Sappho and Erinna in a Garden at Myltilene, 1864 Simeon Solomon By G. Starke (cc)

I’ve noticed quite a bit of resistance among the lesbian and queer community when it comes to the reboot of Showtime’s The L Word.

I’ve heard everything from:
“it was terrible writing.”
“that show was completely biphobic”
“it was so unrealistic. everyone was just wealthy and white”

However, are we maybe being a little too harsh in our reflection of a show that was actually extremely important and groundbreaking for it’s time? This was 2004: George Bush is president, Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is 6 years away from being repealed, it’s illegal for same sex couples to marry and Ellen’s Day Time talk show had only been on air for one year.

And while Ellen’s show immediate success was groundbreaking in her own right. She was successful for some very obvious reasons. She was a safe lesbian figure to middle class Americans. She didn’t swear, rarely spoke about her personal life and she never pushed that line. The L Word continued to push the line from the moment it premiered and maybe the show was overly glamourised. But this is a time when Sex of the City was extremely succesful. Yes, they showed you this extremely glamourised version of what an LA lesbian life would be like but what did they tackle while they did that? Adoption, homophobia, cheating, being in the closet.

What have we had since The L Word left the air?