The assumptions surrounding the
people who identify with the LGBTQ community can be very stereotypical. People
often assume these people are hypersexual, going through a phase in their life
or many other various things that have to do with not fully accepting that
these people can in fact lead normal lifestyles just as heterosexual couples
do. In this blog post, I will be breaking down these views of LGBTQ lifestyles
by referencing to the TV show series “The L Word” and two articles.
In
the TV show “The L Word,” most of the main characters identify as gay or
bisexual. The characters of this show that I will be focusing on are Bette,
Tina, and Jenny. Tina in this show can be described as more of the motherly
type of woman. Her motherly instinct made her want to have a child with her
partner Bette and eventually this does happen. She is also a career driven woman
but not as much as her partner Bette. Bette would probably be seen as the
person who “wears the pants in the relationship.” Her dominant attitude allows
for interesting interactions between her and her more passive partner Tina.
In the midst of both of these women
trying to build careers (or sustain them), they are trying to establish a
family as well. Bette, who is white and African-American, asks Tina if they can
have an African-American baby but there seems to be some apprehension from Tina’s
side. Eventually they do have an African-American baby and the awkwardness
behind the situation seems to disappear (The L Word). The fact that they are
able to represent the struggles that happen within a homosexual household allows
viewers to relate to the tensions that might occur between heterosexual couples
and homosexual couples alike. Bette and Tina were arguably the relationship in
the show that “represented” the “married couple” that had their struggles but
stuck threw them until the end.
The last character that I will be
talking about is Jenny. She came to the neighborhood as a straight female
moving into a predominantly lesbian and bisexual community. Soon thereafter,
she began to discover herself while exploring her sexual identity, which led
her to find that she was capable of having the same feelings for women as she
did for men (The L Word). Her tumultuous story on the show could represent the
young single female who has yet to determine what her identity is. This is a
struggle that all people face at a certain age. For Jenny, this struggle seems
to come after she moved into this community due to the dynamics of the
community.
An article by Cherie Moraga
entitled Queer Aztlan: The Reformation of Chicano Tribe, Moraga describes the
dynamics of being a Latina lesbian. She goes into detail about the communities
and how is it hard to intersect these two identities seeing as they aren’t the
highest in the hierarchy of their society. A quote from this article reads
“Women were, at most, allowed to serve as modern-day “Adelitas,” performing the
“three f’s” as a Chicana colleague calls them: “feeding, fighting and fucking”
(Moraga 157). This shows that the view from the women who was quoted saying
these three f’s feels that her society does look at her in this way. She might
not necessarily believe in this but the mere fact that it can be referenced to
means it must be a very prominent idea in that society.
The women seen in “The L Word” seem
to counter represent this concept of women being identified as three f’s mainly
because most of these women on the show only lead lives with relationship with
other women. They all have working jobs. The family dynamic that is represented
in some households shows the parenting aspect of lesbian communities and the
fact they maintain a healthy sex life is something that occurs among all types
of communities and households. Although this show disproves many of the
stereotypes of women, it can also be speculated that most of the characters are
mainly Caucasian and the matter of strong familial roots and backgrounds in
respects to Caucasian culture might not be as strong as in Latino culture. So
it can be said that when it comes to ethnicity, the view on women can be
altered. It seems as though the Latino community supports a very patriarchal
household and this might not exactly be the view of society in other
communities.
In the second article entitled
“From Websites to Wal-Mart,” the author talks about youth in the societies of
small towns. She gathers from her research that young teens feel more
comfortable being able to share their sexual identities within public groups
where they feel somewhat safe and comfortable. Knowing that they can be
themselves among these people allows them to further understand their sexual
identity. A section of the article says, “…[p]rojects that use region as a
prism through which to analyze how gender, race, class and religious identities
intersect in the formation of queer identity … produce a more complex
understanding of U.S. queer experiences …(Gray 50).”
This quote seems to describe the
intersections that occur within the LGBTQ community and how the outside world
shapes their identity in combination with these intersections. It seems as
though Jenny was a character that experienced this in a way. The society around
her possibly did shape her personal identity and allowed for complex
speculation of what she really desired in her life. Her character was complex in
itself but questions of how her character came to be what it was in the final
moments of the show would probably remain unanswered.
These articles and this show
perfectly illustrate the ways in which women in the LGBTQ community or (even in
other communities) are portrayed a certain way. The intersections that some of
these women face seem to complicate matters even more by creating more
assumptions about their lifestyles. It is fair to say that the show might be a
dramatization of the lives of lesbian women but the community created within
the show as well as many other true dynamics of the characters’ lifestyles are
very common among all households in the real world.
Gray, Mary. "From Websites to Wal-Mart: Youth Identity
Work, and the Queering of Boundary Publics in Small Town USA”
from American Studies, Vol. 48, No. 2, Homosexuals in Unexpected Places? A
Special Issue, 2007
Moraga,
Cherrie. "Queer Aztlan: the Re-formation of Chicano Tribe"
from The Last Generation South End Press, 1993
The
L Word: Seasons 1-6. Writ. Ilene Chaiken, Guinevere Turner, Cherien Dabis, and
Rose Troche. Dir. Ilene Chaiken. HBO Showtime, 2004-2009. DVD.
I agree with the blog entitled "The L Word." There are several assumptions that surround the LGBTQ community. The most common one I hear is: it’s just a phase. It doesn't make sense how people think they know what someone else is experiencing. Everyone goes through different experiences and have different lifestyles. It's never in someone else's place to tell someone how he or she feels.
ReplyDeleteJenny's character in The L Word is interesting. She was straight when she first moved to the neighborhood but then became more comfortable and realized that it was okay to have the desires for women. D'Emilio's states, "Gradually a subculture of gay men and lesbians was evolving in American cities that would help to create a collective consciousness among its participants and strengthen their sense of identification with a group." (D'Emilio 13.) As more LGBTQ communities formed, it became easier for people to acknowledge and act upon desires they were having. I saw a real life example of a similar situation to Jenny.
She had a new crush every other week and was constantly having sex with different men. I feel this was in an effort to fight against her desires she had for women because she didn't know how people would look at her if she were to admit she was lesbian. Eventually she moved to a different city and with a different person, her aunt. It was a completely different atmosphere. Her aunt is lesbian which made her feel more comfortable with opening up to her feelings. She acknowledged her desires for women. Other people however, thought this was just a phase because she was disappointed in the way things worked out with her and men. This was not the case though; she was just simply a lesbian. In short, you can't really tell someone they're just going through a phase, you're insulting their lifestyle.
D’Emilio, John. "Homosexuality and American Society: An Overview" from Sexual Politics, Sexual, Communities in the United States 1940- 1970. Chicago, Ill: University
ReplyDeleteof Chicago Press, 1983.