The state of same-sex female relationships on Australian television is ambiguous. While lesbians have been visible in numerous international television vehicles, such as The Bill, Bad Girls, Buffy The Vampire Slayer and of course, The L Word, Australian-made television has historically left its lesbian viewers wanting.
This isn’t to say that lesbians haven’t appeared on Australian television before-who could forget shows such as Prisoner and the strictly-for-titillation soap Pacific Drive? But lesbian themes and characters have rarely been integrated into mainstream Australian television series.
Recently, however, two of Australia’s highest-rated programs have begun to semi-boldly explore where others have only dabbled before.
The Australian drama All Saints follows the day-to-day rigors of a Sydney hospital and the people that work there. All Saints leapt onto Australian screens-and into the hearts of middle Australia-six years ago, introducing the character of Dr. Charlotte Beaumont (Tammy McIntosh) in 2002 as a sassy and ambitious new doctor who just happened to be gay.
Until recently, Charlotte’s sexuality really hasn’t figured significantly in the core storylines of the series. There was a drunken snog with a straight co-worker (played by Libby Tanner), but like Dr. Kerry Weaver’s early storylines on ER in the U.S., there has been little focus on Charlotte’s personal life on All Saints.
This seemed about to change when Charlotte finally secured a lover earlier this year, but her lover had almost no time on camera, and the relationship was over before it had even begun. But far worse was the turn her storyline took next: after being dumped by her girlfriend, Charlotte accepts an invitation for a drink with another character who has also been jilted by his lover, and after drowning their mutual sorrows, the two fall into bed for a night of passion. This poorly contrived scenario has all the subtlety of a sledgehammer, and a predictable outcome: Charlotte’s pregnant.
How All Saints will deal with the fallout of such a storyline remains to be seen, and the next few weeks will be telling as to whether the sexuality of Charlotte is merely a plot device for other storylines within the show, or whether it will actually be integrated into the story in a realistic manner.
Meanwhile, Neighbours, the long-running Australia soap that gave the world Kylie Minogue, Guy Pearce and Natalie Imbruglia and is shown in 57 countries, has decided to throw its metaphorical hat into the ring as well, with a lesbian storyline that culminated in a kiss on the 22nd of September. This is a noteworthy event in Australia considering that Neighbours appears in a 6:30 p.m. timeslot, and this is its first lesbian kiss in 20 seasons.
Pretty new Canadian high school student Lana Crawford (Bridget Neval) came to Neighbours recently with a secret: she had feelings for other girls. She comes across at first as a touch flighty, as if she can’t quite make up her mind as to who she wants to be, but it soon becomes abundantly clear that Lana’s carefully constructed façade has a purpose. During detention at school one day, Lana gets to know Sky Mangel (Stephanie McIntosh); as the two girls warm to each other, Lana begins to develop feelings for Sky that are more than platonic, which finally culminates in a kiss.
From the amount of backlash this kiss generated in Australia, you’d think that they’d shown a full blown love scene; newspapers have been full of angry letters to the editor decrying the gay storyline. The negative reaction by many in the Australia press mirrors Lana’s current storyline on Neighbours, which explores the backlash Lana experiences when her sexuality becomes public knowledge at her high school. Although Sky is not currently pursuing a romantic relationship with Lana, she has not shunned her, either (the depth of Sky’s feelings for Lana remain unclear, even to Sky), choosing instead to help Lana through this period of self-discovery and acceptance.
The lesbian characters and storylines on All Saints and Neighbours are problematic at times, and the public outcry over the lesbian storyline on Neighbours indicates we still have a long way to go before lesbian characters are routine on Australian television. But the recent steps taken by All Saints and Neighbours to tackle these issues are clearly helping to make that more of a reality.
