This post was submitted by Andrew D

In the age of openly gay television networks and a growing number of states adopting gay marriage or at least some level of domestic partnership/gay marriage status recognition, it’s hardly controversial to have a televisions show’s main character discover her inner lesbian. While many devoted viewers have at this point deleted their DVR’s auto record of Heroes, now in it’s fourth season, I am still watching. Maybe I’m still waiting for Peter (Milo Ventimiglia) and Sylar (Zachary Quinto) to find their inner homo, much in the way Trekkie fan fiction envisions the Kirk and Spock saga. This week’s Heroes unveiled Claire Bennet’s (Hayden Panettiere) not so secret desire for her roommate and newest link to a sense of “normality,” Gretchen Berg (Californication’s Madeline Zima).

Right about now you are all saying, “So what!” And as shock factor goes this hardly registers on today’s scale. However, its the road to scissor town that I find interesting. Amid Hiro’s (Masi Oka) brush with death, and Samuel’s (Robert Knepper) official fall to the dark side, Sylar is Claire-bent seeking to find himself. When he finally engages Claire, he restrains her utilizing his arsenal of powers and enacts his new power of seeing what others truly want through a stolen lip locking session with the Cheerleader. This action sends Claire into her own spiral of identity quest and to make a long story short, eventually leads her to hold hands in public with Gretchen. Now this doesn’t officially prove she’s playing for the other team, but the dialogue and following montage sequences definitely lead us to believe this.

So this got me thinking and of course I racked my brain for all the girl on girl scenes of television in the last twenty years only to realize there are a plethora from the, at the time, “controversial” pairing of Willow (Alyson Hannigan) and Tara (Amber Benson) on Josh Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer, to today’s Tila Tequilla which is really in another league. Even Buffy’s lesbians weren’t as controversial as the ratings boosting and widely discussed gay kiss on Dawson’s Creek. Even with shows like Will & Grace, Brothers and Sisters, and 2009’s Modern Family, the gay kiss is rarely televised, mostly because this still makes people uncomfortable and advertisers commonly and quickly shy away from controversy. It’s okay to have a gay couple on television as long as they don’t kiss, or as long as they don’t kiss very often. In contrast, lesbian or experimenting women couples are regularly televised without the slightest hesitation. You’d be hard pressed to find a straight American male who would flinch at two girls swapping lip-gloss.

Again, why is this an issue, why do I care? I don’t really, I think it’s great that Heroes is taking one more step to further it’s already ground breaking legacy. I really just find it interesting that one forced kiss from Sylar sends Claire running from the Sausage factory and into the rice patty. Maybe I’m reading into it too much. What do you think?

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