Discount Lesbians: Difference between revisions

'''Discount Lesbians''' are canon homosexual characters and couples who are either not human to begin with, come from alternate realities, have been magically or technologically altered in ways that affect their sexuality, etc., so that they don't really "count". This usually seems to be a device used within the story to maintain a status quo that lets [[Most Writers Are Male|the (presumed) audience]] watch [[Girl-On-Girl Is Hot|two hot chicks making out]] without having to think about the associated real-world issues of homosexuality. On the other hand, the trope may come into play if the writer wishes to include a lesbian relationship in the story but is too spineless and terrified of the [[Moral Guardians]], thus becoming a way for a weak willed [[Rule-Abiding Rebel]] to make an attempt at [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]].

Note that they're '''Discount Lesbians''' only if they're included in the story in a way that obviates the need to address the associated issues of sexuality or the rights/history/lifestyle issues faced by or associated with gays in the real world. This is usually done through [https://web.archive.org/web/20070519114512/http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~ulrich/rww03/othering.htm othering] homosexuality by associating it only with characters who have conspicuously different traits from the viewers - '''Discount Lesbians'''. Characters used to ''draw'' attention to those issues are inversions. If they're stated to be homosexual they're not '''Discount Lesbians''', just a non-human who happens to be gay.

* The current{{when}} Kerrang! bumpers in the UK show a young Asian woman who flashes with yellow energy making out with a pink, suited androgynous humanoid with a mask, clearly intended to invoke the [[Power Rangers|Pink and Yellow Rangers]] - but as only Yellow is clearly a human woman and Pink shows no gendered characteristics beyond its colour, it maintains plausible lesbian deniability.

* The [[Neil Gaiman]] story ''[[Murder Mysteries]]'' actually has discount gay men. The characters in the main part of the story are angels, sexless and genderless, though they do generally take the form of human males. The angels who discover love end up as lovers, which means while there isn't any distinctive action, there's a lot of cuddling.

== [[FanficFan Works]] ==

* [[Ursula K. Le Guin|Ursula K. Leguin's]]'s ''[[The Left Hand of Darkness]]'' revolves around a planet inhabited by ordinarily genderless humans, all referred to as male by default (except in revised editions using third-gender pronouns), who only acquire sexual characteristics while in heat.

== [[Live -Action TV]] ==

* An episode of ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation|Star Trek the Next Generation]]'' features an alien (Trill) ambassador who has a fling with Dr. Crusher and then dies, having his personality and memories transplanted into a new (female) body thanks to [[Bizarre Alien Biology]]. Later repeated in an episode of ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine|Deep Space Nine]]'', with much more feeling and depth.

'''Kaidan:''' I am not trying to make anyone unconfortableuncomfortable, I am just trying to figure out where I stand.

* The ''[[Futurama]]'' movie ''The Beast With A Billion Backs'' contains a transdimensional planet-sized tentacle monster named Yivo. <s>He</s> Shklee has a male voice, but the fact everyone in the universe is dating <s>him</s> shklim isn't treated like an issue by anyone, at least not from the perspective of sexual orientation. Fry clearly states that Yivo loves both male and female equally and has no gender, and schlee even has schlis own pronouns "shclim" or "shcler".