Written by Lone

A few weeks ago in “Call 911 – It’s B & T” I commented upon the Bette and Tina storyline and how others and I might agree that the show’s general storyline is disturbing. None the less I concluded that I think it is important to acknowledge that we have finally gotten our much-desired realism – at least regarding the B & T storyline and the fact that realistically they may end up breaking up. I also commented upon Tina’s newfound longing for men and I still think we should wait and see what happens (even though she almost slept with Josh in episode 307).

This time I am again inspired by the aforementioned situation with Tina, which brings me right to my point: why is it so important to portray every character on the show as one who cheats? I remember watching the first season and actually being surprised by all the sleeping around and finding it annoying that Bette cheated on Tina. As the second season progressed I realized there was no point in being annoyed by the whole cheating-thing as most of the characters at that time had slept around. I had to remind myself that it did not have anything to do with lesbians per say but more that it was a television show, which had to entertain its viewers and did so with an ongoing drama derived from sleeping around. If you think about it every character has one way or the other cheated on someone or lost someone to cheating. Let us recap:

Season One:
· Alice cheats on Lisa, the lesbian identified man with Andrew, who initially was set up with Dana by their mothers.
· Jenny cheats on Tim with Marina.
· Bette cheats on Tina with Carpenter-Candace.
· Marina cheats on Francesca with Jenny (even though they had ‘an arrangement’ it is still cheating in this recap!).

Season Two:
· Dana cheats on Tonya with Alice (don’t we all remember the scene in which they go at it on the living room floor and end up in the kitchen with whip cream and strawberries…?).

Season Three:
· Shane cheats on Carmen with Cherie (and let’s not forget that Shane was with her in season one while she was still married).
· Tina cheats on Bette with Josh.

(This recap is subject to forgetfulness!)

That is a lot of cheating going around! The only character left is Carmen who did not cheat but if I want to be mean about it, she did have a flirtatious level of cheating with Shane in the second season but I don’t think we’ll include that. Also, Helena did not cheat on somebody (wow) even though she is involved to some extent with Dylan who is in a relationship in the current season. (I did not include Kit because she is not a gay character). So, all but two (lesbian) characters cheated on someone over the course of two and a half seasons. God only knows what is in store for us in the second half on season three!

You might wonder why I even bother to make a recap of cheating but I really find it disturbing if this is how lesbians act in the real world. It this something we want others to remember us by? I certainly cannot recognize it from my own life or the life of my friends. I am not denying that cheating happens – we know it does – but definitely not to the extent we see on The L Word. In conclusion, I still believe that the Bette and Tina storyline is realistic but I regret to say that all that cheating (hopefully) can’t really be going on – and hopefully I am not the only one disturbed by the general use of cheating in every single storyline…?

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