Increasingly disturbed by the paradoxical "L Word". Ostensibly a celebration of freedom to love and lifestyle diversity, but at it's core I keep thinking it's really about upping ratings by misogynistic exploitation of women as sex objects.
We've been watching it because dear friends loaned us four seasons worth of dvds over the past couple of months. Most of the characters are simply annoying, some downright hateful, few truly likable. Is this how we feel about lesbians? Is this how we want lgbt folks portrayed? And why isn't there even one pair bonding that has lasted throughout the run of the show? Most likely because what sells this show is melodrama and titillation, which makes it OK to stereotype lesbians as sexy neurotic sluts. (This leaves untouched the "sexy=Auschwitz-thin" formula that pervades the show. I can't decide if such a formula is simply misogynist or more generally inhuman.)
Sure, them broads are hot, but in the end I think we've all been demeaned.
There remains the question of why this should bug me. First, I suppose it's my own gender-and-sexual-preference self-loathing, otherwise, why would a straight guy give a damn. What kind of nut complains about a chance to watch hot chicks do soft-porn while sitting on the couch with his wife? And why would any man object to the whole woman-as-sex-object thing? I suppose I was raised funny.
A few weeks ago Gabriela and I were talking with our friends Gina and Sandy, and I asked if anyone else in the room had lgbt folks to whom they looked as mentors or role models when they were young. I was the only one in the room who could say yes. Starting with the pastor and choir director of our church, I grew up surrounded by lgbt adults who I never thought of as anything but the kind of people I wanted to be like, not in terms of sexual preference, because that didn't really matter, but in terms of loving and striving to be a good person and treat people well. Sure, I was a child, and no doubt idealized these folks. But that's the point; I was raised with an ideal of lgbt folks as just folks, people like mom and dad and grandma and grampaw. I was not raised to see folks, based simply on their gender-role-orientation or sexual preferences, as targets of any particularly special treatment, and certainly not as objects of ridicule, scorn, or crass commercial exploitation.
Is the show entirely bereft of valuable social commentary or pro-woman messages. No, not entirely. But the raison d'etre for this show is hot chicks play-fucking in the name of commercial entertainment. That's a lot of context above which to rise, and I think it would behoove friends of lgbts to gently introduce the point.
This post, by the way, is a piss poor example of such "gentle introduction", being instead more of a rant as I verbalize something that's bothered me since I saw the first episode and said, "Wow, that really seems more like something written by guys who can't stand to see another dick in the room."
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