Tina
Fey, Stephanie March Get Lesbians Right on 30 Rock
(page 2)
by Sarah
Warn, October 26, 2006
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As always, the devil is in the details
– or in this case, the language. "Straight girl”
is a term lesbians use all the time, but straight people,
and straight TV writers, usually never do. Gretchen’s
comment that she had to move on unless Liz was ready to
make a “big life change” was also a nice departure
– I was expecting Gretchen to use the much more common
but annoyingly inaccurate word “lifestyle” (as
in, “big lifestyle change”).
The
word “lesbian” is used several times throughout
the episode, and most of the time it’s in a casual,
routine manner, the way one might refer to someone’s
race or vocation. When it is used as a punchline, it’s
in a good-natured way, like when Liz describes Gretchen
as a “brilliant plastics engineer slash lesbian”.
Or
when Gretchen jokes to Liz at dinner that Jack “tends
to approach everything the same way: locate the problem,
isolate the problem, set the problem up with a lesbian”.
These
are small, subtle nuances, but combined with references
to Margaret Cho, Ikea, and Oprah and Gayle - and the absence
of the tired u-haul and turkey baster jokes sitcoms often
resort to - they invite lesbian viewers to be in on the
joke, instead of being the butt of it, and make the comedy
more realistic and less cartoonish.
It
also helps that Liz is not threatened by being
perceived as gay, and that none of her coworkers, or her
boss, have a problem with the idea that she might be gay.
The humor is located squarely in the fact that Jack thinks
she’s gay when she isn’t, not at the very idea
that she might be. When a male coworker suggests Liz give
being gay a try, Liz ponders aloud why “guys think
women can just flip a switch like that?” He doesn’t
answer, but it’s an interesting and more in-depth
question than most sitcoms raise.
Stephanie
March brings a nice mix of assertiveness, confidence, and
humor to her character, which takes some getting used to
after her years of playing the much more restrained ADA
Alex Cabot on Law and Order: Special Victim's Unit.
While
Gretchen’s appearance is conventionally feminine,
her chic Bette Porter power lesbian attire has an interesting
hint of masculinity. And she certainly is popular –
Jack can’t stop talking about how great “Thomas”
is, the guys all want to date her, and Liz would marry her
if only Liz were a lesbian.
In
short, Gretchen’s not the answer to anyone’s
prayers for more lesbians on network TV, but for a single-episode
lesbian sitcom character, she's one of the best we've seen.
And the episode itself was one of the funniest sitcom episodes
I've seen so far this season.
If
30 Rock doesn't work out, maybe Fey can write a
spin-off show just around Gretchen's character - because,
as everyone knows, the future's in plastics.
Watch the episode in its
entirety for free on NBC.com
(the blind date starts at the end of "Part Two",
or you can just start with "Part Three")
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