When straight actresses play lesbian or bisexual characters, they often face questions from the media about the sexual side of their roles. But one might think that a serious program such as NPR's Peabody Award-winning Fresh Air, hosted by ultra-informed Terry Gross, might not focus on such prurient details. Indeed, in an interview with The L Word's Jennifer Beals, Gross got off to a promising start by asking Beals about her experience playing a biracial character.

Unfortunately, the next two questions fell back on well-worn territory. Gross first asked Beals whether lesbian love scenes are more uncomfortable to film than heterosexual love scenes, which led to the banal follow-up: “Did you feel any need to do research about, you know, being a lesbian in a love scene?”

No matter how high-minded the program or publication, interviews with straight actresses playing queer roles inevitably include some variation on the question “What's it like to kiss a woman?” Gabrielle Christian, who plays Spencer on The N's South of Nowhere, recently told us that she feels “a lot of pressure not to offend people” when she answers these kinds of questions, which can quickly lead to potentially problematic follow-ups, such as: Were you nervous? Was it different from kissing a guy? Was it awkward? Was it uncomfortable? Was it difficult? And the ever-popular: What did your family think?

But the most striking thing — besides how common this question is — is how uniformly positive the answers are. For example, Julianne Moore, who kissed Toni Colette's character in The Hours, told Barbara Walters: “Toni is so pretty, and her skin was so soft, and she smelled so nice. And there wasn't any issue. It felt very comfortable and non-threatening.” Alanis Morissette, who recently kissed co-star Roma Maffia while playing a lesbian on Nip/Tuck, told TV Guide, “The kiss felt so natural; there was nothing uncomfortable about it.”

Even Gabrielle Christian has been the subject of these responses, when her South of Nowhere co-star Mandy Musgrave, who plays Spencer's girlfriend Ashley, told TV Guide, “I love kissing [Gabrielle Christian]. … She has those full, lovely lips, and she's an adorable girl.”

Whether it's the truth, political correctness or pandering to lesbian fans, straight actresses almost inevitably say they had no trouble with and generally enjoyed filming their lesbian love scenes. For Christian, her positive responses to these questions reflect the simple truth that she is proud of the show and genuinely enjoys developing an on-screen relationship with Musgrave.

“With Mandy, it's been wonderful because she makes those moments that could be uncomfortable very comfortable,” Christian said. “The physical part has actually helped us connect mentally and helped us build chemistry.”

Positive responses from actresses such as Christian may help lesbian love become a little more accepted by those vote-happy soccer moms in the Midwest, so is there any harm in asking these questions? The problem may not be in the answers, but rather in the repetitive, sex-focused questions that can drown out other, more important aspects of the actresses' lesbian roles. In fact, the media's focus on what happens in the on-screen bedroom is symbolic of the difficulty TV shows and films have in getting beyond the will-they/won't-they kiss to explore lesbian issues, stories and relationships in greater depth.

Christian said that mainstream media outlets don't often give her much opportunity to talk in detail about her character's evolving relationship. “With the gay media, it's a little more in-depth on Spencer and Ashley,” she said. “They want to go into more details about the relationship. The mainstream media tends to focus more on the hot guy with his shirt off.”