When our TV Team makes a list, we want guidelines, we want parameters, we want rubrics and precedents and clear explanations and examples. Do you mean X or do you mean Y? Are you talking about this or are you talking about that? What’s disqualifying, what’s a shoe-in, if you’re gonna add so-and-so, you gotta add such-and-such. Like Monica Gellar, we all firmly believe that RULES HELP CONTROL THE FUN. But last week, in her review of The Retreat, Drew wrote, “Tommie-Amber Pirie is a fully committed horror heroine and she carries the story with a dykey swagger.” And so Heather casually asked the TV Team if we wanted to make a list of lesbian and bisexual TV and film characters with the dyke-iest swagger. Within an hour, we had a list of 50 characters and not one single person asked for a definition. Dykey swagger is something you either have or you don’t, it’s something you either know or you don’t. It’s not really definable; it just is. Which is one of the things that makes it so alluring. And so:
The 50 Lesbian and Bisexual TV and Film Characters With the Dyke-iest Swagger
Cay Rivers, Desert Hearts
Coop, All American
Quiet Ann, Claws
Cleo, Set It Off
Emma and Nico, Vida
Hattie, Twenties
Callie Torres, Grey’s Anatomy
Kalinda Sharma, The Good Wife
Corky, Bound
Root and Shaw, Person of Interest
Tasha Williams, The L Word
Angelina Jolie’s Legs Sadovsky, Foxfire
Betty McRae, Bomb Girls
Poussey Washington, Orange Is the New Black
Bette Porter, The L Word
Anne Lister, Gentleman Jack
Rosa Diaz, Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Kat Sandoval, Madam Secretary
Nicky Nichols, Orange Is the New Black
Shane McCutcheon, The L Word
Paige McCullers, Pretty Little Liars
Abby and Riley, Happiest Season
Valkyrie, MCU
Garnet, Steven Universe
Sophie Moore, Batwoman
Peppermint Patty, Peanuts
Santana Lopez, Glee
Dex, Stumptown
Jackie Quiñones, Hightown
Stef, The Fosters
Xena, Xena: Warrior Princess
Pauline Hawthorne, Little Fires Everywhere
Snoop, The Wire
Amanita, Sense8
Lucy Diamond, DEBS
Diggy, Dope
M-Chuck, Survivor’s Remorse
Denise, Master of None
Adena, The Bold Type
Anissa and Grace, Black Lightning
Alex Danvers, Supergirl
Clea DuVall, But I’m a Cheerleader
Those Record Store Lesbians, Carol
Leila, The Bisexual
Jasmine Rawlings, Suicide Kale
Catra, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power
