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Despite
Law and Order’s generally positive
portrayal of lesbians, the series has slipped up a couple of
times. A 2002 episode titled “Girl Most Likely”
investigates the murder of a teenager Julie Cade, who had blown
the whistle on a group of boys from her school who were publishing
a website in which they rated other students sexually. Although
the boys seem to be the likely suspects, detectives soon discover
that at a recent party Julie announced that she was a lesbian
in order to resist the advances of the boys. Her lover was her
friend Alicia, who did not want anyone to know. After Julie
came out, Alicia killed her in order to keep their relationship
a secret.
Similarly,
in the 2003 episode “Seer,” a woman named Rachel
is found murdered in a dumpster. The police believe that she
was killed by her neighbor, Grayson, who claimed to have visions
of her death and was also stalking her. But the investigation
takes another turn when the detectives find that Rachel used
to attend sex parties with her friend Lee Ann Parker. Although
Lee Ann had feelings for Rachel, it seems that Rachel did not
return the favor, and thus Lee Ann killed her.
Both
“Girl Most Likely” and “Seer” are examples
of a tried-and-true plot formula: the killer, who has homosexual
feelings for the victim, kills the victim because the victim
either does not return the feelings or because they make the
killer feel abnormal. These kinds of stories tend to demonize
homosexuality because it is a direct cause of the crime, even
if the killers or victims are portrayed in a sympathetic manner.
But
thankfully, these kinds of storylines occur less and less these
days. Unfortunately, bisexuality—which is rarely shown
on television at all—tends to be portrayed as the root
cause of violent or psychotic behavior.
In
a complex two-part 1999 crossover with Homicide,
Law and Order investigates the murder of Vivian McBride,
a government economist, whose body is found in Battery Park
in New York City. McBride turns out to have been a lesbian,
and the prime suspect in her murder is Chesley Purcell, a bisexual
hitwoman with links to an imprisoned drug dealer. Further investigation
leads the New York team to Washington, D.C., where in cooperation
with the Baltimore-based Homicide characters they follow a thread
that leads all the way to the White House.
It
turns out that the White House Deputy Chief of Staff is a lesbian
who was having an affair with a coworker named Katherine Rainer,
who was also involved with McBride. The Deputy Chief of Staff
tried to promote McBride out of Washington, but when McBride
did not leave, she hired a former Drug Enforcement Agent named
Dawkins to bribe McBride to leave. However, McBride refused
the bribe and threatened to expose him. This led to Dawkins
hiring Chesley Purcell to kill McBride.
In
this episode, titled “Sideshow,” the numerous lesbian
characters are all closeted until the investigation forces them
to come out—a not-unrealistic situation in Washington.
However, unlike many police procedurals in which closeted people
kill in order to hide their sexuality, the murder of McBride
was not committed because of anyone’s sexual orientation;
it was committed out of a desire to cover up a bribe. Unfortunately,
the fact that the hired killer is a bisexual (for no obvious
reason) as well as a prostitute and is closely linked to a drug
dealer is not good news: it simply falls into the long-standing
tradition of putting bisexuality in the same category as criminal
behavior.
In
a more recent episode, “Obsession,” which aired
on February 9, 2005, a right-wing talk show host is murdered,
and the suspects include his wife Miranda, who had affairs with
both a man and a woman named Karen. Karen, who is mentally unstable,
claims that she only killed the talk show host because Miranda
asked her to.
But
Miranda denies everything, including having an affair with Karen—until
the conclusion of the episode, when her son reveals that he
saw the two of them together. The portrayal of bisexuality in
“Obsession” clearly links bisexuality with mental
instability, following in a long line of police dramas since
the 1960s.
As
one of television’s most-watched dramas, Law
and Order and its numerous spinoffs can have a significant
affect on representations of lesbians and bisexual women. When
Law and Order: SVU recently aired an episode in which
a lesbian police officer made a pass at Detective Benson (Mariska
Hargitay), it seemed to acknowledge the fact that many viewers
feel that Detective Benson is gay.
But
in 2005, it’s not enough to play coy with viewers. Law
and Order’s track record on lesbian and bisexual
women is simply not good enough—it still regularly falls
back on outdated, negative stereotypes.
Let’s
hope that if Detective Benson ever comes out, she doesn’t
get fired on the same day.
For more info, visit our new
Law and Order section
