Media Portrayal of Lesbianism - Mainstream Broadcast Media

Mainstream Broadcast Media

See also: Lists of American television episodes with LGBT themes, List of dramatic television series with LGBT characters, List of LGBT characters in film and radio fiction, List of LGBT characters in television, List of television shows with LGBT characters, Category:LGBT-related television episodes, and Category:Lesbian actresses

Lesbian characters made very rare appearances in scripted radio programs, almost always as killers or murder victims. The first lesbian on American radio was in an episode of the imported British crime anthology series The Black Museum entitled "The Brass Button". The character, Jeanette Morgan, is the episode's murder victim. She is described as "not interested in men" and "living that strange and unnatural kind of way". Jeanette is murdered by a soldier who, having heard gossip about her, makes sexual advances. When she rejects him, he strangles her to death.

Early American television largely ignored lesbians. Homosexuality was not discussed on television until the mid-1950s, and when it was discussed — usually on local talk shows — it was almost uniformly male homosexuality under discussion. It was not until 1962, when an episode of Confidential File covered the 1962 convention of the Daughters of Bilitis, that a national broadcast specifically covered lesbianism. Lesbians were explicitly excluded from the proposal for the country's first documentary broadcast on homosexuality, 1961's The Rejected, and from the first network documentary on homosexuality, "The Homosexuals", a 1967 installment of CBS Reports. On scripted television, the earliest lesbian characters were "coded", like the villainous Miss Brant on The Asphalt Jungle (1961), a repressed lesbian who shoots girls on lovers' lane for making themselves available to boys, or neurotics like Hallie Lambert from a 1963 episode of The Eleventh Hour. After years during which the only portrayals of lesbians on television were negative, stereotypical, or both, NBC aired "Flowers of Evil" a 1974 episode of the series Police Woman. In it a trio of lesbians (described by Lesbian Tide magazine as "The Butch, The Bitch and The Femme") were robbing and murdering the elderly residents of the nursing home they ran. Lesbian activists operating under the name Lesbian Feminist Liberation staged a zap at NBC's New York City headquarters. Ten women entered the building and occupied it overnight. Around 75 women demonstrated in front of the building. The following morning protesters unfurled a twenty foot long banner from the balcony of vice president Herminio Traviesas's office reading "LESBIANS PROTEST NBC". They and street-level picketers chanted slogans like "NBC works against lesbians" and "Lesbians are sitting in".

The 1980s television series L.A. Law included a lesbian relationship which stirred much more controversy than lesbian TV characters would a decade later. The 1989 BBC mini series Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit was based on lesbian writer Jeanette Winterson's novel of the same title. Russian pop-duo t.A.T.u were popular in Europe during the early 2000s, gaining wide attention and TV airplay for their pop videos because they were marketed as lesbians even though they were not.

Many science fiction series have featured lesbian characters. An episode of Babylon 5 featured an implied lesbian relationship between characters Talia Winters and Commander Susan Ivanova. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine featured a few episodes with elements of lesbianism that implied, but never stated, that in Star Trek's 24th century such relationships are accepted, even though the show never actually depicted one. Torchwood's first series involved brief lesbian encounters for both Gwen Cooper (Eve Myles) and Toshiko Sato (Naoko Mori), but in each instance alien intervention was responsible. AfterEllen reviewer Karman Klegroe criticises Torchwood's record on this score concluding that: "sexual tension between the male characters, particularly Captain Jack and Ianto, is standard fare, whereas the women have very few sexual interactions that aren't quickly explained away by alien circumstances". In the fourth series, recurring character Charlotte Willis (Marina Benedict) was eventually revealed to be a lesbian.

Actress and comedian Ellen DeGeneres came out publicly as a lesbian in 1997 and her character on the sitcom Ellen did likewise soon after during its fourth season. This was the first American sitcom with a lesbian lead character. The coming-out episode won an Emmy Award, but the series was canceled after one more season.

The HBO series Deadwood featured a lesbian madam running a local brothel.

In 2000, the ABC Daytime drama series All My Children character Bianca Montgomery (Eden Riegel) was revealed to be a lesbian. Though the storyline received significant praise from critics and viewers and spun two popular romances (Bianca Montgomery and Maggie Stone, Lena Kundera and Bianca Montgomery), it was also met with criticism for its almost perpetual trauma and Bianca's lack of a successful long-running romance with another woman. The character was later given a wife to combat this, in the pairing of Reese Williams and Bianca Montgomery, which became the first legal same-sex marriage in American daytime television, but this was also met with criticism; critics and fans reasoned that the storyline was underdeveloped and essentially failed in popularity.

Showtime's The L Word is a drama focusing on the relationships of a group of women. The majority of the characters are bisexual and lesbian women, including: Dana Fairbanks, Alice Pieszecki, Bette Porter, Shane McCutcheon, Tina Kennard, Jodi Lerner, Helena Peabody, Phyllis Kroll, and Jenny Schecter. The success of The L Word led to a reality television spinoff, The Real L Word, which premiered in 2010.

In 2005, an episode of The Simpsons ("There's Something About Marrying") depicted Marge's sister Patty coming out as a lesbian. Also that year on Law & Order the final appearance of assistant district attorney Serena Southerlyn included the revelation she was a lesbian, although some viewers claimed there had been hints of this in previous episodes.

Other notable lesbian characters and appearances in the mainstream media have included:

• Alison Steadman (Jackie) and Myra Frances (Harvey) in Girl, a 1974 BBC play: the first lesbian kiss on British television.
• Kim Daniels in the UK TV series Sugar Rush
• Liz Cruz in Nip/Tuck
• Willow Rosenberg, Tara Maclay and Kennedy in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (and Satsu in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season Eight comic)
• Detective Kima Greggs and the eponymous criminal enforcer Felicia 'Snoop' Pearson from the HBO series The Wire.
• Lindsay Peterson and Melanie Marcus in Queer as Folk
• Maia Jeffries and Jay Copeland in Shortland Street
• Lana Crawford and Georgina Harris in Neighbours
• C. J. Lamb (Amanda Donohoe) in L.A. Law
• Dr. Kerry Weaver, Sandy López and Kim Legaspi in ER
• Helen Stewart and Nikki Wade in Bad Girls
• Paige Michalchuk and Alex Núñez in Degrassi:The Next Generation
• Dorothy's college friend Jean in The Golden Girls
• Beth Jordache (Anna Friel) and Margaret Clemence (Nicola Stephenson) on the UK series Brookside
• Spencer Carlin and Ashley Davies in South of Nowhere
• Carol, Ross' ex-wife and her life partner Susan on Friends
• Edith (Vanessa Redgrave), Fran (Sharon Stone) and Kal (Ellen DeGeneres) in If These Walls Could Talk 2
• Jennifer K. Buckmeyer in the made for TV special Coming Out
• Patty Bouvier, sister of Marge Simpson, on The Simpsons
• Naomi Julien, Della Alexander and Binnie Roberts in EastEnders
• Thelma Bates in Hex
• Jessica Sammler and Katie Singer on Once and Again
• Jasmine Thomas and Debbie Dingle, and Zoe Tate in Emmerdale
• Maggie Sawyer and Toby Raines (implied) in Superman: The Animated Series
• Beverly Harris and Nancy Bartlett in Roseanne
• Frankie Doyle, Angela Jeffries, Sharon Gilmour, Judy Bryant, Joan Ferguson, Audrey Forbes, Terri Malone in Prisoner, 1979–1986.
• Serena Southerlyn on Law & Order
• Xena and Gabrielle (implied and debatable) in Xena: Warrior Princess
• Pittsburg Police SWAT commander Lt. Connie Reubens in The Kill Point
• Emily Fitch in the UK TV series Skins
• Arizona Robbins and Callie Torres in Grey's Anatomy
• Lana Winters in American Horror Story: Asylum