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I find it both funny and sad that one tweet tonight on Twitter states: "This is as close to a lesbian couple as we'll ever get on NBC PrimeTime. #PeterPanLive." Of course, Peter Pan is not meant to be a lesbian and has always been played by a woman on the stage, but there's some truth to the tweet, for anyone starved for lesbian subtext in mainstream media.

Lesbian subtext (for me, at least) does not cheapen something or make it about sex. It just means that for those of us from a certain generation, growing up scared and isolated because of how we felt and who we couldn't talk to about those feelings, we had to make do with a very limited representation (in books, music, movies and tv) of who we were. As recently as the early 90s lesbians were still featured as villains, if they were featured at all on a tv show (see "Good Night, Dear Heart," Quantum Leap.)

Despite what the far right likes to think (and say) Hollywood is not really that gay friendly. Gays and lesbians are rarely the center of any show, unless it's a comedy or they are a recurring character on a drama. To say that featuring GLBTQ people on tv is somehow an "agenda" is to cry foul...representing reality is not making a political statement.

Though I often think no lesbian representation at all on tv is better than the train wreck/dreck that was The L Word, I still long for at least one or two solid storylines (on any show, really) moving beyond dated stereotypes.

I also think if a much younger me were watching "Peter Pan Live" tonight she would find some subtext in it, because of the innocence between the two leads not in spite of it...


That's just one reason this article drew my attention:


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dana-rudolph/peter-pan-my-first-lesbian-role-model_b_6259296.html?ncid=tweetlnkushpmg00000054