I hate arguments on why a character shouldn't be gay...
I've been catching up on the TWOP forums for Criminal Minds tonight and thanks to a producer's recent comment about not knowing if Prentiss is straight has led to the general rounds of "no she's not gay" and giving some stupid reasons as to why.
Why do these things always boil down to "just because she's a strong woman who happens to be a cop doesn't mean she's gay?" Should only the weak women or overly femme women be gay? Or maybe just the victims? When has there ever been a strong female cop on a primetime cop show be openly gay? For the record I don't think every strong female character is gay, the only characters on a show where their lesbian storyline was not a major part of the shows storyline I've thought were gay are Xena/Gabby (that one was pretty damn obvious), early season Det. Benson (thanks to Hargitay's outrageous chemistry with the women on the show) and Emily Prentiss. I don't have trouble seeing a strong female character as straight, I've never for a moment thought Beckett, Starbuck, Scully, Lily Rush or JJ were gay. In fact with the way American television shows handle gay/lesbian storylines I find its more cliche for the strong female character to be straight and the crazy, evil, weak ones to be gay. So I don't buy that a character like Emily being gay would be stereotypical or cliche and I get really frakking tired of that same argument being made every time there is a hint that a character might be gay.
Why do these things always boil down to "just because she's a strong woman who happens to be a cop doesn't mean she's gay?" Should only the weak women or overly femme women be gay? Or maybe just the victims? When has there ever been a strong female cop on a primetime cop show be openly gay? For the record I don't think every strong female character is gay, the only characters on a show where their lesbian storyline was not a major part of the shows storyline I've thought were gay are Xena/Gabby (that one was pretty damn obvious), early season Det. Benson (thanks to Hargitay's outrageous chemistry with the women on the show) and Emily Prentiss. I don't have trouble seeing a strong female character as straight, I've never for a moment thought Beckett, Starbuck, Scully, Lily Rush or JJ were gay. In fact with the way American television shows handle gay/lesbian storylines I find its more cliche for the strong female character to be straight and the crazy, evil, weak ones to be gay. So I don't buy that a character like Emily being gay would be stereotypical or cliche and I get really frakking tired of that same argument being made every time there is a hint that a character might be gay.