When Jennifer’s Body was released in theatres, I was just a 19 year old college student struggling with accepting my sexuality. I hadn’t yet admitted to being bisexual, but I remember taking the time to straighten my thick and frizzy curly hair, adding lipstick to my makeup routine, and trying on several outfits before settling on the perfect one. I wasn’t going on a date, but I was going to see Jennifer’s Body with friends, and one of those friends happened to be the girl I was crushing on.

At 19, Jennifer’s Body was a powerful movie to me. The fact that both the protagonist and antagonist were beautiful, strong, unique women dealing with the occult and demons helped to skyrocket Jennifer’s Body to one of my top three favorite horror films. But it wasn’t just the strong female representation and horror elements that had such an impact on me; it was also the sexuality of the film.

If you have seen Jennifer’s Body, you know about the sexual tension between Jennifer (Megan Fox) and Needy (Amanda Seyfried), which eventually reaches a boiling point when the two make-out on Needy’s bed. As someone who was confused about my sexuality, those scenes really affected me. Jennifer and Needy’s kiss was the first kiss between women I had seen in a movie that wasn’t a joke.

The close-up framing of their mouths and the lack of music made the kiss feel intimate and personal. I have heard several men complain about the make-out scene for a variety of reasons and it usually boils down to the fact that they feel like the scene doesn’t satisfy their desire for girl on girl action. But I would argue that the scene wasn’t filmed for them; it was filmed for me and women like me.

For a 19 year old me, seeing the sexual tension, the kiss, and hearing Jennifer declare that she “goes both ways” while sitting next to the girl I was crushing on, made me realize I needed to start seriously coming to terms with how I feel about women. I wouldn’t come out for another five years but I can confidently say that bisexual representation in media helped me feel comfortable coming to terms with my sexuality and I often wonder where I would be without Jennifer’s Body.

But how do I feel about Jennifer’s Body now that I am 29? The film remains one of my top three favorite films. I still have my original copy that I bought the day the movie was released on DVD and I have the 4K Ultra Blu-ray release. I often turn to the movie on a quiet weekend morning alone or while I craft. It is a very special movie to me, but the bisexual representation in the film means something different to me now than it did at 19.

At 29, I can see that the film isn’t just a horror movie that has a scene where two women kiss, but it is a movie about the horrors of toxic relationships and love.

The love story between Jennifer and Needy is one that is not healthy. Their relationship is plagued with jealousy, competition, and manipulation. But it is important to note that the relationship between Needy and Jennifer isn’t negative because they are both women. It is a negative relationship that just happens to be between two women. Jennifer is not evil because she is bisexual, she is evil because she was sacrificed to Satan as virgin, when she in fact, was a not a virgin.

But why is this important? Representation isn’t just about seeing queer women in media, it’s about seeing a variety of queer women in media. Seeing the villain of a horror movie being a boy-eating bisexual woman is just as important as seeing the hero of an action movie being an ass-kicking bisexual woman. We need the bad ones just as much as we need the good ones.

And this “bad one” we get is pretty awesome. She has demonic powers and she uses those powers to eat boys. I don’t think I need to go into why this is empowering for women. I think most, if not all, women can say they have been in a situation where they felt powerless against a man.

Representation matters. It mattered to the 19 year old me struggling to understand why the girl who sat next to me at the movies made my heart race. It matters to a 29 year old me craving to see a variety of queer women and love depicted. Jennifer’s Body gives me that representation wrapped in a fun horror movie featuring the sultry Megan Fox as a demon. What else could I ask for?