• Home
  • About Berena
    • Berena timeline
  • Forum
    • BDB Talk
  • Support
  • Contact us
  • Resources
    • Contacting the BBC
      • Responses from the BBC
      • Responses from the ECU
      • Berena and ‘representation’
    • OFCOM: A guide
    • Complain to award sponsors
    • An open letter to Holby City
Berena Deserved Better
Lessons in better representation #BerenaDeservedBetter

Testimony

  • #BerenaDeservedBetter

Thank you for the music, Bernie Wolfe

Posted on 20 July 201920 July 2019by #BDB
Cheers, Bernie

(Guest post by Payal. Originally published here.) I am writing this because Bernie Wolfe is dead. Or at least the powers-that-be at Holby City want us to believe that she might be. So, this is not about promiscuous bisexuals, or about dead lesbians (well, it is, but not in that way), or the fact that […]

Read More
No comments yet
  • #GoodAlliesListen

Testimony: Au Revoir

Posted on 16 May 201916 May 2019by #BDB

Guest post by Kelly aka @inchhigh1971 I think it is safe to say I have been a bit late to the realisation of the true extent of hurt and the impact to the LGBT audience of the Berena storyline ending in Holby City back in December. We all mostly accept it was not the ending  […]

Read More
1 Comment
  • #BerenaDeservedBetter

Testimony: A good lesbian is still a dead lesbian

Posted on 2 February 201927 May 2019by #BDB
Theatre masks

(Guest post by Isabelle Bats) My name is Isabelle Bats. I am 49 years old. I am a Belgian lesbian. I am a performance artist. I am going to be on stage in a play I wrote called: Girl/fille. It is about a woman who was once maybe a tennis talent, who was taught to […]

Read More
No comments yet
  • #BerenaDeservedBetter

Testimony: Many strong feelings

Posted on 2 February 201927 May 2019by #BDB
Theatre masks

(Guest post by Sarah) This was written straight after the last Leah episode, with anger being a major driving force. I haven’t really edited it, so apologies for errors and many strong feelings… Let me present a theory here. Holby and The Powers That Be create this fantastically flawed and gut-wrenchingly real lesbian called Bernie […]

Read More
1 Comment
  • #BerenaDeservedBetter

Testimony: I feel played

Posted on 27 January 201927 May 2019by #BDB
Theatre masks

(Guest post by Joanna) I’d never been in a fandom before, and as I stumbled on “Brave New World”, and then caught up with all the Berena scenes, I was all caught up. I wasn’t as invested as others, but I was certainly invested enough to care. Let’s face it when Elinor died it was […]

Read More
No comments yet
  • #BerenaDeservedBetter

Testimony: None of this was necessary

Posted on 22 January 201927 May 2019by #BDB
Theatre masks

(Guest post by Paula) What first attracted me to Berena was the depiction of them as educated, professional, and mature women. They oozed agency. In acknowledging their love for each other, they sidestepped the ‘coming out angst’ and simply embraced each other and their relationship. In June, they had arrived at a point wherein Serena […]

Read More
No comments yet

Posts navigation

Older posts

About us

(Read our founding principles and code of conduct.)

#BerenaDeservedBetter is a forum for people to voice their opinions about the representation of lesbian and bisexual women in popular culture and to take action to make storytellers and producers more accountable.

We set up this space spurned by the depiction of the couple popularly known as Berena in the UK TV drama Holby City, which is produced by the BBC, played by Jemma Redgrave (Bernie Wolfe) and Catherine Russell (Serena Campbell).

We are a group of people from across countries and timezones, across occupations and cultures and ages, gay and straight. Berena brought us together and touched our lives in different ways. We were promised a respectful representation but, in the end, we were given a mish-mash of the worst stereotypes about lesbians and bisexuals, and about women, not to mention about older women. It was wrong, and we decided we wouldn't be silent any more.

We invite you to join us in this campaign.

Categories

  • #BerenaDeservedBetter
  • #GoodAlliesListen
  • Analysis/reaction
  • Campaigns
  • Sandpit
  • Statement
  • Testimony
© #BerenaDeservedBetter, 2018–20 | All Holby City images © BBC | Theme by Colorlib Powered by WordPress