Um… maybe it’s because I’m up here in the frozen north, and we’re kind of isolated, but I don’t get it. I mean, I get the L Word stuff (but loathed that show from day one, so haven’t watched it since), but… the rest? Am I just really old?
Other Andi– Maybe we ARE too old, because I don’t see the appeal either. I’m not talking about the kitty pictures: cute photos of cats with mildly amusing captions are one of the classic forms of comedy, going back to ancient Egypt. But I don’t see the appeal of the rest of the captioned photos. If the mis-spellings are text-speak, I can see why texting fans might like them, but they seem to lack the conciseness and cleverness of good text-speak. Is there some context that we old fogies aren’t aware of? I’m always willing to learn.
Jana C.H.
Seattle
Saith Floss Forbes: If you don’t know the tune, sing tenor.
not so related, but-earlier this year or last year AB posted a link to another cartoonist, who was writing a comic about this lesbian art student-I read the first part, in which the art student goes out for coffee and sees some one who she thinks is cute, the barista thinks the cute person might be interested in the art student and thinks she should go for it…etc. I can’t for the life of me remember the name of this cartoonist, but I want to read the rest of the comic! does any one know who I’m talking about???
I have seen the first 8 episodes of the L Word plus the pilot (rented on dvd). Some of them are just plain terrible…all of the stuff about how hormones are effecting Tina’s ability to do ANYTHING drove me nuts!! And I agree with DelandDelakes that Jenny is about the most annoying character ever. I can’t even get up enough emotion about her to hate her, but if I had to pick, I would definitely say I hated her most. I also think the athlete, Dana I think, is a terrible character. She doesn’t act anything like the athletes I know. And, the story line that made me laugh the hardest was the one where some rich gay guy thought that Shane was a guy. They all act like Shane is this big dyke who is mistaken for a male all the time…she doesn’t look at all like a guy…I would NEVER mistake her for a guy. For that character, they should have actually found a woman who looks like a guy (what a crazy idea that is)!! Of course, next weekend I will probably rent the next 4 episodes…it has to get better at some point, right? 🙂
I like The Lol-Word purely because I hate lol-cats on the basis that I am sure that if my cat (and maybe–just maybe–other cats) could write, her spelling and grammar would be perfect. Those characters on the other hand …
Dang, where did that hour go? Luved teh kittehs but my fave wuz teh lolrus adn bukkit. Must forget name of website. Must forget name of website. Must …
Cats were cute but I totally missed the point on those L-word pictures maybe I have seen one episode of L-word and that was like 4 years ago.
I do not have tv so I seem to miss a lot of the general discussion specially at work.
Somehow I can’t quite imagine Alison watching The L Word…
I admit: I do at times. Yeah, it reinforces certain all-femme lesbian-love-equals-porn-for-straight-men stereotypes and the plot is less than believable, but hey, there’s Shane. And people watch Passions too.
Oh. hilarious. I love the L word, and that’s just…hilarious.
re: Aleatorio’s comment that femme/femme lesbian love on the l word equals porn for men. I strongly disagree that that is what’s going on on the L word. I’ll grant that the show’s got problems but I don’t think that’s one of them. Its very clearly produced from a female perspective, and I think that one of the major things that troubles/drives the show is various directors, writers, actors attempting to find a way to show feminine sexuality WITHOUT bringing in a male gaze. For the femme to be both subject and object simultaneously. Its a new attempt, at least within the world of TV, and so sometimes their efforts are wonky, hideous, cringeworthy. But sometimes it comes out beautifully.
If dudes end up liking it anyway, you can’t blame them cause the women are hot, but I really feel its very clear that its clear the show isn’t pandering to male desire.
Rose/Anon: I DO kind of agree with you, and I’d like to point out the words “certain” and “stereotypes” in my text. Some of the love scenes (and scenes that depict relationships in general) are beautiful and, well, others are not, and that happens in most (if not all) TV shows (including Passions!).
Story lines like “lesbian Turkish oil wrestling” (season 5) that one could, I guess, argue to be somehow “liberating” (as in a minority claiming the old negative stereotype and making it somehow positive, like the word “dyke”), I do think are (at least!) on the brink of “for male gaze”.
And I don’t think it’s bad for a man to find them hot, I’d just prefer a man finding them hot in other ways than in the ways the porn industry defines “lesbian”.
Aleatorio – I do see your point. and I understand that you aren’t making a sweeping statement, but pointing out what you see as instances of concern. But femme/femme recognition been an academic and personal interest of mine for a while now and I’m trying to think and eventually write more about this specifically relating to the l word, so if you’ll bear with me, I’m going to continue to clarify my position.
I think its problematic to insist that things like Lesbian turkish oil wrestling inherntly imply a male or even masculine audience. It really misses the fact that there is a feminine audience (gay or straight) who could be, and clearly IS, excited to look at Lesbian turkish oil wrestling. Within the context of the show, it was produced for women, by women, much to the enjoyment of the young femme characters and for the enjoyment of many women who watch the show. That is its own closed system, and it dosen’t involve or imply men. Men catching a ride on it is not *inherent* to the efforts of the L word. That’s a different problem.
“It really misses the fact that there is a feminine audience (gay or straight) who could be, and clearly IS, excited to look at Lesbian turkish oil wrestling.”
And that’s what I meant when I mentioned it as something that represents old stereotypes (BTW there’s nothing sexual in real Turkish oil wrestling…) within the “lesbian porn” targeted for (or to? I’m not a native English speaker) the straight, male audience, and which they apparently now try to reclaim as something positive.
“imply a male or even masculine audience”
I don’t think reinforcing stereotypes has to do with the audience being male or female or getting kicks from it or not. I think it has to do with thought patterns, albeit your average lesbian/bi woman watching the show might not think about oil wrestling when they think about female love. Reinforcing stereotypes of pornographic imagery doesn’t mean the show is porn per se.
As a clarification: My original post was not to bash femmes (I know that’s NOT what Rose implies, but I thought I’d make that clear here).
“I do think are (at least!) on the brink of “for male gaze”” was a little vaguely put of me. By that I meant something familiar from porn, not explicitly pornographic itself.
Of course there are men watching the show and getting kicks from it, but I don’t think that’s the point.
Totally ignoring everyone else, because I am having one of those days – check out lolbama.com.
I’ve never seen the L-Word, so until I paged down a bit, I had no idea who all those women were. Nice to see there are still brunettes in Hollywood, anyway.
Aleatorio, I understand more of what you’re saying now. I *think* you’re saying that if there are people who think that all lesbians are hot girls secretly hang out and oil wrestle each other, and then there’s a show about lesbians, produced by a lesbian and it shows lesbians hanging out and oil wrestling, that’s reinforcing a negative sterotype or confirming the wrong idea even as it tries to claim power from it. Which is not untrue.
But I’m saying…if there were lesbian oil wrestling held at some lesbian bar, I’d SO be there. And so would lots of other girls and women. So then it wouldn’t be JUST be a sterotype but would also be an actual way to be a lesbian and participate in lesbian life. And in a way, watching the show as a lesbian and liking the lesbian turkish oil wrestling scene is that actualization. You know what I mean? There’s a desire that can’t be denied simply because it often gets misrecognized as being performative instead of genuine. Cause it can simultaneously be meant as genuine and read as genuine within its own system, regardless of how it gets misread by others.
We’re not quite talking about the same issue, but the issues you mention and the ones I won’t shut up about overlap, or continue from one another.
Thanks for engaging though. Its helped me clarify my thoughts for myself, and see what other questions I still have to answer.
“There’s a desire that can’t be denied simply because it often gets misrecognized as being performative instead of genuine.”
I guess I get your point now. “Performative” is just the word to describe how (sadly) some people (many, in my experience) see affection between two women, as if they were just putting up a show for certain men. I don’t think people (whatever gender/orientation) ought to be sucking each others gums out on the streets, but I have personally heard really objectifying comments from men while walking hand in hand with a girlfriend, so yeah, I do think there are people who think lesbian = tease for men.
But well. Glad to have had this conversation. Let’s see how they keep the balance next (and final) season…
I wonder if LOL-DTWOF would work… I don’t think I’ve ever seen LOL applied to toons before, I dunno if the humor would work on a non-photograph. On the other hand…
Bring me…. a shrubbery! (kitties luv da monty python) THAT was incredibly funny. I sent that to my best friend in Pittsburgh and she called me up, still laughing. She said it gave her the lift she needed in the midst of a difficult week. Thanks Alison, for spreading the laughter.
“…but I have personally heard really objectifying comments from men while walking hand in hand with a girlfriend, so yeah, I do think there are people who think lesbian = tease for men.”
I’ll second that experience. Some men really can’t stand the thought that there might be a sexuality out there that doesn’t revolve around them – hence their hi-jacking ‘lesbianism’ (that is, what they like to think lesbianism is). Unfortunately, this makes it difficult for a show like “The L Word” to depict sexuality between women without being accused (as it has in some quarters) of pandering.
anything mocking the lword is fine by me, though I must admit I find it enjoyable when it actually does that for me… like Jenny being so crazy this season- mornowthnx. So yay lolword!
I’m guessing this crowd in particular might be interested in loltheorists over at Livejournal?
Yes, I have also had the experience of men asking me and my girlfriend if they could “get in” or in various ways attemptng to inject themselves into my genuine femme/femme attraction that did not require or invite them, but simply existed in public. Once a really young kid – he must have been like, 10, said something like that and I was like, this is out of control! Being in grad school at the time, I kind of took it out in theory, and I started thinking along the lines that I mentioned here.
Someone mentioned textspeak. Sorry to be anally retentive about this, but LOLspeak is not text-derived at all, in fact the contributor notes stress the use of vowels. LOLspeak is derived partially from gamer abbreviations/acronyms, but is mostly babytalk. Who among us has not addressed her “kitteh” thusly:
“hoos mai preshuss poopsee kittehbaybee? duz yoo wants sum moar kibblz? tummyrubs want? K, bai den…”
I have a lovehate thing with L Word (it’s usually 5 mins of sparkling entertainment and 40 mins of dross), but these made me LOL def. Can’t wait to make my own!
I realize that I am one of only 3 lesbians left in the country who have never seen the L-Word (I think the other two live in Akron and don’t own a TV.) But I’m enjoying watching my friends snort coffee out their nose while they read it… 🙂
I just don’t grasp the attraction of I can Haz labels. The pictures yes, who doesn’t love pootie pix, but the deliberately misspelled, f-d up tags, I just can’t get there.
LOLZ are like animated emoticons, cutesy long quotes, and looped animated GIFS, they are the Lisa Frank stickers of the Internet, creeping into every corner. Sigh. Now even here.
I don’t know about anyone else, but when I sweet-talk my kitty, it’s spelled correctly.
I was the one who mentioned texting. I haven’t watched TV since the mid-Eighties, so I had no idea of the provenance of the photos or the particular style of mis-spelled humor. Texting was just a guess, and I mentioned that the words didn’t really look like text-speak.
I haven’t yet figured out how it is that a TV show, which is not a written form of entertainment, has spawned a style of humor that is based on distorted spelling. On the other hand, I don’t think I really want to know.
Jana C.H.
Seattle
Saith WSG: A paradox, a paradox, a most ingenious paradox!
Interesting those points about male objectification of lesbianism. In my local lesbian-feminist bookstore, men (of any kind) aren’t allowed to buy lesbian movies on video or DVD. To avoid that type of objectification, I should imagine.
Yay, lil gator & Deena!
Sorry for lumping you in with the common throng, Jana C.H. Slave to grammar though I am, I personally can’t resist cat macros, and the wildly anomalous cross-referencing of LOLword or LOLbama just gets me every time.
April– Intentionally bad spelling and grammar constitute another classic for of humor probably going back to mis-written cuneform. I don’t know the context of LOL-jokes and they don’t appeal to me much, but lots of people love the stuff. Good for them! There’s room in this world for all of us.
But if you don’t laugh at Gilbert and Sullivan, you DIE!!!! DIE! DIE! DIE!
Jana C.H.
Seattle
Saith WSG: When exigence of rhyme compels / Orthographry forgoes her spells, / And “ghost” is written “ghoest.”
Well, I’ve resisted analysis because I don’t want to ruin the fun, but a brief plunge: In my family growing up, we assigned distinct voices and personalities to our pets (anthropomorphism, an ancient practice) and used “humorous” conversations between them and us to talk about tensions and family dynamics that were otherwise verboten. It was okay if the dog said it.
LOLcats is a fascinating national experiment with the same concept. It’s a place where folks from EVERY background are contributing, apparently equally. They’re creating themes and conventions as they go along, but the initial and most persistent one is subversion and rebellion. My favorites are the ones who enlist pop culture and politics to make a comment which is, of course, ludicrous to imagine that animal ever making (and little gator is the queen of these dialectical mash-ups).
And, in the way of all pidgins, the grammar/spelling rules are becoming consistent, distinct. Not just “mispelled” but recognizably done so to a pattern. I’ve come to these only in the past year, and am still learning — but progressive blogs are using them to brilliant effect, adding humor to polemics in a way beyond cartoons or You Tube. I’m particularly impressed with how little the craze (at least at I Can Has Cheezburger) has manifested woman-hating, racism, and other fallback ugliness of American culture — perhaps it’s the self-policing available there, perhaps it’s because this tool is meant to be “bigger” than such things.
Just this week, I wrote little gator and asked her to explain the walrus/lolrus/bucket meme, because I didn’t get it from context. (Not that funny to me, as it turns out.) But others, much more hilarious and plastic, include:
I can has/haz (expressing longing and oppression)
IM IN UR (subversion and threat)
Fail
UR doin it wrong
Iz when I knew
Has a flavor (sexual AND predatory)
O Hai (caught in misbehavior)
Noms
Cheezburger (greed OR working class hunger/defiance)
Ceiling cat (has an entire theology on Wikipedia, and is a direct assault on organized fundie religion)
Text messaging misappropriation (BRB, Kthxbai)
Sarcasm in the face of any orthodoxy
Emo loneliness and alienation
No want
Expressions of love and commitment that would otherwise be open to teasing (but pass here)
Aphorism misappropriation
Song/movie title/line misappropriation
Facebook/social networking humor
“Coming out” humor (usually friendly)
Geek humor
Invisible (fill in the blank)
Mini-me/minions
Pwnd
Large-species cat/domestic cat conflation (Jesus Christ It’s A Lion has its own subset now)
wow, Maggie JoChild, you too? I didn’t realize any one else’s family was like that-I survived the last years in my parents house almost entirely by talking through the cat:) and it’s funny because actually the main reason I don’t find LOLcats funny is that my cats have their own pidgin, and whenever I go onto LOL part of me is like “THAT’S not how cats talk.”
For years my cats, who also had their own language based on phonetics which, like yours, was NOT LOLcat speak, wrote letters, e-mails and even left phone messages with my friends, complaining about “humin opreshin” and commenting on the lesbian community in general. It was not just well-received, it was often requested. And a lot of my friends said their families, too, used “pet conversation” to venture into taboo territory. I think it might be very common, and LOLcats has simply provided a national outlet.
For folks who don’t get it, though, it’s seriously not funny. And I respect that. I mean, I can’t stand Adam Sandler, you know?
My nonbios talk as well, and always have. When my mother is on the phone she apologises if she mistakes one for another. Even though their voices are virtually identical and only their words and attitude differ.
Mr Gator and I have plastic tigers on our keychains. Oddly, we never hear them talk, but are constantly quoting them as in:
Bitey says this.
Well Roy says Bitey’s a dope.
Bitey says it takes one to be one.
etc…
Roy G Biv and Bitey Orange Tiger are like brothers, vicious bickering and everything.
Hehe, my brother and i will “interview” our little wheaton terrier on his hard line stance against squirrels, but if he wanders somewhere else then we comment “Excuse me, but you’re clearly running away from the question at hand here”.
When we first got him, we briefly considered naming him Anderson Pooper, before saner heads prevailed.
Thanks for your analysis and explanation of lolcats, Maggie.
Like others who have commented, when I first saw lolcats I liked the photos but did not “get” the context. What helped me out was this article from the Wall Street Journal: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118798557326508182.html
If the link doesn’t work, just Google “Wall Street Journal” and “lolcats” and it will pop up.
I’m a writer. Do it every day. But you should see me try to DRAW something — people don’t want me as a partner in Pictionary, I’m so bad.
Usually Lurking, that article was fascinating and the links within it even moreso. I had no idea it was being studied so geekily. What fun.
little gator, I have to ask — is the plastic tiger keychain named Roy G Biv a rainbow tiger, or all white light, or is there some other explanation for his/her name?
OMFreakin’G! Possibly the funniest thing I’ve seen on the web in ages! “Hoomin b4 coffee in teh morning” and “Invisible txt msg breakup” both made me LOL, which is a rare thing from web-surfing!
See also, http://www.catsinsinks.com, another highly-addictive website, if not quite as LOLalicious as icanhascheezburger.com
Roy is black and white striped. nd they say white contains all other colors. He was also named after Roy Horn or Siegfried and, being a white tiger and all.
He was a gift from my friend Geraldine, so his middle name is Gerald.
I will never forget a couple of weeks ago, sitting around a huge table in a restaurant with my family, while my sister’s close friend, who we grew up with, and who is straight, proceeded to loudly and reverently summarize the entire L-Word ouvre for me, beginning from season 1 episode 1 to the present. I couldn’t stop thinking, this is surreal, but I sat there amused, and listened to her.
Where I came from, 25 years ago straight women would never admit in public to having watched that show one time, on pain of death, let alone spend 20 minutes glorifying it while simultaneously recanting plot lines so she could indulge herself in a fugue-like reverie of all 4 – or 5 or however many it is – seasons of the show. Her ostensible goal, though, which in itself was surreal, was to try to get me, the lesbian, interested in watching the show. What’s more, if we did have this exact situation happen back then, it would have wreaked havoc at that dinner table, in that restaurant, with those same people present. In the early 80s, I feared that my parents would commit me to a mental institution if I came out, or disown me, or send me to aversion therapy, while my life would additionally be made miserable from the harassment of every man, woman, and child within a 20-mile radius of my home (and the L-Word fanatic sitting next to me definitely would have been one of the ones I was afraid of being harassed by).
But here we are now, sitting in a restaurant discussing the L-Word at a big family gathering, while the children sit next to us on either side, (my nephew and niece), and sisters, parents, and strangers join in and out of the conversation while maintaining their own conversations, like it’s all the most normal thing in the world.
I don’t think my fears were completely unfounded, but I do wonder what kind of difference I would’ve made for both myself and for other gays and lesbians had I had the guts to come out then instead of waiting until I turned 20.
Ahem. Not all male interest in lesbians is sexual. I for one identify as Stuart does: “a butch dyke in a man’s body.” I find myself drawn to lesbian culture and ideas principally because I prefer the Feminist-Liberal thinking and the spirit of the quest toward something new and different. Admittedly, I am turned on by the thought of women having sex but even sexually, I rather more appreciate the idea of the union of sensuality with everyday life than simple girl-girl porn. I will not say that my views are mainstream male, but I do wish that people would recognize that there are nuances in male thought.
Based on having seen the first season (so far), I don’t think it’s deniable that The L Word panders to straight people, particularly straight men. I just can’t imagine that every single lesbian out there would enjoy the at least one explicit, extended heterosex scene per show, nor do I think that the near absence of gay men in the show, and the negative characterizations, with heterosexist stereotypes, of virtually all the gay men who ARE shown, is a big draw for most lesbians either, but I know who WOULD like it.
Come on, a lesbian couple is going to go around to straight men rather than the gay men they know when they need a sperm donor?
Also it seems to me that the butch women they started to show toward the end of the first season are homelier than the fem women, which fits nicely with the views of many straight people.
I have enjoyed the show so far and will watch more episodes, but it’s clear the show’s creators felt the lesbian audience wasn’t close to lucrative enough by itself to sell the project to Showtime.
I live in rural New England, so you KNOW that the dykes I know don’t look anything like The L Word women. As a matter of fact, the hetero women I know don’t look anything like The L Word women. If you need to dress for temperature swings, precipitation (frozen or liquid), bringing in firewood, and the possibility of getting stuck on dirt roads, you will not look like The L Word women.
That said, TV doctors don’t look like my primary care provider, TV cops don’t look like the ones I see around my neighborhood, TV teachers don’t look like my sister or the other educators who are near and dear to me … If there WERE any shows featuring librarians, mail carriers, pizza delivery people or housepainters, they wouldn’t look like the ones I know, either. TV World is its own private Idaho.
I’ve been getting into the beginning of the second season of The L Word, and it looks like the show had decided not to have an extended, fairly explicit heterosex scene in every show, and to have more butch women, which is good. But it seems that it always has to have a good-looking, basically likable straight man as a main character. Now that Tim has gone away, Shane and Jenny had to get a roommate, and of course it’s a straight guy who has the money way in advance. But he’s the obnoxious filmmaker who put hidden cameras in every room of the house except the bathroom. So… why is almost every young straight male portrayed as one of the “duh, lesbians are hawt” morons? There actually are straight guys who are cool with lesbians without wanting to intrude into their lives, and others who just don’t like lesbians. I think only this type of young straight male is shown because this is one of the shows main target audience groups.
Oh yes, the sex scene in season one where one of the two women was wearing high heels in bed: is anyone other than straight men AT ALL turned on by this? I only see high heels in bed in straight porn.
And are the lesbian sex scenes toned down in order to not alienate straight women? I’ve wondered this for a while. Okay, in the second season there’s the scene in the pool between Helena Peabody and Tina (or should I say Tina’s big-breasted body double?), but otherwise, it’s mostly tepid stuff.
I’m saying this after having seen episode 9 of Queer As Folk’s final season (American series), specifically the scene between Lindsay and Melanie where Lindsay waited up for Melanie to come back from a date. As far as passion and heat, well, why is something like that in a show that was predominantly aimed at gay men and only secondarily at lesbians, rather than in a show with lesbians as its core audience? It was far more exciting than any intimate interaction between anyone on The L Word, at last so far (early in its second season).
And, if there were those of you who were happy and grateful that I said what I did about The L Word in an earlier post, and what I said seemed self-evident, WHY DID IT TAKE A MALE TO SAY THEM? just wondering….
85 Responses to “LOL-Word”
Love the Dana one….
That just made my afternoon.
Don’t feel guilty…it’s kittycats!
i can haz peen…OMG that’s too funny…
Hehe, nice! You should totally check out the L Kitties too, a Hello Kitty parody comic of the L Word: http://mikesegawa.com/lkitties.html
Har! I especially love the one for Jenny, whom I hate with the burning passion of a thousand fiery suns.
Um… maybe it’s because I’m up here in the frozen north, and we’re kind of isolated, but I don’t get it. I mean, I get the L Word stuff (but loathed that show from day one, so haven’t watched it since), but… the rest? Am I just really old?
Other Andi– Maybe we ARE too old, because I don’t see the appeal either. I’m not talking about the kitty pictures: cute photos of cats with mildly amusing captions are one of the classic forms of comedy, going back to ancient Egypt. But I don’t see the appeal of the rest of the captioned photos. If the mis-spellings are text-speak, I can see why texting fans might like them, but they seem to lack the conciseness and cleverness of good text-speak. Is there some context that we old fogies aren’t aware of? I’m always willing to learn.
Jana C.H.
Seattle
Saith Floss Forbes: If you don’t know the tune, sing tenor.
i think most of the Lol-words just aren’t that funny. maybe if id seen more than 2.5 episodes, id think differently.
p.s. does anyone else think Hillary is a Cylon?
since we’re on pulp culture and all.
Too cute
Jana and Other Andi —
I also don’t text and also don’t watch the L-Word (gave it a couple of tries then shrugged my shoulders) so I’m out of the loop on this one too.
That’s okay, it’s a wide world with too many distractions as is.
count me in as being out of it; only watched the L-word a couple of times, so it’s all over my head.
Thought the L word was boring but…but the kitties are cute…
not so related, but-earlier this year or last year AB posted a link to another cartoonist, who was writing a comic about this lesbian art student-I read the first part, in which the art student goes out for coffee and sees some one who she thinks is cute, the barista thinks the cute person might be interested in the art student and thinks she should go for it…etc. I can’t for the life of me remember the name of this cartoonist, but I want to read the rest of the comic! does any one know who I’m talking about???
The kitties were wonderful.
I have seen the first 8 episodes of the L Word plus the pilot (rented on dvd). Some of them are just plain terrible…all of the stuff about how hormones are effecting Tina’s ability to do ANYTHING drove me nuts!! And I agree with DelandDelakes that Jenny is about the most annoying character ever. I can’t even get up enough emotion about her to hate her, but if I had to pick, I would definitely say I hated her most. I also think the athlete, Dana I think, is a terrible character. She doesn’t act anything like the athletes I know. And, the story line that made me laugh the hardest was the one where some rich gay guy thought that Shane was a guy. They all act like Shane is this big dyke who is mistaken for a male all the time…she doesn’t look at all like a guy…I would NEVER mistake her for a guy. For that character, they should have actually found a woman who looks like a guy (what a crazy idea that is)!! Of course, next weekend I will probably rent the next 4 episodes…it has to get better at some point, right? 🙂
I like The Lol-Word purely because I hate lol-cats on the basis that I am sure that if my cat (and maybe–just maybe–other cats) could write, her spelling and grammar would be perfect. Those characters on the other hand …
Laura Roslyn for president. (that’s in reference to the cylon joke earlier. pop culture – file under Battlestar Gallactica.)
Dang, where did that hour go? Luved teh kittehs but my fave wuz teh lolrus adn bukkit. Must forget name of website. Must forget name of website. Must …
Hey, I never saw a single episode of the l word, yet I found the lolwords hilarious!
Cats were cute but I totally missed the point on those L-word pictures maybe I have seen one episode of L-word and that was like 4 years ago.
I do not have tv so I seem to miss a lot of the general discussion specially at work.
No, not really ceiling cat.
My grown daughter advised me to view icanhascheezburger when I was overloaded on work stress. I have been reading it faithfully for over 6 months now.
I consider it part of my recovery program. There is also cuteoverload.com for detoxing.
to tangent
kris dresden
girlthrow.com
Love the Coldplay reference.
God, that band is overrated.
I’d rather listen to cats mating at night outdoors.
Somehow I can’t quite imagine Alison watching The L Word…
I admit: I do at times. Yeah, it reinforces certain all-femme lesbian-love-equals-porn-for-straight-men stereotypes and the plot is less than believable, but hey, there’s Shane. And people watch Passions too.
Oh. hilarious. I love the L word, and that’s just…hilarious.
re: Aleatorio’s comment that femme/femme lesbian love on the l word equals porn for men. I strongly disagree that that is what’s going on on the L word. I’ll grant that the show’s got problems but I don’t think that’s one of them. Its very clearly produced from a female perspective, and I think that one of the major things that troubles/drives the show is various directors, writers, actors attempting to find a way to show feminine sexuality WITHOUT bringing in a male gaze. For the femme to be both subject and object simultaneously. Its a new attempt, at least within the world of TV, and so sometimes their efforts are wonky, hideous, cringeworthy. But sometimes it comes out beautifully.
If dudes end up liking it anyway, you can’t blame them cause the women are hot, but I really feel its very clear that its clear the show isn’t pandering to male desire.
oh. I didn’t mean to be anonymous in espousing my theory of feminine subject/objectivity on the l word above. My name’s Rose.
“…certain all-femme lesbian-love-equals-porn-for-straight-men stereotypes”
Rose/Anon: I DO kind of agree with you, and I’d like to point out the words “certain” and “stereotypes” in my text. Some of the love scenes (and scenes that depict relationships in general) are beautiful and, well, others are not, and that happens in most (if not all) TV shows (including Passions!).
Story lines like “lesbian Turkish oil wrestling” (season 5) that one could, I guess, argue to be somehow “liberating” (as in a minority claiming the old negative stereotype and making it somehow positive, like the word “dyke”), I do think are (at least!) on the brink of “for male gaze”.
And I don’t think it’s bad for a man to find them hot, I’d just prefer a man finding them hot in other ways than in the ways the porn industry defines “lesbian”.
I never feel guilty about wallowing in ICHC, where I am a frequent contributor.
chakc out punditkitchen.com too.
Aleatorio – I do see your point. and I understand that you aren’t making a sweeping statement, but pointing out what you see as instances of concern. But femme/femme recognition been an academic and personal interest of mine for a while now and I’m trying to think and eventually write more about this specifically relating to the l word, so if you’ll bear with me, I’m going to continue to clarify my position.
I think its problematic to insist that things like Lesbian turkish oil wrestling inherntly imply a male or even masculine audience. It really misses the fact that there is a feminine audience (gay or straight) who could be, and clearly IS, excited to look at Lesbian turkish oil wrestling. Within the context of the show, it was produced for women, by women, much to the enjoyment of the young femme characters and for the enjoyment of many women who watch the show. That is its own closed system, and it dosen’t involve or imply men. Men catching a ride on it is not *inherent* to the efforts of the L word. That’s a different problem.
“It really misses the fact that there is a feminine audience (gay or straight) who could be, and clearly IS, excited to look at Lesbian turkish oil wrestling.”
And that’s what I meant when I mentioned it as something that represents old stereotypes (BTW there’s nothing sexual in real Turkish oil wrestling…) within the “lesbian porn” targeted for (or to? I’m not a native English speaker) the straight, male audience, and which they apparently now try to reclaim as something positive.
“imply a male or even masculine audience”
I don’t think reinforcing stereotypes has to do with the audience being male or female or getting kicks from it or not. I think it has to do with thought patterns, albeit your average lesbian/bi woman watching the show might not think about oil wrestling when they think about female love. Reinforcing stereotypes of pornographic imagery doesn’t mean the show is porn per se.
As a clarification: My original post was not to bash femmes (I know that’s NOT what Rose implies, but I thought I’d make that clear here).
“I do think are (at least!) on the brink of “for male gaze”” was a little vaguely put of me. By that I meant something familiar from porn, not explicitly pornographic itself.
Of course there are men watching the show and getting kicks from it, but I don’t think that’s the point.
Totally ignoring everyone else, because I am having one of those days – check out lolbama.com.
I’ve never seen the L-Word, so until I paged down a bit, I had no idea who all those women were. Nice to see there are still brunettes in Hollywood, anyway.
Aleatorio, I understand more of what you’re saying now. I *think* you’re saying that if there are people who think that all lesbians are hot girls secretly hang out and oil wrestle each other, and then there’s a show about lesbians, produced by a lesbian and it shows lesbians hanging out and oil wrestling, that’s reinforcing a negative sterotype or confirming the wrong idea even as it tries to claim power from it. Which is not untrue.
But I’m saying…if there were lesbian oil wrestling held at some lesbian bar, I’d SO be there. And so would lots of other girls and women. So then it wouldn’t be JUST be a sterotype but would also be an actual way to be a lesbian and participate in lesbian life. And in a way, watching the show as a lesbian and liking the lesbian turkish oil wrestling scene is that actualization. You know what I mean? There’s a desire that can’t be denied simply because it often gets misrecognized as being performative instead of genuine. Cause it can simultaneously be meant as genuine and read as genuine within its own system, regardless of how it gets misread by others.
We’re not quite talking about the same issue, but the issues you mention and the ones I won’t shut up about overlap, or continue from one another.
Thanks for engaging though. Its helped me clarify my thoughts for myself, and see what other questions I still have to answer.
“There’s a desire that can’t be denied simply because it often gets misrecognized as being performative instead of genuine.”
I guess I get your point now. “Performative” is just the word to describe how (sadly) some people (many, in my experience) see affection between two women, as if they were just putting up a show for certain men. I don’t think people (whatever gender/orientation) ought to be sucking each others gums out on the streets, but I have personally heard really objectifying comments from men while walking hand in hand with a girlfriend, so yeah, I do think there are people who think lesbian = tease for men.
But well. Glad to have had this conversation. Let’s see how they keep the balance next (and final) season…
“Let’s see how they keep the balance next (and final) season… ”
I hope it involves a lot of Bette and Tina making out.
I wonder if LOL-DTWOF would work… I don’t think I’ve ever seen LOL applied to toons before, I dunno if the humor would work on a non-photograph. On the other hand…
Harriet: I can haz VCR?
Mo: DO NOT WANT!
There are lots of scenes with cats in them in the strips…those would work!
Bring me…. a shrubbery! (kitties luv da monty python) THAT was incredibly funny. I sent that to my best friend in Pittsburgh and she called me up, still laughing. She said it gave her the lift she needed in the midst of a difficult week. Thanks Alison, for spreading the laughter.
“…but I have personally heard really objectifying comments from men while walking hand in hand with a girlfriend, so yeah, I do think there are people who think lesbian = tease for men.”
I’ll second that experience. Some men really can’t stand the thought that there might be a sexuality out there that doesn’t revolve around them – hence their hi-jacking ‘lesbianism’ (that is, what they like to think lesbianism is). Unfortunately, this makes it difficult for a show like “The L Word” to depict sexuality between women without being accused (as it has in some quarters) of pandering.
oh no! first, my housemate names his cat “lolcatz”, now i can never watch the l-word again…
anything mocking the lword is fine by me, though I must admit I find it enjoyable when it actually does that for me… like Jenny being so crazy this season- mornowthnx. So yay lolword!
I’m guessing this crowd in particular might be interested in loltheorists over at Livejournal?
LolTheorists
accidentally hit enter…. but my link didn’t work! it’s here:
http://community.livejournal.com/loltheorists
Aleatorio, whitelabcoat,
Yes, I have also had the experience of men asking me and my girlfriend if they could “get in” or in various ways attemptng to inject themselves into my genuine femme/femme attraction that did not require or invite them, but simply existed in public. Once a really young kid – he must have been like, 10, said something like that and I was like, this is out of control! Being in grad school at the time, I kind of took it out in theory, and I started thinking along the lines that I mentioned here.
Someone mentioned textspeak. Sorry to be anally retentive about this, but LOLspeak is not text-derived at all, in fact the contributor notes stress the use of vowels. LOLspeak is derived partially from gamer abbreviations/acronyms, but is mostly babytalk. Who among us has not addressed her “kitteh” thusly:
“hoos mai preshuss poopsee kittehbaybee? duz yoo wants sum moar kibblz? tummyrubs want? K, bai den…”
I have a lovehate thing with L Word (it’s usually 5 mins of sparkling entertainment and 40 mins of dross), but these made me LOL def. Can’t wait to make my own!
Mo: Oh noes!
PS. Lilgator, will I see you over at ICHC?
Oh. My. God. That was too funny – That picture of Shane…”I haz a flavor” – that is one of my favorite LOL’s anyway. I almost spit out my tea!
Okay, whoever mentioned girlthrow.com – THANK YOU. Holy cow. Almost ever single panel in Grace is hot. I mean, wow.
I realize that I am one of only 3 lesbians left in the country who have never seen the L-Word (I think the other two live in Akron and don’t own a TV.) But I’m enjoying watching my friends snort coffee out their nose while they read it… 🙂
I just don’t grasp the attraction of I can Haz labels. The pictures yes, who doesn’t love pootie pix, but the deliberately misspelled, f-d up tags, I just can’t get there.
LOLZ are like animated emoticons, cutesy long quotes, and looped animated GIFS, they are the Lisa Frank stickers of the Internet, creeping into every corner. Sigh. Now even here.
and who was listening to me talking to my cat? How embarassing.
I LOVE lol cats. It’s hard for me to dislike anything just made to make me laugh…
I don’t know about anyone else, but when I sweet-talk my kitty, it’s spelled correctly.
I was the one who mentioned texting. I haven’t watched TV since the mid-Eighties, so I had no idea of the provenance of the photos or the particular style of mis-spelled humor. Texting was just a guess, and I mentioned that the words didn’t really look like text-speak.
I haven’t yet figured out how it is that a TV show, which is not a written form of entertainment, has spawned a style of humor that is based on distorted spelling. On the other hand, I don’t think I really want to know.
Jana C.H.
Seattle
Saith WSG: A paradox, a paradox, a most ingenious paradox!
Ah. Where else but in Alison’s blog could lolcats bring up discussion about grammar and the objectification of the concept of lesbianism?
Interesting those points about male objectification of lesbianism. In my local lesbian-feminist bookstore, men (of any kind) aren’t allowed to buy lesbian movies on video or DVD. To avoid that type of objectification, I should imagine.
another similar site is:
lolword.tumblr.com
April-
just look at the captioners’ names on ICHC, Some of them are little gator-that’s me.
Lol-ness is everywhere.
http://lolmozzer.blogspot.com/ hasn’t been updated in a while, but contains some LolMorrisseys.
And here is lol of a political bent, if we haven’t had enough! http://punditkitchen.com/page/2/
::embarrassedly admits to being on the cheezfriends maillist::
Yay, lil gator & Deena!
Sorry for lumping you in with the common throng, Jana C.H. Slave to grammar though I am, I personally can’t resist cat macros, and the wildly anomalous cross-referencing of LOLword or LOLbama just gets me every time.
April– Intentionally bad spelling and grammar constitute another classic for of humor probably going back to mis-written cuneform. I don’t know the context of LOL-jokes and they don’t appeal to me much, but lots of people love the stuff. Good for them! There’s room in this world for all of us.
But if you don’t laugh at Gilbert and Sullivan, you DIE!!!! DIE! DIE! DIE!
Jana C.H.
Seattle
Saith WSG: When exigence of rhyme compels / Orthographry forgoes her spells, / And “ghost” is written “ghoest.”
Amen to that!
Now let us close our eyes and talk about the weather.
http://www.snorgtees.com/icanhascatz-p-494.html?osCsid=561b9875b2d88dbbb5de4757d137258c
meh. lol-cats > lol-word. not quite FAIL, but not WIN either.
Well, I’ve resisted analysis because I don’t want to ruin the fun, but a brief plunge: In my family growing up, we assigned distinct voices and personalities to our pets (anthropomorphism, an ancient practice) and used “humorous” conversations between them and us to talk about tensions and family dynamics that were otherwise verboten. It was okay if the dog said it.
LOLcats is a fascinating national experiment with the same concept. It’s a place where folks from EVERY background are contributing, apparently equally. They’re creating themes and conventions as they go along, but the initial and most persistent one is subversion and rebellion. My favorites are the ones who enlist pop culture and politics to make a comment which is, of course, ludicrous to imagine that animal ever making (and little gator is the queen of these dialectical mash-ups).
And, in the way of all pidgins, the grammar/spelling rules are becoming consistent, distinct. Not just “mispelled” but recognizably done so to a pattern. I’ve come to these only in the past year, and am still learning — but progressive blogs are using them to brilliant effect, adding humor to polemics in a way beyond cartoons or You Tube. I’m particularly impressed with how little the craze (at least at I Can Has Cheezburger) has manifested woman-hating, racism, and other fallback ugliness of American culture — perhaps it’s the self-policing available there, perhaps it’s because this tool is meant to be “bigger” than such things.
Just this week, I wrote little gator and asked her to explain the walrus/lolrus/bucket meme, because I didn’t get it from context. (Not that funny to me, as it turns out.) But others, much more hilarious and plastic, include:
I can has/haz (expressing longing and oppression)
IM IN UR (subversion and threat)
Fail
UR doin it wrong
Iz when I knew
Has a flavor (sexual AND predatory)
O Hai (caught in misbehavior)
Noms
Cheezburger (greed OR working class hunger/defiance)
Ceiling cat (has an entire theology on Wikipedia, and is a direct assault on organized fundie religion)
Text messaging misappropriation (BRB, Kthxbai)
Sarcasm in the face of any orthodoxy
Emo loneliness and alienation
No want
Expressions of love and commitment that would otherwise be open to teasing (but pass here)
Aphorism misappropriation
Song/movie title/line misappropriation
Facebook/social networking humor
“Coming out” humor (usually friendly)
Geek humor
Invisible (fill in the blank)
Mini-me/minions
Pwnd
Large-species cat/domestic cat conflation (Jesus Christ It’s A Lion has its own subset now)
wow, Maggie JoChild, you too? I didn’t realize any one else’s family was like that-I survived the last years in my parents house almost entirely by talking through the cat:) and it’s funny because actually the main reason I don’t find LOLcats funny is that my cats have their own pidgin, and whenever I go onto LOL part of me is like “THAT’S not how cats talk.”
I’m telling a friend about this and I know it’s going to cut into her sleep ration by possibly a third.
For years my cats, who also had their own language based on phonetics which, like yours, was NOT LOLcat speak, wrote letters, e-mails and even left phone messages with my friends, complaining about “humin opreshin” and commenting on the lesbian community in general. It was not just well-received, it was often requested. And a lot of my friends said their families, too, used “pet conversation” to venture into taboo territory. I think it might be very common, and LOLcats has simply provided a national outlet.
For folks who don’t get it, though, it’s seriously not funny. And I respect that. I mean, I can’t stand Adam Sandler, you know?
My nonbios talk as well, and always have. When my mother is on the phone she apologises if she mistakes one for another. Even though their voices are virtually identical and only their words and attitude differ.
Mr Gator and I have plastic tigers on our keychains. Oddly, we never hear them talk, but are constantly quoting them as in:
Bitey says this.
Well Roy says Bitey’s a dope.
Bitey says it takes one to be one.
etc…
Roy G Biv and Bitey Orange Tiger are like brothers, vicious bickering and everything.
Hehe, my brother and i will “interview” our little wheaton terrier on his hard line stance against squirrels, but if he wanders somewhere else then we comment “Excuse me, but you’re clearly running away from the question at hand here”.
When we first got him, we briefly considered naming him Anderson Pooper, before saner heads prevailed.
Thanks for your analysis and explanation of lolcats, Maggie.
Like others who have commented, when I first saw lolcats I liked the photos but did not “get” the context. What helped me out was this article from the Wall Street Journal:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118798557326508182.html
If the link doesn’t work, just Google “Wall Street Journal” and “lolcats” and it will pop up.
Sparkling analysis as usual, Maggie.
How come you can translate thoughts into words so well?
I’m not so good… probablee why LOLs make me LOL.
I’m a writer. Do it every day. But you should see me try to DRAW something — people don’t want me as a partner in Pictionary, I’m so bad.
Usually Lurking, that article was fascinating and the links within it even moreso. I had no idea it was being studied so geekily. What fun.
little gator, I have to ask — is the plastic tiger keychain named Roy G Biv a rainbow tiger, or all white light, or is there some other explanation for his/her name?
OMFreakin’G! Possibly the funniest thing I’ve seen on the web in ages! “Hoomin b4 coffee in teh morning” and “Invisible txt msg breakup” both made me LOL, which is a rare thing from web-surfing!
See also, http://www.catsinsinks.com, another highly-addictive website, if not quite as LOLalicious as icanhascheezburger.com
Roy is black and white striped. nd they say white contains all other colors. He was also named after Roy Horn or Siegfried and, being a white tiger and all.
He was a gift from my friend Geraldine, so his middle name is Gerald.
He hates it when I call him Mr. Bivvers.
Slate did a great slide-show essay on the lolcats phenomenon.
So glad I’m not the only dedicated daily visitor of icanhascheezburger!
I will never forget a couple of weeks ago, sitting around a huge table in a restaurant with my family, while my sister’s close friend, who we grew up with, and who is straight, proceeded to loudly and reverently summarize the entire L-Word ouvre for me, beginning from season 1 episode 1 to the present. I couldn’t stop thinking, this is surreal, but I sat there amused, and listened to her.
Where I came from, 25 years ago straight women would never admit in public to having watched that show one time, on pain of death, let alone spend 20 minutes glorifying it while simultaneously recanting plot lines so she could indulge herself in a fugue-like reverie of all 4 – or 5 or however many it is – seasons of the show. Her ostensible goal, though, which in itself was surreal, was to try to get me, the lesbian, interested in watching the show. What’s more, if we did have this exact situation happen back then, it would have wreaked havoc at that dinner table, in that restaurant, with those same people present. In the early 80s, I feared that my parents would commit me to a mental institution if I came out, or disown me, or send me to aversion therapy, while my life would additionally be made miserable from the harassment of every man, woman, and child within a 20-mile radius of my home (and the L-Word fanatic sitting next to me definitely would have been one of the ones I was afraid of being harassed by).
But here we are now, sitting in a restaurant discussing the L-Word at a big family gathering, while the children sit next to us on either side, (my nephew and niece), and sisters, parents, and strangers join in and out of the conversation while maintaining their own conversations, like it’s all the most normal thing in the world.
I don’t think my fears were completely unfounded, but I do wonder what kind of difference I would’ve made for both myself and for other gays and lesbians had I had the guts to come out then instead of waiting until I turned 20.
Oh, but Danyell and others…the true test of being an ICHC fanatic is whether or not you post in the comments section. Nawt seccund danze, ennyone??
Ahem. Not all male interest in lesbians is sexual. I for one identify as Stuart does: “a butch dyke in a man’s body.” I find myself drawn to lesbian culture and ideas principally because I prefer the Feminist-Liberal thinking and the spirit of the quest toward something new and different. Admittedly, I am turned on by the thought of women having sex but even sexually, I rather more appreciate the idea of the union of sensuality with everyday life than simple girl-girl porn. I will not say that my views are mainstream male, but I do wish that people would recognize that there are nuances in male thought.
Based on having seen the first season (so far), I don’t think it’s deniable that The L Word panders to straight people, particularly straight men. I just can’t imagine that every single lesbian out there would enjoy the at least one explicit, extended heterosex scene per show, nor do I think that the near absence of gay men in the show, and the negative characterizations, with heterosexist stereotypes, of virtually all the gay men who ARE shown, is a big draw for most lesbians either, but I know who WOULD like it.
Come on, a lesbian couple is going to go around to straight men rather than the gay men they know when they need a sperm donor?
Also it seems to me that the butch women they started to show toward the end of the first season are homelier than the fem women, which fits nicely with the views of many straight people.
I have enjoyed the show so far and will watch more episodes, but it’s clear the show’s creators felt the lesbian audience wasn’t close to lucrative enough by itself to sell the project to Showtime.
OMG, OMG, OMGoddess thank you!
Thanks, Josh. I’ve watched clips and never seen a single woman who remotely resembled the dykes I’ve known. Just not my lesbian reality.
I live in rural New England, so you KNOW that the dykes I know don’t look anything like The L Word women. As a matter of fact, the hetero women I know don’t look anything like The L Word women. If you need to dress for temperature swings, precipitation (frozen or liquid), bringing in firewood, and the possibility of getting stuck on dirt roads, you will not look like The L Word women.
That said, TV doctors don’t look like my primary care provider, TV cops don’t look like the ones I see around my neighborhood, TV teachers don’t look like my sister or the other educators who are near and dear to me … If there WERE any shows featuring librarians, mail carriers, pizza delivery people or housepainters, they wouldn’t look like the ones I know, either. TV World is its own private Idaho.
I’ve been getting into the beginning of the second season of The L Word, and it looks like the show had decided not to have an extended, fairly explicit heterosex scene in every show, and to have more butch women, which is good. But it seems that it always has to have a good-looking, basically likable straight man as a main character. Now that Tim has gone away, Shane and Jenny had to get a roommate, and of course it’s a straight guy who has the money way in advance. But he’s the obnoxious filmmaker who put hidden cameras in every room of the house except the bathroom. So… why is almost every young straight male portrayed as one of the “duh, lesbians are hawt” morons? There actually are straight guys who are cool with lesbians without wanting to intrude into their lives, and others who just don’t like lesbians. I think only this type of young straight male is shown because this is one of the shows main target audience groups.
Oh yes, the sex scene in season one where one of the two women was wearing high heels in bed: is anyone other than straight men AT ALL turned on by this? I only see high heels in bed in straight porn.
And are the lesbian sex scenes toned down in order to not alienate straight women? I’ve wondered this for a while. Okay, in the second season there’s the scene in the pool between Helena Peabody and Tina (or should I say Tina’s big-breasted body double?), but otherwise, it’s mostly tepid stuff.
I’m saying this after having seen episode 9 of Queer As Folk’s final season (American series), specifically the scene between Lindsay and Melanie where Lindsay waited up for Melanie to come back from a date. As far as passion and heat, well, why is something like that in a show that was predominantly aimed at gay men and only secondarily at lesbians, rather than in a show with lesbians as its core audience? It was far more exciting than any intimate interaction between anyone on The L Word, at last so far (early in its second season).
And, if there were those of you who were happy and grateful that I said what I did about The L Word in an earlier post, and what I said seemed self-evident, WHY DID IT TAKE A MALE TO SAY THEM? just wondering….