Lesbians and the Media (Pt1)

Hey Ladies! How were your weekends? You can read about mine in my previous post.


Something has been on my mind for a little while now, so figured I would bring it to people's attention here. It is the way the media portrays the lesbian in our society. There are many facets of this statement, so I will attempt to cover what I think are the main points, the first of which being:


How does the media portray lesbians?


Lets take TV shows as an example. US medical drama "Grey's Anatomy" created a media storm when actor Brooke Smith (who plays Dr Erica Hahn) was fired from Grey's after the show recently included a lesbian storyline in it's 5th season. Why was she fired? Apparently "the suits "had issues" with both the explicit direction Callica(the Callie/Erica characters) was taking (think: undiscovered country, south of the border, etc.) and, more importantly, with the Hahn character in general. Basically, they didn't like her and wanted her gone ASAP."

I watched this storyline unfold on the show and was happy to think that a TV series was finally going to treat a lesbian relationship with as much respect as they treated any heterosexual one. I was wrong. The story finished so abruptly, and a possible new love interest for the remaining character was never followed through. It seems that on any TV show, a lesbian storyline (Las Vegas, Bones, Buffy, The OC) is basically used to create some hype and satisfy bored horny guys who like to see hot chicks make out. Why is it that writers of mainstream TV shows can't sustain a strong lesbian character or storyline for more than a few weeks? ( I exclude a show such as The L Word in this case, as I wouldn't classify it as mainstream here in Australia).
In contrast, I never heard a word about any controversy over the gay male couple that moved into Wisteria Lane on Desperate Housewives. Is it because they were 'already' gay? Would it be different if there was an 'already' lesbian couple? What I want to know is, why won't writers go there?

Just once I would like to see the writers of a show get some balls and put in a storyline that involves lesbians that isn't a stunt.

It is definitely time that the media started to portray lesbians in TV in a more accurate, and less sexist & homophobic way.

Thanks ladies, until next time!

Gem / Lesbot World




(In my next post I will be discussing the idea of the 'celebian')