Sweeps Week Lesbian Kiss: Difference between revisions
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Often classified as [[Fan Service]] or [[Fetish Fuel]], this is mostly just a [[Ratings Stunt]], calculated to get more viewers while creating a manageable amount of blowback from the [[Moral Guardians]], who, while generally disapproving of lesbianism, have a sufficient [[Double Standard]] concerning depictions of male and female homosexuality that they generally save their outrage for, you know, ''serious'' dangers to society, like ''[[Dogma]]'' or ''[[Brokeback Mountain]]''...
There's one other explanation for the lack of outrage over the most recent Sweeps Saphistry, and that's that people are ''losing interest'' in women making out in prime time. Since the mid-2000's, the lesbian sweeps kiss seems to be getting increasingly diminishing returns in the ratings. The LGBT community is no longer desperate for whatever non-negative representation they can get, and critics are no longer impressed by a showrunner's "bravery" by including it. Further, when you can see far more [[Twincest|bizarre]] things on [[YouTube]] (to say nothing of [[The Internet Is for Porn|other corners]] [[Shock Site|of the Web]]), the
See [[Les Yay]], [[Faux Yay]].
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** Notably that episode at least tried to tackle a social issue - they did it again in the seventh season and it was gratuitous even in context, purely there to show the [[Mirror Universe]] is [[Darker and Edgier]].
* ''[[Party of Five]]'': Neve Campbell's character, Julia, kisses another woman (played by Olivia D'Abo). D'Abo's character appears just one more time in the series.
* ''[[Ally McBeal]]'' made sure that ''everyone'' knew about their
* ''[[The OC]]'' had a kiss and bisexual relationship between Marissa Cooper and a short-lived female character named Alex. Alex got [[Put on a Bus]] in about four episodes after the kiss (after a brief relationship with a male character). Marissa, of course, went directly back to boys and did not pass Go or collect $200.
* ''[[Smallville]]'' curiously had its "lesbian" kiss a couple weeks ''before'' [[Sweeps]] when a female villain with a [[Green Rocks]]-powered kiss that causes face-melting hallucinations needs to do something about a witness (Lana, of course). She, ahem, uses her power on Lana, an act that seems to disgust both of them. One could speculate that the reason this episode didn't make it to [[Sweeps]] was that it simply wasn't very good [[Fan Service]].
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** Slight subversion, though, in that it was (reportedly) [[Hayden Panettiere]]'s idea.
** Cheap ratings stunt? Yes. Doomed the show? [[Your Mileage May Vary]] on that one. It was the previous volumes, especially 2 and 3, that ultimately drove the show to cancellation. The episodes of Volume 5 were generally regarded as better than those of previous volumes.
*** However, Claire did eventually confess her attraction to Gretchen; in fact, a scene in the episode "Pass/Fail" in which Claire was supposed to kiss Gretchen was re-written so as not to seem like a "cheap ratings stunt." Also, Claire and Gretchen's relationship [[Word of God|would have continued]] in the Volume Six. This belies the
* ''[[Roseanne]]'''s (in)famous kiss with Nancy's girlfriend at a lesbian bar. While said girlfriend only appeared one more time (albeit at a gay wedding complete with male kissing), openly-bi Nancy remained on the show for the rest of the series.
* Surprisingly, the normally quite un-desperate ''[[Gilmore Girls]]'' featured an instance, although it was played more as a bizarre example of Paris's ironclad determination not to lose out on anything college might have to offer.
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