Friday 13 February 2009

ginger lesbians?

i noted the forthcoming appearance of batwoman, dc comics 'lesbian superhero'. looking at the comic it's all so yawnsome except for one thing. batwoman - ginger. but of course, because all lesbians in america are ginger

an odd assertion i know but the subject of a rant only a few days ago. i can't remember the specifics but i'd been watching something on tv and some comment was made about one of the characters 'going all lesbian'. of course, i said, it's an american tv inevitability. how so, i was asked. easy, i said, she's a ginger.

a slew of characters emerged, ginger bird from sex and the city - lesbian, ginger doctor in er, intelligent, disabled and er... ginger? why of course she's a lesbian. willow in buffy. totally. i could go on. it seems that female characters who are independent, intelligent and possessed of the gingerness in american tv are statistically more likely to have girl on girl action. are they in some way too threatening?

*excepted in any of these descriptions are the characters from the wire

and now the batwoman. of all the gay women i have known i can't remember any who were ginger. so far as i know none of them have dyed their hair as a declaration of out and proudness. they displayed a normal distribution of intelligence, fairness, independence and all those other qualities. in fact they were just like you and me, well okay, maybe not quite like me. peter tatchell, this is an issue you should run with.....

so while i applaud dc comics for having their 'gay superhero', please, please change the colour of her hair. and tv people, how about a little less stereotyping and a bit more fecking tolerance?




an addendum - any lesbian, ginger haired people or ginger haired lesbians wanting to take offence at the above please feel free to express yourself. apologies will be given freely. homophobes on the other hand will not be tolerated

2 comments:

Roxana said...

reading this post was quite a detectivistic exploit for me (I don't know if that word exist) - wondering all the time what 'to be ginger' could mean :-) only when you started talking about 'dying hair' I got a clue :-)
this is a bit like: 'all east europeans are smokers' (just teasing :-P)
and I have heard another one while being here: 'all romanians are superstitious' (today being friday the 13th, I've had to remember that :-)

swiss said...

detectivistic should be a word!

it is a bit like 'east europeans are smokers' except that these programme makers don't seem to appreciate how daft, in a best case scenario, their preconceptions are. true, i don't watch tv, so why bother but i'm aware enough of this for it to be both predictable and annoying.

and yes, i'm wide open to criticism that it's 'just tv/comics' but for me it's the same as pigeonholing anybody. not acceptable.

romanians are superstitious? because you live next to transylvania! lol. a whole litany of scottishisms here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nVzAwDF0YM