Lesbians as Represented in Mainstream Television Essay Example for Free

Lesbians as Represented in Mainstream Television Essay Lesbian images have been entering into mainstream media more and more. Some argue that this is a sign of a wider acceptance of lesbianism in Western culture. In this paper, two mainstream television programs, Grey’s Anatomy and Law and Order: SVU, will be looked at to assess the nature of lesbian images. It will be argued that if and when lesbians are portrayed in mainstream television they are highly feminized, desexualized, and their lives are almost always framed in ways that appeal to heterocentric norms. Thus, mass media almost always fails to provide the viewer with an accurate and unbiased perception of lesbianism or homosexuality in a broader sense. Grey’s Anatomy has emerged onto the lesbian scene in the last couple of years by developing Callie Torres, a beautiful, vivacious, Latino woman, into a lesbian in the fifth season. A friendship develops between her and Erica Hahn, a successful, ‘sassy’, and appealing newcomer, and it gradually progresses into something more until finally the two share a kiss. Before the romance can flourish, Torres wrestles with her sexuality, her fears, and her lack of understanding of lesbianism. Soon after the relationship establishes itself, Hahn unexpectedly breaks up with Torres and leaves the show. Typical or is it? A season later, Arizona Robbins, a semi-regular of the show, comes into focus when she blatantly hits on Torres. Shortly after, the two start to date and later find themselves in a committed relationship. The question is how good a job does the show do of accurately portraying lesbians? To start, all three of the women mentioned above are attractive and feminine. All three have long flowing hair always nicely styled and maintained and pretty faces carefully done up with light make-up. This is what Ann Ciasullo refers to as â€Å"sanitizing of the lesbian through her feminizing† (599). In other words, Grey’s Anatomy offers up an image of lesbians that is not too homosexual for the heterosexual audience. While it could be argued that such representations help to combat the rigid stereotypes of lesbians as ugly, butch feminists, the very widespread nature of the ‘femme’ image in media indicates something more is going on (Tamsin). The book Out of Focus, suggests that such feminine representations act to lower the threat of lesbianism by reassuring viewers that such (beautiful and feminine) women can or must actually be heterosexual (Kath Davies). In fact, in Grey’s Anatomy, as in many television programs, the ‘butch’ lesbian is completely absent. All of this suggests that the lesbian chic of the ‘90s is far from dead (Tamsin). Grey’s is well known for its scandalous call room sex scenes. Characters, heterosexual characters that is, escape to hidden corners of the hospital where they argue, make up, and make love on a regular basis. This is interesting because such scenes are practically nonexistent between Torres and Hahn or later Torres and Robbins. In fact, physical contact of any kind is somewhat limited between Torres and Robbins. An example of this can be seen in Season five episode 13 when Robbins` patient dies during surgery. When she gets home to see Torres has planned a surprise birthday party for her she bursts into tears overcome by her grief. The pair leaves the room and at this point you would expect a comforting hug, a loving embrace, or a reassuring kiss on the cheek from any reasonably intimate couple or from any other couple on the show for that matter, but not in this case. Torres tells Robbins that she will explain the situation to their friends and at that Robbins leaves. Additionally, sex scenes between Torres and Robbins are few and far between; those that exist are cut short by interruption or not shown at all. The latter is evidenced in Season five episode 11 when the viewer is shown only the aftermath them lying in bed together, presumably after making love, eating pizza. It is a cute scene but not a sexual scene. This is a familiar pattern found in most television programs or movies featuring lesbian couples and just one way lesbians are desexualized (Ciasullo). A notable exception to this pattern is The L Word, but it will not be the focus of this paper. Since the beginning of their relationship Callie and Arizona have slept together three times. Three times in an entire season and for a relationship in its beginning stages is incredibly low by Grey’s standards (or anyone’s standards really). One of these scenes is the ‘pizza scene’ previously mentioned. In another â€Å"sex† scene, Lexi Grey walks in on the two in the shower and quickly walks out; the viewer sees what Lexi sees and nothing more. The final scene implies the two may have sex, but it is not pursued any further. Considering the show develops long, sensual sex scenes between its heterosexual characters, following them from start to finish, the unwillingness to do the same for its lesbian characters is problematic. This is not an isolated phenomenon. The pattern of desexualization is evident not just in television but also in movies as noted by Ciasullo and Yvonne Tasker in her book Working Girls (Ciasullo; Tasker). Another problem with the depiction of Torres and Robbins’ relationship is that it is often framed by the heterosexual constructs of marriage and reproduction. Tasker discusses this issue noting that by explaining lesbianism within a heterosexual context the (heterosexual) audience is assured that lesbians are normal (by heterosexual standards) (Tasker). Such a practice adheres to conventional social norms while ignoring the differing reality of lesbian’s lives. After Torres’ father finally accepts her lesbianism his first question to her addresses the issue of marriage and children. She assures him that she will put on a â€Å"big white dress and dance down the aisle† if Arizona wants to spend the rest of her life with her. Another example takes place in season six episode three, when Torres talks about being married and having a house, kids and a pet dog with Robbins. This description perpetuates heterocentric beliefs that heterosexual activities and institutions are better than homosexual ones simply because it gives no thought to the possibility that things could be different within homosexual relationships. Furthermore, this effort to depict lesbian couples as ‘normal’ by tying them to conventional social norms suggests that homosexual practices are not normal and as such fails to challenge heterocentrism. Law and Order: Special Victims Unit (SVU) is another show with some problematic representations. In over 11 seasons, it has aired a total of five gay-centred storylines and one lesbian specific episode. This discrepancy seems to reflect the idea touched on in Out of Focus that â€Å"coverage of ‘homosexuality’ actually refers to gay men† (Kath Davies 91). A recent episode entitled PC features Kathy Griffin as Babs Duffy, a rude, abrasive, man-hating lesbian activist. First of all, the stereotyping evident in Griffin’s character is troublesome because it feeds into the negative view of lesbians. Visibility is important, but the cost of portraying lesbians in such a light is possibly greater than or as great as not showing them at all. Furthermore, this particular episode is strewn with negative or inaccurate images of lesbians. The episode begins with the discovery of a woman who has been left for dead in an abandoned building. She has been raped and beaten and later dies in the hospital. It is not too long before the viewer finds out from Babs Duffy that the victim was a lesbian. Duffy makes a dramatic entrance into the detectives’ office ordering for the capture of the murderer whom she alleges is targeting lesbians. The investigation commences with a visit to the victim, now known as Alyssa’s, girlfriend. As the episode progresses, you notice something striking – all the main lesbian characters are conventionally attractive, feminine women. More than that though, any lesbian character who is questioned and thus comes into the focus of the camera, is also feminine and pretty. The few butch lesbians in the episode are in the background and barely noticeable. The absence of the butch lesbian is telling. Ciasullo notes that â€Å"without the signifier of the butch, the femme’s lesbianism disappears † (Ciasullo 599). Thus, by eliminating the butch lesbian from the forefront, Law and Order: SVU effectively downplays the lesbianism of the episode. There is, however, one exception – the victim’s girlfriend Sharon, but even here there are issues with her representation as a butch lesbian. The fact that the show chose to make her ‘butch’ is interesting because they also make her a working class, aggressive, even violent, woman. This in effect vilifies the butch lesbian. Sharon even becomes the main suspect at one point because of her temper, and while it is important to shed light on the issue of domestic violence in lesbian relationships the choice to make Sharon, who is butch, into the abuser is not by accident. Ann Ciasullo talks about how presenting butch lesbians in this negative way makes butches into the â€Å"’oppressor,’ the ‘bad’ lesbian† (Ciasullo 600). Further still, her status as a bouncer (and thus as a member of the working class) adds to her mainstream undesirability (Ciasullo). Moreover, even though Sharon is presented as a butch or as Law and Order puts it an â€Å"aggressive,† she is simultaneously portrayed as somewhat feminine. In the first scene that we are introduced to Sharon, her long hair is pulled back into a loose ponytail and she wraps herself up in her long feminine sweater. She is not wearing any noticeable makeup but she is conventionally pretty. After this initial introduction she is likely not yet labelled as a butch by the viewer. It is not until later when she appears in a plaid shirt and leather jacket that it becomes evident that she is butch. It seems butch images are permitted as long as they’re not too butch and as long as the butch character is not framed in a positive way that could be make her desirable. Perhaps the best example of how lesbians are desexualized in Law and Order is in a scene between Babs and Olivia Benson, the female nvestigator. In the initial taping of this scene Babs kisses Olivia, but the kiss doesn’t make it past the cutting room floor. Even worse, the editing is atrocious. It cuts awkwardly from Babs leaning in to Olivia proclaiming that she is straight and something is noticeably missing. The kiss may not be necessary to the plot, but to sacrifice quality in order to remove it demonstrates how fearful t he media are of lesbian sexuality. Further evidence lies in the fact that a kiss between Babs and Elliot Stabler (the male investigator) that happens at the end of the episode remains untouched. However, this revelation, that Babs isn’t actually a lesbian, has a lot of problems on its own. The discovering that Bab’s has a boyfriend, plays on the â€Å"I know she’s a lesbian but † scenario so often found in mainstream media. This idea presents the viewer with the possibility that the lesbian can always become straight or as Ciasullo puts it â€Å"’unbecome’ lesbian† (Ciasullo 592). This places the heterosexual audience in a more comfortable position where they can entertain the idea that the attractive lesbians in the show may actually be straight. This issue comes up once again when the suspected murderer/rapist is in interrogation. Olivia pretends she is a lesbian in order to get a confession out of him: Olivia: â€Å"You know how to correct us you’ve got everything you need to make me a real woman right between your legs –† Suspect: â€Å"and you’d love it just like those other two [victims] did – every moment of it† While this scene may be laid out this way specifically to show the demented thinking of the rapist/murderer, the notion that a lesbian can be â€Å"corrected† or made straight as well the idea that rape victims enjoy being raped are never addressed and corrected. The audience is never informed about how inaccurate these views are. With all this said, the homosexual viewer tends to be somewhat accepting of the images in Grey’s and Law and Order, because as Clare Whatling puts it â€Å"we’re [the lesbian population] so starved, we go see anything because something is better than nothing† (86). Thus, because of the lack of representation, lesbians are more willing to accept inaccurate portrayals. This is troublesome because such images can potentially be detrimental to lesbian’s self perceptions and they’re all the more vulnerable because of the relative disparity of lesbianism in mainstream culture. In conclusion, lesbianism in mainstream television is poorly and inaccurately represented. While shows like Grey’s Anatomy and Law and Order: SVU, have taken steps towards representing lesbians in mainstream media, we have to be careful to assess how big these steps really are. There are several issues with the representations of lesbians in these shows, some of which are addressed in this paper, others which have been left untouched. Thus, there is still a long way to go and many hurdles to surmount before lesbians can be done justice in mainstream media.