Author: Trish Bendix

MTV

“Faking It”

[Warning: This story contains spoilers from season one of MTV’s Faking It.]

After eight episodes of MTV’s Faking It, it has finally become clear that the writers have been doing some falsifying of their own. Despite the fact that creator Carter Covington is an out gay man, his knowledge of lesbian sexuality and the tropes that frequently accompany them in television portrayals is in serious question after decidedly gay identified Amy (Rita Volk) slept with straight, cisgender Liam (Gregg Sulkin).

Initial reactions to the dramedy — about two best friends, Amy and Karma (Katie Stevens), feigning a romantic relationship for popularity at their Austin high school — were positive but trepidatious, as Amy’s coming-out process was seemingly handled with care. Amy realized over the course of the season that she had stronger feelings for her lifelong friend than she knew before kissing her in front of the whole school, and her becoming comfortable with acknowledging that and being willing to do anything to turn their fake romance into a real one was the raison d’etre of the show.

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Unless you ask the writers, because it became increasingly perturbing that Karma’s obsession with Liam was what should develop more than any kind of relationship that Karma and Amy have, whether that’s friendship or something else entirely. Amy’s moments of tenderness or positivity about her newfound sexual identity and burgeoning crush on Karma are overpowered by the overt and often eye roll-inducing Liam and Karma pairing, including a proposed threesome for Liam’s benefit, his taking of Karma’s virginity on top of an art installation and the finale’s terrible ending: Amy and Liam having sex.

Throughout history it has often been the case that writers do not know how to create stories for lesbian and bisexual-themed women on television and film, and the default plot falls prey to the unrealistic “she sleeps with a man” situation. Now besides that this is overdone and lazy, Faking It furthers the insult by having the forlorn Amy sleep with a man who not only does not respect lesbian relationships and sexuality (nor women, really), but whom she detests for having taken Karma away from her.

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It’s also a huge disappointment that MTV would allow this to happen on yet another show when its 2011 Skins adaptation fell prey to the same situation: the lesbian character Tea (Sofia Black-D’Elia) having a physical relationship with her male friend Tony (James Newman). Fans of the U.K. version were outraged, as some of the best lesbian characters of all time, Emily (Kathryn Prescott) and Naomi (Lily Loveless), existed on the original without deciding to sleep with the opposite gender — no matter how many times they broke up or fought.

While it’s true that Amy has yet to label herself as a lesbian, it feels completely false that she would explore sexually with Liam — of all people — especially when it is her first time. It’s also sexist and hypocritical as writers would never put a gay male character like Faking It‘s Shane (Michael J. Willett) in a similar situation. Because men do not question their sexuality, apparently. Only confused women do, and that is not only harmful to television lesbians, but the real-life women who are told “they haven’t met the right man yet” or “won’t know until they’ve tried it.” Legitimacy is called into question, and that makes being an out woman dangerous, especially in parts of the world where corrective rape of lesbians is an acceptable practice.

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It’s disheartening that a show like Faking It could have so much potential with smart writing, a great set of actors and a provocative premise, and then have its relevance and credibility destroyed with the last few minutes of the season finale. Had the show not fallen prey to the oft-repeated, never-respected nor positively received “gay woman sleeps with a guy” story, it would have given fans a reason to tune in for the just-announced second season.

Trish Bendix is the managing editor of leading lesbian entertainment site AfterEllen.com. She lives in Los Angeles.

MTV

“Faking It”

The line between best friendship and a romantic relationship is sometimes thin, especially if one of the parties happens to be a little gay. On MTV’s new comedy series Faking It, teens Karma (Katie Stevens) and Amy (Rita Volk) are so close that they call each other before school in the morning, and their mothers know who they’re talking to without asking. Their current extracurricular actives include watching Netflix together in their pajamas, but outgoing Karma is looking for more excitement and she thinks she knows how she can find it: by pretending to be a lesbian.

To be fair, Karma didn’t come up with the idea. That honor went to Shane (Michael J. Willett), the school’s most popular and good-looking gay senior, who uses his gaydar to decide that Karma and Amy are a couple and that he’s “craving lesbian energy in his life.” At the Faking It high school in Austin, Karma says the “outcasts are the in crowd,” which means that anyone who isn’t down with LGBT is seen as out of touch, including Amy’s future Stepford Wife stepsister, Lauren (Bailey Buntain). At this school, calling someone a Republican is an insult. These teens believe in keeping Austin weird, and that means christening a lesbian couple as homecoming queens simply for existing.

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Except they don’t. Not completely, anyway. At his party, Shane corners Amy and tells her she should be out and proud. Meanwhile, Karma is inside being hit on by straight ally Liam (Gregg Sulkin), the hottest guy in school. He likes to think he respects Karma being a lesbian, except he doesn’t at all. It’s clear he is dismissive of women after a drunk girl wanders over. He tells her they are simply f— buddies and to leave him alone. If he’s supposed to be crushworthy, he’s going to need to learn some respect. When he thanks Karma for advice and refers to her being gay, she realizes he thinks she’s a lesbian. She almost balks, until Shane announces to everyone at the party that the school should rally its support behind the hottest new couple at school and vote for them as homecoming queens. This kind of promised popularity makes Karma forget all her concerns. Being a lesbian isn’t weird, it’s sexy!

The problem with most of the characters on Faking It is their un-likability. Outside of Amy, who is willing to do just about anything to make her best friend happy, everyone is self-obsessed and only concerned about their status in the school social sphere. The typical high-school tropes are trotted out with interesting attempts to turn them on their heads, but ultimately they revert to the same boring cliches, even if the gay kids are finally popular figures instead of punching bags.

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In reality, high schools in even the most open-minded towns still struggle to keep their queer students from being marginalized — although there are a handful that have shown their students embracing same-sex couples on their homecoming courts or naming a transgender girl prom queen. But using the subject as a plot device feels somewhat disparaging, especially when the lesbian couple at the center aren’t really lesbians.

Faking It is not without its fair share of funny quips, but they often fall prey to easy lines about tuna fish and the Isle of Lesbos. The more refreshing parts of the pilot are when Amy is at the center, as she’s clearly the only one struggling with her sexuality and what coming out truly means for a 17-year-old. She doesn’t take the fakery lightly, and her selflessness when it comes to Karma is what rings true about the show. Meanwhile, Karma’s flirtations with Liam just feel wrong, especially when he kisses her and then cites further relations as a challenge he’s more than willing to take.

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Amy’s stepsister, Lauren, is an archetype we’ve seen so many times before that it’s almost insulting to have her on this show. She’s a less funny Dalia (Carly Chaikin) from Suburgatory and less cruel than Mean Girls’ Regina George (Rachel McAdams). Instead, she is a hyped-up Southern belle with two uncomfortable-looking lapdogs that follow her around as she seeks to insult the masses and get voted as homecoming queen. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.

For Faking It to become the socially conscious and quirky show it hopes to be, there would have to be an improvement in the balance of sexualities. The focus on the Liam and Karma relationship comes off as much more sexually intense and physical than any other pairing on the show. Shane doesn’t have a boyfriend — as of now — and while it is hinted at that Amy has stronger feelings for Karma that she has yet to reflect on, they are mild in comparison. Even the way the lesbian couple is spoken about pokes fun at them, with their peers giving them gluten-free muffins and staging a photo shoot for the school’s Tumblr in order to show off their tokenism.

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When at a school assembly, Lauren announces that Karma and Amy are mocking the gay rights movement, the pair kiss to prove their love is real. The kiss solidifies not only that they’re willing to continue the mockery, but also that they don’t mind becoming poster children in the process. If Karma can move past her narcissism and Amy can figure herself out without the spotlight on her faux relationship, then there might be a win in this. But if there are more trite jokes about gay women and highlighting the disrespectful Liam as a good guy because he’s willing to be friends with a gay man and a feminist, there might not be much worth watching in the future.

Faking It premieres Apr. 22 at 10 p.m. on MTV.

Trish Bendix is the managing editor of AfterEllen.com. She lives in Portland, Ore.