By Pia Ocvirk
Historically, lesbian characters have been virtually non-existent on American television. Ellen DeGeneres’s televised coming out on her popular show Ellen in 1997 paved the way for lesbian characters in primetime television. Despite the gains made for lesbian characters, they were and still are, more often than not, portrayed in heterosexual narratives and tailored almost solely for a heterosexual audience (Lee & Meyer, 2010).
When The L Word premiered on Showtime in 2004, the show became the first ever to feature the main cast of exclusively queer women, most of whom were lesbians. Written, created and directed by women for women, the show told stories that had never before been seen on television (Bendix, 2017). The L Word touched on subjects such as same-sex parenting, “don’t ask, don’t tell,” addiction, cancer, disability, coming out and, most importantly, the heterosexual male gaze.
The L Word made the male gaze a central issue in its first two seasons. The show explores the heteronormative male gaze by providing a detailed history of the misrepresentation and objectification of lesbians in mainstream pornography, where the voyeuristic and fetishizing gaze is most obvious (McFadden, 2014). The male gaze in the show is amplified in the second season when Mark, an aspiring filmmaker and a roommate of two main characters, Shane and Jenny, installs spy cameras all over their apartment in order to record them for his documentary about lesbians without ever getting their consent. The program offers this example of voyeurism only to expose its sexism and heteronormativity once Jenny finds the cameras and confronts Mark (McFadden, 2014).
While the show does a lot to challenge the heterosexual gaze, it is often criticized for portraying mostly very femme, lipstick lesbians who conform to the heterosexual beauty standards. All the main characters are relatively thin, successful, affluent and could easily pass for straight. Moreover, the absence of the spectrum of lesbian gender identities, including forms of female masculinity, seems to erase a large part of the lesbian community which was arguably done to attract heterosexual viewers (McFadden, 2014).
Despite the lack of diversity in the physical appearance of main characters, their experiences are quite diverse and offer complex depictions of lesbian lives (Lee & Meyer, 2010). Ranging from a professional tennis player who has only recently come out to herself, to an art center director starting a family with her girlfriend of seven years, The L Word genuinely offered queer women a variety of stories to relate to. The L Word is an important show for the lesbian community because it completely focused on honoring their experiences, their friendships, their sex lives, their day to day lives, and showed the audience what is it like to move through the world as a woman who happens to love other women (Bendix, 2017).
When The L Word went off the air in 2009, it seemed like it served as a jumping off point for more series about lesbians to come (Bendix, 2017). Unfortunately, it is 2018 and we are still waiting for a show that will even come close to The L Word in terms of portrayal of lesbian women. Netflix’s show Orange is the New Black is the closest to The L Word in terms of the number of queer women in the main cast but it does not provide the slice-of-life normalcy that The L Word offered considering the show is set in prison (Bendix, 2017). In the future, the television industry should strive toward creating a more inclusive and more accurate lesbian representation that would cater to both lesbian and heterosexual viewers in order to create a more progressive environment.
References
Bendix, T. (2017). How “The L Word” changed lesbian television forever. NBC News. Retrieved from https://www.nbcnews.com/think/nbc-out/commentary-how-l-word-changed-lesbian-television-forever-ncna783691
Chaiken, I. (Producer). (2004). The L Word [Television series]. Los Angeles, CA: Showtime Networks.
Lee, P., & Meyer, M. (2010). “We All Have Feelings for Our Girlfriends:” Progressive (?) Representations of Lesbian Lives on the The L Word. Sexuality & Culture, 14(3), 234-250. doi: 10.1007/s12119-010-9073-y
McFadden, M. (2014). The L word. Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press.
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Pia,
ReplyDeleteYou've located quite a few sources, both popular and academic, to discuss a groundbreaking TV show. Doing so, you've made clear (if not explicit) connection to our course interests and concerns.
Apart from a few minor issues with your use of APA reference style (the use of UPPER and lower case in titles) this is a well written review of some of the relevant literature.
Herein lies one of the drawbacks of this effort.
That is to say, you restate what other have said about this show. And you've also noted the difference of opinion regarding its efficacy in terms of the politics of representation. So far so good.
But apart from your call for more progress on this front, I don't hear much of what YOU have to say about all of this. That would be helpful.
After all, what we've got two objectives here. First, you need to locate and employ relevant literature, which you've done here.
Second, these posts should demonstrate your ability to apply these insights/findings/critiques in a more original analysis. So your effort falls a bit short of the mark.
In sum, this is a very fine post. You've demonstrated a firm grasp of the issues. You've consulted relevant literature. And you've written a clear and concise essay. You are ready to take the plunge into more original efforts.
28 pts.