L word doesn't represent an ounce of who I am, but then, if my life were on t.v. nobody would be watching!

I have many mixed feelings about The L Word, not least a vague sense of embarrassment that I can't stop watching ... I don't have cable, so I'm now in the middle of season 3 on DVD. I don't relate to any of the main roles very much or recognize them as being like the people in my community, except maybe Moira/Max, and I wish they'd made the carpenter who Bette had the affair with more than a brief plot device (now she was an interesting character).

Rose Troche and Guinevere Turner made one of my all-time favorite movies, Go Fish (whose characters *did* feel real), so it's been annoying to me that in The L Word they've flown off into so much Dynasty-style soap-opera wackiness. I spent some time in London around the time when that show Dallas was popular, and the woman I lived with was convinced that all Americans lived like the people she saw on there :-o So yeah, I wonder if straight America thinks all lesbians live like the women on The L Word. Or maybe they aren't watching at all and it's just us obsessing ... ;-o

Oh hells no- that show is a riot, and lots of fun, but it doesn't really seem to even try to represent all the dykes in America. It has honed in on wealthy, yuppie, LA-stereotype lesbians. They seem to be the only portrayals of dykes that get on TV- all my friends in SF (straight ones included) laugh and say "I never have met a single lesbian like the ones on the L-Word."

Even though it's pretty clear that they chose an LA lipstick-and-Range Rover kind of scene because of its appeal to the mass market (read: straight guys), it might be a good thing that they didn't try to represent everyone- because people are so diverse that if they even attempted it, everybody would still find it inaccurate. So,even if people think we're all like the girls on the L-Word, and that all doctors are the same as the people from Gray's Anatomy, and that every cop is like the ones on the police shows, etc....well, that's what happens when you mix high production values with a gullible audience! What can you do?

As far as the show being "good for lesbians," I personally am in the camp of "the more visibility the better." I think we owe a lot of our progress as a community in the last few decades to TV shows that depict queer people, because the more exposure we get, the less shocked by us middle America becomes- just like with any other battle for civil rights, acclimation is the key to peaceful coexistence. And if it takes a silly show like Queer Eye or L-Word to help that along, then I'm cool with that.

Regarding the pressure for young women to become like the (dubious) role models they see portrayed on the L-word (and whether the producers like it or not, those are people's role models)...all I can say is that when I was coming of age, all the dykes I knew thought we all had to wear denim, workboots and flannel like Ani and the Indigo Girls. I was severly traumatized by that, because my fashion role model is way more Greta Garbo than James Dean- but those were the times, I lived and found myself anyway, and feel comfortable in my skin at last. I guess my point is, c'est la vie!

I rented this show via Netflix, and saw nothing appealing in it at all. We stopped at the first disc. The hyper-sexualized, trendy, glossy lesbians in the show seemed the perfect characters to appeal to a hetero male who likes to fantasize about women on women, more than any exploration of lesbians in real life. Both my partner and I were completely thumbs down.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
www.7trees.org/phpbb - Green Branch - Join other friendly odd-balls, politics, news, sustainability, self-sufficiency, alternative discussion forum. Brand new -JOIN- help us grow!

I don't have any problem watching beautiful women pretend to be lesbians. I could care less about "not representing reality" or "hetro male fantasies". It's TV. But the one thing that made me stop watching somewhere during the second season was the high velocity Dyke Drama. Can't tolerate it in real life and I sure as hell don't find it entertaining on TV.

I'm sad that Dexter ended. Sunday nights just aren't the same.

Have any of you ladies actually gone to GirlBar? because...yeah, they're all there. Especially the Bette's. And by that I mean well off, semi-trendy Gucci dykes.

And the lil butch things out at the Here on Thursdays.

They all exist.

We're all a wide range and some of it, just like on cop shows and doctor drama's, does exist in real life. But I'm just glad it's out there. Ask any older lesbian friends (i'm talking in their 60s or so) and see if they ever thought something like that would ever be considered "mainstream," much less a primetime hit television show. Visibility is key to success in any movement and I feel that up to and including now, we're sorely lacking. Too many hide because they can or because it makes life "easier." But in the long run it doesn't. So what if this ruffles a few feathers? Idiots will always be out there to believe the stereotypes but at least this way, maybe some kid out in the midwest can sneak away and feel normal for an hour a week instead of dreading life and feeling like no one out there could possibly understand who they are how they feel.

I think I agree a little bit with everyone. I was a watcher of it until they introduced (excuse me for not knowing characters) the "butch dyke" and considered her inferior. Now I have heard she is becoming he.. so my point is irrelavant anyway, but stereotyping.. yes. Powerdykes being a good thing... yes Portraying snobby, all upper class, All make-up wearing and too good or fragile to lift their own boxes... NO.
Of course, you can probably tell what "type" of dyke I am, but I would really like to see a show that could somehow portray real women everywhere. In different cultures, "types of women" and real issues other than who's screwing who. A grown up version of the real world, only real. That's all I want, but who's to say anyone would watch it but me... Anyone know of any good lesbian/gay shows?

Kudos to you for bringing up the safe sex aspect of it. And those little promiscuous "Shane-alikes" were running around before that show came out--now they just have a new hair-do. But I really do think we'll see a new faction of lesbianism arise from this show. And yes, the show is WAY too Falcon Crest and sometimes it embarrasses me to watch it!!!

But hey, at least lesbians haven't been stereotyped as the girlfriend beating tranny!

L word does not represent me. I mean where are all the larger size women. Not all lesbians have atheletic builds or look like waifish 12 year old boys.

I don't have cable, I don't even have a TV so my L-word experience is really limited. I don't think people should be too worried about how it portrays lesbians or anyone else for that matter. I mean how many sitcoms actually represent fathers as they are? How many shows about teen angst actually capture the experience most real people have? How many medical shows accurately represent what it's like to be a nurse or a doctor? I know the movies with transgender characters don't represent ME, but many are still good stories. It's all fiction, some of it rings true for some people. Don't sweat about it.

People are going to form stereotypes regardless, that's what bored minds do. All we can do is represent our individual selves. I don't think anyone should look to TV for their "image" I represent myself not a T.V show. The L word is reality mixed with fantasy, as are most shows. They have to be beautiful, with great bodies, they have to have money and high drama. It's called "Ratings". Its true all lesbians are not like those in the L Word. Are all women in NY like the "Sex in the City Girls" and what about "Friends" who do they represent???? Not my friends. As for the L Word, I enjoy it for the most part. I do relate to some characters, because where I lived in CA It's kind of like that, but with less drama...sometimes. There are well off, high powered lesbians, out there, a few are my friends. Does the show include all aspects of our Lesbian world? No, and it can't. There are only so many hours in a season. So lets just enjoy the pretty fantasy or...just turn it off ;-)

Luv

The more queers, fags, dykes, tranny bois and grrls, girly girly, butchy butches, and and .... the better. I think the images from Pride celebrations around the country are far worse of our image than a TV show. At the very least the show depicts lesbians in all areas doing all sorts of things that regularly fill our lives and the lives of all people..even if itslife perverted and distorted by holliwood it's a far more accurate dipiction of our lives than what the mainstream media broadcasts around the nation. Images of the gays in all thier wild glory living it up during pride reflect one day in our lives. Pride is one day, that many outside of SF receive thier only exposure to gay life. They are only shown the sex and party and outragousness that makes pride so great. I don't want the one day we live it up like there is not tomorrow in crazy costumes or none at all to define my gay life. I wish CBS on Logo was what CBS carried on all it affliates showing the diversity of the community, reflecing gay life, concerns, struggles, etc in a manner that honors our shared humanity.

*My* feeling about "The L Word" is that one aspect doesn't ring true to life for me, and that is all of the women switching partners so often ...

My other thought is that the **main thrust** of this series seems to have been written and produced as eye-candy for the men who watch it ... The sex scenes seem realistic to me, but again, the infinite combinations of love partners starts to feel monotonous after a while ...

Jus sayin ..

Elaine