D.E.B.S.
This article or section needs expansion. |
| Fandom | |
|---|---|
| Name: | D.E.B.S |
| Abbreviation(s): | |
| Creator: | Angela Robinson, Andrea Sperling & Jasmine Kosovic |
| Date(s): | January 22, 2004 (Sundance release), March 25, 2005 (US release) |
| Medium: | Live Action Film |
| Country of Origin: | United States |
| External Links: | at Wikipedia at IMDb |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
The 2004 film, D.E.B.S was a parody comedy of Charlie's Angels, based off of a comic and short film. D.E.B.S were spies, recruited by the U.S Government via secret tests within the SATS to become secret agents. While it was rated generally poorly by critics at the time, it went on to develop a moderately-small but enthusiastic fan following, particularly amongst sapphic fans who embraced it for its ridiculous premise.
Canon
The main cast consist of one team of D.E.B.S – Max, Janet, Amy and Dominique – and so-called criminal mastermind Lucy Diamond and her accomplice, Scud. When the team are tasked with capturing Lucy Diamond, a series of events lead to Amy and Lucy bumping into each other, hitting it off, and Amy becoming distracted enough to let Lucy go.
While the agency celebrate Amy as the one person to have met Lucy Diamond and survived, Amy begins to see Lucy in secret and feelings for each other develop. This leads to Amy pretending to be kidnapped by Lucy, an agency-wide rescue attempt, Lucy and Amy's relationship being uncovered, and Lucy ultimately giving up her empire of crime for Amy.
Fandom
The show developed a moderately small fanbase, who found the fluffy and ridiculous premise of the film endearing and particularly appreciated that the sapphic couple got their happy ending riding off into the sunset. The film occasionally appeared as a request in femslash challenges and there were a few fan pages and groups set up for the film.
As of January 2024, there are 57 works for the film on Fanfiction.net, and 90 fanworks for the film on Archive of Our Own. However, the film also appears in the fan works of other fandoms as there are also a number of works tagged with freeform tags indicating they are inspired by D.E.B.S.
Robinson was bold enough to imagine a story where queer joy is prioritised, and lesbian narratives are not shaped by suffering. D.E.B.S is a film in which the lesbians drive off into the sunset, living happily ever after.Susan Sontag states that successful camp “even when it reveals self-parody, reeks of self-love”. While refusing to take itself seriously, D.E.B.S does not mock queer love. The world D.E.B.S creates is ridiculous, but this camp artificiality is built around a sincere central relationship. In D.E.B.S, the heart of the queer experience is not pain, it’s not unfulfilled romance defined by yearning. It’s pulling a gun on your nemesis-turned-lover as she smiles and says: “We’ve got to stop meeting like this”.
What Could Go Wrong? Notes on Camp in D.E.B.S, Archived version
I’m calling it a gem because no matter how often I come back to this movie – and I have done so often over the years – it’s always a ride, it is always fun.
In 2023, Gif sets of the film were still being posted to Tumblr, and clips of the film to TikTok, with the latter particularly focusing on the character of Dominique, though the Amy/Lucy pairing featured frequently as well.
Pairings
Almost all the shipping focused works in the fandom are of Amy Bradshaw/Lucy Diamond, though there have been some works for the canonical duaric pairing, Janet/Scud as well.
Example Fanworks
| Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples. |
Fanfic
Fan vids
- Take it Off by foomatic21
- Hot n' Cold by funnypain
Fan art
Resources and Archives
- D.E.B.S tag at AO3
- D.E.B.S at FF.net
- D.E.B.S tag at Tumblr
- D.E.B.S AU and D.E.B.S Fusion tagged works at AO3