There’s nothing more comforting than watching your favourite rom coms, but in 2026, how many lesbian rom coms are there?
BY ANFAL SHEYX, IMAGE BY SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES
Romantic comedies – or rom coms for short – are a genre of film dedicated to love. You might recognise this before you know it. Bridget Jones’ Diary or She’s The Man have long entered our cultural zeitgeist with TikTok sound bites that go over our heads, or our friends quoting them over lunch. We watch rom coms as we “Netflix and Chill”, as we do the dishes, as we scroll our phones. The early 2000s were a golden era of contrived plots as we rooted for the main characters to get together.10 Things I Hate About You, How To Lose A Guy in 10 Days, 27 Dresses; an endless list comes to mind. Yet where are the sapphic rom coms?
Sapphic characters made up 27% of LGBTQIA+ characters on TV from 2024 to 2025. This limited representation only shrinks down further when you consider sapphic relationships displayed on screen. Movies like Saving Face, Imagine Me & You and The Half Of It are marketed as sapphic romantic comedies, but in reality, these movies are coming-of-age stories, as characters deal with being queer first, and being in a queer relationship second.
Of course, there are queer-coded rom coms. She’s The Man has resonated with queer audiences for its brief flirtation with queer relationships as our main character, Viola, dresses up as her twin brother Sebastian. Bend It Like Beckham, one of the UK’s most beloved films, is often read as queer-coded because of the central relationships between characters Jess and Jules. This becomes the landscape of current cinema for queer women: journeys of self-discovery and veiled subtext, and coming-of-age stories, so many coming-of-age stories.
Classic early 2000s rom coms are easily digestible in a way that doesn’t feel emotionally heavy. It has the definitive comfort of knowing our characters are going to end up together, and it has the ultimate rewatch quality that makes it watchable for years to come. The inclusion of sapphic relationships in romantic comedies normalises queer love for audiences, offering representation beyond the “gay best friend” stereotype we’re so used to seeing.
And the best thing about all of it? Plenty of sapphic romances already exist! There are loads of beloved sapphic book romances that can be adapted, like Ashley Herring Blake’s Delilah Green Doesn’t Care. We’ve seen queer characters sidelined, stereotyped and rarely given love stories, but now, with the success of shows like Heated Rivalry andHeartstopper, audiences are hungry to see queer love stories on screen.
More than ticking a box for representation, romantic comedies become a lens through which audiences can see and celebrate queer love stories at the heart of the film. Over time, TikTok soundbites will take over our lives, and our friends will quote lines from sapphic romances over lunch, as we “Netflix and Chill”, as we do the dishes and as we scroll our phones. So, while cinema slowly becomes more diverse, I’ll have my fingers crossed for those rivals-to-lovers, fake-dating, queer rom com – because honestly, it’s already overdue.
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