Ha! That's greatness. I remember seeing The Body during it's first run on tv. Being a girl kisser (and female) myself I adored the way it was handled. Take that Ally McBeal!

death is my gift | December 04, 21:59 CET

British drama 'This Life' I think had a lesbian kiss in a genuine way.

Vortigun | December 04, 22:17 CET

It's great that others give recognition to how Willow and Tara's relationship was presented. In so many other cases, woman-woman sexuality is owned by/targeted at men.

Accurate bisexuals in the next series please Mr Joss Sir, and I will be the happiest happy girl of happydom ever.

curlymynci | December 04, 23:29 CET

As a newly honorary lesbian, let me say there is much truth in the article, and they never even got around to mentioning The OC with its 4-episode lesbian arc during ratings time. Seems that this really has become a ratings ploy, and right now, on network TV, how many lesbians are there? Are there any at all? The Willow/Tara relation was as good as TV gets, and it was good despite the overt text and subtext. So much now is not.

Dana5140 | December 05, 00:14 CET

Mel/Lindsay on "Queer as Folk" would be another example of a lesbian couple not written for straight men.

fortunateizzi | December 05, 00:38 CET

I approve of the good press for Willow/Tara and BtVS. But, well. . . is anything on "Nip/Tuck" NOT written to be sensationalistic? Why shouldn't Portia di Rossi, who IS a lesbian, be able to make out with a woman on a completely trashy TV show without having the storyline singled out. I am all for equal-opportunity trash, that's all I'm saying.

likeadeuce | December 05, 02:40 CET

Well, "equal opportunity trash" does have a ring to it.

And as Dana5140 can testify (he's read soem of my fics) a guy who's resolved to do the naughty-boy thing can find something in even a non-sensationalized relationship to work from.

The central point still is sharp and valid; to be blunt, TV sees lesbianism as a stunt. What really is, what even can be the real meaning of one kiss?

DaddyCatALSO | December 05, 04:31 CET

I miss Tara. She was always the supportive one. Supportive of Willow, of Buffy, of Dawn. Even Anya on occasion.

TARA: We can do this.
WILLOW: Okay. We can be there for Buffy. And Dawn. (crying) Little Dawn.
TARA: We can be strong.
WILLOW: Strong like an Amazon?
TARA: Strong like an Amazon, right.

quantumac | December 05, 07:33 CET

I tend to agree. Of course there was Wonderfalls which had a realistic portrayal of a lesbian, and we know what happened to that. Firefly had a very sensitive portrayal of Inara and the Counsellor's night together while acknowledging, via Jayne, the tittilation that they're bordering on. (And of course, this is Inara, who is very much pro-sexuality; I think that the show was going to deal more with whether or not Inara's profession was exploitive had it gone on, and the lesbian-tittilation might have played into that.) Veronica Mars had a decent portrayal of the gay subculture in the high school, although there are certain unsettling undertones to the resolution to season two.

Battlestar is an interesting case. (Spoilers for Season three, and "Razor"): The habit of Cylons turning out to be bisexual (Six, D'Anna) is strange, and lends itself to readings of homosexuality as another form of otherness. (This is also done with race: most of the non-white characters on the show do turn out to be Cylons, after all.) The Baltar/Six/D'Anna threesome was so bizarre that I'm not sure whether it's exploitive; it played out, as most of the Baltar-on-the-Cylon-ship scenes did, as if it were all a dream. More problematic is I think the Cain/Six affair revealed in "Razor": there's something very uncomfortable about the (possible) association between Cain's lesbianism and her hard-line, power-hungry. I didn't agree with the allegations of the Dead/Evil Lesbian cliche in the case of Willow and Tara, but it does fit here a bit, intentional or not.

WilliamTheB | December 05, 23:23 CET