"Let's Get This Party Started"

By "this party," I assume the writers are referring to the femme-filled opening of "SheBar." Thank God the owners were there to regulate the door so none of those butch dykes could slip past into the party, not that we saw them lined up out front anyway. Props to the writers for Shane's line: "It's like South Beach threw up." That was the entertaining bit for the evening, now on to the politics!

Transgender Education: Max Blogs on OurChart

I am so glad to see that the writers are letting this issue surrounding trans acceptance in the lesbian community continually resurface. In this episode, Max posts a blog on OurChart, and gets a lot of negative feedback from other users on the message board. Following one comment declaring OurChart a lesbian space where Max doesn't belong, Max replies, "I guess that's why we posted, right, to, um, educate people like that, right." Cheers for acknowledging that education is the first crucial step, and for really elucidating the vulgarity and cruelty that actually occurs toward trans people within the queer community. Follow this up with a call from Alice, telling Max he invaded her space to promote his own agenda and from now on he can blog once a week, but in his own little box, separate from the "Guestbians," or guest bloggers on OurChart. Max then accuses Alice of segregating trans people from the lesbian community. Again this phone call is cut short because Alice has to attend to two military officers who show up at her door, but this is certainly progress regarding the discussion surrounding where the T fits in with the LGB. The only improvement I can hope for on this front is when something happens where Max is referred to as "she" or "girl" or "woman" that it not be laughed off, and that some character step up to correct this. Here, I'm referring to the conversation between Bette and Jodi at the club, where they spot Max dancing with Tom, Jodi's interpreter. Yes, he has a name, which I think I overlooked before. Jodi turns to Bette and says, "I'm happy for Tom. He really wants a boyfriend." Bette says with a wink, "Girlfriend." And Jodi just laughs, like "Oh Bette, you're so silly." Does this give visibility to the issue or simply perpetuate that kind of treatment of trans people? I vote that as long as it is presented as a joking matter, it continues to perpetuate the problem.

So Much for Celibacy: Shane's Menage-a-trois

Wow, so what Shane did at the club would be like me breaking my Master Cleanse with a large pizza. Did I call it or what? But, the point to question here is this: Will Shane learn something about sex and relationships from this encounter with the two club owners or will she just go back to her lust-filled player lifestyle? Before the club owners rope her into a threesome, they explain to her that they have no drama in their relationship because, in their words, "we're completely honest, we don't cheat and we don't believe in jealousy, and we put it all on the line and whatever we do, we do together." Not that a couple has to do everything together, but Shane should at least take away the concepts of honesty, and not cheating which necessarily implies communication. The reason I bring this up is because it is one of the first times we're getting into the territory of open relationships on this show, rather than either seeing characters engaged in frequent casual sex or locked into a monogamous relationship. It's good to represent these types of relationships and open up the ways in which we think about partnerships and sex. I'm curious to see where Shane's character goes from here.

Flashbacks of Queer as Folk

In closing, I must confess that I was a huge huge fan of Queer as Folk, and I cannot help but feel nostalgic about it when I see the girls hitting the gym or the club, as those were the two main locales of action in QasF. I hate to compare the L Word and QasF because so many people do, so I won't, but I will say that the series of yore did much more in terms of social responsibility than the L Word has to date. I still have hope for our Hollywood lesbians, though. I do, I really do.