Final Final Essay!

For Television Women, Bisexual is the New Straight
By Jessica Maas

Dr. Erica Hahn, the last of the primetime television lesbians, walked out of Seattle Grace Hospital and ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” on Nov. 9. Perhaps not ironically, she’d only been “out” since the previous episode a week before. With her exit, homophobic viewers were saved from having to confront the fact that lesbians really do exist, and young women struggling to accept their sexualities are left with only three bisexual females in broadcast primetime with whom to relate; three females who spend more time with men than women. The number of television characters who represent the bisexual and lesbian communities is terrifying low, and those who do exist are inaccurately portrayed.

Gay characters have left their female counterparts in the dust in the last decade with an increase in characters and physical contact. They began the ’08-’09 season with ten characters to the bisexual women’s four, and have long been openly portrayed in committed relationships on shows like “Will and Grace” and the current “Brothers and Sisters.” The most lesbian and bisexual women to have ever graced television was seven in the ’97-’98 season, a time when they identified by name only; “ER’s” Maggie Doyle never talked about another woman, let alone touched one. Though many believe that the existence of HBO’s “The L Word” shows public acceptance of lesbian relationships, it doesn’t reach the same audience as broadcast television and is just as bad as purely heterosexual shows; one would think a lesbian planet existed.

“Buffy the Vampire Slayer” was the first major breakthrough for female-centered sexuality on television. In 1999, Willow began a hesitant relationship with Tara at the beginning of the fourth season. The couple was on-again, off-again for two and a half years and remained extremely chaste due to restrictions imposed by the WB network. The inability to throw the characters into bed together forced the writers to develop other aspects of the relationship, thus allowing television viewers the chance to see and identify with the progression of a true lesbian relationship for the first time. After two years, the show moved to UPN to allow for more physical interaction between the couple, who subsequently got back together and had the first television scene that portrayed two women in bed together post-sex. In the seventh – and final – season, the show made history again by depicting an actual sex scene between Willow and new love interest Kennedy.

Since “Buffy” ended in 2003, however, no show has taken up where they left off. If anything, current shows with lesbian and bisexual women are effectively erasing any progress that was made. Four not-so-heterosexual women began the 2008-09 broadcast television season, and three remain.

On Fox’s “House,” Thirteen has been a bisexual only by name until this season. Following her Huntington’s disease diagnosis, Thirteen began engaging in heavy partying, drugs…and one-night stands with women. Executive producer Katie Jacobs stated that “When you don’t know how many years you have left to live, you might exhibit some reckless, risk-taking behavior …Thirteen’s sexual involvement with this woman is not really about this other woman. It’s about Thirteen’s reckless behavior.” The character’s destructive, “reckless” behavior coincides directly with days when she’s particularly upset about her diagnosis, and her flirtations with men occur only at moments when she’s feeling better. By attaching the word “reckless” to Thirteen’s involvement with women, the show’s producers are negatively creating an association between same-sex relationships and irresponsible behavior, and are ultimately de-legitimizing any lesbian relationship.

Fox is doing just as badly with Angela and Roxie’s relationship on “Bones.” Hart Hanson, creator of the series, recently called Roxie “a bump in the road” for Angela because “Hodgkins is her guy.” Again, Angela’s bisexuality on the show was a label until Roxie, a former girlfriend, showed up in November to rekindle an old flame. Though the relationship appears promising, Hanson says that Angela is meant to be with former love interest Hodgkins; they just “have some obstacles to overcome.” Roxie is apparently one of those obstacles. “Bones” is contributing to this season’s message that female same-sex relationships don’t last, by making a relationship something that has to be overcome.

But broadcast networks really struck out this season with the portrayal of Drs. Erica Hahn and Callie Torres on ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy.” The pair became friends last season after Hahn signed a hospital contract, but when their increasingly close friendship was misinterpreted by a friend as something more, it became apparent – and terrifying – to both that there was something there. Callie briefly slept with co-worker Mark Sloan at every opportunity in an unimpressive effort to prove her heterosexuality, but Callie and Erica eventually culminated the season with a steamy kiss. This season started out promising, with some nervous but cute moments between the couple, but warning bells sounded in the fifth episode when Callie asked Mark to show her (on her) how to pleasure a woman orally, as if men – and not women – suddenly have all the answers to what women want. In the following episode, Callie and Erica began the episode in bed together, adorned in frumpy nightgowns post-sex, but Callie panicked and foolishly ran to Mark’s bed when Erica tearfully announced that she’d realized she’s gay. Though Callie went to Erica’s office later that day and they agreed to be together, it didn’t matter, because in the next episode Erica abruptly gets mad at the hospital, picks a silly fight with Callie, and walks off into the parking lot for the last time. ABC’s message? Lesbians are irrational and dispensable.

Broadcast networks aren’t allowing heterosexual viewers to become comfortable with female-centered sexuality because they portray it as fleeting and improbable, as long as men are around anyway. Television is used as an introduction of many concepts for the American public, and with this kind of introduction, lesbian and bisexual women are destined to be misunderstood and joked about. Erica told Callie before she left that Callie can’t be “kind of a lesbian,” but really, one can’t be a lesbian at all; on broadcast television, they don’t exist.