Too Close to Decide

***non-important Fringe spoilers***

Normally, I’m kind of pissed when a show that isn’t Buffy brings in the chaste girl-on-girl action for titillation and show-stimulation. Buffy has an excuse – it started the lesbian kiss on the television screen. It was revolutionary.

But I was pissed when Grey’s Anatomy did it, even though I liked the actresses. And Sara Ramirez is a lesbian favorite on AfterEllen.com, so the show has a significant lesbian following. But it still felt less like a lesbian shout out and more like something to attract more male viewers (or keep them interested).

I was pissed when they did it on Bones , even though I can see why it fits Angela’s character, and I still love the show (and Bones’s philosophy on relationships … I hope they don’t change it … there have been suggestions).

It just seemed like the shows were trying to make themselves edgy by implementing a socially acceptable form of gayness (not very many men kissing in mainstream television). The men will be interested. The lesbian and female bisexual fans will be appeased, although most of the female viewership is going to roll its eyes and think "boys will be boys." But the viewership of Grey’s Anatomy is probably primarily female. Bones probably has pretty equal viewership between men and women. But it still always seems to be the whole "girl-on-girl-for-guy" kind of vibe. It doesn’t help that every lesbian kiss on mainstream shows now seems to be the same exact tender kiss. And the kiss isn’t intended for my eyes. It’s weird how you always know. I can tell in most girl-on-girl porn intended for men. I always feel like the third wheel, not the audience.

It was different for Buffy . Willow and Tara’s first kiss in Season Five was the first lesbian kiss on television (and there’s was the first open lesbian relationship on television, too, if I’m not mistaken). It began as a kiss of comfort when Buffy’s mom died rather than one of romance, which made it very different from the lesbian kisses on the above two shows. It always seemed more real and less choreographed when Willow and Tara were kissing (less so when Kennedy came along… that’s another rant).

So why – when Fringe has a viewership that is probably majority male and provides a pseudolesbian scene (rather than an actual lesbian scene) with Olivia as a mental proxy for the male subject – am I not pissed?

I can’t say. Part of it is that it didn’t seem to be made a big deal of – no romantic music, no typical "lesbian" tenderness. No tongue, just lips and cautious sexuality. It seemed to be organic to the plot in that the same man-proxy-Olivia who accidentally murdered also accidentally stimulated another. But part of me knows that the scene, because it wasn’t even a woman kissing a woman in the plot, was mostly titillation for the audience.

I know why I’m aroused. But why am I not pissed?