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Gender and Representation: The Butch/Femme Debate

Many lesbian and bisexual viewers of Sunday night’s premiere found it problematic that the cast of The L Word was 100% femme (in appearance, at least). Discussions on message boards across the internet were heated and often judgmental, with some viewers claiming that the show was totally unrepresentative because there were no butch characters, and other viewers arguing that it was a positive move away from the stereotype of the flannel-wearing mannish lesbian.

What these discussions boil down to is not whether The L Word represents all lesbians—it simply cannot do that, being a 13-episode Showtime television drama—but whether The L Word is willing to engage with issues of gender. Sara, one of my guests on Sunday night, summed it up by saying, “They’re willing to talk about sexual orientation but not about gender. They clearly did not want to blur any gender lines.”

Gender, as many of you know, is not the same as biological sex (e.g., male or female); it is a collection of social behaviors that construct what we understand to be a “man” or a “woman.” Many lesbians manipulate gender by dressing in men’s clothing, moving in a masculine way, or reappropriating terms traditionally used to describe men (such as “Shane has balls”) to describe women. Using gender to serve your own needs rather than allowing gender to put you in a box can be extremely empowering, and it is a form of resistance to mainstream social norms that lesbians have been enacting for hundreds of years.

Is it surprising that The L Word features only feminine lesbians who could "pass" as straight? Of course not. It is not only a Hollywood television show made to be palatable to all viewers—including straight viewers who would probably not be comfortable with images of butch-femme relationships—it is also set in West Hollywood, a neighborhood in which, as many of my friends have put it, even the butches wear lipstick.

It is also very important to remember that lesbians who pass as straight women are still lesbians. As "monkeee18aol" noted on the Showtime boards, “There are those of us who like wearing some makeup, dressing up sometime, have long hair, like being feminine and love feminine looking women. We may not ride Harleys, wear tattoos and ties, and work on our own cars but we are very much lesbian women.”

So it is understandable that The L Word does not feature any butch lesbians in its cast, and it is still quite significant that there is a drama about lesbians at all. But (and this is a big but) failing to include even one butch woman on the show is blatantly unrealistic. It’s like making a fruit salad but only using apples, because your guests would be uncomfortable with eating oranges. Yes, apples are still fruit, but they are not the only fruit—and oranges can be just as sweet.

Let’s hope that in future episodes, the writers and producers of The L Word will be able to include a butch woman or even an androgynous, Jenny Shimizu-like one. What better way to combat stereotypical images of flannel-wearing, frumpy butch dykes than to include some sexy, sophisticated butches who have fashion sense? Believe me: they exist—I see them all the time in San Francisco. I’m sure we’d be happy to import some to LA to star in The L Word.

Looking Forward

But despite the lack of butches, too many straight men, and Shane’s miserable hair, my group of friends generally enjoyed the show and are interested in watching more episodes. There have been so few representations of lesbians in the media that we would probably be interested in watching a group of lesbians read a phone book on TV, but overall, The L Word was entertaining. It was lesbian drama writ large and with a good-sized Hollywood budget.

As my friend Carolyn noted, “For the first twenty minutes I was really skeptical, and after that I forgot I was watching a show that was any different than any other show. It’s sexually appealing, it has a lot of different dramatic angles…it’s totally like a successful television show that you want to observe, even though you know it’s not your real life.”

The L Word has also given voice to something that the straight world may not be aware of. My friend Cynthia explained, “What really turned me on about this show is [that]…of the friendship group and the scenes where it’s the core characters, it’s all gay. I’ve had straight people in the office…[who] didn’t believe that I could have an entirely dyke universe.”

That’s right, folks: we’re here, we’re queer, and we have lots and lots of queer friends. Having this in your living room every Sunday night goes a long way toward familiarizing something that many heterosexuals find discomforting. As viewers become more familiar with the beautiful, feminine cast of The L Word, hopefully they will become more accepting of lesbians and bisexual women—which is something that we can all cheer for.

The L Word can’t be all things to all lesbians, but it is a step in the right direction, and I for one am going to keep tuning in to see how far it can go.

Also check out the AfterEllen.com review of the first five episodes of The L Word.

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