CRS
Chandler, Arizona, United States

There's an old saying. If you don't want someone to join a crowd, you ask them, "If everyone were jumping off of a cliff, would you?" Well, I have. So my answer would be "Yes". True story.
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Hollywood's Problem with Gays

Sunday, October 01, 2006

this entry brought to you by foo fighters, "my hero"





I watched the first three episodes of "The L-Word". I know it's not really something a guy is supposed to admit, but to be honest I'd heard a lot about it and was curious, and if I didn't like it, well, I could always enjoy Mia Kirshner's cute little breasts. So far, however, I'm annoyed. The show itself isn't bad-- certainly not exactly my type of show, and there are stretches of time and subplots that bore the living hell out of me-- but it seems interesting enough to watch more episodes. But so far, I am annoyed. Primely, I find it annoying that, for a show that is supposed to be an honest, intimate depiction of lesbians, everyone is gorgeous and there isn't a single one that looks identifiably like a lesbian. Of course, lesbians come in all shapes, sizes, and looks, and the fact that the majority of the cast are "lipstick lesbians" doesn't bother me. What bothers me is that they didn't other to cast anyone that looks anything like the lesbians you personally know or that couple that shops at your grocery store or that friendly lesbian that chats with you whenever you walk by her apartment. Granted, this is supposed to take place in LA, and I would expect the yuppie lesbians there to be gorgeous, but couldn't there be one? The girl they tease in the first episode for embarrassing them for being "such a dyke" looks like every over-sexed slutty girl I've seen at any rock concert I've ever been to. Hell, the characters even hang out in a lesbian bar, yet the patrons are all gorgeous.

When I told Michelle how this annoyed me, she said that she liked how they weren't all stereotypical lesbians. My response was, when was the last time Hollywood even bothered portraying a stereotypical lesbian as the center part of the story?

I have a problem with Hollywood and gays in general. On the one hand, we should all be glad that gays are portrayed on TV. Because whether we like gays or not, they're a part of life, and ignoring something we all have to deal with in one way or another in real life would be lazy, and yes, irresponsible. So we should be happy that we live in a society where The L-Word exists.

But on the other hand, Hollywood has only got two ideas on how to portray gays: 1) All gay men must be a walking punch line and nothing more. 2) Fantasize that all gay women are sexually attractive not only to women, but especially to men. This last aspect is what annoys me about "The L-Word". As mentioned, there's nothing wrong with portraying good-looking lesbians, but since there are no cast members, at least in the first four episodes, that are even a little "butch"; when a steamy sex-scene comes on I might as well be watching a sleazy movie on Skinemax rather than a sensitive, intimate portrayal of lesbians. Why can't Hollywood be honest about gays? What's wrong with that? It's not as if audiences aren't ready to accept "real" lesbians. The most well known lesbian in Hollywood, Ellen Degeneres, has a very popular Emmy-winning daytime talk show. Rosie O'Donnell, another famous lesbian, also had a popular show. Without any effort, I can rattle off the name of several other famous lesbians-- K.D. Lang, Melissa Etheridge... and all these women, despite being household names, have something in common-- they all look identifiably like lesbians. The producers of the show know that having a girl that looks like Ellen making out with another girl wouldn't go over well with a mainstream audience, but to not even cast a girl that looks like her seems irresponsible.

Of course, complaining that Hollywood doesn't know how to portray gays is part of a much older, more overall frustrating aspect of Hollywood: they have no idea how to portray minorities, period. Black men have always been walking punch lines. For a long while Black women were portrayed as fantasies: so light-skinned and thin-lipped they might as well not have been black. Hollywood is getting a lot better at the latter, but black men are still just jokes. Again, we should be happy that black people are portrayed at all, but for every step forward Hollywood takes with minorities, black, Hispanics, gays, it takes two steps back.
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on this day last year a one-liner. don't bother.
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with love from CRS @ 6:08 PM 

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