Take off your hetero-lens, grab a beanie, and get comfortable for this week’s episode of Bisexual Representation in Television. Today I’ll be talking about something I hear all too often when people complain about female characters who, having previously only been seen dating men, start to show interest in females as well.
“It just felt out of the blue. So random!”
In Season 1 of "How to Get Away with Murder," Annalise Keating has a husband as well as a male lover. Since viewers have this information, they assume that she is heterosexual. However, in the first episode of the second season, she is seen making out with a former lover, Eve. I will admit, when I saw this scene, I was surprised. Who wouldn’t be at least a little taken off guard? Still, I accepted her bisexuality immediately and was thankful for an example of good bisexual representation.
On the other hand, when I asked a friend what she thought about the episode, she said that their relationship was random and just came out of nowhere. At first I shrugged this comment off, but then I asked myself: What is she really saying in this statement? She definitely would not have called Eve random if she was male; Eve came in with a specific purpose to the plot and also happened to have a previous relationship with Annalise. It was Annalise’s attraction to women that felt random to her.
I think what needs to be understood here is that despite Annalise's marriage to a man and her male lover on the side, she has always been bisexual- We just happen to know her as having male lovers. When would have been a good time or a “non-random” way to reveal that she is bisexual? Should Annalise have commented on one of her female colleagues’ attractiveness? That would have been out of character. Should she have taken on another lover? She was not interested in being with anyone else. Should she have spoken of her previous lovers in a conversation? Most of her on-screen time was spent with her students or talking about her cases; there wasn’t exactly a good time for her to express her interest in women.
Ultimately, Annalise’s bisexuality was not random, but it was temporarily invisible so I can understand why people might see it as random at first. But, if you can re-train yourself to watch television without seeing everyone as heterosexual until proven otherwise, you'll have a much easier time as TV starts to represent more and more queer characters!
