The L Word lives on
Despite the fact that the show’s last episode aired 15 years ago, in 2009, the show’s fanbase is still very active in online spaces. Fans post queries, rants and revelations to the show’s subreddit every day, and there are currently 28,000 posts under #thelword on TikTok, which are mostly thirst edits of Shane McCutcheon (played by Katherine Moenning). Fans have watched and re-watched the series, and frequently discuss in the comment sections what the show got right, and which storylines have aged like milk.
One popular opinion in the subreddit is the dislike for the Jenny character (played by Mia Kirshner) throughout the series, but mainly with how she centred herself in her partner’s transition during the third season. It should be mentioned that a lot of fans agree that the Jenny character does have a redemption arc and is regarded by a lot of viewers as one of the most exciting characters in the show to watch.
A lot of the fans also agree that the trans character of Max, and Max’s storyline, make the show hard to rewatch. In a 2023 episode of the reboot The L Word: Generation Q, Shane catches up with Max at a party and offers them an apology for how they were treated the last time they saw each other. Many fans of the show saw this as the show also apologizing to its audience for the way they chose to portray a trans character in the original series. Other viewers argue that having a trans character on a show in the mid 2000s provided visibility that inevitably helped pave the way for better representation of trans identities in media.
The L Word came out at a time when queer representation was highly needed, and it really did usher in a new type of media that told queer stories without making fun of the characters. Its entire run predated the legalization of same-sex marriage in the United States. The last episode of the original series aired in 2009; the first episode of Glee premiered that same year, and shows like Modern Family soon followed. A 2012 poll conducted by The Hollywood Reporterfound that the visibility of queer characters with genuine storylines in television shows like Glee and Modern Familyactually drove people to vote in favour of legalizing gay marriage that same year.
Looking back 20 years, The L Word is certainly a product of its time, but we can’t ignore what it got right. Without it, we wouldn’t have gotten to enjoy shows where the main characters are queer women, like Orange is the New Black or Killing Eve.
The drop in the water of queer television that The L Word originally created is still making waves today. In 2023, some of the core cast members – Jennifer Beals, Leisha Hailey and Katherine Moenning – and co-creator Ilene Chaiken were invited to the US Capitol to stand beside the first openly LGBT White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, and give a briefing on Lesbian Visibility Week.
We need stories about queer women now more than ever in the media. Shows depicting lesbian and bisexual stories are cancelled a lot quicker and are less celebrated than their male counterparts. The Wilds and A League of Their Own both ended prematurely thanks to being cancelled by Amazon, even though both shows had vocal fanbases and the demand for renewal was there. Even The L Word: Generation Q couldn’t escape a hasty cancellation. The sequel to the original series, which had been well received, was given the axe by Showtime after just three seasons. These stories still need to be told. Queer women deserve to see themselves and their friends represented accurately in the media they consume.
The L Word started an unstoppable craving for sincere stories and characters for queer women that isn’t slowing down any time soon. We don’t have to be a one-dimensional side character or the punchline to a cheap joke anymore. Sapphic characters in modern series and movies display a wider range of the queer spectrum and experience than ever before, which will only get better with more representation, and we have The L Word to thank for that.
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