Reshop Heda
By: Lauren Currie
Tags: Essay, The 100, LGBTQ, School, TV

On March 3rd, 2016 a fictional TV character died. Moments like this occur on television all the time. Most of the time, a few die-hard fans will sit on their couch and cry through the episode. Then they will just move on. If they like the character enough, they might vow “never to watch the show again”, maybe even compose a strongly worded tweet at the showrunner or writers. If brought up in conversation, they might say they were “so mad” when it happened. But what if a moment like this could create a movement? What if that character death on March 3rd, 2016 caused massive amounts of money to be raised for charity, erected a fortress of a community, and changed the way similar characters are written on television? Well, it did. Fan culture has a major influence on society. Fan contribution both in positive and negative reaction to text has a large impact on the media of today. This can be shown through the lens of the uses and gratification model and backed by Stuart Hall’s reception theory, as shown through the life, death, and impact of Lexa from the television show The 100.

The third season of The 100 had begun while the show was at its peak. They were soaring off a critically acclaimed second season, and all the ratings seemed to do for them was climb episode after episode (IMBD). Maureen ‘Mo’ Ryan of Variety named the show one of the best shows of 2015 during its season two (Ryan, 2015). They had also found a forceful new aspect to their overall fandom in season two; the fans of the relationship of Clarke Griffin, our heroine, and the young warlord leader of those who society sprang from the nuclear apocalypse, and Lexa (from here on out deemed “Clexa”). The first sign of mutual admiration between the two characters was seen in a later season two episode that quickly drew in more fans. This was an important relationship to many, as this was the catalyst of the first bisexual lead on network television (Riese, 2015). Fans of these characters relationship became seemingly the largest part of the show’s fanbase by numbers. These fans tuned into season three with the same eagerness as the second season, many in hopes to finally see Clarke and Lexa together. This hope was even fueled, as it was hinted at and promoted heavily by the actors, writers, and the showrunner. (Ryan, 2016) When the actress who played Lexa got cast in a new show, fans were naturally worried, as the show had always marketed itself as one where “no one is safe” and “anyone can die”, but fans were assured by writers and the showrunner that nothing would happen. As a matter of fact, on January 21st, before the show had even started to air its third season, the showrunner tweeted the location of where they were filming in downtown Vancouver and invited fans to show up; essentially to prove that Lexa would make it to the finale as she was one of the few characters filming that day. Fans were told they were “crazy” and “needed help” if the thought otherwise (Ryan, 2016). Unfortunately, fans were misled, as Lexa had already been killed off months before in the seventh episode of the season entitled “Thirteen”.

In 2015, lesbians and other LGBTQ women made up 33 percent of regular and recurring (mostly recurring) LGBTQ characters on broadcast (Overall, these LGBTQ characters only account for 4% of all regular characters in broadcast programming which is 34 out of 881 in 2015- in which we get the 33% lesbians and bisexuals out of the 34 LGBTQ characters (GLADD 2015). In 2016, they dropped to 17 percent of all LGBTQ characters. (GLADD 2016) This drop occurred because many of these characters were being killed off. Historically though, this is nothing new. In fact, the Motion Picture Production Code, commonly referred to as the Hays Code, had a “do not” against showing sexual perversion; This included interracial relationships, venereal disease, and homosexuality (Hays Code, 1930). The code stayed in place from 1930 until 1968. The way studios worked around this was seeing these relationships in a “bad” or “doomed” perspective, and usually ended up with someone dying. For example, in the 1961 movie The Children’s Hour, Shirley McLean’s character realizes she has feelings for her best friend and proceeds to immediately hangs herself (The Children’s Hour, 1961). This trend continued even after the appeal of the Hays Code. In 1976, the show, The Executive Suite, became one of the first few shows to even discuss the topic of homosexuality (considering mentions in both positive and negative forms), with the coming out of one of the main characters “Julie”. She dies in the same episode after being hit by a car is the first to receive the honor of this common trope Out of the first ten lesbians ever on television, two portrayals can be considered positive, while the other eight were criminals, tramps, crazy, or killed. (Riese, 2015) Since Julie, about 195 lesbian and bisexual women-identifying people have died on television (Riese, 2016). A high number considering only in recent years have lesbian and bisexuals started making up about 4% of all characters within media (10 years prior to Lexa’s death in 2006 LGBTQ characters all together only made up about 2% off all characters GLADD, 2006). Many of these deaths happen as an accident, or to further a straight character’s story. Lexa was 154, and after 154 deaths, people tend to get fed up.

Reception Theory falls in with Stuart Hall’s theory of ‘encoding/decoding’. The writers might have encoded Lexa’s death as “a tragic love story”, something not within the fanbases’ ideological beliefs. Users decoded the writer's story with an oppositional gaze. This is likely due to LGBT members being tired of seeing themselves die in media-. In the first six episodes of The 100’s third season, Clarke and Lexa spent their time pining for each other. In episode 7- Thirteen, almost as soon as the two consummate their relationship, Lexa is shot by a stray bullet meant for Clarke (shot by a father figure to Lexa) soon after (The 100, “Thirteen”). It was popularly decoded as a message that lesbian and bisexual should be punished for intimate acts, and that they do not deserve happy endings (especially considering just how fast it proceeded the show’s earlier love scene). This encoding method in tie with the ‘uses and gratification model’ is how of Lexa, Clexa, and The 100 became enraged. The positive LGBT relationship showcased within the show was dismantled. Fans used the text to see themselves represented, possibly for the first time, as the show’s main demo is teenagers and young adults. A community had sprung up around ‘Clexa’, and fans used it to find people they could relate to. Their negative reaction examined using reception theory was used as a catalyst in which a new use for the text was created. The original text and character became an icon as a change for the positive that would prevent a negative response around similar texts again (Burying gays). These theories probably best explain the visceral reaction and all that followed.

Louisa Stein talks about how millennial fandom is much more civically minded, often engaging in with media platforms more and more. After the death of Lexa, a group entitled “LGBTQ fans Deserve Better” was created as a way to create awareness of multiple items. This was the Clexa Fandom’s version of “Dumbledore’s Army” (a popular campaign started by fans of the Harry Potter series). The main goal was to facilitate storytellers to create more responsible media, raise awareness for the “Bury your gays” and the “Dead Lesbian Syndrome” trope, as according to their website, “media does not exist in a vacuum” (Alexander) They had multiple billboards put up near the Warner Brothers studios, where the headquarters of the CW is, as well as the office of CW president Mark Pedowitz (Alexander). Probably their biggest success was the money raised for the Trevor Project. As of April 7th, 2018, $173,600 has been raised. According to the fundraiser website:

“The Trevor Project, the only national organization providing suicide prevention services to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth in crisis. The Trevor Project serves more than 100,000 LGBTQ youth every year with their life-saving programs that include the Trevor Lifeline, TrevorChat, Ask Trevor and TrevorSpace. The need for Trevor is very real — lesbian, gay and bisexual youth are more than 4X more likely than their straight peers to attempt suicide, and youth who are questioning their sexual orientation are 3X more likely. For youth between the ages of 10 and 24, suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death nationwide.” (Fundraiser).

The fans used their sadness and anger to address serious issues in their community. and completed actual action in the name of the characters that inspired them to do so. This, in turn, created actual societal change.

ClexaCon is probably one of the most famous things to come from the death of Lexa. As Henry Jenkins states, fandom is on the outside society anymore, and this is embodied through the convention that was founded and designed for LGBTQ fans. ClexaCon has now completed two majorly successful conventions in Las Vegas in 2017 and 2018, and they now are holding a ClexaCon UK in London also in 2018. The first one had over 2200 attendees, and both have had major celebrity guest. According to their website, their vision is to connect people by “bringing together a diverse group of LGBTQ fans and content creators from around the world.” and to “empower media creators to produce and distribute more positive LGBTQ content, providing educational resources for the community to aid in the push for better representation” (Vision). ClexaCon strives to lay the foundation for improved visibility within the media while encouraging more LGBTQ women to participate in creating the stories they desire. This works in tandem with the idea how the LGBTQ community has been evolving over the years, and they too, are not as on the outside fringes of society anymore, and in this case, the two overlapping groups in the case of Clexa work together and help each other out.” (Vision). The fandom now gathers together fans of not only Clexa, but fans of many LGBTQ characters and media. The convention is used to form connections, and as a platform for fans to find other to relate to within the world.

The loud outcry heard from Lexa’s death was covered in the news cycle how no other character death on TV had been covered before. It was covered from small online blogs to some of Hollywood’s most prestigious publications such as The Hollywood Reporter, and Variety, to even international foreign language news outlets (Bradley). People who had no idea about the history and the trope now had the opportunity to be informed on the harmful pattern in mainstream media. A pledge was even put together by a writer and co-producer of Saving Hope, Noelle Carbone. (Santos), that was signed by over a dozen television writers and producers. The essence of the pledge encourage content creators to create responsible LGBTQ representation. Fans were not only changing how non-LGBT members were viewing media but how LGBT members were being represented on screen.

While the writers of The 100 and Clexa fans could not go back and changed what happened to the beloved character, the fans did make an actual change going forward in regards with how lesbian and bisexual women are represented on television, and even how fan culture grows and behaves. Within the context of the show, the history of LGBTQ women in television, and multiple fan theories you can see how this easily was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Through the lens of the uses and gratification model and backed by Stuart Hall’s reception theory, one can explain and examine why the life and death of Lexa and her relationship had such a major impact, and how fans became so mobilized. Lexa may have been fictional, but she changed real systems and practices. Moments like what took place with the fans of The 100 showcase how fans can dramatically change media and those exposed to it.

This was written as an assignment for RTA

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