thus spake miriam

[miriam_e]

Last night I gave what was supposed to be a small, informal talk on gay themes in some of my favorite shows, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Rowell, and Dark Angel (not to be confused with Angel, the Buffy spin-off).

The visitors seemed very happy with what was really quite a fun evening, but I felt it was a rather dismal failure. I didn't plan it well enough. I may have made some converts to Buffy, but I failed to get my point across.

I mostly concentrated on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, briefly mentioned Dark Angel, and didn't get to Roswell at all. (Roswell doesn't have any gay characters -- well, there are a few cryptic comments about Kyle -- but the show has a lot of important things to say about keeping who you are secret, and the effect this has on relationships and trust.)

Buffy and Dark Angel do something I have never seen before, at least in SF. They have central characters who are gay (lesbian in both these shows) who are so totally accepted that it is not even commented upon. There are other shows that have gay characters but those characters generally have a harder time with life than the straight characters. It is a natural thing to want to use those characters to make social comment, but it makes homosexuality look terribly depressing. In Buffy and Dark Angel the lesbians are just normal people -- no ifs or buts -- they just are. It is very refreshing.

For quite a while in Buffy the relationship between Willow and Tara was the only one that worked. Everybody was going through emotional turmoil except for Willow and Tara. When problems did hit the two cute lesbians it had nothing to do with homosexuality; it was that Willow had become hooked on magic (as a metaphor for addictive drugs).

The character Original Cindy in Dark Angel doesn't get the exposure that Willow and Tara did in Buffy, but she too is accepted without raised eyebrows. She is Max's best friend -- they share an apartment, hang out together, hug and laugh together, and work together. Max is a straight woman and Cindy is lesbian but there is not a flicker of discomfort.

I hope this is the way things are moving. Future generations will be much healthier for it.

The only thing that worries me is that many social trends operate like a pendulum. Whenever things start to get sane and sensible the fringe nutters seem to rise up and screw it all. We have had periods of sanity and tolerance in society many times before, but each time war and religion conspire to pervert public opinion, and usher in a new era of hysterical hate.

The death twins Osama Bin Laden and George W. Bush seem to be working hard to undo decades of painstaking gains we have all made. All it ever needs is a few hate-mongering religious zealots who think intolerance and violence are useful expedients...

On the positive side, each time we move toward sanity the world gets a bit better and it never seems to swing quite as far back again.