 by browneVideo Blogs
More Video
TV Shows
Navigation |
Keeley Hawes: still delectable, but not bisexualLate last year, I wrote a blog post talking about my longstanding admiration for Tipping the Velvet actress Keeley Hawes. In the post, I mentioned a teasingly brief quote that had been attributed to her by the British lesbian magazine Diva, whom she spoke to while promoting Tipping. Of the Sarah Waters adaptation, she had said that:
Even at the time, I was a bit suspicious about this statement — which apparently was not followed up by the interviewer. If Hawes seriously identified as bisexual, then didn’t it seem a bit surprising that she wouldn’t want to elaborate at all to a lesbian magazine — while promoting a lesbian project — about what that meant to her? Well, a new interview was out with Hawes in last week’s edition of the Radio Times (the British equivalent of TV Guide) — and unfortunately, it seems like my suspicions were justified. In the article, titled "Keeley on the Couch," which promotes her new show Ashes to Ashes, reporter Andrew Duncan asks Hawes to clarify the bisexual comment:
Aaaaaaahhhh. Can I just send a note to Hawes — and to Megan Mullally and Nelly Furtado, who are also women in the public eye who have claimed they are bisexual only to take it back later (two weeks later, in Furtado’s case)? While I’m reasonably sure that you mean well — there are some of us out here for whom the words “I’m bisexual” actually mean “I might want to date women.” If you don’t want to date women, could you maybe consider not using the words “I’m bisexual”?
Or at least — if you have a very broad definition of bisexuality that includes “wanting to hold my straight female friend’s hand platonically while we’re shopping and talking about men” — could you maybe consider specifying that at the time that you make your statement? Because otherwise, people who don’t define bisexuality the same way you do might start to get ever so slightly confused. I appreciate that human sexuality is complex. I appreciate that labels don’t always capture that complexity. But the eventual retractions from Hawes, Mullally and Furtado don’t really make me feel like they are sexually ambiguous women struggling to find a way to define their complex feelings. They make me feel (to put a charitable interpretation on it) like they are straight women who were trying to show their support for the queer community, and got carried away.
As a bisexual woman, there’s really just one thing I want to say to them: Don’t. Please don’t. Seriously, we have enough trouble as it is trying to convince the lesbians that we aren’t all out to toy with their hearts before inevitably dumping them for a man. And we have enough trouble as it is trying to convince both the lesbian and the straight communities that we aren’t just confused, indecisive idiots who don’t really know who or what we want. If you’re a straight woman and you want to make a contribution to the queer community, try sending some money to a gay rights charity. Meanwhile, I’ll remain grateful for out bisexual celebrities like Kristanna Loken, who show that bisexuality can actually be a genuine, stable orientation that you maintain — irrespective of whether you wind up with a man or a woman. Submitted by on March 3, 2008 - 12:02pm. |
User loginRecent blog posts
Active TopicsNew forum topicsRecent comments
|
News, Reviews & Commentary on Lesbian and Bisexual women in Entertainment and the Media
hear hear!!
hear hear!! (too)
AHH don't bi people get enough crap already!
Stuff like this makes me angry because I have nothing against people who are bisexual. But, so many people do sadly. These kind of public statements can take groups of people that already have negative steriotypes floating around, and reinforce them. How sad that this is still happening.
http://www.youtube.com/sinfulhex
Here! Here!
Thanks so much for the post Browne! I'm so happy that AfterEllen is such a bi-inclusive site and that posts like this help the world see that bisexuals aren't out to mess with lesbians. But rather, we're just trying to find love like everyone else. Right on!
------
Nobody objects to a woman being a good writer or sculptor or geneticist if at the same time she manages to be a good wife, good mother, good-looking, good-tempered, well-groomed, and unaggressive. - Leslie M. McIntyre
Straight womyn Celebs
Note to Straight Celebs: Stay Straight don't add on you're bi nor you don't mind kissing a womyn or whatever. I feel like they're pressured to say that in order to say Hey,I support LGBTQI peeps. Know u don't. Just say You're straight womyn who support LGBTQI people in LGBTQI mags. Ignorance just ain't cool!
Just like Kitty!
Just like Kitty! She's such a tease.
PS. I think you're being very charitable. More likely they are just trying to appeal to their gay fans, and then when they're done with their gay projects and don't need us anymore they decide it's not so convenient to be queer after all. (I need to change my screen name today from cosmiccowgirl to angrylesbian. Everything I read is pissing me off.)
These comments from Keeley
These comments from Keeley Hawes surprise me. I didn't see this interview in the Radio Times but I did see another one she did for teletext. In the teletext interview she mentions dating women, she also stated that she would jump at the chance of playing a lesbian again as she likes kissing women. (The interview was short so they didn't go into any detail about anything).
So either she has been taken out of context in one of the interviews or she tells different interviewers different things.
Quirky Koala, any chance
Quirky Koala, any chance you have a link to the teletext interview? When I did my original post on Keeley, a couple of people did mention her having talked about bisexuality elsewhere as well as the Diva interview, but no-one seemed to have a link, and I couldn't find anything via Google.
Sarah Hadley, I agree with you that it seems possible the Diva interviewer may have just snipped out the context of Keeley's remark in order to make it sound more encouraging to queer readers... in which case, it seems to me, she wasn't really doing anyone a favour.
Unfortunatly I don't have a
Journalistic interpretation
I don't know - as someone who works in journalism, I would be VERY inclined toward wondering whether "I'm not a lesbian. I'm bi." is some charmingly journalistic simplification. As long as Keeley actually said those words, they can be quoted, but we'll never know if the journalist cut out a waffling, long explanation of how "everyone's a little bit bi." And the reason I wonder about this is because A) the only reason a magazine WOULD NOT pick up on that quote and run with it is if they knew they weren't going to be able to get more out of it. They did still run the tiny quote, as it is, which means they certainly noticed. Any journalist worth their salt would go ahead and ask Keeley to explain that comment - but if the explanation wasn't good press for the magazine's readership (i.e. if they felt "Oh, she's another one who goes on about how everyone's a bit bi, blah blah blah, no one wants to hear it"), it would never see the light of day.
Of course it was good copy for "Velvet" that Keeley said she was bi. But I would not automatically assume it was Keeley who is responsible for the pat-ness of the answer.
Regardless, I still love Keeley. She rocks. ;)
~S
__
"I give myself some very good advice, but I very seldom follow it."
she may backtrack now
Too Excited
Hmm
I read that interview as I get the Radio Times each week, and from reading the interview she comes across as highly intelligent and uncompromising when it comes to her own experiences such as the negative press when her first marriage broke up fairly quickly. From this perspective I don't think it's as simple as stating she was bi and changing it a few years later. There is a possibility she was taken out of context, or perhaps that as she was quoted "everyone is a little bit bisexual", which of course does not discount herself she is just stating that she'd had her relationships with men but wouldn't automatically rule out anything else. Ack I'm confused already :(
I realise that it can be frustrating when someone appears to identify with one group and pull out almost as soon as the words have left thier mouth, but I don't think it's quite like that. Hawes is an excellent actor, and as I said before a very smart woman who obvioulsy (as shown from some of the comments above) has a very positive outlook on sexuality (she did TTV after all). I'm not bothered what sexuality she is particularly. I suppose this whole issue would be easier if it was never stated before that she was bi and she just carried on as she was, being straight and that (at least I think...) because it can contribute to the ol' negative stereotypes.
This is in no way influenced by the fact I spent episode 1 of Ashes to Ashes drooling at the TV.
Honest.
"Hatred is blind, as well as love." - Oscar Wilde
observation
I've heard lots of people say they believe that everyone's bisexual, and every person I've ever heard say it identified as straight. Anyone else observe this phenomenon and think it's weird?
Do you think maybe they really mean "I believe that everyone but me is bi?" Do they think they're the only straight person in the world? Much as I'm enjoying the visualization of world where there's only one straight person (well, okay: two, and they're meant for each other ;p)...
Ha!
I've heard lots of people say they believe that everyone's bisexual, and every person I've ever heard say it identified as straight. Anyone else observe this phenomenon and think it's weird?
Haha! That's so true. Obviously queer folks think this too, but there's a particular kind of earnestness that straight people use to express this opinion. I think straight people say things like this either a) to show their PC openmindedness or b) because they think it's an 'edgy' revelation.
I know a lot of straight people who say things like this ("everyone's bisexual!"), and claim to be somewhat bisexual on these grounds. It annoys me so much. All they really mean is that if a girl hit on them, they'd maybe make out with her ... and it's really not a matter of sexual orientation to them, but simply trying to seem trendy. Cause the people I'm talking about aren't actually interested in dating or having actual relationships with girls, or being involved in the queer community in any way.
I also..
...read this interview in the Radio Times and was wondering if anyone else would catch on to it. I've got to say that I was so dissapointed after reading it...not because Keeley's not bisexual (hey if she's not, she's not..!) but because she appeared to be yet another female in the public eye that had gone back on their statement.
These sorts of actions only seem to re-inforce negative attitudes towards bisexual women. Only the other day a friend of mine, in reference to a bisexual woman said "make your mind up already! Pick men or women..." My friend is both intelligent and open minded which made this comment even more infuriating! Few people seem to truly believe that bisexuality is as valid an identity as heterosexual or homosexual.
However, after reading other posts here and some other articles, I'm beginning to wonder if Keeley Hawes may have been the victim of bad journalism. Firstly the journalist from Diva failed to follow up on the tantalising comment that Hawes made in 2001 and 7 years later the journalist from the Radio Times does the same. ...There seem to be words missing around both comments...What was said before and after?! I feel they may clarify what she is trying to say and it may turn out that Hawes is NOT another actress retracting comments. She seems far too intelligent and uncompromising to be doing this!!
Journalists often have their fair share to answer for too...
Bye Bye Bi
bisexual
Awww, man!!
That really sucks! I love Keeley. When I read that she was bisexual I got all excited. Isn't that weird, that some detail like that (knowing that one of your favorite celebrities is lesbian/bi) gets you all excited and makes you love them even more? What is that all about, anyway? I never got it. Not like you're actually going to meet them and fall in love. :D (universal "you" of course)
I have heard her talk about how kissing a girl is nicer than kissing a man because it's softer and whatnot. There's a video on youtube, if you just type "Keeley Hawes" in the search box, That's the second part of her interview on Friday Night with Johnathan Ross, and she talks about the sex scenes in Tipping a bit. It's actually very cute!
On another note, I found this interesting: "...we have enough trouble as it is trying to convince the lesbians that we aren’t all out to toy with their hearts before inevitably dumping them for a man." That's interesting 'cos I was just talking to a couple of my friends about that same concept. Now, I am actually lesbian all the way, but I was telling them about how I'm kind of paranoid about bisexual girls because all the ones I've met tend to lean more towards men and I've never actually seen them with women. I call them the fake ones.