'The L Word' - the next "Friends" series?
Posted on 01/15/2004 8:57:09 PM PST by disclaimer
NEW YORK — Between Madonna and Britney's kiss, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer's" lesbian sex scene and newspaper headlines about American high school girls experimenting with same-sex relationships, 2003 seemed like the year of girl-on-girl action.
Now, Showtime will bring the lives and loves of a whole cast of lesbian characters to the small screen in its new drama "The L Word." The show hasn't even aired yet — it debuts Sunday night — but the recent display of lesbian activity in mainstream media is already the center of a moral and cultural firestorm.
Supporters of "The L Word" call the focus on gay women groundbreaking, but detractors say the show contributes to a culture that tells young women that being gay is cool and sexy.
Comparing itself to "Sex and the City," with the ad campaign "Same sex, different city," "The L Word" stars Jennifer Beals of "Flashdance" fame, whose character is trying to have a child with her partner. Their circle of beautiful, stylish lesbian friends often meets at the coffee shop to dish about career, family, friends, and of course, sex.
The show doesn't shy away from steamy scenes, one of which takes place between Marina, who is a lesbian, and a "bi-curious" Midwestern woman who moves to Los Angeles to live with her boyfriend.
Robert Peters, president of the interfaith media watchdog group Morality in Media (search), said shows like "The L Word" and publicity stunts like the Madonna-Britney smooch make what was once "fringe" activity cool in the eyes of teen and pre-teen girls.
"Anyone with a grain of common sense will know that kids are influenced by culture," he said.
Peters said even though "The L Word" is on a pay cable channel, kids will discover the show just as they discovered "Sex and the City," which is very sexually explicit.
Meanwhile, The Washington Post and The Sun-Sentinel of Florida recently reported on the trend of "bisexual chic" among teen girls who date each other, or kiss in public and "freak-dance" at school functions, many times with their male classmates watching.
Georgia mom Michele Humphrey said she's disturbed by the direction entertainment is taking and would not allow her two teenage daughters to watch “The L Word.”
“It’s unfortunate that the culture in some areas is leaning to that type of lifestyle,” she said. “I believe my daughters would make a stand and say, ‘No, I’d rather watch something with good quality entertainment.’”
But Taylor (name changed), a lesbian who lives in Rochester, N.Y., can’t wait for Sunday’s premiere.
“I am hoping that it scratches the surface about the emotional complexities of the lesbian lifestyle and relationship,” she said.
"Will & Grace,” “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy,” and Showtime’s “Queer as Folk" are examples of successful programs that revolve around gay male characters. But “The L Word” is the first series to bring an entire cast of female characters out of the closet — a fact that pleases gay advocates.
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Peters, however, said the look of the cast, who could give the “Sex and the City” gals a run for their money, sends a message to teenage girls that sexual experimentation is cool. He said the show is part of a "propaganda campaign" to change public opinion about homosexuality.
"These women are all knockouts," Peters said. "This is for heterosexual men who want to watch women having sex."
But Taylor is unfazed by the "lipstick lesbian" look of the cast.
"Sex sells and I think it was a smart marketing strategy that they use that," she said. "Perhaps after they get people hooked they'll integrate some more realistic-looking lesbians."
Macias said he expects the show to draw a broad audience, since it deals with issues like having a family, balancing work and personal life and exploring sexuality.
"The good thing about the straight community watching these shows is that it educates them on a broader level," he said.
And if heterosexual men are initially drawn in by the titillation factor, that's not necessarily a bad thing, according to Macias, who said just getting people to tune in is important.
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Jill Miressi, a 24-year-old “Sex and the City” fan from Kingston, N.Y., said she’ll switch over to Showtime on Sunday after her favorite show.
“I will probably check it out just to see what it’s all about,” said Miressi, who is heterosexual. “But straight girls are probably not going to say, ‘I’ve been in a similar situation,’ when they watch ‘The L Word.’”
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Except for the politics and soft-core pornography, "The L Word," Showtime's new series about lesbians that starts on Sunday, is old-fashioned fun — more "Melrose Place" than "Sex and the City."
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All the women are beautiful, which on the one hand works to dismiss the stereotype of lesbians as squat, plaid-shirted and mannish. On the other, they are all so exquisite, even by the high standards of affluent Los Angeles, that it plays into another stereotype — and male fantasy — of the lipstick lesbian.
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The real L word of the show is not lesbianism but loyalty, the fellowship that binds and softens a group of what on the surface appear to be prickly, overly indulged middle-class women. (They drive convertibles, take spinning classes and eat at the trendiest restaurants.) And these female friends are more nuanced and plausible than the stick-figure heroines on HBO's "Sex and the City."
Old fashioned fun. I remember when that consisted of Marcia Brady wondering if her broken nose would heal in time for her date with the BMOC....:)
Yeah, it works until you see the squat, plain-shirted, and mannish Lesbian Avengers show up to protest. That's the only time I've ever heard a group of guys plead with a group of women to put their shirts back on!
Thanks for that golden gem of wisdom - oh great deep thinker and cultural answer-man. Did you vote for Gore in that last presidential election?
A man walking down the street, minding his own business, but fully naked finds himself arrested for this simple act of walking down the street. That's unfair, you say, just look away, you say, if you don't approve and don't care to watch. So eventually the laws against men walking the streets naked are repealed. After a while more and more naked men take to walking the streets - you can't look away without seeing yet another or a reflection in a store front window you sought out as a visual escape. By looking away, your passive inaction allows the nudists and gays exhibitionist to become prominent and accepted in the culture, the culture you call home. Before long sex acts begin to occur in the streets. Look away, you say, it doesn't concern you.
A woman chooses to kill her 'fetus' in the womb, look away you say for it's her own business and none of yours. Do you want this country to be nanny state? - you say. Before long, teenage girls are giving birth to children and leaving them to die in the bathroom where they were born as disrespect for human life takes hold of the culture...
The founding fathers modeled this Republic after God's laws - a civilization based on the Ten Commandments and the bible - God's word. Our laws and culture protected the family as God's law outlined. Not anymore, the family has come under full scale attack. 'The L Word' is another front in the war on the family.
There are absolutes, there is good and there is evil. If you are blind to existence of evil, as a formidable enemy to be conquered, then I expect you to allow evil to manifest itself in our culture while you're looking the other way. Evil seldom barges in the font door announcing itself to all, instead it seduces those inside to invite it in where it suffocates the good.
Look the other way, change the channel. Let the FCC remove regulations on those ever popular four letter swear words, remove the laws on indecent exposure and lewd behavior in the streets as well. We can all just look away as evil seduces the next generation and is invited in to stay.
Right; all the lesbians I know are drop dead gorgeous. /sarcasm
Most of them could stop a clock from 100 paces.
Can't wait for the episode that shows the rampant jealousy and physical abuse that is common in the lesbian community.
Nahhh, she's no Lesbian. They usually hate men.
sw
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