Lipstick Lesbian Catch

 ‘Wait..there are other shows on Netflix?’

^{If you haven’t seen it, close this browser and go watch Orange is the New Black on Netflix.}

^{(I mean it - go, right now).}

^{If you have, then you can probably relate to the following.}

^{Your July probably involved binge watching your way through season two, despite concerned phone calls from your friends who worried you had turned into a hermit.}

^{If you’re anything like me, you probably blew off their phone calls and crawled back into bed with a mug of pot noodles and continued to drool over Alex, debate over whether you loved or hated Piper, and start having nightmares about V. And, I can’t have been the only one who watched Poussey’s scissoring scene and had a flashback to adorably awkward first-time lady-sex.}

^{I was hooked from the get-go, as were many of my queer and straight friends alike. Women everywhere started talking about OITNB – I was serving a customer at work that proceeded to hum ‘chocolate and vanilla swirl’ under her breath, for Christ’s sake.}

^{So, what is it then that makes Orange Is The New Black just SO good?}

^{Well, for starters, we’ve been waiting long enough. There are frankly not enough shows written by women, about women, and aimed (predominantly, at least) at an audience of women, so of course we welcome its very existence. Our lives, and the associated struggles and joys, are being discussed and played out on the screen, and we can relate. Ranging from vaginal anatomy chats in the toilets (‘it’s a whole other hole!’) to sexism and unplanned pregnancy – OITNB feels weirdly familiar to the everyday girl, despite the fact that we’ve (probably) never been to Litchfield Penitentiary.}

^{Secondly, the incredible writers have mastered the technique of making viewers laugh and cry within the space of about thirty seconds. How can I be laughing when these women are in such a horrific situation, I often asked myself between slurps of (yet another) pot noodle. By interweaving a serious setting with a couple of moral dilemmas and a good dose of humour, OTINB entertains us, intrigues us, and educates us about the drastic situations that women face in the current prison system.}

^{Of course, I had finished season two within a matter of days. Upon realising what I’d done, I stared at my laptop in disbelief.}

^{I finally left my flat, saw the light of day, and decided to start researching the conditions that women face in prison today, with a specific focus on the situation for LGBT women. Watch this space for future articles on the subject.} 

^{Oh, and also, re-watching season one is a very effective cure for OITNB withdrawal symptoms.}