When Three's a Crowd: Ex-Lovers and Lesbian Families in 2 Girls in Love

Abstract

This paper explores the role of the ex-lover within the fictionalised lesbian family in The Incredibly True Adventure of 2 Girls in Love (1995). In the opening scenes of the film, teen protagonist Randy describes her family as a "normal, typical, regular lesbo household." But what is that? And what does it mean? Randy's family includes three lesbians: herself, her Aunt Rebecca, and Rebecca's girlfriend Vicki. The stability of this family, however, is threatened early in the film by the arrival of Rebecca's ex-lover, Lena. This paper argues that 2 Girls in Love offers a particular examination of the role of the ex-lover in contemporary lesbian families, through its fictional mediation of the topic. Specifically, the paper argues that the film enacts a didactic shift from a hetero-normative representation of family to "families of friends"