Lost Girl: Now with twice as much sweeps week lesbianism

[seriousfic]

So I was thinking about the Bechdel test and The Hollows the other day when I came to a startling revelation. Sorry, let me try that again. A startling revelation! Better. I was thinking that, in writing a female relationship that's shipped by femslashers, it'd be best to say "They do have great chemistry, but if I did write a lesbian relationship, I would want the endgame to be a happy ending instead of a cliched death or split, so since they won't end up together, I'm just characterizing them as good friends. I do have other story ideas which include lesbian characters (dude, lesbian pirates, it's HISTORY. IRL, hung for being pirates (being lesbians probably didn't help). In-story, recruited by the government to hunt for the inventor of a steampunk submarine!)"

Yes, the ol' "lesbian pirates" rhetorical device. Guaranteed to win any debate. But yeah, I think most people would prefer to know right off the bat that it's not going to happen rather than get strung along by the occasional significant look or lingering hug and "well, you never know where the story would go." Because that would be just incredibly cynical and manipulative and WHOA! Hasn't everyone on my f-list been asking why the creator of Lost Girl gave this interview about a Bo/Dyson/Lauren love triangle and fans being Team Lauren when Bo/Dyson is pretty much a full-blown couple these days? Do they just suck that hard at love triangles?

Or... someone with a knowledge of fandom could run a racket. We all know that most shows have an "official couple" that TPTB intend the fans to root for... John/Aeryn, Buffy/Angel, Richard/Kahlan, the list goes on. And a lot of stories have a "Ralph Bellamy" that the audience 'knows' is wrong for the heroine. And this is where the genius comes in. Make the Ralph Bellamy a woman. Show Dr. Lauren H. Pants to be untrustworthy, not as "in love" with Bo as Dyson, just not right for her in general. It's just a small change to a well-worn formula, but it nets the show liberal street cred, a fanbase that is so desperate for maintext representation that they'll accept table scraps, and the story is still about the love affair of a badass monster hunter and her brooding vampire werewolf boy toy.

So here I am, torn between being impressed with the sheer cynicism of this and shocked at the immorality of exploiting a minority group's wish for representation to get ahead. NGL, I'm cynical as all get-out and a part of me trying to be feminist/anti-racist/un-homophobic (we need to think up better words for these things) in my writing is because I believe these are niches that are just waiting to be filled by anyone who's willing to not be a total ass about it (after all, it's not like anyone goes "well, that was a good book with a strong female character, I AM NOW FULL UP ON STRONG FEMALE CHARACTERS"). So hearing that someone has not only beaten me to the punch but done it in a way that is too dark even for me... kinda flabbergasted here.

Comments

[mcity.livejournal.com]

>But yeah, I think most people would prefer to know right off the bat that it's not going to happen rather than get strung along by the occasional significant look or lingering hug and "well, you never know where the story would go."

[insert Rizzoli and Isles joke here]

>(we need to think up better words for these things)

"Non-bigoted". There.

[seriousfic.livejournal.com]

No one ever gave an interview about how Rizzoli and Isles would be in a love triangle with Bella's Dad. If you had told me Legend of the Seeker was about Richard and Cara competing for Kahlan's affections, I would've believed it quicker than I'd believe Lost Girl is about Lauren and Dyson fighting over Bo.

[mcity.livejournal.com]

Oh.

Ohhh.

[so-wicked.livejournal.com]

I would've believed it quicker than I'd believe Lost Girl is about Lauren and Dyson fighting over Bo.

But maybe that'll happen later. You know, in the 2nd season's finale? Ish.

[telepresence.livejournal.com]

The thing is, the triangle plot is largely believable when Lauren is actually on the show. I think it's telling that Dyson is actually jealous of Lauren and finds her a threat/rival for Bo's affections when Lauren is actually around.

The problem is, she's mostly not around. And I'm not sure why. The show invests a fair amount into Bo/Lauren angst for about 3 and a half episodes, but between times she just kind of disappears. It's way more effort than they need just to come off vaguely queer positive or get sweeps week girlkissing in there, but it's not a coherent, whole plotline either. Then again Bo's identity and past are supposed to be central to the series, and that plot disappears as often and completely as Lauren does.

Honestly, the show feels like it's written by two different teams of writers, and they flip a coin to see which version of the show gets aired each week. Heads, Bo and Dyson are in some kind of prickly but basically exclusive thing. Tails, Bo is torn between Dyson and Lauren, almost literally in some scenes. Heads, Bo is dealing with monster of the week, tails, she's hellbent on finding out about her past. (Also, heads, Hale is kind of funny, tails he's kind of gross and offensive.)