Best.
Lesbian. Week. Ever.
by Sarah
Warn,
AfterEllen.com Editor The
lesbian pop culture column
Friday, September 22, 2006
ME AND ZOOEY D Gospel
According to Janis, one of the movies in the works about
legendary bisexual singer Janis Joplin, has a new lead: Zooey
Deschanel, who replaces Pink. Since the film will reportedly
focus on the former Rolling Stone writer David Dalton,
who accompanied the singer on a long tour and is now a co-writer
on the script, I wouldn't be surprised if Janis's bisexuality
is barely mentioned, or represented poorly. But maybe I'm
just jaded after sitting through The
Black Dahlia's two-hour parade of negative bisexual
stereotypes (Prostitution! Death! Dismemberment!).
I
haven't followed Zooey's career much, but her big sister Emily
plays one of the best female characters on TV--a super-smart,
no-bullsh*t scientist on Bones.
Her best friend Angela (Michaela Conlin) is also really cool. Alas,
neither character is gay (Emily actually has great chemistry
with co-star David Boreanaz). But lesbian hope springs eternal!
LESBIAN
STEREOTYPES ON FOX?
I'M SHOCKED! The new Fox legal drama Justice
featured a lesbian-themed episode this week, and also co-starred
The L Word's
Erin
Daniels as an aggressive private detective (she wasn't
one of the lesbians). The episode was another parade of negative
lesbian/bisexual stereotypes (Betrayal! Drugs! Murder!) in
which two closeted female addicts in an illicit lesbian relationship
were accused of murdering a man who threatened to out them
(one of them turned out to be guilty).
The
only good thing about the episode was that the 18-year-old
girl's father didn't care about the affair when it was revealed,
he just wanted his daughter to be happy, and it ended with
the girl's friend/attorney telling her that she needed to
accept herself.
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Daniels
also delivered a stellar performance. Perhaps she was
inspired by the lack of cheesy waterfall shots.
AMERICA'S
NEXT TOP DISTRACTION
Out contestant Megan did just fine on the premiere of
the new season of America's
Next Top Model this week--which pulled in the
show's best ratings ever--but interestingly, her sexual
orientation wasn't mentioned on the show. In other words,
if you didn't read this column, you wouldn't know she's
gay. This is either because the show's producers: A) are
planning to release this information on-air at a later
date; B) don't want to draw any more attention to the
fact that Megan seems eerily similar to last season's
out lesbian contestant Kim;
or C) don't think Americans with their short attention
spans can handle knowing two different defining characteristics
of a contestant--i.e. since they've already positioned
Megan as the contestant who was in a tragic plane crash,
they don't want to distract us with the information that's
she's a lesbian, too.
Personally,
I'm offended at this assumption. I can absolutely focus
on two...hey, why is Anne Heche chasing a racoon with
a wedding dress in its mouth? And why didn't Cristina
and Burke lock the door if they were going to have sex
at work? I wish Sandra Oh's character would come out as
bi already...Wait, what was I talking about? Oh yeah:
how cute is Laurenon The Amazing Race?!
Gospel
According to Janis, one of the movies in the works about
legendary bisexual singer Janis Joplin, has a new lead: Zooey
Deschanel, who replaces Pink. Since the film will reportedly
focus on the former Rolling Stone writer David Dalton,
who accompanied the singer on a long tour and is now a co-writer
on the script, I wouldn't be surprised if Janis's bisexuality
is barely mentioned, or represented poorly. But maybe I'm
just jaded after sitting through