Now, television is no stranger to sweet lady kisses, but Brittana’s kiss, in particular, seems to have caused a very different kind of stir.
Maybe it was the Tweet battle that took place between a Gleek and a couple of the show’s writers, or maybe it’s because Kurt and Blaine kiss on the regular, or maybe it’s because Glee hardly needs to take drastic measures to keep its rabid fanbase, but, all in all, it incited a global lesberation complete with hokey YouTube montages and secret poetry and Tumblr pages littered with gif after gif.
That said, every Historical Moment deserves a breakdown of the necessary steps that blazed the trail for it in the first place, and so I present to you, dear readers, a Brief History of the Brittana Kiss.
Primordial Soup
One prokaryote said to another, “Hey, baby, how’s about you and me get together and metabolize…?”Thus, Ellen DeGeneres’s first ancestor was born.
First Lesbians Appear On Vase
Born on the island of Lesbos, ancient Greek lyricist Sappho was the inspiration for, what else, the term “lesbian.” Also, most lesbians’ hobbies of choice: writing poetry when sad, writing poetry when turned-on, listening to acoustic music…
The Elizabethan Era
Viola and Olivia totally pulled an early modern Brittana, even if Olivia wasn’t all that aware. At a time when a so-called “Virgin Queen” was so completely not a virgin — just unmarried and under the heavy influence of DGAF (Don’t Give a F*ck) — ladies started to flirt with the idea of following suit. Maybe. A little. At least, those closeted lezzes in the audience of the Globe Theatre held their breaths when Olivia professed her love for the cross-dressed Viola.
The Victorian Era
In almost a back-step in Elizabethan BAMFness, the Victorian Era asserted that, as women were “incapable of initiating sexual encounters,” those who did must’ve been “inverted”; or, “secretly harboring a man within.” Regardless, the term “tribadism” was coined, too, and so Scissoring was born. (Hallelujah!)
Virginia Woolf
The Second Coming of Sappho.
Feminism
Hellooooooo, sexual liberation! The last couple of feminist waves demanded a more cavalier and self-aware attitude toward the G-Spot, and encouraged women (and men) to respect the Big O and go about getting it however they pleased.
Sci-Fi
The only genre, really, that has the ability to show us what the future can (and, in many ways, should) look like. Cue the first interracial relationship on TV! And, later, one of the very first lesbian make-out seshes for all the world to see! What will the unknown frontier bring? None other than the motto, “It’s okay to be Takei!” And lesbian.
Ellen
But coming out on TV is slightly different than simulatenously coming out in real life, as AfterEllen.com’s namesake proved in the ’90s. It was a long, difficult road after that historic TV moment, but at the end of the day, Ellen proved the world was a’changing when she came back as, you guessed it, a fish.
Brittana
Which all brings us to that Valentine’s Day Glee kiss that set our hearts to the beat of Madonna’s “Cherish.” Also, an excuse to post another photo of the pair of them in this article. You’re welcome.
