Lesbians as Represented in Mainstream Television Essay

Lesbian images have been entering into mainstream media much and more. several(prenominal) argue that this is a sign of a wider acceptance of sapphicism in westerly culture. In this paper, two mainstream television programs, white-haireds Anatomy and justness and Order SVU, depart be looked at to assess the nature of sapphic images. It will be argued that if and when lesbians ar portrayed in mainstream television they ar highly feminized, de turn onualized, and their lives are almost al ways framed in ways that appeal to heterocentric norms.Thus, mass media almost ever so fails to provide the viewer with an consummate and unbiased perception of lesbianism or homosexuality in a broader sense. Greys Anatomy has emerged onto the lesbian prognosis in the last match of years by developing Callie Torres, a beautiful, vivacious, Latino woman, into a lesbian in the fifth season. A friendship develops betwixt her and Erica Hahn, a successful, sassy, and appealing newcomer, and it gradually progresses into roundthing more until finally the two cope a caress.Before the romance send word flourish, Torres wrestles with her sexuality, her fears, and her pretermit of understanding of lesbianism. short after the relationship establishes it self, Hahn unexpectedly breaks up with Torres and leaves the enter. Typical or is it? A season later, Arizona Robbins, a semi-regular of the show, comes into centralise when she blatantly hits on Torres. in short 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 menti aned above are bewitching and feminine. All three have persistent flowing hair always nicely styled and maintained and pretty faces carefully done up with dismount bedevil-up. This is what Ann Ciasullo refers to as sanitizing of the lesbian through her feminizing (599). In other words, Greys Anatomy off ers up an image of lesbians that is not too homosexual for the straightaway auditory sense.While it could be argued that much(prenominal) deputations help to combat the rigid stereotypes of lesbians as ugly, macho 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 much(prenominal) feminine representations form to lower the threat of lesbianism by reassuring viewers that such(prenominal) (beautiful and feminine) women set up or must actually be straight person (Kath Davies). In fact, in Greys Anatomy, as in m each television programs, the macho lesbian is completely absent.All of this suggests that the lesbian chic of the 90s is far from unwarranted (Tamsin). Greys is well known for its s put updalous call mode sex scenes. Characters, heterosexual sections 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, personal contact of any kind is moderately limited between Torres and Robbins. An causa of this can be seen in Season basketball team installment 13 when Robbins patient dies during surgery.When she put downs home to see Torres has planned a surprise natal day 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 pretty intimate couple or from any other couple on the show for that matter, barely not in this case. Torres tells Robbins that she will explain the accompaniment 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 clever scene but not a sexual scene. This is a old(prenominal) pattern found in most television programs or movies featuring lesbian couples and just one way lesbians are desexualized (Ciasullo). A notable elision 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. trey times in an entire season and for a relationship in its beginning stages is incredibly low by Greys standards (or anyones standards really). One of these scenes is the pizza scene previously mentioned. In another sex scene, Lexi Grey walks in on the two in the shower and rapidly walks discover the viewer sees what Lexi sees and nothing more. The final scene implies the two whitethorn have sex, but it is not pursued any further. Considering the show develops want, vile sex scene s between its heterosexual characters, following them from start to finish, the unwillingness to do the same for its lesbian characters is hassleatic.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). other problem with the depiction of Torres and Robbins relationship is that it is lots framed by the heterosexual constructs of conglutination and reproduction. Tasker discusses this cut back noting that by explaining lesbianism within a heterosexual context the (heterosexual) audience is assured that lesbians are normal (by heterosexual standards) (Tasker).Such a place adheres to courtly social norms while ignoring the differing reality of lesbians lives. later Torres father finally accepts her lesbianism his beginning(a) question to her addresses the issue of marriage and children. She assures him that she will put on a coc k-a-hoop white dress and move down the aisle if Arizona wants to spend the rest of her life with her. Another typesetters case takes place in season six episode three, when Torres talks about cosmos married and having a house, kids and a pet get over 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. get alongmore, this grounds 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. natural 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 resile the idea touched on in Out of Fo cus that reportage 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. archetypical of all, the stereotyping evident in Griffins character is troublesome because it feeds into the minus view of lesbians. Visibility is important, but the cost of portraying lesbians in such a light is possibly prominenter than or as great as not showing them at all.Furthermore, this particular episode is strewn with ostracize or inaccurate images of lesbians. The episode begins with the discovery of a woman who has been leftover 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 assume of the liquidator whom she alleges is targeting lesbians. The investigation commences with a visit to the victim, now known as Alyssas, 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 masculine lesbians in the episode are in the background and barely noticeable. The absence of the masculine lesbian is telling. Ciasullo notes that without the signifier of the butch, the femmes lesbianism disappears (Ciasullo 599). Thus, by eliminating the butch lesbian from the forefront, justness and Order SVU effectively downplays the lesbianism of the episode.There is, however, one exception the victims girlfriend Sharon, but charge 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 violen t, 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 prejudicious way makes butches into the oppressor, the bad lesbian (Ciasullo 600). Further unbosom, 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 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 lightheaded 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 fu ndament she is desirely not yet labelled as a butch by the viewer. It is not until later when she appears in a plaid clothe and leather jacket that it becomes evident that she is butch. It seems butch images are permitted as long as theyre 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 fe mannish nvestigator. In the initial taping of this scene Babs kisses Olivia, but the kiss doesnt make it past the cutting room floor. heretofore 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 part in order to remove it demonstrates how fearful the media are of lesbian sexuality. Further evidence lies in the fact that a kiss between Babs and El liot Stabler (the male investigator) that happens at the end of the episode remains untouched.However, this revelation, that Babs isnt actually a lesbian, has a lot of problems on its own. The discovering that Babs has a boyfriend, plays on the I know shes 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 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 You know how to correct us youve got boththing you impoverishment to make me a real woman right between your legs amusing and youd love it just like those other two victims did every momen t of it While this scene may be laid out this way specifically to show the demented thinking of the rapist/murderer, the sentiment that a lesbian can be corrected or do 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 Greys and Law and Order, because as Clare Whatling puts it were 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 lesbians self perceptions and theyre 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 Greys 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 transcend before lesbians can be done justice in mainstream media.