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Lesbian/Bi Women in Reality TV 2008

For the first time ever in television history, this week there are at least a dozen lesbian/bi women on prime-time TV in reality shows on three different networks: Bravo’s Work Out and Top Chef, MTV’s Shot at Love 2 With Tila Tequila and Logo’s Gimme Sugar, which premieres tonight. (Logo is AfterEllen.com’s parent company, and Gimme Sugar will also be available here on AfterEllen.com later today.) These women range in age from 20 to their late 30s, have many different interests and personalities, and even represent some diversity in race, with several Asian-American lesbian/bi women among them.

In other words, these women make up the most diverse and representative group of lesbian/bi women ever to be seen on TV at the same time. They include a successful businesswoman (Jackie Warner on Work Out), an internet sensation with a dubious reputation (Tila Tequila on Shot at Love 2), a professional chef (Lisa Fernandes on Top Chef) and a young club promoter (Charlene on Gimme Sugar).

That doesn’t mean that this moment – though unprecedented – comes without its drawbacks. Each of these four reality shows have positive and negative aspects to them, and A Shot at Love has some especially troubling characteristics. However, it cannot be denied that at this time in television history, lesbians and bisexual women have become not only acceptable in unscripted programming, but welcomed and even celebrated.

Here’s AfterEllen.com’s examination of where these four shows stand today in their representations of lesbians and bisexual women. Now in its fourth season (the season finale airs Wednesday, June 11), Bravo’s culinary competition reality show first premiered in March 2006, and it has featured at least one lesbian/bi contestant each season. In Season 1, openly bisexual Tiffani Faison was the runner-up; Season 2 featured out lesbian chef Josie Smith-Malave; Season 3 featured lesbian Sandee Birdsong and bisexual Lia Bardeen; and Season 4 has included three lesbian chefs – Zoi Antonitsas and Jennifer Biesty (who are also a couple in real life) and Lisa Fernandes, who has made it to this season’s top three.

The Good: On Top Chef, the sexual orientation of the contestants has always been publicly acknowledged, but it has never turned into an issue. Indeed, homophobia has been virtually nonexistent on the show, and the contestants who are not gay or lesbian have always been welcoming of their LGBT cohorts and comfortable living and working alongside them.

The Top Chef world, in fact, is nearly ideal in the way it treats lesbian/bi contestants: Their sexual orientation and gender expression has nothing whatsoever to do with how well they do in the culinary competition.

In other competitive reality shows such as American Idol, So You Think You Can Dance and America’s Next Top Model, competitors who do not fall into the traditionally feminine or masculine roles of their sex are routinely ridiculed by the judges, who seek to enforce mainstream gender roles and appearance. On Top Chef, four of the six lesbian/bi contestants have not been traditionally feminine in their appearance, yet all of them have been accepted and embraced by the show and their cast mates.

This is something that is rarely seen on television, and it is likely due to the fact that the network behind the show is Bravo, which has consistently supported LGBT people in its casting choices in shows such as Project Runway and Shear Genius. Top Chef is yet another demonstration that LGBT people can be part of a reality show without their sexual orientation becoming the issue of the week.

The Bad: Although Top Chef mostly excels in the way it includes lesbian/bi women, it could go even further by including a lesbian/bi chef as a regular judge on the show. Lesbians have sometimes been guest judges, but given the apparently plentiful number of lesbian/bi chefs in this country, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to give one of them (perhaps Elizabeth Falkner, who guested in the Top Chef Holiday Special in December 2007) a regular seat at the judges’ table.

The one area in which Top Chef falls behind consistently – the fact that no women have ever won the title of “Top Chef” – is not about sexual orientation at all. Instead, it probably is a reflection of gender bias and the old boys’ network among professional chefs.

This season, however, the series’ producers seem to be trying to break that abysmal record by bringing three women to the final four; two women compete this Wednesday in the finale, including Lisa Fernandes (pictured left). Hopefully one of these women will break through the glass ceiling in the kitchen this time around.

The Bottom Line: Top Chef is one of the very few reality shows in which a person’s sexual orientation makes no difference at all – and yet each competitor’s sexual orientation is openly acknowledged with no judgment.Top Chef represents what lesbians and bisexual women hope for in television: representation without sexuality becoming an “issue.”

Next page: Work Out

In July 2006, Bravo debuted the first prime-time reality series focusing on an out lesbian as its main character. From day one, Work Out has centered around professional trainer and businesswoman Jackie Warner, owner of Sky Sport & Spa in Los Angeles. It has also unapologetically included Jackie’s girlfriends and love interests, from Mimi Saraiva in Season 1, to trainer Rebecca Cardon in Season 2, to this season’s Briana Stockton. Throughout the series, which wraps up its third season next Tuesday, June 10, Warner has dealt with a variety of issues, both personal and professional. She started a fitness boot camp (SkyLab) to varying degrees of success; she launch her own clothing line; she just filmed her own workout DVD; and she even tested a snack bar branded with her identity.

Personally, Warner has dealt with a difficult girlfriend; she has re-entered the lesbian dating pool with enthusiasm and some recklessness; and she has faced her homophobic mother several times. In combination, this makes Warner one of the most multifaceted lesbians ever seen on television.

The Good: Jackie Warner has been presented as a three-dimensional, successful businesswoman who just happens to be a lesbian – and yet her sexuality is not ignored. In fact, one could argue that Warner’s sexuality and attractiveness is emphasized on Work Out.

The show has never shied away from airing same-sex kisses and intimacy. During the first season, Warner’s relationship with her girlfriend Mimi was displayed in all its curious physicality, with Mimi’s biting given equal time to their kisses. In Season 2, Warner’s dating was prominently featured, and her relationship with trainer Rebecca Cardon became one of the main story lines on the show. In the third season, Warner has become more of a homebody with her live-in girlfriend Briana, but they too are shown being affectionate.

Throughout the show, Warner’s sexuality has often had a masculine edge. She is typically the aggressor rather than the pursued, and physically she has a presence that is not traditionally feminine. Though she is not a stereotypical butch, she does carve out room on television for lesbians who don’t fit feminine norms.

In addition, the cast of the show has been consistently supportive of LGBT people, and even those who are straight (particularly the women) seem to be comfortable expressing their attraction to those of the same sex. Though there is a hint of the bicurious about some of these exchanges, generally the tone is one of openness, which is quite different from the salacious way that lesbianism is presented in many reality shows such as MTV’s Real World.

Last but not least, Work Out has shown that coming out to one’s parents is not a one-step process. Warner’s difficult relationship with her conservative, fundamentalist Christian mother gives a face to the decades-long process that many LGBT people go through while their families struggle to come to terms with their sexual orientation. The Bad: One consequence of Work Out providing a well-rounded picture of Jackie Warner is that it also includes some of her less flattering sides. Warner has been a shrewd businesswoman, but she has also been shown to have questionable skills as a boss.

In particular, the fact that she had a romantic relationship with one of her trainers – who may be an independent contractor at her gym but essentially fills the role of an employee on the show – was an ethically questionable move. This could have reinforced stereotypes of lesbians as predatory, and was only saved by Rebecca’s enthusiastic participation in the relationship.

This season, Warner’s leadership qualities in the workplace fell short again during the Episode 3.4, “Hit the Wall,” when her employee, Lisa, allegedly made offensive comments about a client’s breasts. Though Lisa apologized, Warner did not and maintained that she had not made any offensive comments of her own. After the incident, Warner fired trainer Brian Peeler, who confronted her about it since the client in question was his. It is not clear whether Lisa herself was reprimanded for making the comments.

As a result, Work Out lost one of its primary sponsors, Gatorade. Because of the way the episode was edited – the offensive comment was not aired – it is not clear what actually happened. This resulted in an episode that raises questions about Warner’s ethics and reflects poorly on her.

The Bottom Line: Jackie Warner is an ambitious and flawed human being, and Work Out does a fairly good job of showing her in all her complicated and messy glory. The show is no more or less melodramatic than others in its genre (The Real Housewives of Orange County, Blow Out, etc.), and hopefully Warner’s own imperfections will be seen as merely human.

Next page: A Shot at Love 2 With Tila Tequila

When A Shot at Love With Tila Tequila first premiered in October 2007, it became the first dating reality series to focus on a bisexual woman searching for love. Gay men had been featured in dating reality shows in the past (Bravo’s Boy Meets Boy in 2003, Lifetime’s Gay Straight or Taken?), and lesbians had been in standalone episodes of MTV’s Next, but Shot at Love was undeniably a first.

The first season started off with a predictable twist: None of the men and women vying for the affections of Tila Tequila, a bisexual MySpace celebrity, knew that they would be involved in a bisexual dating show. The men thought they were pursuing a straight woman; the lesbians thought they were pursuing a lesbian. This secret resulted in a storm of homophobic comments from the men when they discovered the truth, and the lesbians responded by vilifying the men as well.

A Shot at Love generated a huge amount of press and became one of MTV’s highest rated shows, and within weeks of its finale in December 2007, a second season was announced. This – combined with the quick dissolution of Tequila’s relationship with the Season 1 winner, Bobby Banhart – led to widespread claims that the show was entirely rigged and rumors that Tila Tequila is actually straight.

The second season, which is currently airing, has largely repeated the game plan of the first season, minus the secret bisexuality of its star. The Good: During the majority of Season 1, Tila Tequila presented herself as a surprisingly relatable woman. Though the season began with her positioning the show as an opportunity for her to decide whether she liked men or women more – thus fulfilling a common stereotype about bisexuals (they can’t make up their minds) – she said that she came to understand that finding love was about the person first, and their gender second.

The first season of Shot at Love also introduced viewers to one of the more charismatic lesbians to appear on reality TV in some time: firefighter Dani Campbell, who came in second place. Campbell, a self-proclaimed “futch,” challenges gender norms with her appearance and consistently expressed herself with a relatively modest and positive attitude. She can arguably be said to be the best thing to come out of A Shot at Love. The Bad: From the very beginning, A Shot at Love has reveled in gender stereotypes and has pushed its contestants to exaggerate their masculinity and femininity through unfortunate and demeaning challenges (e.g., eating bull testicles while mostly naked).

The men and women cast in the series – particularly the men – have apparently been chosen for their ability to talk trash and fight dirty. This is no different than shows such as VH1’s Flavor of Love , but the gender war that is promoted on A Shot at Love simply underscores stereotypes that should have died long ago.

Bisexual women, as embodied by Tila Tequila, are shown to be lascivious, highly sexed and emotionally unstable. The first season also saw a so-called lesbian hooking up with her straight male cast mate, underscoring the theme of secret bisexuality that the producers started off with. This is simply another representation of the stereotype that bisexuals can’t be trusted because they will cheat on you with someone of the opposite sex. But bisexuals aren’t the only ones who get a bad rap on Shot at Love. Straight men are, simply, boors, with little to no respect for women unless those women are serving them in some fashion. Lesbians are angry, derided for any hint of “mannish” behavior, and yet – most perplexingly – look and act like stereotypical tramps.

Indeed, the list of negative qualities that A Shot of Love represents could be endless. Simply stated, this is not the show that lesbian/bi women would have chosen as their first prime-time dating show.

The bottom line: A Shot at Love may exhibit the same tawdriness of other dating shows, but it takes it one step further by embracing negative stereotypes about men and women, and underscoring persistent stereotypes about bisexuals and lesbians. Nobody comes out looking good on this show, period.

Next page: Gimme Sugar

A new reality series about a group of lesbian/bi women in Los Angeles, Gimme Sugar takes the attitude of MTV shows such as The Hills and gives it a dykey twist. The result is a six-episode series about young, cute women who spend their evenings partying it up in an L.A. lesbian nightclub.

These five young women, all in their early 20s, have jobs that have little relation to the series – except for Charlene, who is the MC at Truck Stop, the club where they all hang out on Friday nights. When her friend Alex, who is 20 in the series’ first episode, is turned away at the door because she is underage, Alex and the others decide to start their own night club on Saturday nights.

Among the other friends are Davonee, the group’s tomboyish Shane figure; Bathilda, a flamboyant girl who has a flair for drama; and Robin, who largely blends into the background except when taunted by Alex.

As a successor to Logo’s previous reality series about lesbians, Curl Girls, Gimme Sugar is a marked improvement. This time it is clear that the five women are friends in real life, and though their intra-group drama may cause some eye rolls, they also clearly like each other.

The series premieres tonight at 10 p.m. ET on Logo and will be available in its entirety on AfterEllen.com.

The Good: One of the most positive aspects of Gimme Sugar is that three of the five main characters are Asian Americans, a group that has been woefully underrepresented on television regardless of sexual orientation. Given that the number of openly lesbian Asian-Americans in the public eye can be counted on one hand, this is especially welcome. Gimme Sugar also presents a group of lesbian/bi friends hanging out together – something that is rarely seen on television, where lesbian/bi characters (or personalities on reality shows) are generally isolated from a queer peer group. This is valuable because it shows queer teens – the demographic that this kind of show is aimed at – that having a group of gay friends, where your sexuality is moot, is possible.

Finally, the series features an extremely gay-positive social scene, which is something that many younger LGBT viewers need to see on television. Dating is presented as entirely normal, and whatever drama arises does not arise because of one’s sexual orientation, but because of issues that are common to straight people as well.

The Bad: As in many series that include lesbian/bi women, biphobia is present in Gimme Sugar. Alex, who is bisexual, is often ridiculed for her bisexuality by her otherwise supportive lesbian friends. This is unfortunate because it presents bi-bashing as acceptable social behavior. It is clear that Alex’s friends do like her, but their dismissal of her sexual orientation as disgusting is disappointing. Even if it reflects reality in the lesbian community – where bisexuals are often discriminated against – it also reflects poorly on the girls of Gimme Sugar.

The Bottom Line: Gimme Sugar is a lighthearted reality series that features more Asian-American lesbians than have ever been seen before on television. Though it is not perfect, nor is it fatally flawed. It also provides a much-needed representation of a young, queer friendship group on TV.

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