"Paige Michalchuk" from Degrassi

There are a few characters from Degrassi whom are lesbians, so I might as well discuss each of them. Paige Michalchuk starts of her high school career as the "queen bee". She is popular, but also mean so people are somewhat afraid of her. She has had her share of boyfriends, each of them pretty decent guys except for one. While she is still in high school, she has a crush on a college guy while she has a boyfriend. She meets up with Dean (her college crush) at a party where things quickly get heated. Paige tells him that he is going too fast, but he doesn't listen and proceeds to rape her. The rape, of course, causes her to be emotionally unstable and makes her very mean to those around her. She finally tells people that she was raped and goes into therapy.

Paige gets a job at the movie theater and she is surprised to learn that Alex, the rebel girl, also works there. After a few fights, they become close friends. Alex reveals to Paige that she is a lesbian and she has feelings for her. Paige, in turn, confuses and frustrates Alex by sometimes kissing her, but insisting that it means nothing. Paige later admits that Alex makes her happy and they start dating. They break up because Paige is going away to a top university. Paige, eventually, goes to college and comes back very upset because she is failing most of her classes. Alex is a source of encouragement to Paige by telling her that she is a smart and talented person. Paige starts to have feelings, again, for Alex but they don't stay committed and they eventually start seeing other people. Alex is the only woman that Paige has ever had romantic feelings towards.

Although my blog is mostly about lesbian relationships, I have to make an exception in this case because Paige is actually bisexual. There will definitely be more posts about bisexual women because, sadly, that is more common in TV than lesbian women. Paige, in my opinion, is not as stereotyped as many other lesbian/bisexual characters. Like Alex, she deals with the trying to understand and accept herself. I feel that Paige isn't attracted to one sex because she is attracted to the real person. Alex, later on, reveals that she is only attracted to females. Because Paige has only dated one woman, I think that she falls in love with a person for their heart and how they treat her. Since Paige was raped, she realizes that she deserves to be treated with respect. Alex respected and admired Paige and she made her feel better about herself. Sadly, Paige follows that survey that the journalist, Natasha Rudra, reported on that stated that many gay or bisexual women have been involved with sexual abuse. I don't think that this has completely change Paige, however, because she continues to date guys even though she was raped by one. I think Paige is a good character for lesbians to look up to because she doesn't stress about labels. She doesn't think of herself as straight or gay. She likes a person for their inner self and she doesn't care what other people think of her.