2 hours ago
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I recently went on a holiday for a few days, and as part of that holiday, I caught up on a lot of television shows. Don’t judge me, we all relax in our own ways! I looked at nature too! It’s sort of part of my job! (and other defences).
I am someone who keeps up with new TV shows. I watch everything that is popping off – but I’m happy to admit that as a didn’t-grow-up-with-women-kissing-each-other-on-TV lesbian, I will go out of my way to seek out ANY shows about queer people, especially if women are going to kiss each other.
On my holiday, these sides of me converged in a way that has never happened before. I watched two very hyped new shows: Pluribus from Breaking Bad’s Vince Gilligan, about Carol (played by Rhea Seehorn), “the most miserable person on Earth who must save the world from happiness”; and The Beast in Me, a buzzy hit where sad Claire Danes has to figure out whether her new neighbour is a killer. One is an alien apocalypse misery romp, one is a prestige grief-mystery, but they share one extremely important detail – the protagonists of both shows are lesbians (bisexuals I’m not erasing you, I just think it’s true).
We have come some distance with inclusion of queer characters in TV shows (although it ebbs and flows), but it is very rare that we get a lesbian lead. So it is some sort of a Christmas miracle that I get two shows with a lesbian lead. But it’s even more rare that the two lesbian leads are representative of an important part of my community – Bitch Lesbians.
I know that may sound like an insult, and it would be coming from many other people, including those online who complain about “unlikeable characters”, meaning women who don’t smile enough or have too many emotions. But one trash’s trash is another woman’s treasure.
Coming from me, a lesbian of Some Bitch status, Bitch Lesbian is a term of endearment, a high honour that I have bestowed upon these characters. Both of them have good reasons to be misanthropic. Claire Danes is grieving the loss of a child. Carol has experienced loss and also the entire planet being taken over by aliens. But from flashbacks and general vibes, I have a deep understanding that even before these tragedies befell them, they were Like That.
These women, in their very different stories, are both writers. They are both abrasive, frequently irate and, by the time we meet them, have closed themselves off from most people. While this sort of attitude is celebrated in male leads, including very recently – Eric Bana in Untamed, Mark Ruffalo in Task, Matthew Goode in Dept Q – the same characteristics in women make people uncomfortable. They are more likely to find the character unpleasant or annoying, rather than root for them.
When it’s lesbians, we also have to consider The Trope. You know the one, it’s about how lesbians are humourless. We can’t take a joke, we’re unfriendly, we’re a buzzkill, and so on and so forth. Obviously I don’t agree with this, as I am a lesbian who can’t stop joking even when I should. I suspect the trope started because men in power and at bars didn’t like that loud queer women were willing to call their behaviours out, and “ruin the mood”.
Well, unlikeable and troublemaking to a man is a hot lesbian to me. It is really satisfying for us (me) to see this kind of character on TV, and it’s not one that we get to see often. Largely this is because lesbians don’t often lead shows, but also when there is a queer woman character these days, she doesn’t tend to be surly.
Pluribus and The Beast in Me say that complex, cranky TV characters can be women, and what’s more, they can be lesbians. I love seeing members of my community on TV; a win for any of the LGBTQI communities is a win for me. I didn’t mean to rhyme, but maybe it will catch on. But within that, I still wish for stories and characters as diverse as we are in reality. I want to see queers of all kinds, the strong, the weak, the rude, the kind, the funny, the depressed, the mean, the brilliant and interesting characters that we contain. But for now, these two beautiful Bitch Lesbians will do.
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Rebecca Shaw is a Guardian Australia columnist
