome af) who starts out the first episode getting outed when a video of her making out with a girl in her car gets leaked onto the internet by her former childhood friend. Ouch. That’s not the annoying part (though it was a douche move). Also not the annoying part is when Audrey is asked about her sexuality and she responds kind of hesitant to label it. Totally cool. What isn’t cool is the show’s repeated use of “bi-curious” to constantly refer to Audrey’s orientation.
Bi-curious can be your thing, if you currently identify that way, go for it. But here we have a girl who was not just hooking up in a car. There are pretty emotional scenes of her and her lady love talking, hanging out, sharing less lustful kisses, and generally being girlfriend-y. That doesn’t sound “curious” to me. But you know, this girl can’t possibly be truly in love or anything. She’s still just curious. Sure. And the issue I have here is the difference between defining a relationship as an exploration of feelings vs. “well she’s just bi-curious, it’ll go away.” Whatever Audrey ends up identifying, a permanent label of bi-curious should not be it.
Because god forbid we admit somebody is bi on TV and god forbid a girl have a meaningful relationship with another girl without calling it “curiosity.” Jesus H Christ that annoyed the crap out of me so much. Which sucks because the actor is cool as shit. They’re pretty active on social media and a total cutie. They’re also one of the more solid actors on this sometimes bleh worthy show. But hey, what do I know right?
There’s probably more pressing issues of bi-erasure out there I could be focused on. But this one irked me. NOT TO MENTION said not-a-girlfriend-girlfriend gets killed like three seconds into the first episode, leaving Audrey as our sole form of queer representation in the show. Which makes the cowardly “bi-curious” thing stand out even more. She’s just queer curious, and she only kissed a girl in one episode. So, that’s enough, there ya go.
