Autostraddle March Madness — Best First Kiss: Sweet 16

You think you know somebody.

I’ve been a writer on this site for nearly a year now and regular commenter for many years before that and I thought that meant, Dear Autostraddle Reader, that we’d developed a bit of a rapport. I thought you’d gotten to know me and my faves — Annalise and Eve, most notably — and I’d gotten to know yours. I mean, sure, I don’t really get your love for science fiction shows and you think I’m a little weird for scouring the Internet for English-subtitled telenovelas, but the basis for any good relationship is being accepting of each other’s differences, right? I really thought we were cool.

But then you put together a little friendly March Madness competition pitting some of the best first kisses against each other and, suddenly, people really start to show their true colors.

I kid, I kid… sort of.

In the International region, I was a little surprised to see Sara and Carlota of Cable Girls trounce Maria and Daniela of Ingobernable and, ultimately, end up as the leading vote getters in the region. There was a close contest between Kate and Rana of Coronation Street and Mercedes and Barbara from Perdona Nuestros Pecados but, during the second day of voting, #Kana fans really stepped up and were able to advance to the Sweet 16.

Over in the Baby Gays region, I was shocked by how competitive it wasn’t. I expected Kate and Emaline vs. Karolina and Nico and Adena and Kat vs. Ruby and Sapphire would yield really close contests but neither of them turned out that way: Everything Sucks! and The Bold Type advanced to Sweet 16 handily. I’m not sure if people really enjoyed East Los High or if it got the benefit of the easy draw but facing Everything Sucks in this round will be a true test of the show’s fandom.

The biggest surprise from your Round of 32 selections, at least among the Autostraddle TV team, came in the DRAMA region: where Piper and Alex knocked out Callie and Arizona. You guys. I mean, yes, that kiss was objectively hot but I thought we all agreed that Piper and Alex were uniformly terrible?! And, poor Arizona, she’s going to be leaving SGMH and now she’s lost to the absolute worst people. It’s been a tough March for our favorite peds surgeon.

Round two of voting in the Sci-Fi/Fantasy region was tough and yielded our closest contest to date: Alex and Maggie of Supergirl edged Kelly and Yorkie of Black Mirror out by just five votes. FIVE VOTES! That’s less than 0.1% of the entire vote total. But if you thought that choice was tough, now you have to choose between Nicole and Waverly of Wynonna Earp and Cosima and Delphine of Orphan Black. It does not get any easier in the Sweet 16!

Voting for every round will be open for two days only! Voting in this round will close on Saturday, March 31 at 5PM EST. Because of some special coverage we’ve got planned for the weekend here at Autostraddle.com, our post unveiling the Elite 8 will not go up until Monday…but because we love you, we’ll be unveiling the final eight couples on social media on Sunday! Are you following Autostraddle on Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr? If not, now would definitely be a good time to do so.


The Baby Gays

Camila and Jocelyn, East Los High vs. Kate and Emaline, Everything Sucks

Adena and Kat, The Bold Type vs. Elena and Syd, One Day at a Time


Sci-Fi/Fantasy Babes

Alex and Maggie, Supergirl vs. Camille and Amanda, Stitchers

Nicole and Waverly, Wynonna Earp vs. Cosima and Delphine, Orphan Black


International Faves

Sara and Carlota, Cable Girls/Las Chicas Del Cable vs. Florencia (“Flor”) and Jazmin, Las Estrellas

Amelia and Violet, Harlots vs. Kate and Rana, Coronation Street


DRAMA Faves

Piper and Alex, Orange is the New Black vs. Petra and Jane “JR” Ramos, Jane the Virgin


Lena and Stef, The Fosters vs. Izzy and Emma, You Me Her


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Natalie

A black biracial, bisexual girl raised in the South, working hard to restore North Carolina's good name. Lover of sports, politics, good TV and Sonia Sotomayor. You can follow her latest rants on Twitter.

Natalie has written 416 articles for us.

43 Comments

  1. I had an audible gasp when I read Kelly and Yorkie were knocked out! I mean a co-worker came and checked on me because it was so loud. You think you know people…

    I can’t with Piper and Alex.

  2. Elena & Syd, Sara & Carlota, and Stef & Lena have been the ones I’ve been rooting for all along! Come on we got this! As some point this is going to be really hard! but woooo! they all made it here!

  3. Everything Sucks and One Day At A Time surely getting my votes for personal reasons.

    One major reason is the fact that the parents of the actress playing Kate on Everything Sucks allowed their 13 year old daughter play a lesbian and kiss a girl. That is so freaking huge. It is a different thing if the actress was already 18+ playing a 14year old character. But she wasn’t. I love her parents or whoever is her guardian.

    As for One Day At A Time, they allowed two girls kiss for that long in a show that is shot in front of a live studio audience. Like wow. All same sex kisses I have seen on multi-cam shows, it is usually a very quick kiss. But this one, they kissed three times and savored every second of it and even put a spotlight on them too.

    These things matter a lot to me because in Everything Suck’s case I grew up believing being queer is for when you’re 18+ and before then, you are not sure of yourself or you can’t make a decision. And most of the characters in high school shows over the years are always played by adults. So the queer characters are never really teenage actors.

    And in ODAAT’s case I grew up believing you can be queer but no display of public affection. And seeing them shoot that kiss in front of a live studio audience, as insignificant as it sounds, it means a lot to me personally.

  4. I just realized I might have to choose between Kate & Emmaline and Elena & Syd in the next round and… and… I don’t even know.

  5. honestly, anyone who votes for Piper and Alex over Petra and JR in this round should be banned from Autostraddle.

    THERE ARE LIMITS TO WHAT WE CAN ACCEPT HERE.

    (I now know what Heather Hogan was subtweeting)

  6. WayHaught vs. Cophine…

    PD: Vamo’ Argentina, Carajo!!!!!!!!!! (after what happened this week in futbol I need some happiness)

          • I was watching with a bunch of friends at home. After it was over, my best friend Daniel asked me if I was ok and gave me a bear hug. I was speechless and that never had happened before. With similar events? I have the mouth of a drunken sailor

      • Tenés razón, pero lo que duele es que ya no podemos cantar tan abiertamente “Brasil, decíme que se siente”.

          • Im studying in Argentina right now and I don’t know a gdamn thing about football but everyone here is SO EXCITED about it idk what to even do

  7. My top pick Karolina & Nico have been eliminated. Oh, woe is me. Someone please fetch me to a fainting couch.

    (There’ll be blood on the floor about this!)

  8. Wayhaught and Cophine are both in my top five ships of all time but I just went with the guiding principal I’ve been striving to follow all tournament: not best ship, best first kiss. So once again Wayhaught wins cause while Cophine’s first kiss was great it wasn’t legendary!

    • Yep, made the same choice.

      But I had a huge struggle with that one because Cophine is the best ship ever. Come on, Delphine came back from the dead…

    • I don’t even watch Wynonna Earp and I voted for them. I feel like the Cophine actresses really bring it in subsequent scenes but chemistry-free lesbian kisses are so commonplace I can’t vote for them even if their blah first kiss made sense for the story.

  9. Kelly and Yorkie lost by FIVE VOTES? I was positive that they would win the whole thing…

  10. I gasped so loudly at Yorkie/Kelly being knocked out (I really wanted them to win the entire thing) and I’m upset about Karolina/Nico being knocked out already :(

  11. It’s not a hard decision for me I am WayHaught all the way but I know others might have a little pause in deciding…damn who hurt you Autostraddle?

  12. How did Kelly and Yorkie, who should have won the contest, lose while Piper and Alex moved on to the next round? Can we really say for sure that this wasn’t the result of a Russian cyberattack?

  13. I went with Cophine, it’s my way of saying goodbye to them. Because I know Wayhaught gonna win the next round, then next, then the tournament. I feel for the remaining contenders, how can they possibly compete with Wayhaught :)

  14. I really thought Kelly and Yorkie would do better because they only required watching one episode. I haven’t seen most of these shows, but I’m glad to know they exist!

  15. I’m so sorry for whatever I’ve done to hurt you so badly that it’s come to WayHaught vs. Cophine

  16. I love Piper/Alex in all their disfunctional glory. But they can‘t beat Petra/JR!

  17. Autostraddle must hate me, that’s why my RubyxSapphire (aka my lesbian space rocks) were kicked out and now I need to choose between Wayhaught or Cophine.

  18. Ack! Some of these are difficult because they’re both good, some of them because they are yuckity splits!

    Thank you, Natalie, for organizing this madness and giving me a reason to watch and evaluate lesbian kisses for a solid hour on more than one day of this holy week.

  19. I am so sad that Barcedes was knocked out by Kana. I think people must’ve been responding to their drought, or perhaps thought this was Zimbio MM all over again, coz choosing a one-sided, surprise lip-smashing kiss that was stopped abruptly by the receiver over a slow, angst-filled, open-mouthed first kiss, reciprocated by both participants?!?!??…That’s bonkers!!!

    Like many here have said, I have favorite ships that I’m voting against in favor of a better first kiss displayed by a different pair. It’s gonna get harder though for sure! I will truly be happy if WayHaught, Petramos, Camila & Jocelyn, Izzy & Emma, or Elena & Syd win coz those kisses are all outstanding in so many different ways.

Comments are closed.