"Why can't lesbians just be people?"

At an event last week, an expert panel argued that lesbians on TV and in newspapers are shown as heavily sexualised, wacky, or asexual. When will it change?Actor, comedian and journalist Liz Carr is disabled and in her 40s and says: "I never see anyone on TV that I can really relate to in terms of sexuality." This is not only because of her disability and her age, but also because she is gay.According to the latest National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles, 16% of women said they had had a same-sex experience. Twenty years ago, that proportion was 4%. But if lesbian behaviour – or women's reporting of it, in any case – is now increasingly common, why aren't there more gay women in broadcast and print media? And are the gay women we do see an accurate reflection of what 16% of the female population looks like, anyway?Speaking at "Lesbophobia in the Media", a debate held jointly by Women in Journalism and lesbian magazine Diva last week, Carr called for more realistic depictions of gay women on TV. She highlighted how unlikely it is for disability to be a characteristic of an on-screen lesbian. "I'm not seen as being capable of having any kind of sex as a disabled woman," she said. "I'm asexual. Disabled women are very much desexed."Writer Iman Qureshi said lesbianism is never "incidental to a character" in TV and film. "You don't wake up in the morning, have breakfast and think – I'm having breakfast as a lesbian," she said. "Why can't lesbians just be people?"... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2013-11-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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