Bisexual Callie on Grey's Anatomy

LoveBunny

Active member
Anybody else watch the show? I'm thinking about the character, Callie, who supposedly identifies as a bisexual woman. The only other bisexual characters I think of on mainstream television are Brittany and Sontana on Glee.

Callie started off on the show having relationships with men (George and Mark) and then a femme lesbian (Arizona) pursued her and Callie "came out" as bi. In the last episode, a recently-divorced-from-Arizona Callie was hit on by another femme lesbian.

Apparently, mainstream t.v. isn't ready for a butch lesbian character. As a "femme" who likes other "femmes," I love watching the lesbian/bi hook-ups on Grey's (and Glee.) But it would be so interesting to see a female character that identified as gay or bi whose appearance actually advertised their sexual orientation.

I think it's funny that Callie doesn't dress or look in any way like a woman who identifies as queer. Yet the show's writers would have us believe gay women sniff her out instantly, and she doesn't get hit on by random men. The show totally ignores the whole "invisible femme" phenomena.

Plus, they seem to be forgetting the whole "attracted to men" part of being bisexual. Realistically, the person who tempted Callie in the (not gay) bar would have been a man. Statistically, there are more heterosexual men around than gay/bi women, and these men would assume Callie was straight. The gay woman probably would not assume Callie identifies as gay. So the show ignores heterosexual normativity too.

I remember the Willow character on Buffy the Vampire Slayer took a similar trajectory. She started by being with men (Xander, Oz) then fell for one particular woman (Tara.) After that, she was ONLY with women (Kennedy.)

It's like once a female character admits to being bi, she can only be with women, or else she won't be considered gay enough?

Random, hungover thoughts on sexual identity politics on a Saturday afternoon :)
 
The tropes of Lipstick Lesbian and No Bisexuals are strong in TV land. [warning: tvtropes links. You risk spending the next 24-hours-straight reading interesting stuff with 100 tabs open. #TVtropesWillRuinYourLife ]

I've more or less given upon Gray's a few seasons ago... (didn't even know Callie & Arizona split up. Damn. :( ). Did Callie ever actually refer to herself with "the B word"? Since you already brought up BtVS' Willow, she herself called herself gay/Lesbian in character more than once after meeting Tara (so I guess she just "outgrew guys", if we take her own, in-universe word for it).
 
You're right, Willow did call herself "gay" after being with one woman, though she had actually really loved Oz as far as I could tell. Definitely some bisexual erasure going on. Once a character sleeps with one member of the same sex, they never, ever go back. They are doomed to a life of hot femme-on-femme action to titillate tv viewers...
 
Well, sure, but she's a succubus!
 
You're right, Willow did call herself "gay" after being with one woman, though she had actually really loved Oz as far as I could tell. Definitely some bisexual erasure going on. Once a character sleeps with one member of the same sex, they never, ever go back. They are doomed to a life of hot femme-on-femme action to titillate tv viewers...
Yup, I'm not gonna argue there. That's why I specified "in-universe". If Willow says she's gay, then she's gay...

...but as for the writers making her character say this (out of universe / on a meta-level), in the first place? I agree that bi-erasure is the most likely explanation there. Mixed with a dose of the good ol' Girl On Girl Is Hot (tvtropes link again), as that's always known to sell.
 
I've more or less given upon Gray's a few seasons ago...
I didn't even know Gray's Anatomy was still on TV! I thought it was over years ago. I had only ever watched about three episodes during one of the first few seasons, and thought it sucked (I hated the writing and the acting), so never had any desire to watch it again and therefore never followed it. But I'm really surprised that it's still on the air. No one I know watches it or talks about it.
 
Well, I just don't bother with mainstream TV much. I watch the other channels, of which there are dozens. I watch QUEER TV!

HGTV has lots of gay and lesbian couples, presenting in a variety of ways (femme through butch) working on finding and renovating houses.

Orange is the New Black has lesbian butch (hard and soft) women as well as a transgender character.

Orphan Black had a femmey gay male character in the first season, he was adorable.

Rupaul's Drag Race is all drag queen males.

The first season of American Horror Story had a gay male couple, and every season has alternative people in it.

Don't forget the award winning show Transparent, available through Amazon. The transgender character ("Moppa"/Maura) was depicted as the most normal one in the family.

Of course, we will always have Ellen, for a talk show.

Now, my gf and I are both fairly femme, though I often dress soft butch and don't wear makeup. So I am not that invested in the hunt for butch lesbians on TV... but I don't seek lesbians, butches or otherwise, on mainstream TV.
 
I feel like gay men and MtoF transgender are represented in mainstream.

Lesbians of the nonlipstick variety can be found on cable and Netflix, and yes, Ellen.

But bisexuals?

I just remembered there's a bi character on the girl's guide to divorce or whatever the name of that show is, I think it's on Lifetime. I only watched a couple of episodes. She was the unicorn to a couple.
 
One of the daughters on Transparent was married to a guy in the beginning of the season, and then leaves him to hook up, and move in with, with a former gf (who is butch). Then later she has a sexy scene with her ex husband... there is no declaration one way or another of her preference for either gender.
 
Season Two of American Horror Story rocked, and it had a classic (60's/70's) polyamorous FMF V in it. Nice!
 
These shows may no longer be on TV but

"Dark Angel" had a lesbian support character, Original Cindy

"Bones" has a bisexual woman, Angela Montenegro, which I thought was done very well. There's a nice little article about that here.

"Firefly"'s Inara Serra accepted mainly male clients but accepts a female client in one episode. (Discussed here.)
 
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