AfterEllen.com Debate Team: Is any representation good representation?

As we so often report here on AfterEllen.com, lesbians and bisexuals are greatly underrepresented in the mainstream media. But this year, we are on the big screen with The Kids Are All Right and the small screen with The Real L Word. Yet these two projects have caused more debate in the community than the question of who killed Jenny Schecter.  (It was Alice. I saw a screener of the pilot for The Farm and Alice was doing hard time for her crime. L Word creator Ilene Chaiken, however, remains at large.)

I personally have some issues with both The Real L Word and The Kids Are All Right, but I also have issues with most entertainment, except for So You Think You Can Dance? and Judge Judy, which are already perfect.

If you don’t think The Real L Word is real enough and you feel that The Kids Are Not All Right, does that mean their existence is hurting our community? Should they never have been created in the first place?

In the history of entertainment, there have been many movies and television shows with lesbian murderers, ridiculous gay stereotypes and women who leave their lesbian lovers for a man. And I’ve seen many of them because lesbians/bi women are so rarely represented. I stayed up late to watch Kathy Griffin’s Law & Order:SVU lesbian kiss (which was cut), I saw Monster twice (and Charlize Theron was not cute), and then there was Bar Girls …

So the question is: Is any representation good representation?