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Lesbian
Episode of Reba Reflects Progress, Pervasiveness
Sarah Warn, October 10,
2004
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For
those looking for evidence that lesbianism
has truly permeated American culture, the latest episode of
Reba should give you all the proof you need.
It's
hard to imagine a more middle-America, apple-pie sitcom than
Reba, which airs on the WB on Friday nights and stars
legendary country singer Reba McEntire as the soccer-mom head
of a dysfunctional family in Texas, which includes 21-year-old
daughter Cheyenne (JoAnna Garcia), who got pregnant at 17 and
married her high school sweetheart, Van (Steve Howey); 15-year-old
Kyra (Scarlett Pomers); and 10-year-old Jake (Mitch Holleman).
Rounding out the cast is ex-husband Brock (Christopher Rich)
and his current wife Barbra Jean (Melissa Petermen), the dental
assistant whom he left Reba for after 20 years of marriage.
Now
in its fourth season, Reba has been the WB's most-watched
comedy for the last few seasons, and a clear ratings winner
at around four million viewers each week.
In
last week's episode ("Van's Agent"), Van
falsely tells gay sports agent Sadie (played by Wendie Malick
of Just Shoot Me), whom he is trying to impress, that
Reba is gay—and fails to mention his gaffe to Reba. When
Sadie comes over to meet the family, she and Reba hit it off,
and Reba—looking for new friends since her "girlfriend"
moved away—inadvertently asks Sadie out. When Reba discovers
that Sadie "plays for the other team" and thinks Reba
does too, Reba excuses herself, finds Van in the kitchen, and
demands to know why he told Sadie she was gay. Van's response
is comical:
"I
didn't mean to, it's just Sadie and I were talking about our
favorite cities, and I said I really liked Lubbock, and she
mentioned San Francisco. I wanted to say something clever and
make a joke, but I don't know anything about San Francisco except
cable cars and gay people. So I made a joke about gay people
and it wasn't funny apparently, because she looks at me kind
of offended and says 'Van, I'm gay. Do you have a problem with
gay people?' And I'm like 'No! No! Not at all. My mother-in-law
is super gay.'"
Van
pleads with his mother-in-law to go along with the lie for a little
longer, so that he can secure Sadie as his agent. Reba reluctantly
agrees, and Barbra Jean warns Reba not to go to Massachusetts
on their date, "because they're making them get married there."
But later that night, when she's getting ready for the date, Reba
tells Cheyenne and Van that she doesn't think she can go through
with it because "Sadie's a really nice person and I don't
like lying to her."
When
Sadie arrives to pick her up for their date, Reba finally confesses
that she's "a little less gay than Van said I was."
In fact, she tells Sadie, "I have no powers of gayness whatsoever."
Sadie is bummed but blames herself more, saying "this happens
to me all the time" because "I got no gaydar,"
and asking plaintively, "How am I supposed to meet women?"
Reba sympathizes with Sadie's loneliness, and the two agree to
be friends and go to dinner anyway, although, Sadie jokes, "I'm
going to have to cancel the violinist and you're going to have
to pay your own way." The last scene is of the two women
leaving the house as Van, Cheyenne, and Barbra Jean look on, dumbfounded.
"She turned Reba!" Barbra Jean comments, and Van comments
excitedly that their daughter "is going to have two grandmas!"
The
most intriguing and telling aspect of this episode is
the level of knowledge it assumes its (straight) viewers have
about gay rights and gay subculture. Barbra's comment about Massachusetts,
Sadie's use of the words "gaydar" and "other team,"
the comic confusion that ensues when Reba uses the words "coming
out" and "my girlfriend"—these are all jokes
that hinge on the audience getting the references, and on understanding
that these phrases have a different meaning for lesbians than
straight women.
When
even Reba is making jokes about "gaydar,"
you know the gay and lesbian subculture has officially pervaded
the mainstream.
As
is custom with most network television shows, the word "gay"
is used almost exclusively to describe Sadie, rather than the
more loaded term "lesbian," except twice at the end
of the episode (after viewers had a chance to warm up to the
subject). But even just a few uses of the word "lesbian"
is helpful in desensitizing it for Reba's straight
viewers.
The
characters' actions and comments throughout the episode
send a remarkably progressive message. Reba's only concern about
being mistaken for gay is that it will hurt Sadie's feelings,
and Sadie's sexual orientation is clearly not a concern for
Reba, nor a barrier to forming a friendship with her. Reba and
Sadie comment repeatedly on their similarities, even after their
differing sexual orientations are revealed, and the audience
is clearly invited to sympathize with and relate to Sadie's
dating difficulties.
A
single well-written lesbian-themed episode is not as progressive
as actually incorporating a gay character in the central cast,
and the straight-person-mistaken-for-gay storyline is a safe
way for sitcoms to approach this potentially explosive subject,
with the least risk of alienating viewers. But this episode
of Reba is fresh, funny, and subversive, and
far better than most sitcoms' attempts to tackle lesbianism.
On a show that's likely to attract more conservatives than many
other sitcoms, that's especially good news.
Read
a transcript of the Reba episode here.
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