 by Karman KregloeColumns
Video
Currently Recapping
Popular People
|
A lesbian romance on "Home and Away"Back in December, we told you that Australian soap Home and Away's policewoman Charlie Buckton (played by Esther Anderson) was about to come out of the closet. Esther Anderson According to the official website for the show, Buckton will soon be developing a romance with recurring character Joey Collins (played by Kate Bell). The Home and Away site even has a special page devoted to the couple, with the following commentary:
The reader comments on the page are positive (and include several by LGBT viewers), but some conservative groups are, naturally, not happy about the storyline. The Herald Sun recently ran an article quoting Pro-Family Perspectives director Angela Conway as saying, "They (Home and Away) continue to market to kids and they continue to develop quite sexualized plot lines. The plot lines that young kids and teenagers should be presented with should be about really authentic relationships that are not just sexualized." Apparently, her objection is aimed at the consensual relationship between Buckton and Collins, not at the sexual assault of Collins by "lowlife Robbo." Go figure. Star Anderson is defending the storyline, and is quoted by the Herald Sun as saying that the lesbian kissing scene "wasn't that big a deal." As for corrupting young viewers with lesbian content, Anderson also said, "You learn pretty much everything at school. I don't think it's like I'm lifting the lid on something they don't already know about. To me there's no difference - love's love. The fact that your partner's the same sex is no different. You just want to be loved." Esther Anderson and Kate Bell The paper also reports that Buckton and Collins will "share a dance and a kiss, and over the following five weeks their relationship blossoms into love." But will the relationship last beyond five weeks? AE reader Morgann reported to us that Home and Away producer Cameron Welsh told the Australian magazine TV Week that a "loved central character" would have a controversial same sex love affair, and that the character would eventually settle into a happy long-term relationship. But will that relationship be with a same sex partner? I guess we'll have to wait and find out. Welsh told TV Week, "Sometimes you can have a gay character or something that is a little salacious. But this isn't going to be like that. It will be very honest story telling." For now, Home and Away's official website features a special gallery of photos of the "Great Couples" on the show. Do you think Charlie and Joey will soon be featured there among their heterosexual counterparts? Submitted by on March 11, 2009 - 5:00pm. |
Recent blog posts
New forum topicsActive TopicsNew Comments
|
Welcome to AfterEllen.com!
- Login
- Join Now!
News, Reviews & Commentary on Lesbian and Bisexual women in Entertainment and the Media
Haha five weeks
Nothing has ever lasted beyond five weeks on Home an Away, five days if they're lucky.
“The trouble with me is that I am a vindictive old shanty-Irish bitch." Eleanor Medill Patterson
True
"Nothing has ever lasted beyond five weeks on Home an Away, five days if they're lucky."
Lets not forget that Angelo is apparently getting out of prison soon. So they will probably get Angelo and Charlie back together soon. Geez, I can't stand Angelo, he's such a pathetic troll. I don't care if he didn't kill Jack he was up to something and behaved like a weak assed loser when he realised that Charlie and Jack were on to him. I hope Belle goes mad on her drugs and pushes him off a cliff or something.
In that first pic I thought
In that first pic I thought the cop looked a bit like Carmen, lol. I had to do a double take.
This might give me a reason to tune into Home and Away now. After years and years of watching soaps, they begin to repeat themselves, get cylclical, and they just don't sink in any more. I feel like I've seen it all before, but just with a different character in a slightly different context.
This however, is new territory really. Or if H&A have done it before, I don't particularly remember...
Previous gays in H&A
Isla Fisher played a sorta lesbian on the show for a while but it happened so long ago that I can't really remember the details. Plus there was another lesbian but I think she was a crazy stalker bitch - however that happened when I was at uni and not watching the show.
I'm a H&A fan and watch it regularly at the moment and am highly amused that this gets in the news in Oz, such a thing wouldn't even raise an eyebrow in the UK. I hope some of these bigot don't end up watching Hollyoaks, they would die of the shock of inter-racial gay male kisses and women sleeping with their fathers girlfriends and gay priests.
hangs her head in shame
Is it bad that I actually remember that storyline?? though in my defence I have forgotten the characters names!! Anyway the storty was that Isla's character wanted to become a writer and she met her favourite author, who ended up renting a carvan from Pippa. The two character began to work closely together and the author took the youngster under her wing. Slowly over time Isla (cause I really cant remember the characters name!) began to fall in love with her. But then at the same time her old boyfriend - who was very supportive of her artistic endevours - came back on the scene and confused the poor lass. However this story had a happy ending when she had to choose who she wanted to leave the 'Bay with, she choose the writer and off they went into the sunset.
The curious thing about this all is that when the storyline ran - noone seemed to care that it was a "Lesbian" relationship - it just went under the radar!! So I dont get why the "conservative right"in Australia is getting so upset.By my calculations, they're about a centuary late!!!
Just a Little Bit of History Repeating...
By my count, this is the third time (as the lovely ladies above have already indicated) that Home and Away have played the lesbian card and not once has it had any lasting impact on the character or the show...
I am chalking this one up to the Aussie equivalent of a May Sweeps draw and nothing more. I expect everything will be back to 'normal' in a few weeks.
Bob
I think
I haven't watch H&A since I
I haven't watch H&A since I was a kid, but I might have ti start watching again at least for the next five weeks.
Another life saved by hot girl on girl action.
kate bell
omg i still remember watching blue water high and she was definitely one of the major reasons for that :D
oh and is it just me or have a lot of lesbian characters names that work for both sexes (e.g. kerry, ashley, dylan, shane, spencer, charlie, joey)
ok so as soon as i pushed
ok so as soon as i pushed the post comment button i realized that there are many names that can be used for both sexes so i thought i look these seven names up and here's what i found:
according to wikipedia (unisex names) and www.gpeters.com/names/baby-names.php:
Ashley - masculine until 1960s, now usually feminine, 3,581 times more common to be a girl's name
Charlie - equally used (mostly as a short form), 3,708 times more common to be a boy's name
Dylan - more common for males, 2,199 times more common to be a boy's name
Joey - this way of spelling masculine (Jo would be feminine), 1,647times more common to be a boy's name (Jo: 2,414 times more common to be a girl's name)
Kerry - this way of spelling masculine (Kerri would be feminine), 2,393 times more common to be a boy's name (Kerri: 17,104 times more common to be a girl's name)
Shane - more commonly male, 3,524 times more common to be a boy's name
Spencer - (not a unisex name according to wikipedia) 1,660 times more common to be a boy's name
i know that it depends where you live, wheher it's male or female, but in most countries it's like above and i think that for the small number of lesbian characters there a lot of male names. is it that hard to find an all female name????
oh and i know it's kinda off topic but when i read their names that was the second thing that came to my mind :D
Name.
Charlie is a really popular girls name around these parts, its mostly chavs that have it but I have two relative who have had kids in the past 10 years who are called Charlie. As for Charlie on H&A, I always assumed it was a nickname because of her age but I guess its not after all. Her sister is called Ruby so I'm guessing papa Ross got the pick of the first kids name and his wife got to pick for the second kid and Ross really wanted a boy so he could follow in his footsteps to become a super cop.
Ashely and Kerry are pretty much exclusively female names in the UK now. Shane, Dylan and Spencer - never meet a girl with that name ever. I actually really like Spencer as a name for a girl though.
I love cops :-D
I think its frustrating
I think its frustrating this has made such a splash in Australian media this week, one news website even had a poll asking whether this storyline was "too risque" and whether or not tv shows should reflect actual society!
Past tence..
Esther: Yes, it was great working with Kate. She is a very generous actor and we formed a trust early on, so that helped us to portray the story in the right light.
Um... I'm guessing it doesn't last then...
I hate Today Tonight
Did anyone else happen to catch Today Tonight the other night when they had the story on lesbains on H&A?
I just about nearly punched my TV!
I dont watch H&A and I don't watch Today Tonight that often (because I nearly always end up wanting to punch my TV) but I wanted to know what they would say. The entire segment was a bunch of 'experts' (conservative parents and heads of conservative parent groups) saying that lesbians will corrupt their children and encourage them to become homosexual. Yes. Clearly. A lesbian kiss on the TV will make all their kids gay. Just like all the straight sex I saw on TV growing up made me a flaming heterosexual. It was the most one sided argument even for Today Tonight.
Basicly the whole gist of the segment was 'we can't show our kids this stuff because if we completely shield them from anything queer they will grow up to be the most wholesome upstanding straight citizins'.
The only point that seemed to make it 'even' so it could pass as 'news' was one guy at the end saying '10per cent of everyone is gay so you can't really hide your kids from it'. Yeah mate, represent (sarcasim). Although true, the damage was already done, that line will make no difference.
sensationalist journalism makes me so angry.What makes me more angry is all the people in Australia that take a show like Today Tonight as gospel (and there are alot) will turn around and tell their kids that queers are unnatural and you should hate them.
rant rant vent vent, I'm done.
I missed Today Tonight
but saw the end where they were showing Charlie and Joey scenes, I was kicking myself but now after reading what you have said about it I'm glad I missed it.
I hope that this relationship will last, I have high doubts but hopefully H&A will come through and suprise us all.
At the moment all of Charlies "male love interests" (Roman, Miles and Angelo) are inlove with other girls on the show or are in jail so this gives me hope that they are talking about Joey when they say that she will be in a relationship.
Maybe they are giving it a 5 week stint to see how viewers will react. It being on at 7pm, there is bound to be a crap load of fans with their knickers in a twist (like the fans of Neighbours and their whining against their lesbian storyline at 6:30pm).
I can't wait because Charlie is a cool character, lets just hope that she doesn't fall for bloody Martha like everyone else does LOL. That'd be awkward.
Here's a preview of tonights episode, hopefully it's the start of something good.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsChiqQFq4s just for the record, Nicole (the blonde haired girl) shared a kiss with another girl a few weeks ago but nothing came of it.
Martha Sucks
Angelo
Argh...why oh, why, Today
Argh...why oh, why, Today Tonight?
Just after Mardi Gras too...
-----
Use commas when necessary: You want 'Talk to me when you want to, mate' instead of 'Talk to me when you want to mate'. =]
I'm admit, I didn't forsee
I'm admit, I didn't forsee Joey being the love match when I first heard about Charlie and a girl/girl storyline...(considering the type of person Charlie is). I wouldn't have thought that Joey wouldn't be anywhere near her type "in general" at all! But it will still be interesting to see how things pan out, that is if the storyline is good enough.
Like hanging hangin with tall people might make you tall..
Today Tonight was infuriating!!
I can't remember what position that guy with the glasses held but he was the worst.
My flatmate was so DONE with it halfway through the segment she switched channels, my straight flatmate!
As for Charlie, i really didn't see that coming! lol
-And So the lion fell in love with the lamb-
Today Tonight
http://www.youtube.com/watch
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnllYJOL_0Y found it on youtube. I'm half watching the clip for the actress who plays Charlie and ignoring everyone else.
I love that Esther has the last word <3
Thanks
Thank you mostly kindly for that. I love the rainbow coloured font that says "Home and a Gay". I love bad tabloid puns.
Oh the first anti-gay guy has an ugly deformed nose, he's clearly getting no action and is bitter. The woman after him is fat and ugly. I know these people are just sexless twisted folk. I'm fforwarding the anti-gay people because what they are saying is so pointless and trite that I can predict and counter what they are saying before I even here to.
Joey still seems way too young for Charlie in those scene but what the hey we'll see at least she isn't whinying anymore. Still in fairness if Rachel can date/marry Kim then I can't really object.
I like Esther, she seems cool and I'm hoping that its not a 5 week storyline but I totally get the vibe that it is.
What's Colleen going to say?!!
I'm actually shocked about how much fuss this is creating. I'll be interested to know how the Irish media will react as Home and Away is fairly popular here and is screened at 6.30, so an early enough time slot too. I for one can't wait. It's a long time coming on what has always been an hetro-centric show.
Personally, I love Home and Away, it's my daily fix of sunshine and this is such a lovley added bonus (Depending how they let it pan out of course).
hahah Colleen
I don't know but she's probably Shocked! Confused! and Befuddled!
I think Colleen means well and isn't particularly malicious, she just won't understand but will be happy to toddle around shaking her head about she just doesn't understand young people today. Charlie can tell her to shut up in the nicest possible way and she will be she respects the police and probably thinks they can arrest her for gossiping.
The Irish media might but upset but I can't imagine the Five in the UK will have any type of issue with.
why, oh why must
why, oh why must there be shows like today tonight? those programs are full of bull. people should be more outraged with the "news" today tonight and a current affair conjure up then any story-line h&a decided to explore. by shielding children from opportunities to learn about same-sex relationships in a safe, non-sexual manner and environment, where they can discuss and receive accurate information is not doing them any favours. besides, there is always the option of turning the tv off.
i really hope charlie and joey have a solid loving relationship. i’m sick of seeing all the women in summerbay being wusses without a man in their lifes.
what a whole lot of fuss for nothing...
you know they showed more girl/girl action on TT than will probably appear on H&W.
And for those not in Aus - Today Tonight airs directly before H&W, oh the irony!
but hey, let's not show gay people on a soap incase the kids see it. Lets instead show the real adult bits from Greys and Brothers & Sisters on TV right before the same show we're having a pop at.
TT is the worst program ever - its sad so many take it so seriously.
Hopeful
Well let's be honest for a tick shall we?
Everybody knows what a lesbian is, everybody knows what a gay man is - in my relatively rural town anyway. The show is marketed for the 12-17+ market. It is at a 7.00 pm timeslot. HOW IN THE HELL IS IT GOING TO BE SEXUALISED?
To be quite serious, the best you ever get on this show in terms of sex is the traditional PG movie bit of skin, bit of kissing and then 'the next day' shot. I doubt whether in terms of 'sexualised' content there will be more than this.
What this really awesome ( >:| ) chick Conway is doing is nothing strange. However at least she does not make mention of the quality of the relationship.
The odds are against a good outcome for this, however given the set up and H&A's decent track record in terms of satisfying hook-ups, I'm not entirely sure that there won't be a relationship there to mollify any LGBT or romantic out there in crap-soapie-watching-land.
The only thing I'm worried about is if they kill either character off that it's believable. I have no fears about the relationship should it reach fruition (prays) but the end of it could be catastrophically abysmal. You just have to remember the season finale's over the years to know where I'm coming from: Stalkers (two or three), fires, club collapsing, natural disasters (x100,000,000), crashes (involving one or multiple deaths FIND OUT WHO IN FEBRUARY 200X), bombs (yes there's been one or two)...the list goes on.
But I love charlie, always thought she was more of a man-lover but I have big dreams about this developing relationship. Besides, the makers have already filmed most of it so it's too late to pull now, even if it is 'too controversial'.
- The responsibility of tolerance lies with those who have the wider vision - G.Eliot
New episode
oh man... watch
oh man... watch this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnllYJOL_0Y
UK air dates?
On Youtube there are
On Youtube there are users who upload full episodes of H&A that are ahead of the UK episodes. Theres an episode on the tube already revealing Joey being gay!
Not sure when storyline will start to show in the UK. Its kind of close, but not really, lol.
2 Weeks
Australia is two weeks ahead of the UK. I am up to speed in Australia episodes so when I come back to the UK in 2 weeks I will be back where I left off and I won't have missed anything. For those interested, in Aus eps, its up to episode 4809 on youtube.
g'day, i was just wondering
Whole Episodes
UK air dates
Okay I haven't watched H
Okay I haven't watched H and A since I was like 10 or something, so i'm over a decade out the loop.
When this was posted I of course have started watching it again :P
Few eps in i'm all 'where's the hot cop then!'. She finally appeared on todays ep and by this time i'd forgotten who she is supposed to get together with. I'd gotten it in my head it was gonna be a doctor for some reason o.O
Imagine my suprise when i come on here to doublecheck and find its the cuuuuuute boat girl i've been admiring :D
Doesn't she seem a bit young for Charlie though? o.O
Charlie - Joey kiss to be censored!
I woke up this morning to find that the kiss between Charlie and Joey, which was to be aired this Tuesday night will be censored! It seems to have been due to pressure from family lobby groups:
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,25254504-5001021,00.html
I watched an episode last night where the two of them danced together and then had a long romantic moment where they took each other's hands and looked into each others eyes (no kiss) before Charlie ran off in confusion. I was really liking the way the show was depicting it....
I can't believe this country! I am so disappointed :(
Weird
Weird huh, I guess its because H&A is considered a show for teenagers and families and we all know now no teenagers or people in families are ever gay unless they see it on tv. You've got to love great scoop that these folks scored by calling themselves 'pro-families' when they are anything but. I think they should rename themselves to be more accurate.
Guess Australia isn't as
Guess Australia isn't as open as the rest of the world thinks. ;P
-----
Use commas when necessary: You want 'Talk to me when you want to, mate' instead of 'Talk to me when you want to mate'. =]
opps wrote isn't, meant is.
It totally is in terms of entertainment thats for sure! (and maybe some politics)
I don't know, I think it all comes down to our serious lack of Australian programing full stop. Straight, gay or otherwise. I think if we had more Aussie content overall we would end up with more diverse storylines. There are pleanty of people around here that want to make newer, edgyer and different things (including Tv shows and Films with gay stories and characters) but can't get the opputunity. Gee, bless our free trade agreement with the USA preventing us from making too many Australian programs...
I guess to be fair, we are only a small nation. The economics of Australian programing means the people calling the shots don't want to take chances. They can't really afford it because if even a small percentage of people stop watching a program, the program will die. Maybe we should just get better at marketing our stuff to a global market? Our accent isn't that bad is it? haha
Anyway isn't Charlie going
Kiss is going ahead after all!????
Well, it looks like all those news reports were untrue and the kiss IS going ahead. Yay! I'm confused but very happy!
I wonder if this was just a way of getting the ratings up?
http://www.backtothebay.net/news/2009/03/28/kiss_cut_truth.shtml
How funny
Oh well I guess that'll be the fundies dissapointed then. I think a mention of a kiss was in the week 11 spoilers and we are only on week 10 of H&A for this year so the fundies have got their information wrong.
Collen will be horrified, not just because of the whole gay element but because Charlie's the local cop and well Jack would never do that!!! Get involved with the teenage rape victims who cases they are investigating. Although I can totally understand from Joey's point of view why she's very fond of Charlie, I certainly would be if I was her. Still I think its a really bad move for Charlie going ahead with this, look what happened to Jack and Angelo with their shacky morals.
Facebook group
I like the term "fundies" - that's my new favourite word for the week.
I haven't watched H & A for ages. Just tuned in recently to watch the Charlie/Joey storyline and am still catching up with the other characters.
Even though the kiss is going ahead I'm still a bit unclear whether or not it is being edited?
BTW, if anyone is on Facebook and is interested, I've started a group called "Say Yes to Same Sex Relationships in Australian TV Soaps"
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=60927968987