Best. Lesbian. Week. Ever. (March 7, 2008)

THE LESBIAN GAUNTLET SMACKDOWN THAT ALMOST WAS
This week on MTV's The Gauntlet III (a sort of young adult version of Survivor, but a lot less interesting and with a lot more annoying drama), openly gay contestant Coral quit when she realized she was being set up to be kicked out by her own teammates after they nominated her to go up against the season's other lesbian contestant, Ev (who, you might remember from a previous edition of BLWE, was/is dating eliminated contestant Brooke).

Here's the scene from this episode where Coral quits and Ev expresses her disappointment at not being allowed the opportunity to pummel her:

As steeped in unnecessary and inconsequential drama as this show often is, one of the good things about it is how nonchalantly it treats its gay and lesbian contestants. It almost makes up for A Shot at Love With Tila Tequila.

But not quite.

Speaking of which ...

JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT IT WAS SAFE TO GO BACK IN THE FOAM ...
A Shot at Love With Tila Tequila: The Complete Uncensored First Season will be released on DVD on April 15, complete with deleted scenes including "Spin the Bottle," "Brandi & Vanessa Shower" and "Strip Club" (because they haven't exploited bisexuality and lesbianism enough already, apparently). I'd link to where you can pre-order the DVD, but then I'd have to live with the knowledge that I knowingly contributed to the downfall of civilization, and I've got enough on my mind already.

While I started off thinking the show was silly but fairly harmless and at least sometimes entertaining, I was soon turned off and eventually angered by the show's ongoing parade of bad stereotypes about lesbians, bisexual women and Asian women (and by how blatantly the producers exploited those stereotypes for ratings).

This actually brings up an important issue for us at AfterEllen.com. Although we'll continue to report on any actual news surrounding Tila Tequila, we've been having a debate among the AfterEllen.com staff about whether to cover the next season of A Shot at Love, and if so, how much. In other words, should we do recaps again? Should we review the show?

Our conflict stems from the fact that while most of us abhor the show's exploitation of lesbian and bi women — and don't get Lori started on what the whole Asian sex-kitten stereotype it's perpetuating — there will be millions of people watching it. And pretending it doesn't exist on AfterEllen.com doesn't mean it doesn't exist. So should we be talking about it because everyone else will be?

On the other hand, does writing about it help promote it in any significant way? Because I don't know if I can sleep at night knowing I'm doing that.

Or is our coverage such a small ripple in the tidal wave of media coverage of this show that it doesn't matter, plus at least that way we're proving a safe place for AfterEllen.com readers to vent about it?

We want you to weigh in, so please take this poll and let us know what you think we should do.

Thanks!