Last of the Red-Hot Lesbians

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Kevin Winter / Getty Images As The L Word signs off, series creator Ilene Chaiken reflects on the end of lesbians on TV, the rise of Rachel Maddow, the female Brokeback Mountain, and her even sexier sequel—women in prison.

For six seasons, Showtime viewers have been hurling insults at Jenny Schecter (Mia Kirshner), the conniving character everyone loved to hate until her recent death on The L Word. This Sunday’s whodunit finale will at last lay to rest the mystery of Jenny’s murder, and will also mark the end to Showtime’s longest-running show, which brought the multidimensional lesbian community into mainstream consciousness. It also laid the groundwork for the network’s current heroine-heavy lineup, much in the same way Queer as Folk opened doors for its gay male counterparts.

At the center of it all is Ilene Chaiken—the show’s creator, writer, and executive producer, who has tackled issues ranging from “Don’t ask, don’t tell” to transgender surgery and breast cancer, not to mention regularly answering the question: What do lesbians do in bed? Chaiken has been criticized by fans for curious plot choices, but when it comes to empowering lesbians in American life, she has no equal on television.

“It felt so progressive not long ago, and then the Prop 8 battle was a setback, and then we look at the entertainment landscape and we still are desperately under-represented.”

The Daily Beast talked with the openly gay entertainment veteran about the end of lesbians on TV, killing off characters, and her plans for an even sexier sequel—girls in prison.

Let’s talk a little about the timing of The L Word’s last season. I don’t know if the word is ironic, but it seems, let’s say, unfortunate in terms of the political climate as well as Showtime’s lady-laden lineup.

When we decided that this would be the final season we certainly weren’t thinking about Proposition 8. And we certainly weren’t thinking about the election and that we’d have a more progressive political environment. It was a mutual decision [between me and Showtime], although we never discussed it explicitly, I think there was always a presumption that should I be lucky enough to have the show go on for five years, some time around there we’d be looking to say: Have we done it?

Did you consider taking the show to a gay-specific network, like LOGO?

I wanted to do it for Showtime because I had a relationship and a great working experience with them and I knew I was dealing with talented and receptive executives. Having said that, I would have done it on HBO, and I would have done it on broadcast television. What was most important to me was to do it on a mainstream network or cable network, and to make a show that cleaved to the conventions of mainstream television, not gay-specific television.

What are your thoughts about lesbians’ disappearing act on TV?

I’m very sad about that. I made a speech at the GLAAD Media Awards last year about this. I had really thought that by the time The L Word went off the air that it would no longer be the oasis in the desert, that we would be more represented, not as represented proportionately as we ultimately hope to be, but that we would have passed the baton, that there would be several more shows, that we wouldn’t be disappearing and leaving the same deficit that existed when we began. I’m dismayed. I don’t think feel it’s incumbent on The L Word to carry the entire burden of a representation, but I’m sad that there’s not something else and that we seem to be, if anything, less represented than we were six years ago.

Interestingly, there was recently a story in the New York Times about a lesbian cable-TV news host—Jane Velez-Mitchell—whose show's ratings are soaring on HLN, CNN’s sister network. So, we’ve got her and Rachel Maddow. One more and it’s a trend.

There’s something very curious about the fact that in a culture that is still largely homophobic that lesbians in these informational roles on television become huge stars. I think we’re in the midst of a cultural change and it’s just happening a little more slowly than we would have liked. It felt so progressive not long ago, and then the Prop 8 battle was a setback, and then we look at the entertainment landscape and we still are desperately under-represented. I think though that the entertainment culture does really lag behind the culture at large. I think that the way we’re represented in movies and television hasn’t caught up with the way we stand in society right now, which is far, far better than it was a few years ago.

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