Kat/Adena

Pairing
Pairing:	Kat Edison/Adena El-Amin
Alternative name(s):	Kadena
Gender category:	F/F, Femslash
Fandom:	The Bold Type
Canonical?:	Yes
Prevalence:	Popular
Archives:
Other:
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Kat Edison/Adena El-Amin is a canonical femslash pairing in The Bold Type fandom.

Canon

Kat and Adena meet in the first episode of the series, when Kat wants to run an article on Adena, her photography, and her identity as an out lesbian Muslim woman who is proud of who is she.

Their relationship undergoes a wide range of story-lines across the five seasons.

Fandom

Fans saw chemistry between the two characters from the first episode, but didn't expect the show to follow through with it. Over the five seasons there were many parts of the relationship and the show which were well received and enjoyed, while other writing decisions were far more inconsistent or evoked frustration from fans.

The couple were widely discussed on social media and were the subject of many episodes in the podcast This Lesbian Ship is Intense as well as other podcasts discussing sapphic relationships in media.

On Archive of Our Own, the fandom for The Bold Type is relatively small at just 479 works as of October 2023. However, 340 of those works are tagged with Kat/Adena as a pairing, and, of those, 188 have Kat/Adena as the only pairing tagged.

Fan Commentary

(overview of fans' reactions to the ship, including relevant quotes from both within and outside the fandom)

Common Tropes and Fanon

Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples.

• Canon Divergence/Fix-it - Given the writing decisions made about the pairing and inconsistent characterisation, fans often took it upon themselves to re-write scenes, episodes or entire story-arcs in ways that they felt were more in-character and satisfying.

Controversies

Fans of the Kadena pairing were often disappointed with story-arcs for the pairing and characters, especially in seasons 4 and the shortened season 5. A common feeling was that drama was being written into their relationship which made little to no sense based on their previous characterisation.

For example, in season 4, Adena expresses biphobic views to Kat, which seem at odds with how she was written previously, being supportive in the early seasons of Kat exploring her sexual orientation and how she was attracted to men and women. There are also story-lines around cheating which seem at odds with both characters' earlier characterisation. One particular story-line which many fans found infuriating and very out of character was in season four, where the show wrote Kat being attracted to and eventually sleeping with a white republican with conservative views almost completely at odds to Kat's own.

I love the bold type, I really do but what the fuck is going on right now? What does the show have against Adena?

Adena was supportive of Kat when Kat was figuring out her sexual orientation, she was completely fine with Kat going out with men. And then in season 4 she was biphobic all of a sudden. I get that they wanted to have a discussion about biphobia but was making Adena biphobic the only way to do it?

Kat and Adena kissed while Adena was with someone else. She felt guilty about it, and said just because they didn't have sex doesn't mean it's not cheating. And yet at the end of season 3 she slept with Kat even though Kat was dating someone else and she was completely fine with it.

She has all but disappeared from the show. Kat went from Dating a talented proud Muslim lesbian photographer to hooking up with a white conservative lawyer who may or may not support conversion therapy. Are you kidding me?

Aisha Dee, who played Kat, also spoke out during seasons 4 and 5 about failings behind the scenes in writing Kat and Adena's characters and in how the show wrote and supported their BIPOC cast and crew.

In anticipation of the season finale, Aisha Dee, the actor who plays Kat, posted a multi-page note on Instagram detailing the many ways the show has failed her, her character, queer people, as well as Black and non-white people. For a show that was pushing stories about a Black bisexual woman (Kat) dating a Muslim lesbian (Nikohl Boosheri as Adena El-Amin), things behind the scenes were markedly less diverse. It took two seasons, Dee wrote, before the show got one BIPOC writer. “Even then, the responsibility to speak for the entire Black experience cannot and should not fall on one person,” Dee wrote. She noted there were no queer Black or Muslim writers on staff telling Kat and Adena’s story, and added that it took three seasons before the show got a hairstylist who knew how to work with textured hair.

Dee also got into the relationship between Kat and Eva. “The decision to have Kat enter into a relationship with a privileged conservative woman felt confusing and out of character,” she wrote. “Despite my personal feelings about the choice, I tried my best to tell the story with honesty, even though the Kat I know and love would never make these choices. It was heartbreaking to watch Kat’s story turn into a redemption story for someone else, someone who is complicit in the oppression of so many. Someone whose politics are actively harmful to her communities.”

As a result of these story-lines and writing decisions, some fans stopped watching the show entirely and others waited until there was confirmation that Kat and Adena were endgame before watching the final season.

Example Fanworks

Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples.

Fanart

• kat x adena 💖❤️💗💓 by afroditemademedoit.

Fanvids

• It's Love by WEISARE1.
• One Call Away by Prideoflove

Meta

• This Lesbian Ship is Intense podcast dedicate multiple episodes to discussing The Bold Type and Kat/Adena specifically.[1]

Archives and Communities

• Kat x Adena tag at Tumblr

Other Fannish Resources

(Rec Lists, Big Bangs, Thing-a-thons, Holiday Exchanges, wiki links, etc.)

• Kat Edison/Adena El-Amin tag at Archive of Our Own