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No More Lesbians on “EastEnders”

Several years ago, BBC’s EastEnders introduced a lesbian relationship for Sonia Fowler (Natalie Cassidy), one of its mainstay – and ostensibly straight – characters. It was the first time in over a decade that a lesbian couple had been depicted in the East London drama, lending cautious optimism to the idea that the BBC was finally integrating its traditionally heterosexual soaps. Sadly, the relationship didn’t last, but there was always hope for more lesbian content from either Sonia or her on-screen girlfriend, Naomi Julien (Petra Letang).

Although hopes for reconciliation were always bleak, Natalie Cassidy made her final appearance on EastEnders last month, departing the show along with her on-screen husband, Martin (James Alexandrou). They left the show together as one of EastEnders‘ long-lasting golden couples, much to the delight of many die-hard soap fans. Lesbian fans, meanwhile, are struggling to care at all after being led on by the show’s failed attempts at writing a decent lesbian story line.

Cassidy’s role on EastEnders began in 1993 as 8-year-old Sonia Jackson. She stayed in the background for most of her childhood, but her story lines expanded after she had a one-night stand with future husband Martin Fowler at the age of 15. This led to the birth of her daughter Rebecca, who was adopted by the other residents of Albert Square in typical soap opera style. Sonia then moved on to other men, but the story always led her back to Martin.

When Sonia was 18, Martin accidentally killed Sonia’s fiancĂ©, leaving the writers free to create the Sonia-and-Martin pairing they had been planning all along. Despite their troubles, Martin and Sonia got married in 2004 and – given their past – many fans believe they are meant to be together.

If this seems like the most inopportune time to turn Sonia into a lesbian, well, the show’s writers did it anyway.

In 2005, EastEnders introduced Naomi, a lesbian trainee nurse who quickly became friends with fellow nurse-in-training Sonia. The two shared a close relationship – much to the chagrin of Martin – and Sonia turned to Naomi for advice when she began having marital difficulties while trying to regain custody of her daughter, Rebecca. Near the end of the year Sonia and Naomi kissed, and although Sonia initially regretted it, she soon found herself drawn to Naomi.

Several months later, Sonia gave in to her feelings and kissed Naomi in public for the first time. Although these sudden advances initially confused Naomi, the two soon professed their love for each other; shortly thereafter, Sonia divorced Martin and moved in with her new girlfriend.

Unfortunately, their relationship seemed doomed from the start. Sonia’s sudden lesbian affair was met with disapproval from all sides, and nobody – the fans, characters or even the actors – was particularly supportive of her relationship. As a result, perhaps, the writers wrote what was expected of them.

First, the audience was treated to the seemingly requisite plot point of Sonia and Naomi being caught in the act by Martin, but without the gratuitous sex scene that usually accompanies those moments. After that, there was hardly room in the script for any affection or sympathy at all; instead, their relationship was written around its impact on Martin and the other Albert Square residents.

The reaction of Rebecca’s guardian, Margaret, was especially hurtful. When the relationship became public, she immediately sought to award sole custody of Rebecca to Martin, citing Sonia’s sexual orientation as the reason she would be an unfit mother. This vitriolic response to Sonia and Naomi’s relationship could have been a pivotal moment had the program’s producers used the opportunity to prove either the quality of their relationship or to reinforce Sonia’s parenting abilities. Unfortunately, they did neither of these things.

Instead, Margaret’s reaction was surprisingly representative of the public response to their relationship. Fans of the show were upset that anyone (let alone a lesbian) had come between Sonia and Martin. Naomi came off looking especially predatory – a common trait in media representations of gay and lesbian characters – by seducing a formerly heterosexual woman and convincing her to leave her family. It’s a tired clichĂ© we’ve seen before, from Emmerdale to The L Word.

Eventually — and not too surprisingly — Naomi and Sonia broke up. Afterward, Naomi faded into the background and Sonia ended up back with Martin, seeming to forget entirely about the same-sex attractions she once had (although actress Natalie Cassidy has said that she considers her character bisexual). It was a sad but not unexpected ending to a rare chance for the BBC to acknowledge lesbian sexuality in its programming and for viewers to witness a positive lesbian relationship that didn’t ruin anybody’s life.

Unfortunately it was an opportunity missed, and although lesbian content has never been plentiful on EastEnders, it has also rarely been this negative.

From 1994 to 1995, the show addressed lesbian sexuality for the first time with Della and Binnie (Michelle Joseph and Sophie Langham), an interracial couple struggling with homophobia in Albert Square. Their first kiss received more complaints than any other television program that year, and much of their time as an EastEnders couple was spent dealing with their homophobic neighbors.

But as their story line evolved, the couple began to impact British societal views regarding lesbians, even garnering support from previously homophobic viewers and EastEnders characters. Their story eventually had a happy ending when the couple left for Spain together, and in their final episode Della even came out to her mother, who was surprisingly supportive of her.

The success of the Della and Binnie story line seemed to bode well for the future of EastEnders lesbians, but it would be nearly a decade before the writers attempted to address the issue again.

Finally, in 2002 young best friends Kelly and Zoe (Brooke Kinsella and Michelle Ryan) shared a much-hyped kiss, but they soon concluded that they weren’t gay after all; they had only kissed because they thought they were going to die. A year later Kelly was written out of the show, reportedly to give Zoe more screen time of her own.

EastEnders fans had to wait another three years before lesbian sexuality was addressed on the show again (via Sonia and Naomi’s relationship), but now this period of hope for queer fans — however dreary — has again come to an end.

Unfortunately, Natalie Cassidy’s exit from EastEnders has even further-reaching implications than one might expect, and is not just the end of reconciliatory hope for Sonia and Naomi, but also for lesbian EastEnders content in general. After Cassidy publicized her intent to leave the soap, actress Petra Letang, who played Naomi, also announced that she is leaving later this year. Without Sonia in Albert Square, there are simply no other queer characters with whom Naomi can interact; thus, Letang’s story lines have all but disintegrated.

But if there can be one positive aspect to the failed lesbian story line, it is how Sonia left Albert Square. When Cassidy first announced her plans to leave EastEnders, rumors centered on Martin murdering his ex-wife because he couldn’t handle her lesbianism or the idea of her raising their daughter in a lesbian household. Thankfully, those ideas dissipated in favor of leaving the plot open for future cameos by Cassidy, sparing fans from one more tragic lesbian moment. (Letang, meanwhile, is not likely to return to the soap, and it remains to be seen if her character will be killed off.)

Given the way their relationship was handled, it’s hard to feel bad about the departures of either Sonia or Naomi. The characters — both separately and together — had the potential to develop a loving depiction of lesbian sexuality but were failed by the show’s writers and, arguably, the BBC’s institutionalized homophobia. Given their already mixed history with lesbians, there’s hope that EastEnders will get it right next time. But for now, the lesbian exodus from Albert Square feels more like a welcome relief than another painful moment in the history of lesbian representation on British soaps.

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