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.

Live Performance Review

Performance Should’ve Stayed “In the Closet”
By Jessica Maas

“Here to get straightened out, right?” asked Dr. Alan, the sexual reform therapist played by Cooper Wilson in the staged reading of “The Glass Closet” on Feb. 28. His patient Tom, played by Kelly Miller, became increasingly confused about why he was there, though, the more time he spent with Dr. Alan, but at least he had company. “The Glass Closet,” written by Ben Harpe and directed by Alex Clothier, did not only fail to be funny or innovative, but was puzzling to watch and potentially offensive.

The play seemed to be trying to say something about the difficulty Christians have with accepting their gay sexual orientations, but it attempted to do so many things at once that it wasn’t successful at any one of them. Some of the scenes were supposed to take place on the set of a television sitcom, but were indistinguishable from the other scenes. The presence of the narrator, who sat unobtrusively off to the side of the stage, could’ve easily solved this, but his character wasn’t taken advantage of and, as a result, it was impossible to separate the “television script” storylines from the “real-life script” storylines; this was only the beginning of the confusion.

A combination of bad acting and multiple roles given to each actor solidified the downfall of the rest of the play. Wilson played five characters just himself, and though his characters were generally discernible from each other, both Miller and Sam Grobbel, each of whom had two parts, seemed to be playing the same person in both roles. This problem, whether an acting or directing or writing issue, created a muddled understanding of the story and shattered the potential effect it could have had, slight as that may have been.

If that weren’t enough, gay stereotypes popped up so frequently that it was cringe-worthy. First there was Kyle, the flamboyantly effeminate gay man played by Wilson who spoke in a high-pitched voice and dramatically stretched himself across the couch to read a romance novel. Then there was the pastor, also played by Wilson, who condemned gays, though it turned out he was one himself, and the description that Kyle and Molly, played by Colleen Watt, used to talk about another gay man: “The pink spandex gym shorts were the first clue” and “Straight men don’t spend so much time on the elliptical.” The cliché with the title only contributed to the poor quality of the play, with the explanation of “Like he’s in the closet but everyone can see you there” and Molly’s statement of “People in glass closets shouldn’t throw stones.”

Though much of that was probably meant to be funny, it comes at a bad time for a gay community that’s struggling to make headway in society and deter the use of stereotypes. And if those characters and lines weren’t enough of a fault, the line “Everyone’s gay these days, its hip!” by Ruth, played by Watt, is sufficient for offense. “The Glass Closet” should’ve simply stayed in the closet.

New ABC Crime Drama Same Old, Same Old

The following is a link from Felicia Lee's review of the new ABC series "Castle": http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/07/arts/television/07castle.html?_r=1&ref=television.

I was honestly kind of annoyed the entire time I was reading Lee's review because there were maybe two lines on the show itself, and I was really interested to hear what she had to say because I watched the season premiere last night. But I got to the end and realized that that was intentional, it was her point. All she'd done was talk about other cop shows that pair a man and woman with each other, and go on and on and on about them, and I was bored - it wasn't what I wanted to hear about. But her point was that the show itself wasn't worth talking about, that it itself is boring, because it's not anything innovative, it's just a copycat. And while I kind of agree, and kind of don't agree, I have to respect her technique. She got her point across.

Helpful Article

This a link to an article entitled "How Buffy Changed the World of Lesbians on TV" that I found helpful while writing my final project:
http://www.afterellen.com/archive/ellen/TV/buffy-end.html

Sarah Warn, the writer of the piece, does a great job of talking about the progression of the relationship between Tara and Willow and then discussing the impact the relationship had on viewers and how groundbreaking it was. She's not totally swept up in how great it was, though - she does talk, near the end of the piece, of a few of the faults that the show had: Tara's death, Willow and Kennedy's relationship, and the identification of Willow as a lesbian rather than a bisexual.

Warn also talks about networks shying away from physical contact between two women, and about how decisions made by producers relate to ratings, which is a really important subject.

Her piece was really helpful for giving me background information about the only show that has been groundbreaking for lesbians.

New Canadian Show

The following is the link to a television review by Ginia Bellafante:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/26/arts/television/26eric.html?ref=television

Bellafante is reviewing a Canadian series called "Being Erica" that is premiering on SoapNet. She starts out by listing off the horrible shows that the Canadians have recently produced, and then goes on to say that this one rectifies all that, clearly let readers know that she likes it.

She lets us know what the show is about - a very intelligent 32-year-old woman who can travel back in time, but can't seem to find a man. There's also good context for how the show fits in with other shows/movies that portray single women currently, and Bellafante seems to think this one does a really good job.

"Though the show’s dramatic pleasures are ultimately modest, its willingness to portray single womanhood as something beyond a sum of consumer choices or the embodiment of a disabling passivity feels useful and perhaps even necessary, the right kind of counterprogramming to balance the mood of the moment. Erica would rather know herself — her curious, real-world pretty, bat mitzvahed, whimsical self — than go looking for Chanel motorcycle boots at an outlet mall or compulsively check her text messages to see if some jerk had really intended to buy her a bourbon."

I thought that was really interesting, and it's a really thing to see on TV right now, too. And I always love how Bellafante gets personality in her pieces. She has a really witty remark about the APA, and then ends by saying "For anyone still absorbing the unhealthful aftereffects of “Shopaholic” or “He’s Just Not That Into You,” a movie in which women’s lives change only when men say so, “Being Erica” is likely to feel like more than a good, cold drink. It will be a free-radical-bashing antioxidant." Thank God.

Final Project

Dr. Erica Hahn was the last of the lesbians in primetime series on broadcast television, and she walked out of Seattle Grace Hospital and “Grey’s Anatomy” on Nov. 9. And maybe not ironically, she had 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 with whom to identify; three females who spend more time with men than women. The gay community has inarguably made a lot of progress in recent years, but the lack of visibility of lesbian and bisexual women on broadcast television and the mistreatment of these characters is holding back further advancements.

While the number of homosexual characters followed a decreasing trend in recent years, the number of women in that group remained constant in the less-than-three range. The most to have ever been on broadcast networks in lead or supporting roles is seven, and not only was that in the 1997-98 season, but “show and tell” for those women was almost exclusively restricted to “tell”; their sexualities were mere labels, formalities to make the shows seem diverse, or risky.

“Buffy the Vampire Slayer” was the first real major breakthrough for female sexuality on television. In 1999, Alyson Hannigan’s character Willow began a hesitant relationship with Tara, played by Amber Benson, at the beginning of the fourth season. The couple was on-again, off-again for two and a half years, though they technically spent more time off than on. Although the pairing remained extremely chaste due to restrictions imposed by the WB, the inability to throw the characters into bed together forced the writers to develop other aspects of the relationship, thus allowing viewers the chance to see and identify with the progression of a true lesbian relationship for the first time. The show moved to UPN in the sixth season 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, only to have Tara die at the end of the episode. In the seventh – and last – season, the show went even further and depicted an actual sex scene between Willow and new love interest Kennedy, another television first.

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

On “House,” actress Olivia Wilde plays Thirteen, a bisexual only by name until this season. Following her Huntington’s disease diagnosis, Thirteen began engaging in some wild behavior this season – heavy partying, drugs…and one-night stands with women. Executive producer of the Fox show 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 feels 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.

While Angela and Roxy current relationship on “Bones” isn’t associated with self-destruction, its future is less-than-promising. Hart Hanson, creator of the Fox series, recently called Roxy “a bump in the road” for Angela because “Hodgkins is her guy.” Again, Angela’s bisexuality on the show was previously a label, until Roxy, a former girlfriend, showed up in November to stir up 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.” Roxy 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 fast friends last season after Hahn signed a contract with the hospital, but when their increasingly close friendship was misinterpreted as something more by a friend it became apparent that there was something there, and that both were freaked out about it. Callie briefly slept with co-worker Mark Sloan at every opportunity in a less-than-impressive effort to prove her heterosexuality, but Sloan eventually pushed her in the right direction and Callie and Erica culminated the season with a steamy kiss outside the hospital. 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 a Google search engine is a foreign concept to her. In the following episode, Callie and Erica begin the episode in bed together, adorned in frumpy nightgowns post-sex, but Callie freaks out when Erica announces that she’s realized she’s gay, and leaves the apartment, only to be seen in bed with Mark twice throughout the day. Though Callie goes to Erica’s office later that day and they agree to be together, it doesn’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.

Broadcast networks aren’t allowing heterosexual viewers to become comfortable with female homosexuality 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.

Final Project Proposal

I want to critique the lack of visibility and current portrayal of lesbian/bisexual characters on primetime television. There are few bisexual characters and even fewer lesbians, but those that do exist seem to meet with overall implausible storylines. As soon as Willow and Tara finally got together for sure on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Tara died. After Callie told Erica that she really did want to be her on Grey’s Anatomy (after cheating on her with a man), Erica (who had only come out in the previous episode) picked a silly fight with her and walked off into the parking lot, never to return again. Bisexual character Thirteen on House only has sex with women when she’s feeling self-destructive due to her Huntington’s disease diagnosis; otherwise, she’s with men. Bones creator Hart Hanson has called Angela’s relationship with Roxie a “bump in the road” and on Nip/Tuck Olivia died and lesbian character Liz slept with her male colleague.