Emotional Aspect of Lesbian Representations in TV Shows or Films and Its Impact on Viewers I ocassionally read short reviews of TV series on Lezwatch TV. Here is what recently caught my attention on the series Station 19. »This was beyond the usual TV relationship angst, it was cruel. Also, many folks on Twitter thought Carina was about to say, 'I love you.' before Maya lashed out. … I am so tired of getting emotionally invested in ships to have them ripped away. This one was particularly devastating because the characters had such great chemistry and seemed to have worked through their relationship-ending issues episodes ago ...« (Tracy Levesque, May 11, 2020) And »I’m a very forgiving person, and just like Carina forgave Maya, I forgive Station 19 for the mean episode before this one. Sometimes I get frustrated with myself for getting so emotionally invested in fictitious queer characters ...« (Tracy Levesque, May 18, 2020). Which film(s) or tv series make(s) the biggest impact on you is where your focus is at certain moment of life, however there are films or series which makes 'pleasantly' surprise by unexpectedly 'touching' you on different levels regardles of your current focus which makes film or series in particular memorable. You can remember film(s) or TV series in regard to beautiful visuals, action paced, socially engaging or emotionally involvement with the story and its characters. For years I remembered visually stuning but emotionally cold and story wise cliché film In the Mood for Love (Kar Wai, Hong Kong, 2000), action paced and feminist spy thriller Atomic Blonde (Leitch, USA, 2017), socially intruiging La Haine (Kassowitz, France, 1995) and Monster's Ball (Forster, USA, 2001), both showing stereotypes, violence and discrimination based on race and different ethnic origin, cognitive engaging Rashamon (Kurosava, Japan, 1950) with presentition of how people differently see and remember the same event and thus how truth is socially constructed and the best representation of what desire is and how it works in Stalker (Tarkovski, Russia, 1979). Regarding TV series I most love The Westorld (Nolan, Joy, USA, 2017-), Dark (Odar, Friese, Germany, 2017-2020), Counterpart (Marks, USA, 2017-2019) and Äkta människor (Hamrell, Lundström, Swe, 2012-2014) because they are visually, story wise and technically perfectly done and at the same time they pose great philosophical and ethical theories and open questions for the future. They also show the power of great actors and actresses as well as screenwriters and directors. A totally another kind of great stories are presented in scandi noir crime dramas, such as Broen (Rosenfeldt, Swe/Dk, 2011-2018), Jordskott (Björn, Swe 2015), Trapped (Kormákur, Ice, 2015-) and Karppi (Jokela, Rantala, Porkka, Fin, 2018-2020). All those stories present vulnerable, imperfect, strong and (slightly) odd individuals who are great at their jobs because of their stubborness and oddiness which drives them to look at motives, actions and situations from different perspectives which enable them solving the crimes. Interesting are also political thrillers, such as Borgen (Price, Dk, 2010-2013), Okkupert (Lund, Skjoldbjærg, Nesbø, Nor, 2015-) and Le Casa de Papel (Pina, Spa, 2017-). They all question ethical decisions of the leaders and banksters in a capitalist world. For love stories the most important is the emotional impact on the viewers and that is exactly what Tracy Levesque communicates in the above quote. Thus it is important to explain why people get so emotionally invested into fictional lesbian or straight love stories either on television, cinema, threatre or novels. After Jean Jacques Rousseau wrote his epistolary novel/novel in letters Heloise or New Julie (1761) and published it chapter by chapter in local newspaper he reported people wrote to him they wouldn't believe that the love story between two main characters, Saint Preux and Heloise/Julie is fictional because readers felt it so real and could relate to it. He reported that some readers felt deeply shaked by the story and some were even crying. Therefore because the story felt so real to them they refused to believe it was a fictional love story. Philosopher Martha Nussbaum explains emotions from three important standpoints. The first point is to counterpoint the old idea that our emotions are merely primal impulses wholly separate from our cognition. Nussbaum instead argues that emotions are rational and »intelligent responses to the perception of value« (Nussbaum, 2001: 1) and thus include cognition. By 'cognition' she means processes that deliver information (whether reliable or not) about the world; and include also perception and certain sorts of imagination (Nussbaum, 2004: 198). Therefore emotions are value judgments and these judgments must be understood as some kind of cognitive states that allow us to discover values and reasons in the world. Our value judgments, and hence emotions, are a type of beliefs, so they may be either true or false. This also means that emotions are always intentional, i.e. judegments are always about someone or something that has value for us (2004: 188). This is the cognitive-evaluative view of emotions. Second Nussbaum’s point is that the complex cognitive structure of the emotions has a narrative form — that is, the stories we tell ourselves about who we are and what we feel shape our emotional and ethical reality through stories told in novels, playwrights, television stories. She also claims that all our emotions reflect our personal history and have origin in mother-child relationship. As she writes: »We cannot understand [a person’s] love … without knowing a great deal about the history of patterns of attachment that extend back into [the person’s] childhood. Past loves shadow present attachments, and take up residence within them. This, in turn, suggests that in order to talk well about them we will need to turn to texts that contain a narrative dimension« (2001: 21). This suggests a central role for the arts in human self-understanding: for narrative artworks of various kinds (whether musical, visual or literary) give us information about these emotion-histories that we could not easily get otherwise. »This is what Proust meant when he claimed that certain truths about the human emotions can be best conveyed, in verbal and textual form, only by a narrative work of art: only such a work will accurately and fully show the iinterrelated temporal structure of emotional 'thoughts'« (ibid. : 22). Narrative artworks are thus important because of what they do in the emotional life. They do not simply represent that history, they enter into it and this is what happens to Tracy Levesque as she becomes invested into the story as it would be hers. Third point is that emotions are centerpiece of human morality. Instead of viewing morality as a system of principles to be grasped by the detached intellect, and emotions as motivations that either support or subvert our choice to act according to principle as Kant argues, we will have to consider emotions as part and parcel of the system of ethical reasoning. We cannot plausibly omit them, once we acknowledge that emotions include in their content judgments and logic that can be true or false, and good or bad guides to ethical choice. We will have to grapple with the messy material of grief and love, anger and fear, and the role these tumultuous experiences play in thought about the good and the just. Again as Tracy pointed out what screenwriters did to the love story of Carina and Maya – they were at the point in their relationship to declare love to each other, instead they made them broke up and that what Levesque described as cruel. Cruel and unethical is also so many fictional lesbian characters get killed as meaningless objects. That is why as a header of Lezwatch TV website is written: »It has been 2 months since the last queer female death on television: Allison Browne - March 26, 2020«. However, Nussbaum also means about ethics of romantic relationship itself. Personal love has typically been thought too wonderful to remove from human life; but it has also been seen (not only by philosophers) as a source of great moral danger because of its partiality and the extreme form of vulnerability it involves, which make a connection with jealousy, envy, anger or any other emotion. This interplay of two imperfect beings is the essence of romantic love. And this is what makes someone's ordinary and ordered life extraordinary and make people in love do things they would otherwise never do. As we can watch in films when someone falls in love with someone she would never expected, as in Aimäe & Jaguar (Färberböck, Ger, 1999); when someone cheats (even becomes hooker) because her spouse doesn't have time for her as in film Concussion (Passion, USA, 2013) or even kills herself because her girlfriend broke up with her when it came out they were lovers and girlfriend succumbed to social prejudices, as in Lost and Delirious (Pool, Can, 2001). And precisely because of the emotional impact on the viewers I wrote about the importance of a happy long-term lesbian love and a script about simple long-term love story between two middle aged women with family.
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If you look at the database at Lezwatch TV (out of 3815 lesbian characters only 16,7% are played by lesbian actresses and 974 bisexual characters with 15% of bisexual actresses or 82,3% of lesbian characters are played by straight actresses). Honestly, I would rather watch lesbian or bisexual actresses playing lesbian and bisexual characters then straight actresses. Actually, to be honest I am a bit annoyed at straight actresses playing lesbian characters. Instead supporting lesbian and bisexual actresses having jobs their jobs are given to the straight actresses. I would also rather watch a slightly unprofessional acting of a lesbian actress that gets opportunities to improve her acting through playing different lesbian roles then one, two, three great acting by straight actresses. I am talking about this because I was disappointed when I learned that some of my favorite actresses who played lesbian characters were straight and gonna be straight and I felt that all my emotional and intellectual time and energy invested into them was actually a waste of time. I also see how many lesbians on different forums and platforms fantasize about those straight actresses by making gifs, videos, even songs of them. One such straight actress is Katie McGrath, another is Sara Lance. True, McGrath made memorable impression in the episode of Dates (Chanell 4, 2013) and Secret Bridesmaid's Business (Seven Network, 2019) and we best know her from Supergirl (CBS, 2015-) and Merlin (BBC, 2008-2012). True, Sara Lance from Arrow (The CW, 2012-2020) and DC's Legends of Tomorrow (The CW, 2016-) makes a very convincing, attractive lesbian/bisexual woman however she is straight as she can be. The same is with Diana Agron and her buddy actress Lea Michel from Glee (FOX, 2009-2015) who are both straight and married, Kelly Broke was even compelled to publicly deny being lesbian because of the persistent rumours and assumptions. Out of 7 recent or current TV series with lesbian or bisexual (leading) characters there are only two lead lesbian characters played by lesbian/bisexual actresses, Batwoman played by lesbian Ruby Rose and Hightown played by bisexual Monica Raymund. There is also non-binary actress Asia Kate Dillon on Billion as Taylor Mason, the first non-binary (one of the three) main characters. I am telling this because for lesbian and bisexual women proper role models and correct representation are very important when so many lesbian and bisexual women are prone to discrimination and prejudices; so many of them living in poverty, ignored and socially isolated. Therefore can in this sense straight actresses playing lesbians be proper role models? I mean, they never felt attraction, desire or yearning for another woman, even less formed a long lasting partnership or marriage and even family with a woman. And regarding representation? There is loneliness, poverty, stereotypes, ignorance and old age that are almost never presented and also when it comes to screening time in TV series lesbians and lesbian couples have less time then their heterosexual counterparts, and last but not least straight characters never face as many deaths as lesbians do. Therefore I argue for lesbian and bisexual actresses playing lesbian and bisexual roles/characters. Why not instead fantasize about actresses, such as attractive and beautiful Adèle Haenele from Water Lilies (2006), Love at First Fight (2014), Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019), Saffron Burrows who made a memorable impression of femme fatale in Enigma (2001), Mozart in the Jungle (2014-2018), attractive Portia de Rossi from Ally McBeal (FOX, 1998-2002), Nip/Tuck (FX, 2007-2009) and Scandal (ABC, 2014-2017), cute Dominique Provost-Chalkley from Wynonna Earp (SYFY, 2016-), Kristin Stewart from Twilight Saga (2010), Taylor Schilling from OITNB (Netflix, 2013-2019), even Taylor Holland who was unforgettably funny in L-Word (2004-2009) and D.E.B.S. (2004). I admit it would be great having Anna Torv, Liv Lisa Fries and Amalia H. Bjelke on our 'team', however (so far) they identified as straight. Therefore I am annoyed when lesbian and bisexual women fantasize about all those straight actresses instead fantasizing about and supporting lesbian actresses and I am sure many more lesbian and bisexual actresses would come out if there were more job opportunities for them. Also, even if they weren't great at first they would become great with more acting. Having opportunities to work and improve is very important as I can tell from my own experiences as well. When I started writing screenplays for documentary films I had no experiences in writing screenplays at all and I learned it by doing it. I was satisfied only with my third screenplay/documentary and only now I know how to make a good screenplay. Of course there is always space for improvements in writing an excellent screenplay. And why I decided to start writing screenplays? To put my knowledge of love, emotions and sexuality into TV format in order more people get to know it. However, I must admit that I have experienced some hindrance of my work based on homophobia and misogyny from editors of different redactions (from cultural to educational) on the Slovenian television. I was once even forbidden to use word 'same-sex attraction' from the TV show host and another journalist told me that I wouldn't get a contract for my ideas of lesbian documentaries. The same was with screenplays for feature films. I started writing it to put my concept of love and partnership experiences into TV format without any previous knowledge. Therefore I wrote and re-wrote several screenplays for feature films before I understood what it makes a good lesbian love story and how to portray a character. It took me three screenplays for feature films and two short films in span of 2012 to 2020 before I wrote my first good screenplay for a short lesbian film and I was turned down by six female straight directors telling me how bad and uninteresting my screenplays were. However, I was persistent. Each time I learned something new about the deficits of the story and writing style, read some more books on writing screenplays and improved my writing until I realized what kind of story and what kind of characters are interesting and engaging. Of course if there were more producers interested in investing into lesbian films, if there were more market and job opportunities, there would be more great lesbian screenwriters too. And here we go again, producers tell they do not have prejudices and they support all geners as screenplays should be excellent, however I was told that if director wasn't a man or straight female director, producer won't invest money into a lesbian film. And how lesbian screenwriters can learn and improve their knowledge of writing screenplays if producers are interested into investing money only at certain conditions? I also think great screenplays are written when you really have something to tell. Humans are prone to have an objective of the story, a purpose to tell, and to make schematics/techniques how to convey such purpose. This is best shown in 'traditional' Aristotle's three-act schematics as presented in Poetics. The three-act structure includes the following parts: Act I - Setup: Exposition, Inciting Incident, Plot Point One; Act II - Confrontation: Rising Action, Midpoint, Plot Point Two; Act III - Resolution: Pre Climax, Climax, Denouement. Within each Act is a number of different “points” - a plot event. According to Aristotle, who first analyzed storytelling through three parts, each act should be bridged by a beat that sends the narrative in a different direction. In Poetics, he posits that stories must be a chain of cause-and-effect points: each scene must lead into what happens next and not be a standalone 'episode.' My main objective for writing a lesbian story has been to present my concept of love that differs from the historical and traditional main stream notions since I started studying and writing about the concepts of love (from mythology, philosophy, art, psychology and biology points of view) in 1993/94. I wrote first article about love in 1994 and several books on concepts of love in years from 2012 to 2020. I also wished to work in film and not theatre since my surname is associated with famous and highly innovative distant relative, theatre director Vsevold E. Majerhold or Meyerhold (1874-1940). When I was younger I was often asked about and compared to this director, therefore I knew I wanted to do something innovative just not in the theatre field. And last but not least, my both grandparents on father's side worked in theatre for a while too and for this reason I also did not wish to work in theatre. My main interests however are in science (logic, biology, physics, geography), even my work in the area of love and emotions has cognitive approach, I value facts and proofs. Perhaps that is why it took me so long to finally write a good lesbian love story that works neither on instrumental value, yet it has logic and structure and also emotional and sex appeal nor on some (outer) chaotic/tragic forces from above or 'vulcanic' forces from bellow trying to disrupte order if not built on instrumental value. Katarina Majerholdphilsopher, lesbian, editor Archives
May 2023
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