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Lesbian Love in the Afternoon: Queer Women on American Daytime Dramas

Fictional small American soap towns such as Pine Valley, Springfield, and Llanview have historically dabbled in social angst as it relates to abortion, war, and AIDS, but until recently, have avoided directly addressing homosexuality and same-sex relationships, as if shooting an unscripted pregnancy behind a laundry basket.

This has changed in the last decade or so, however, as a few American daytime dramas have introduced gay and lesbian characters, and achieved several important “firsts” in the portrayal of same-sex relationships.

“I certainly think the impact of these stories have been huge,” says Michael Fairman, Advocate.com soap reporter and columnist. “These stories have hit mainstream press and have heterosexual men and women, as well as the gay audience, embracing them.”

Long considered one of the most politically conservative art forms in the country, American daytime television’s progress is commendable – but how strong is their commitment to representation when it comes to lesbian and bisexual storylines and characters? And how far have they come?

In 1977, an unhappily married character played by Sally Stark on Days of Our Lives (NBC) admitted to her friend that she was bisexual and in love with her, but the storyline never went anywhere.

The first out lesbian soap character appeared on All My Children (ABC) in 1983, when AMC introduced psychologist, Lynne Carson, played by Saturday Night Fever alumnus, Donna Pescow (pictured, right). Dr. Carson was a short-time lesbian psyche consult used merely to prove the heterosexuality of another character. The doctor was given no history in Pine Valley, no romantic pairing, and no future. She moved on to obscurity after only two months.

It wasn’t until almost 20 years later that another lesbian character was introduced to daytime audiences, again on AMC. In 2000, the teenage daughter of uber-diva, Erica Kane (Susan Lucci), came out as a lesbian, a decision which would transform the soap opera landscape.

Mimi Torchin, founding editor-in-chief of Soap Opera Weekly says the coming out of Erica Kane’s daughter could not have had more impact and import, other than Erica herself coming out! Also, I was very surprised that the show would choose to do this as there was no way of brushing the fact under the carpet once it was Bianca, who we have known since birth.”

Although this storyline was billed as original, it was full of platitudes. From Bianca (Eden Riegel) disclosing a prior affair with a fellow rehab patient who eventually marries a man, to a crush with the obligatory straight girl, the storyline seemed little more than superficial and stereotypical until Mary Frances “Frankie” Stone (Elizabeth Hendrickson) was introduced into Bianca’s life.

It was widely believed that Bianca’s relationship with Frankie, who was struggling with sexuality demons of her own, would become daytime’s first same-sex pairing – until, in a dramatic moment of lesbian cliche, Frankie ended up face down dead in her bedroom.

Some viewers began to wonder if this retreat was a network cave-in to the controversy of the budding same-sex relationship. But the impact of Bianca and Frankie had been felt by the network. Organized fan networks delivered emotional letters to ABC and the national soap media in hopes that AMC would reconsider killing this storyline.

A fan base of this size could not be ignored, and as a result, Mary Margaret “Maggie” Stone (also played by Hendrickson), the love interest’s twin sister, arrived in Pine Valley.

Albeit a youthful storyline, “BAM” became the first same-sex soap couple with a “traditional” soap arc that faced seemingly insurmountable odds along their journey toward love. Gay and bisexual women of all ages were searching for their story to be told, and through this daytime depiction, they saw a reflection of themselves.

Sadly, the most difficult obstacle turned out to be the writers. Was Maggie gay? Wasn’t Maggie gay? Every time the two women got too close for comfort, Maggie would fall into the arms the nearest Y chromosome, while AMC strategically dangled the possibility of a potential pairing with Bianca.

“Erica Kane’s progress in dealing with her daughter’s sexuality is a serious issue and it has been sensitively handled by All My Children,” AfterEllen.com Editor in Chief Sarah Warn wrote in an article about BAM in 2003, “but if the writers don’t allow Bianca to develop the same romantic relationships as the other (heterosexual) characters on the show, they risk undoing much of the progress they’ve made by reinforcing the stereotype of the lonely lesbian destined for a life of rejection and unrequited love.”

While Maggie remained uncommitted, Bianca became involved with another woman, Lena Kudera (Olga Sosnovska).

Mimi Torchin recalls, “I was very much invested in Lena and Bianca, both from a soap journalist point of view for the historic aspect and as a viewer for the thrill of the romance and the story. Lena had ulterior motives (later revealed to be coerced), but she was redeemed by her love for Bianca.”

“Lianca” led to daytime’s first same-sex kiss (even if it was unfortunately preceded by a parental guidance warning label), and for the first time in daytime television history, we had an all female love triangle.

Ultimately, however, “BAM” won out when Bianca chose to save Maggie from an abusive relationship with a man. Now, finally, there was no antagonist, no unrequited love, nothing left unspoken to keep the relationships from moving forward – or so it seemed.

The actresses decided to move on from daytime, and consequently, Bianca left Pine Valley for Paris, taking Maggie with her. They jetted off into the sunset together, but only after Maggie once again confessed her confusion and offered no promises to Bianca.

After three years and a myriad of “growing closer” spoilers, we had BAM standing somewhat where they started – only the geography had changed.

Upon Riegel’s return to Pine Valley a couple of years later, the audience learned that Bianca and Maggie had become off-screen lovers and Maggie had cheated on her with another woman. This led to Bianca’s involvement with a male to female transgender rock star named Zarf/Zoe (Jeffrey Carlson). Despite the fact the story was not embraced by fans, Bianca was once again involved in a love story that began, and ended, off screen.

This was the definitive criticism of the Bianca character – that she was always romantically involved off

“While stringing out romantic storylines for maximum drama is appropriate and even expected in daytime television,” Warn wrote when Riegel departed the show in 2005, “it is also expected that, eventually, star-crossed couples do get together. With Bianca’s love interests, the payoff never really came.”

In response, AMC cast an established daytime actress, Tamara Braun, as Reese, and the resulting “Breese” was groundbreaking for featuring the first same-sex marriage proposal, the first lesbian love scene, as well as the first same-sex wedding and marriage (and then the first same-sex annulment) on an American soap opera.

But their storyline soon began to unravel. Although initially portrayed as a confident lesbian woman, Reese suddenly became part of that stale pattern of sexually confused lesbians. Bianca’s brother-in-law, Zach (Thorsten Kaye), became the third arm of an underdeveloped love triangle and surprisingly, the core character of Bianca became inexplicably absent.

Daytime’s first same sex wedding was performed on Valentine’s Day, 2009, but the marriage ended the next day when Bianca found out that Reese had kissed Zach the night before at the rehearsal dinner. Thus the first same-sex annulment.

Bianca flew back to Paris leaving many fans of the storyline furious. She eventually returned, decided to give Reese a second chance, and took her back with her to France to work on their relationship once again – off screen.

“They weren’t putting the breaks on with the kissing – they were how a couple would be,” notes Fairman. “Now, that being said, commendable that they did a same-sex wedding, commendable that they did their research, commendable that they did it. The problem was the story behind it, with the Zach issue that outraged many. Because for many lesbians it just doesn’t ring true that a man would come into the equation.”

The anger of the fans was not abated in any way by statements made by head writer Chuck Pratt in his interview with Michael Logan of TV Guide.

“If Tamara decided to stay, keeping her on the show as an angry lesbian – with no other lesbian characters on the canvas – would be kind of insane,” Pratt said. “So we thought about making Reese bisexual – kind of an Anne Heche who bounces back and forth-and maybe make her an opportunistic black widow, a real bad girl. And Tamara would have been really great at that. But, ultimately, we decided to stick with the message…that love wins out.”

But when AMC’s executive producer Julie Hanan Carruthers justified the decision to use Zach as the obstacle in Bianca and Reese’s relationship, rather than another woman, with the explanation that, “We are working within a canvas of people who are interrelated and connected,” she hinted at the underlying problem: there aren’t enough romantic-pairing options for long-running lesbian characters on a daytime drama unless you’re willing to change the general makeup of the established cast of characters.

While this may make sense on an individual show level, Warn noted in her analysis of the Breese storyline, “when it’s happening on every show, you’re left with a television landscape populated by lesbians who sleep with men, or no lesbians at all, only bisexual characters (who also primarily sleep with men).”

Just as Breese was beginning to die down, the light began to shine on a new female same-sex pairing – Guiding Light‘s (CBS) Olivia Spencer (Crystal Chappell), a character with a history of broken heterosexual relationships, was falling in love with her best friend, Natalia (Jessica Leccia).

This writers utilized a traditional slow-build soap model in developing this label-less love story over more than a year, which helped viewers to gradually become comfortable with – and invested in – this unexpected romance.

According to Fairman, “This was a different story. These weren’t two out and proud lesbians. They were two women who had previously had heterosexual relationships, they were married, had children, it was complicated. They did take on a very complex telling of two women who fall in love with each other. That was very different than what we had seen before and I thought it was exceptional in that way.”

For the first time on daytime television the issue of coming out to your children was addressed. The character of Olivia had a small child with limited understanding of relationships and required a careful transition from one to two mommies. Natalia was a single mother of a troubled teenage son who had difficulty accepting his mother’s life decisions.

Guiding Light also introduced a third lesbian character, Doris (Orlagh Cassidy), the town mayor who had long kept her sexual orientation a secret from her daughter, now a young woman.

In the portrayal of “Otalia,” Guiding Light also devoted effort into the aspects of personal faith. Natalia grappled with reconciling her new feelings with her strict religious upbringing, her love for Olivia with her love of God. Natalia’s conversations with her priest, with herself, and with God broke new ground in daytime.

The slow build of the foundation coupled with the women’s struggle to accept the implications of being in a same-sex relationship created anticipation that perhaps a three-dimensional lesbian relationship was imminent.

But it slowly became obvious that the writers were intentionally avoiding showing any physical intimacy between the characters, beyond an initial kiss between them that was used for shock value only.

The staple of daytime television is, to coin a phrase, love in the afternoon. As other couples in Springfield enjoyed public displays of crumpled sheets and long, slow kisses, Otalia was relegated to the occasional hand-hold and forehead bump. As the storyline progressed, the lack of physical affection between Natalia and Olivia communicated Guiding Light‘s resistance to including a fully developed same-sex relationship.

When asked her opinion of why the network restraints were applied in the physical aspects of the Otalia relationship, Chappell tells me, “I was never really given an answer. Somebody just made a decision. I’ve asked other people those questions and there have been no reasonable answers from not only them, but from my own investigation of trying to figure out why. The end game is Otalia, and they have a life together. But in regards to any type of intimacy besides head butting and hair pulling, I just know that I walked away from it feeling confused by it and wishing I could do more.”

The cancellation of Guiding Light, the logistics of Leccia’s maternity leave, and the insertion into the lives of this female couple an ill-received pregnancy in conjunction with their imposed lack of intimacy all added to the frustration of the audience.

“When the writers/network refused to let the couple kiss,” Warn writes about the end of Otalia, “…they made them – and us – second-class citizens, and ruined the fantasy element that is at the heart of daytime drama.”

Says Torchin, “We would have accepted Natalia’s pregnancy and the forced separation from Olivia caused by Leccia’s maternity leave if they had given the viewers some satisfaction before the separation. But there was none, so nothing but rage could ensue.”

Given the potential of the Otalia storyline and the obvious reluctance from the network to show the physical aspect of the women’s relationship, one has to wonder – will there ever be a three-dimensional lesbian couple on network daytime television?

Torchin isn’t so confident. “I’m not sure soaps are going to be around long enough for us to see this. I do think, however, if a soap is smart enough to give fans a real, full-blooded, sex-included storyline the success will rest on the same thing all love stories depend on: great writing, acting and super chemistry between the actors. It’s as simple as that. No one can expect any couple to be happy all the time on a soap; it’s the central convention of the genre, right or wrong. But there has to be some happiness before there’s any poignancy in the misery.”

With ongoing resistance from TV networks, corporate sponsors, and other controlling entities, where do we go from here? Where will a three-dimensional lesbian relationship exist within a daytime model outside of cable television?

With the influx of online viewership from sites such as YouTube, Hulu, and others, the future of fully realized lesbian characters and serialized dramatic storylines tilts toward the web.

This is the impetus behind Crystal Chappell’s latest personal project. Along with her business partners in Open Book Productions, Kim Turrisi and Hope Royalety, and many recognizable faces in the daytime industry, including her Otalia co-star, Jessica Leccia, Chappell seeks to accomplish with her new web series, Venice, what she couldn’t accomplish on the network.

In the series, Chappell plays a lesbian whose sexuality isn’t an issue.

Says Chappell of the realization that the Otalia storyline would not be a realistic portrayal, “At some point I had to resolve myself with the fact that this was somebody else’s story and this was somebody else’s idea of how this should end and I don’t want to fight with it, I don’t want to argue with it. There are other stories to tell and there are other ways to tell it and that’s why I created Venice.”

Mimi Torchin calls Venice a “real game changer … And the irony is that although I believe that Chappell had something like this in mind for a while, it was the loyalty and passionate commitment of the lesbian audience and her own frustration at the failure of Otalia’s blazing promise that probably put this project on the fast track.”

After leaving All My Children, Eden Riegel also created a successful web series, Imaginary Bitches, a comedy about a straight woman and her bitchy imaginary friends, including one who is a lesbian.

So does the web represent the future for good lesbian/bi characters and storylines?

Torchin says yes. “There will be no censorship on the web, hopefully ever. Art will totally imitate life. But there will be heterosexual characters, and gay characters and older characters and young ones and artists and all kind of real life experience. I’m sure there will be honest to god, sophisticated humor, too, something else sorely lacking in traditional soap opera.”

“The web is absolutely the future.”

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