Lesbians in the Media

By Katie Rodriguez

Lesbians in the media always seem to get the short end of the stick, no pun intended. It’s still somewhat of a novelty to see lesbian characters in films and television shows, and when we do see lesbian characters, we see them as lesbian characters, not characters who happen to be lesbians. We see a few more lesbian actors and TV personalities, yet many times we don’t even get to hear about their lesbianism, for whatever reason (perhaps it’s not moral enough for primetime?). When real (or realistic) lesbian lives are portrayed in television and the movies, it’s a great opportunity for lesbian lives to be normalized. But much in the same way that actors of ethnic minorities are sometimes deemed as token characters, lesbians (as well as other LGBT identities) are token characters, with their stories portrayed as token plot lines, hitting some stereotypes and failing to go much farther.

A few examples come to mind when I think about lesbians in current media. Ellen DeGeneres certainly pops up as a real life lesbian in the media. Although her wedding received quite a bit of press, and it’s not a secret that she’s married to Portia DeRossi, it’s rare for her to mention LGBT issues or that she’s a lesbian on her daytime talk show. She’ll throw in a comment here and there about Portia, and she even spoke on her show about Larry King’s murder, but her main role on TV is not to be a lesbian. It’s to be a talk show host. Whether or not being a lesbian helps her is another story, but it is refreshing to know that her success is most likely not based solely on that identity.

On cable, the women of Showtime’s The Real L Word, a reality show about lesbians living in California, are on the other end of the spectrum, and uncomfortably so. There was a lot of talk before the show premiered, though ever since, the hype and outrage seems to have died down. I succumbed to peer pressure and sat through the first episode of this reality version of The L Word, a now cancelled Showtime series about upperclass lesbians in Los Angeles, (in addition to promos and bits of other episodes). I wasn’t nearly as offset by the characters as I thought I would be, surprisingly. I found them to be (if not completely representative), realistic to some degree. Though there are stereotypes strewn about, such as the u-haul lesbianism of Nikki, Jill, and Tracy. Whitney, the player, however, somewhat defies lesbian stereotypes by not wanting to settle down. Her tendencies in this way are more similar to how a man might be portrayed in the media or on shows. Why the outrage then? If these are so-called real lesbians, then how could their own personalities be reason to complain?

It’s because regardless of how much of their personalities we’re seeing, our perception is based much more on how their personalities are woven by the camera. Have you seen those intro scenes at the beginning of every episode? Episode intros have featured the women answering questions like ‘What was your first sexual experience with a women?’ and ‘When did you first come out?’ Ok, I understand that LGBT issues are not always mainstream or personally relevant to many people who may be watching this show. I also understand that in a reality show like this, the audience wants to know the deepest, dirtiest, most scandalous secrets of the stars. And these women (as well as other reality show stars) are fully aware of this, or at least they should be by now. But I cannot fathom a show like The Real World or The Jersey Shore starting off an episode with questions like this.  Why the double standard? The optimistic in me says that by discussing lesbian sexual experiences so blatantly and easily, we can begin to normalize it. The realist in me though, thinks that this type of portrayal of lesbians only furthers the sexual objectification of lesbians that our society already reinforces.

I saw The Kids are All Right last weekend, and without going into a review of it (there are plenty of great ones already, including Emily’s), I can’t help but muse over the portrayal of lesbians in this movie as well. Advance reviews like the NYT’s hailed it as a great film about a modern, normal family. I say- perhaps too normal. If Ellen’s lesbianism is placed on the shelf during her show, and the women of The Real L Word are hypersexualized and objectified, then the lesbians of the The Kids are All Right are too normalized.

My opinions about the portrayal of lesbians in current media have varied, similar to how my thoughts about LGBT issues and how to go about fighting for rights have varied. Do we push our issues forward- fight the system from the outside instead of the inside? Or do blend in- normalize ourselves and at the same time risk loosing our differences? Perhaps instead we take some sort of middle ground (though in this case, maybe still not the ‘safest’) and remain true to ourselves- show the world who we are, faults and all and hope for change that way?

Media often times reflect true life, and vice versa. Regardless of my uneasiness of the shows I’ve mentioned, maybe they all have something to teach us about how lesbian (and LGBT) issues should be portrayed.

Image from incurable_hippie‘s flickr.