As a lesbian woman, I face stereotypes that I often see in television. The media has taught me how I should act depending on my appearance and encourages stereotypes of lesbians for heterosexual identifying people. I myself have fallen victim to these stereotypes, however I understand there are more than simply “butch” and “femme” terms, as addressed in my research. My research has concluded that the depiction of lesbians is created through the representation of lesbian women in media. Specifically, through script theory and narratives in television. My findings suggest that stereotypes are inaccurate representations of lesbians because identities go far beyond “butch” and “femme.”

To understand lesbian narratives, my study looked at the history of lesbian representation within television over the years. The representation has altered drastically, but there is still a reoccurring narrative around heterosexual gender roles. My personal experience combined with my findings, showcase that lesbians are depicted through stereotypes because of script theory. 

Script theory says that we follow scripts of behavior that are presented to us, like our behavior inside a restaurant. In this order: you find a table, read the menu, the server takes your order, you eat the meal, pay the bill, and then leave. This process was created because we have seen it and internalized it as normal (Schank, 1995). It is important to understand that representations of LGBTQ people have a huge impact on the development of same-sex relationships.

Historical information

In early mainstream television, lesbian sexuality was often subliminal or even invisible (Jenkins, 2005). Recently, films have incorporated same-sex characters into media, but the issue to address is whether or not these films encourage lesbianism, or emphasize male heterosexual desires or heterosexualization (Jenkins, 2005). Heterosexualization the process by which the lesbian is represented as “hegemonic femininity” thus, looking like a straight woman (Ciasullo, 2001). In contrast, conventional narratives of lesbians were dominated by, “the angry, militant, lesbian feminist, the butch, the woman who deep down want to be a man and thus eschews all accoutrements of femininity,” (Ciasullo 2001, p. 585). 

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The most common term for conventional lesbian narratives is "butch" or the “true” lesbian. This entails that she “dresses like a man” and usually has a short haircut, is flat chested, and has no curves (Ciasullo, 2008). Not only does this occur in prison shows, it is a narrative found in most mainstream television. In this study, Piper is the opposite of what a “true” lesbian is defined as, which is an interesting alteration of stereotypes. 

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The most common narrative found in lesbian films is the “prison lesbians” identified by Estelle B. Freedman in 1996. This fantasy was created for male heterosexual fantasies. In a study on “prison lesbians” by Ann Ciasullo, the character Max from Charlie’s Angels was coded as a “dyke” because of her name, hair, temper, and desire for femme women (Ciasullo, 2008). Casullo's study found that women of color were often depicted as the aggressive “male” role and white women as passive “female” roles (Ciasullo, 2008). In my study, I adopted this method rather than “butch” and “femme” because those terms are dated, politically incorrect, and restrict any other depictions present.