Selected articles from AfterEllen.com:
01.03.08 — Cashmere Mafia Brings Lesbians Back to Network TV
It has been nearly a year since broadcast television included a regular lesbian/bi character — Laura Innes’ Dr. Kerry Weaver left ER on Jan. 11, 2007 — but thankfully that drought is coming to an end this Sunday, Jan. 6, when Cashmere Mafia premieres on ABC. The dramedy centering on four successful businesswomen in New York includes not one but two lesbian/bi characters: marketing executive Caitlin Dowd, played by Bonnie Somerville (NYPD Blue, Friends), and the woman she falls in love with, Alicia, played by Lourdes Benedicto (The Nine, 24).
12.19.07 — 2007 Year in Review: Television
Although the number of regular lesbian characters on prime-time broadcast television fell from one to zero over the course of 2007, that bleak statistic does not reflect the generally positive and even groundbreaking ways that lesbian and bisexual women were represented on American television in the past year. From sex and dating to gender expression, lesbians and bi women came out of the closet this year as fully fledged individuals with romantic lives and political beliefs — whether you liked them or not.
11.20.07 — Battlestar Galactica: Razor Delivers a Crucial Lesbian Twist
On Nov. 24, Sci Fi debuts a two-hour television movie, Razor , set during the second season of the reimagined Battlestar Galactica. (Battlestar Galactica is currently between its third and fourth seasons, making Razor a prequel of sorts.) It goes where few science fiction television shows or films have gone before by making a same-sex relationship between two female characters a crucial part of the story.
09.23.07 — Interview With Melissa Etheridge
After eight studio albums with approximately 27 million copies sold worldwide, two Grammys, one Oscar and one successful battle with breast cancer, it would be understandable if Melissa Etheridge wanted to hang up her guitar. But the 46-year-old rock star is about to release her ninth album, The Awakening , a personal and political journey that will be available on Sept. 25.
05.15.07 — Work Out Complicates Lesbian Stereotypes
In the history of lesbians and bisexual women on television, Bravo’s Work Out, a reality series centering on out lesbian Jackie Warner and her upscale Beverly Hills gym, stands alone. There are no other reality series on television, now or in the past, that have focused on an out lesbian. The result has been a TV series that begins with stereotypes — the egotistical businesswoman, the predatory lesbian — but ultimately subverts them.
04.13.07 — Interview With Kristanna Loken
Openly bisexual actress Kristanna Loken may have made her biggest pop cultural impact by playing the sleek and deadly Terminatrix in T3: Rise of the Machines (2003), but the 27-year-old actress has been acting almost all her life, beginning with a recurring role as Danielle Andropoulos on the daytime soap As the World Turns in 1994.
09.07.06 — Behind Red Doors
Despite the fact that Red Doors has many of the hallmarks of a stereotypical Asian American family story—the taciturn Chinese father, the superstitious mother, and overachieving daughters—it is almost immediately clear that Red Doors is something different.
04.06.06 — Gender Trouble on The L Word
Before the beginning of the third season of The L Word, series creator Ilene Chaiken said of new character Moira (Daniela Sea), “She’s our first real butch on the show—a fabulously attractive butch, but nonetheless a real butch.” Could this mean that … the producers of The L Word actually knew what a real butch was?
03.22.05 — The Reinvention of Jenny Schecter
In Season 2 [of The L Word] there has been a well-orchestrated campaign to make Jenny a more popular character. This has occurred on several fronts: by redefining Jenny’s identity as a writer, by casting the well-liked Shane as Jenny’s new best friend, and by creating an overt coming-out storyline for Jenny.
More clips to come!
