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This
tenuous balance between risk and caution has defined
Will and Grace from the start, and the series' uneasy
compromise between the two is reflected in most of the characters,
especially Will. Although NBC defied convention by featuring a
show about a gay man, it consistently refuses to allow Will to
have a boyfriend (or even let him kiss another man, except in
jest).
Many
will argue that this compromise is required to allow the series
to remain successful, to enable NBC to attract the hip, liberal
viewer by featuring unusual characters with sexualities that push
the envelope, but also keep the slightly more conservative American
viewer from being scared off by not allowing these "alternative"
sexualities to go much beyond theoretical. While it may not be true
that this compromise is necessary to keep Will and Grace
on the air, it probably is one of the reasons the show has kept
its high ratings.
Karen's
ambiguous sexuality is a by-product of this environment. Her jokes
and behavior challenge network television convention, but stop just
short of openly defying it. So while she might have been truly bisexual
if the series were running on cable television, or on network television
several years from now, on NBC today Karen is confined to the role
of what I like to call the Bisexual Straight Woman.
This
is a woman who frequently makes direct or thinly-veiled comments
about being attracted to other woman, occasionally kisses
or sleeps with them, but rarely or never actually dates
women. She sees herself primarily as heterosexual, and while she
is attracted to women, it's purely on a sexual level; she has no
interest in a romantic relationship with another woman beyond sex,
aside from the occasional odd relationship in her past.
In
short, she is the heterosexual idea of a bisexual woman: attracted
to women, but ultimately needing a man.
Fictional
manifestations of the Bisexual Straight Women
have cropped up all over TV (Bird on Soul
Food and Samantha on Sex and the City) and
film (Laure in Femme
Fatale, Laura in The
Hours, Lauren in A
Girl Thing, and Gaby in 8
Women) in the last few years.
Several
real-life women would seem to fit this description, too, such
as Lisa Marie Pressly, Alanis Morisette, and Madonna, not to mention
a myriad of women on reality TV shows, like Brynn on MTV's
The Real World Las Vegas.
There
are several ways to define bisexual, of course, and no one definition
is the right one, but most include at least the possibility
of a relationship with another woman beyond sex in the future.
So while Karen's not-exactly-hetero sexuality is still a challenge
to heterosexism, it's not really bisexuality, either. She shouldn't
be considered representative of the average bisexual women, who
values relationships with women for more than just sex, at least
once in a while.
But
then, there are few things about Karen Walker that can be said to
be representative of the average woman of any sexual orientation,
which is one of the reasons we keep tuning in to watch her every
week.
None
of this is meant to imply that Karen hasn't contributed
to bisexual visibility on television. Five years of innuendo and
implied bisexuality on Will and Grace has helped familiarize
the American public with the idea that women can be attracted to
men and women, and the frequent (and lengthy) kisses between
Karen and Grace have contributed to desensitizing viewers to lesbian
kisses.
Karen
is also just plain funny, interesting, and unconventional, and a
refreshing departure from most female sitcom characters.
Wanting
Karen to be bisexual doesn't mean she is, and unless the Will
and Grace writers decide to finally give Karen a girlfriend,
we'll have to look elsewhere for that. But we can still enjoy Karen's
witty and eccentric attempt to make the world not quite so straight
on Will and Grace.
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