Scribe, how could you mention Tipping the Velvet and not include Maude & Sue? Too much Sarah Waters, perhaps.  Regardless, great list though I am not familiar with half of the pairs you referenced.  

P.S. Xena & Gabrielle are my obvious choice for #1.  Jo & Blair from Facts of Life for #2  Do vlogs count?  If so, I would say Baby Bridget & Jill for #3. Oh, and Weekend Update (former) partners Tina Fey & Amy Poehler are pretty awesome.  Smart & witty are the new black!

Jo and Blair, good choice.  I would have to say lovers.  Baby Bridget and Jill, definitely lovers.  Baby Bridget doesn't seem to stick with one woman very long.  Although she was pretty broken up over Jill.

 I have to disagree with Scirbe's verdict of lovers for Sarah and Miriam.  Call me a romantic but I say partners.  If you are going to be together for a couple hundred years you need something more.

I am indecisive over Claire and Noel from Claire of the Moon which wasn't on the list but was on mine.  I think each character might have a different view.

Great blog Scribe!

I really wanted to know your take on Sue and Maud after the Tipping the Velvet reference. Also partner is a good term to use about your, well partner, when you're unsure on how someone you just met feels about same-sex relationships.

Great list but what about Megan and Grahame? Ultimate partners! And Annabelle and Simone (Loving Annabelle): lovers - that one wasn't going anywhere right? Rita and Betty (Mulholland Drive): lovers and partners-in-non-linear-neo-noir-crime-thriller...

 P.S. How friggin cute is Show Me love btw. I still love that movie. And I'm going to add some of my own.

Jill and Diana (Susie Porter and Kelly McGillis in The Monkey's Mask) total lovers. I think if Jill hadn't turned Diana in for conspiracy to murder, she very well could've ended up on the slab herself what with all the sexual asphyxiation and all.

Legs and Maddy (Angelina Jolie and Hedy Burress in Foxfire) I think if Legs hadn't taken off or Maddy had decided to go with Legs in the end they would have been great partners.

Ruth and Idgie ( Mary Louise Parker and Mary Stewart Masterson in Fried Green Tomatoes) Total Partners. The key to their happy relationship of course being that "the secrets in the sauce."

Kim and Maggie (Christina Cox and Karyn Dwyer in Better than Chocolate) painting partners. Need we forget the seen with the body paint and the nude protest at the end?  

Felice and Lilly (Maria Schrader and Juliane Kohler in Aimee & Jaguar) tragic lovers but idealic partners if things had gone differently. Okay now I know this is a true story but had the out come been different I think that Lilly and Felice wouldn't have stayed together for very long after the war. I got this from the book that the film is based on. However the cinematic couple could've had a very blissful life raising Lilly's sons in Berlin and taking more wonderful trips to the zoo.

I too could go on forever with this so I'll stop here.

Shelley C

Your assessment of Luce and Rachel.

I think Rachel ends up getting scared and going back to men. Leaving Luce for someone who truly deserves her.

My assessment, however, may be stilted due to the fact that I am one of only three other lesbians who seem to hate Piper Perabo. The other two aren't even on this site.

*le sigh*

I DO agree with your archetypes of Tipping the Velvet, however. Especially since that movie seems to be my LIFE archetype. Well, less in the street walker sense, more in the dichotomy of having had a Kitty, and now having a Flo.

For whatever we lose (like a you or a me)
It's always our self we find in the sea

I don't know which one  like better, Piper and Lena or Angelina and Elizabeth...

Scio me nihil scire

yeah i agree fingersmith should be in there.

but stiil you did a very good job. also debs haha. Come on Lucy diamond and amy running off together. But i agree all over me leshia is so sweet and that scene with the ice cream is so cute.

Paulie and Torie: lovers, definitely.

I love this blog.  How about Starbuck and Apollo?  I'm behind a couple seasons so I can't comment one way or another.  (they are very slashy)

Linda and Gia...  wah!  I need to find that DVD.  Its not right that I don't own it.

I still haven't seen The Hunger.  It seems a crime but it keeps getting bumped down in my netflix listing. 

Wil and Viv are partners who will break up and reunite at least one more time.  They'll always go back to each other.

I think "lover" has always meant "f---buddy", or more accurately, "person I'm f---ing".  "Lover" can have a more long-term connotation than "f---buddy".  It depends on how you use it and has to have a time reference attached.  If you say, "We were lovers once," dramatically, people will think you're pretentious about the one night-stand that didn't go anywhere, or that you're trying to work some kind of Leonard Cohen-style mystique and will next write a song about every girl you sleep with down by the river.  (I kid because I love, Leonard!)  The alternatives to lover aren't great: saying, "We f---ed back in 2004" isn't any better.  "Lover" attaches some meaning to it. 

"Girlfriend" is more permanent sounding than "lover".  "Partner", in my opinion, means basically married.  It implies contracts to me.

I have noticed that on this site films (or movies as you Americans refer to them) are often addressed by their "American name".

While i don't mind the inclusion of the American name, i do mind the exclusion of the original title or the title used in other English speaking countries.

Last time i checked this website wasn't just for Americans.

I was going crazy trying to understand why the two girls pictured in no. 4 (show me love) looked familiar? so went to IMDB and found out that for some reason (probably censorship) the film wasn't called "Fucking Amal" in the USA.

Fucking Amal was the original title and was also used in some English speaking countries.

Please try and include original film titles especially when referring to foreign films. Other than that i love your blog. Keep up the good work.  

I haven't seen all of them, but I've seen most of them and I definately agree with your views on them.

On the subject of Fingersmith, There is no doubt that Maud and Sue were completely in love with each other. They are definately partners. 

It's interesting the partner/lover thing, and how it's evolved. I was certainly all about "lovers" in my early 20s (late 80s), but now it's totally "partners". One thing that's interesting in most of the English-speaking world - except the US, I think - is that most non-married people in a relationship (straight or gay) refer to themselves as partners these days. "De facto" sounds very 70s now. I also have married friends my age (so, under 40), who refer to themselves as "partners" as well.

Of course, that's all being nicely counterbalanced with the legions of queers who call each other "husband" or "wife", when, in most countries, that isn't legally so, and - frankly - who wants to partake of religiously-loaded terminology when one isn't religious?

I like "partner" because it doesn't have the baggage associated with the religious marriage ritual. I also hope that one day marriage itself will be abolished for everyone, and we have simple contracts to enact to arrange property and financial matters between anyone we want to formalise such a relationship with.

[How did I end up on that rant?]

Getting back to where we were, thanks for mentioning all my favourite dyke movies - No But I'm a Cheerleader - they're lovers, who might evolve into something more. And I haven't seen Gia yet (and I looove Elizabeth Mitchell - woez!)

Hey Trix, just wanted to add that even in the US, people are using the word partner among straight couples as well (married or non-married).  My work colleagues use it as do graduate schools on the West Coast (and graduate students).  I do live in California, though.  I suspect this may not be the case in Arkansas.  

Interesting comments about the "lovers" or "partners" in the films.

I definintely think Piper and Lena had a future in "Imagine me and you".

I always thought that Nina and Lisa might too in "Nina's Heavenly Delights".

Carole

Mona and Tamsin- My Summer of Love... tortured BUT exciting and passionate.

Hallie and Jo- Walk on the Wildside... again tortured but exciting... Capucine is exquisite.

Nadija and Lucy- Nadija... who doesn't love vampire lesbian action.

Frida and Tina- Frida... so it was only like 5 min but who didn't LOVE that dance scene.

Amy and Lucy- D.E.B.S... so nice.

Felice and Lilly- Aimee and Jaguar... ridiculously moving.

S'il y a bien une personne que j'aime lire c'est bien scribegrrrl, et ce sujet je l'ai trouvé plus qu'interessant.Parce qu'il donne envie de faire comme toi et de revoir tous ces films qui nous ont marqués .

If there is a personn who i love to read is scribegrrrl. Always interessant and smart , and this topic is more than an exploration of lesb films, and an interrogation of the "lover" word or the "lover world".it's an illustration of lesbian life in prism of lesbian cinema which is terrific.

but doesn't the word partner also suggest a business arrangement?! i mistakenly thought on one occassion that a person meant their significant other rather than their business associate, oops!

two people i know of used the words 'my partner' and then 'they' in conversation. i don't know if the others present noticed this or if it was just my curious mind. as it turned out both ladies in question have a female significant other, which i guessed :o)

the german word lebengefaehrte/in can be translated as partner but literally means life companion. i like it! but then you have the gender endings to contend with, which are tougher to conceal easily...

would you include the pairs in fremde haut/unveiled and boys don't cry in this discussion?

lover is way to clinical/makes it all about sex. and i feel like a lot of people use partner so they won't have to let it be known that they're seeing someone of the same sex.

makes me think about infidelity. Cause the word also tranlates to mistress in Norwegian. So I agree with bean, it sounds like it's all about the sex and not the feelings involved.

Same goes for "partner". Either you're talking about a business partner, or your samesex girl or boyfriend. Where I come from I don't think straight people wound't use partner concerning their spouse. That's probably because the law that allows gays to "marry" is called (directly translated) The Partnership law aka Act on Registrated Partnership. So if you talk about your partner, it's most likely a business associate or you're gay and have a significant other.

Lost in translation. Jeeeeeeez

I believe there are at least two television projects on your list, Gia and Tipping the Velvet.

Oh, and so I'm not just nitpicking, I do have to say that I'm with everybody else on Sue and Maud.

EDIT: But actually, I suppose you meant ongoing series, so f*** it, ignore. Sorry.

because I love Natasha Lyonne and Clea DuVall together onscreen. I know they're kind of at the beginning of their relationship in the movie, but dude! I love it.

Otherwise, I applaud this list, the comments, and the fabulous visuals. scribegrrl, you continue to rule the world.