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Bisexual Women Are Alien to “Torchwood”

At first glance, BBC Three’s Torchwood looks like a queer viewer’s dream show: It stars an openly gay actor (John Barrowman), has four bisexual characters – one of them female – and is the creation of gay screenwriter Russell T. Davies, the mastermind behind the original Queer as Folk. But after Torchwood‘s first season, which recently concluded in the U.K., the show seems more like a boys’ club than a place for lesbians and bisexual women to be adequately represented.

Torchwood is a spinoff of the ferociously popular Doctor Who (which has been on the air in some form since 1963) and stars Barrowman as the leader of the mysterious Torchwood Institute, an intergalactic investigative agency. Torchwood, like its parent program, is science fiction, albeit with more of an emphasis on character interaction and drama than space travel and time warps. The show has also jokingly been called an “adult Doctor Who” due to its 9 p.m. time slot and focus on sexuality.

The writers of Torchwood wasted no time in delivering on their “sex and drama” promises. There is a constant undercurrent of sexual tension between many of the show’s characters, with little regard for gender. Captain Jack Harkness’ (Barrowman) attraction to male co-worker Ianto Jones (Gareth David-Lloyd) is treated no differently than the heterosexual relationships on the show, lending credence to Davies’ claims that nearly all of the characters are bisexual. But when it comes to representing queer female sexuality, the results are a bit different.

Torchwood first introduced a lesbian-themed plotline in the second episode, “Day One,” which aired Oct. 22, 2006. Gwen Cooper (Eve Myles), who was busy investigating the Torchwood Institute in the first episode, decides to join their ranks as the team’s newest investigator. One of her first assignments is to deal with a young woman, Carys (Sara Lloyd Gregory), whose body has been taken over by a sex-starved alien.

The alien inside Carys is insatiable but also kills its sexual partners after climax, posing not only a problem for the population but also a clean-up issue for Torchwood. After witnessing one of these events, the Torchwood team quickly whisks Carys back to their base before she can do further damage.

The alien, in control of Carys, then explains to newbie Gwen that it feeds off orgasmic energy in order to survive. Gwen, feeling compassion for the young woman, is lured into the holding cell and is soon overcome by the cloud of pheromones surrounding the alien. Carys and Gwen begin to kiss frantically as the rest of the team watches via the security cameras, cheering and laughing rather than going to the aid of their co-worker. Eventually Gwen is rescued by the alien herself, who admits that she can only be fulfilled by a man.

The episode ends in carnage when Carys escapes and the alien exacts murderous revenge on Carys’ ex-boyfriend and several sperm donors at a fertility clinic. Eventually the alien leaves Carys’ body and the Torchwood team takes her home. Embarrassed, Gwen quickly blames her lesbian tryst on the alien pheromones and never speaks of it again.

It is surprising that an episode from such a seemingly gay-friendly writer and cast could be this awful, but “Day One” manages to feature nearly every negative lesbian stereotype imaginable.

First, it involves two ostensibly straight women in long-term relationships with men who, without provocation, begin kissing passionately, much to the enjoyment of their male onlookers. This entire scene is gratuitous at best, used more for laughs than as a significant plot device.

Second, the idea that the alien can only be satisfied by men is a sci-fi play on a traditional, sexist social construct. Lesbian sex, according to the episode, is simply not proper and therefore is meaningless even to an alien who requires sexual stimulation in order to survive.

“Day One” set a poor precedent for lesbian content on Torchwood, but the writers dabbled in lesbian sexuality one more time in the show’s seventh episode, “Greeks Bearing Gifts,” which aired Nov. 26, 2006.

At the center of the episode is Toshiko Sato (Naoko Mori), Torchwood’s computer expert. She has a crush on co-worker Dr. Owen Harper (Burn Gorman), but suspects that he and Gwen are having a secret affair. Feeling upset, Toshiko meets a woman named Mary (Daniela Denby-Ashe) at a local pub, and the two quickly become friends. Mary finds out all about Torchwood and gives Toshiko an alien necklace that gives her telepathic powers.

The pendant allows Toshiko to hear Gwen and Owen’s thoughts about their affair; that discovery leads Toshiko back to Mary, who is thinking about having sex with her. After some hesitation, Toshiko kisses Mary and the two wind up in bed together, beginning a brief but intense relationship.

As Mary becomes more ensconced in Toshiko’s life, she begins to push her away from her affiliation with Torchwood. Torn between her new lover and — as she sees it — her backstabbing co-workers, Toshiko no longer knows where her loyalties lie.

Eventually, Mary uses Toshiko to get into the Torchwood Institute where Captain Jack confronts her. He reveals that she is not the poor exile she claims to be but rather is a 19th-century prostitute who was overcome by an alien and has been feeding on people for the past 200 years. Mary quickly turns on Toshiko and holds her hostage, but quick-thinking Captain Jack uses a transporter device to send Mary into the center of the sun and certain alien death.

“Greeks Bearing Gifts” is not as obviously negative as “Day One,” but still has plenty of faults. Toshiko, despite her crush on Owen, is bisexual, so her relationship with Mary is not out of character. Unfortunately, even though many of the characters are described as bisexual by the show’s producers, even bisexual behavior does not automatically connote a positive portrayal of queer female sexuality.

In both episodes, lesbian sexuality is used as a manipulative tool. In “Greeks Bearing Gifts,” in particular, Mary uses her intimate relationship with Toshiko in order to win her trust and distance Toshiko from the rest of the Torchwood team. It is likely that Mary’s thoughts about wanting to sleep with Toshiko were not genuine but were instead a ploy because she knew Toshiko would be reading her mind.

Both lesbian-themed episodes also use queer sexuality as a throwaway tactic. In “Day One,” Gwen’s attraction to another woman is quickly explained away by alien pheromones, and although that is a decidedly new take on an old stereotype, it is no more positive. Gwen has since had several relationships in the show, all with men, and has never again mentioned her lesbian encounter.

Similarly, Toshiko — although she is openly bisexual — still lusts after Owen following her encounter with Mary, and her character has not seemed to have an interest in women since. However, content on the Torchwood website suggests that this is the fault of the show’s writing and editing more so than Toshiko’s character, who under different circumstances would seem to be open to dating women. Nonetheless, if her bisexuality is still there, we don’t get to see it.

It is not altogether surprising for any mainstream show to have minimal lesbian content — save the occasional intoxicated kiss — but it is surprising on a show like Torchwood. Sexual tension between the male characters, particularly Captain Jack and Ianto, is standard fare, whereas the women have very few sexual interactions that aren’t quickly explained away by alien circumstances.

In a lot of ways, Torchwood, though not an explicitly gay show, is falling into the Queer as Folk mold. Gay and bisexual men are allowed to have fully developed social lives, while lesbian and bisexual women are added only as supporting cast members at best, and as mere afterthoughts at worst. That is somewhat expected given that Russell T. Davies is the creator of both shows, but that doesn’t make it any less disappointing.

For a man who openly describes Torchwood as “very bisexual,” so far, it seems, he has only delivered that for his male audience.

Originally conceptualized as a one-time spin-off, Torchwood was BBC Three’s most-watched program last year and has already been renewed for a second season, so there is hope that the content for lesbian and bisexual women, particularly Toshiko, will be developed further when filming begins this spring. But if this truly is the BBC’s campy, sci-fi answer to Queer as Folk, a real, honest portrayal of lesbian sexuality from Davies may prove to be an alien concept after all.

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