Web Series Wednesday – I Put The Bi In Bitter

By: Krista Ann Freego

WHAT?  I Put The Bi In Bitter

BY: Sad Girl Productions

WHO?

This series is created, written and directed by Marin Lepore.

WHY SHOULD I WATCH?

You should watch this series because it is funny, smart, realistic, entertaining, heartfelt, creative and entertaining. Sam (Rhema Srihartiti) is a Junior in high school and she has decided that she is going to be more open about her sexuality. Sam is bisexual and, while she wants everyone to know that she is bisexual, she does not want to formally come out. As Sam tells her best friend Alex (Rhianna DeVries) in the first episode, “I’m not coming out, I am out.”  Alex challenges her by stating that “straight people can’t tell unless you tell them.”

Sam’s goal is to normalize different sexualities by just being what you are rather than coming out and saying what you are. I both envy and admire this perspective. Ever since I came out officially over social media and to my family and friends, almost three years ago, I constantly find myself having to “come out” over and over and over again. It is an unending process. I highly support Sam in her quest to normalize it because it is an experience which is both repetitive and exhausting. Sadly, throughout the series Sam finds herself having to come out to her teacher, her classmates, her mother, her cousin and even the girl that she has a crush on.

At the end of the first episode Sam meets Naomi (Evangelina Kisa). Sam definitely has a crush on Naomi at first sight, as evidenced by her masterful, creative and comical use of emojis. Throughout the first season we follow Sam in her crush and in trying to discern if Naomi is gay or not.  One of the many aspects that I love most about this series is how it presents realistic issues in a comical manner. Often those of us who are gay struggle with trying to find out if the person he/she/they likes is also gay. The use of words like “girlfriend,” “hang out” or “go out” are both deceptive and vague. Many girls refer to their female friends as a girlfriend. Gay females also refer to a female romantic partner as a girlfriend. When a girl says the last time she did a certain activity was with her “old girlfriend,” from context alone it is impossible to determine the intended meaning of the word. The same can be true for the phrases “go out” or “hang out.” These phrases can mean spending time as platonic friends or it can mean going on a date. This series perfectly captures this gay conundrum.

My favorite character is Alex. Alex is confident and doesn’t care what anyone else thinks. She aspires to wear slippers and pajama pants that look like real pants because that is what she feels comfortable in. Alex never seems insecure or uncertain about who she is or how she feels. I highly admire this character and feel we could all benefit from being a little more like Alex.

This series also educates. One of my all-time favorite scenes was when Sam was asking Alex how she was supposed to have been able to come out to Naomi over froyo. Alex answers with an illustration about how straight people are vanilla and lesbians are chocolate and how Sam is a vanilla chocolate twist. Sam very quickly informs Alex that metaphor is not correct. Sam is not half chocolate or half vanilla, she is “100% strawberry.” I have never heard bisexuality explained so perfectly. Another way that the series educates is the subtle parallel it draws to how everyone but Sam’s crush, gay cousin and best friend ignores her request to be called “Sam” and not Samantha. This draws the parallel to how many people do not respect or pay attention to a person’s specific preferred pronoun. I applaud this series for finding a way to educate and entertain at the same time.

There are only eight episodes in the first season and each episode is under five minutes long. Season 2 is set to be released on April 25th and they are already crowd funding for Season 3. The link for crowd funding is below.

WHERE CAN I WATCH?  I Put The Bi In Bitter can currently be found on YouTube.

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