Tonight at 11 p.m. ET, Work Out returns to Bravo for its third season – as you may know if you’ve read our Season 3 feature on the show. (And if you haven’t read it yet, why not? Jackie Warner and Rebecca Cardon both reveal some really interesting tidbits about how they feel they were portrayed last season.) I must admit I’ve always liked Work Out, because it’s totally escapist melodrama that doesn’t sink to the level of Flavor of Love (or even A Shot at Love), and also because Jackie’s, well, hot. Apparently Jackie’s so hot that she’s a magnet for straight women, too, and the New York Times recently wrote about this phenomenon in their Style section. OK, full disclosure: They interviewed me for the article, too.
The reporter and I talked about a lot of stuff, including gender, and I explained that I thought that straight women have often been attacted to lesbians who fall more on the butch scale of the gender spectrum. Jackie’s not your stereotypical old-school butch, but she has the same swagger and hint of masculinity. (I give her some wiggle room for being an L.A. lesbian who’s on TV, where makeup is required, unfortunately.)
The article was brief and focused on straight women, though, so none of that made it into the interview. What did make it in was my identifying Jackie as a player. Ha! I’m not saying I was misquoted or anything – I was quoted entirely accurately – I just think it’s amusing that what to me (and to many lesbians, probably) is an old and familiar experience doesn’t really fit into a straight perspective on the matter at all.
For straight people, it seems that Jackie’s a new phenomenon – the lesbian who attracts housewives – when I think she’s just the latest in a long line of seductive butches (or “futches,” if you’re a Dani Campbell fan).
At any rate, my DVR has been set for this season of Work Out. To whet your appetite for more, here’s a 10-minute sneak preview from Bravo:
So, will you be watching? Does Jackie do it for you? Regardless, you should come back on Thursday, when bad machine kicks off her Work Out recaps again.
