TV
viewers who have been watching the third season of
the hit Fox show American Idol have
been treated to a rare sight: Briana Ramirez-Rial, who describes
her musical style as "a mix between Pink, Celine, and Cher"
and who appears every bit the butch lesbian.
Briana
(also called "Bre") became one of 32 finalists on
the new season of American Idol (which airs Tuesdays
and Wednesdays on Fox) after singing Alanis Morissette's "Uninvited"
and Etta James "At Last" in the early elimination
rounds. 22 years old from Klamath Falls, Oregon, Briana has
short hair, visible tattoos, wears little or no makeup, and
wears comfortable, casual clothing like Army t-shirts and suspenders.
Even if she isn't actually a lesbian (since she hasn't publicly
stated one way or the other), most people are likely to assume
she is; either way, she clearly challenges gender stereotypes.
So
far, this doesn't seem to be a problem with the other finalists,
who included her in their group hugs when they found out they
had advanced to the next round, or with the judges, who chose
her out of thousands of other applicants.
But
starting next week, contestants will be voted
on by the American public instead. Will viewers be able to see
beyond Bre's unconventional appearance and judge her solely
on talent?
Recent
events seem encouraging. In the UK, the short-haired, openly-gay
singer Alex Parks was recently
voted the winner on the American Idol-type show
Fame Academy. This was a first in the UK, but UK viewers
in general are known for being more tolerant of sexual diversity
in their television programming than we are in the U.S.
But
lesbians have begun cropping up more often on American television
in the last few years, and Showtime's recent series The
L Word about a group of lesbian and bisexual women
has received national attention and has already been renewed
for a second season.
But
butch lesbians have had little to
no representation on television in the US: Ellen's two "chapstick
lesbian" sitcom characters are the closest we've come.
Although even though the cast of The L Word aren't
all super-feminine, they could hardly be called "butch."
There is a short documentary called Butch
Mystique currently airing on Showtime, but it's one
of the only images of butch women we've seen on TV, and will
not be seen in most households since Showtime is a premium channel.
Reality
shows especially tend to be bastions of femininity, with most
female contestants far closer to the drag-queen end of the femininity
scale than the butch end.
Even
on reality shows that are supposedly about talent, producers
overwhelmingly choose conventionally attractive (read: feminine)
women in order to draw a large male audience.
There
have been more lesbian and bisexual women showing up on reality
shows since MTV's The Real World first introduced Beth
in 1993--from Genesis and Ruthie on later seasons of The
Real World to occasional lesbian couples on shows like
Blind Date and Elimidate to the heteroflexible
Tian on last season's The
Amazing Race--but they are still few and far between, and
never butch.
In
her official bio on the American
Idol site, Briana's response to the question of why she
wants to be an American Idol is "Because
I feel like the world is ready for me." While she still
has a long way to go to even make it to the final round on American
Idol, Briana is already one of the most-discussed
contestants on American Idol's third-season message
board, with her physical appearance provoking a wide range of
comments from "it's about time we had someone like her
on TV " to "she looks too much like a boy."
Even
if the world isn't ready for her quite yet, by making it this
far on such a popular show and sparking dialogue in American
homes about gender and appearance, Briana is making it that
much more likely that they will be soon.
