What I think about The L Word

The mother of all lesbian series, The L Word.

I reminisce December 12^th, 2011, never mind how I remembered the exact date. Okay, it was the first time I met my first official girlfriend whom I met online. About two weeks ago when my lecturer was discussing online dating and my classmates were bashing the idea, claiming its not really dating or what will the people  who date online do without social media I sat there and thought oh my god will you all shut up! We will go out and find someone the old fashion way; technology has just made it trouble-free and less costly to date; now we can stay at home and not waste money and time on monotonous dates and incompatible individuals. Next!

Image Source: Google

Anyway back to my introduction of The L word (2002-2009)

I took the day off from work and school; this was “our” day. At that time I denied that I was gay; she took out her collection of The L word, and said "I think this might help you understand who you are."

We spent all day indulging on the series. I never saw the series before; growing up in a conservative household I was not exposed to those types of TV shows.

So what I learnt from the series is, there is a world I can fit into and claim my sexuality; and the internalized homophobia I had in me what was kept me depressed.    The L Word covered a wide range of topics (coming out, parenting, fertility options, marriage, depression, straight women, friendship) and also showcased the different type of queer women (fem, butch etc) as well as issues affecting the lesbian community. 
While most of the series was done in good taste and took viewers through an emotional world pool, there was a lot of promiscuity, infidelity and stigmatizing that bestows the community. The gender queers character, Max ( a woman going through the process to become a man} was very complex story to follow.

Although the L word helped be understand many things about lesbianism and opening some comprehension and conversation of my sexuality, I have a love/hate view on the series; one, I hated the theme song and I loathed Jenny’s character; I love the series because it’s balanced and not overdone. 

Image taken from Google. Bette

As entertaining as the series was and only character I loved throughout the all the seasons was Bette (favourite and consistent character) and Tasha who was introduced in later seasons (finally a black character, unfortunately she just gratified the stereotypes of the mean, sensible black woman) each character story is different and worth following.

Image source, Google. Tasha

I will think for a series like this that brought awareness of lesbianism in a wide context it would have been more inclusive but then again it’s just a show and that might have been boring.  The characters are beautiful, however I don’t understand why Shane's character was the ultimate girl magnet, she is the least bit sexy. 

Source: Google. Shane!

Let’s talk about the chart, okay so everyone needs to be conscious of their sexual history and past relationship but documenting it and placing it on a wall is a little far fetch. 

Image source: Google Alice from The L word. Now this is social
networking.

There was humor and confusion throughout all the seasons even if the characters were not relevant there was always something to empathize with. There are talks of a return in 2016, if this is true I am patiently waiting; I really want to know who killed Jenny Schecter.

Image source: Google

And the woman I met online was right after viewing The L word I was able to understand more about lesbian culture.