roseanne And The Kiss

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Roseanne and The Kiss

This past winter break, myself and one of my best friends were driving

down one of the main roads in our home town of Elmira, New York. I happened to

look up at a billboard that was on the side of the road, and saw a sign that

read something like: “Be safe, be smart, be protected.” I thought to myself

(immediately) “well, that's a big improvement from a few years ago when condom

ads weren't even allowed on television.” Then I noticed, it had the gay symbols

of the upside down pink triangle, and the symbols of two men and two women

together. My first thought was “why is this necessary” then I mentioned that

to my friend. He didn't notice, but we both kind of laughed and agreed that why

does it have to be gay people that need to protect themselves? We (straight

people) are just as much at risk--what was the point? The point is, that it has

become mainstream and accepted to be gay in this society now, so they can do

that. Only three years ago, however, it was a bit different.

“Roseanne” helped to set a trend in society that has made it more

acceptable to be gay in the media. From the billboard I saw, to Roseanne's now

(in)famous kiss with another woman. Roseanne has contributed to this trend

immensely with her television sitcom.

To begin with, the series Roseanne has had gay characters on it for a

long time. Roseanne's boss Leon was gay, and after “the kiss” his role on the

show became more outspoken as he got married to his lover in the season after

Roseanne kissed another woman.

In the 1994, Roseanne had a homosexual encounter with another woman

played by Mariel Hemingway in a gay bar. The episode was entitled “Don't ask,

Don't tell” seemingly making light of Bill Clinton's policy of gays in the

military. The plot of this episode is, that Roseanne goes into a gay bar with

her bisexual friend Nancy, played by outspoken bisexual actress Sandra Bernhard.

Roseanne dances with Nancy's new girlfriend Sharon (Hemmingway). The

situation is uncomfortable to Roseanne's sister Jackie who also went with them,

but Roseanne has a great time. After dancing with Sharon, the two sit down to

chat, one thing leads to another and Roseanne makes a joke which is

misinterpreted by Sharon, and she kisses Roseanne. The rest of the episode

deals with Roseanne's discomfort with the kiss.

The episode was finally aired, but it went through a lot of trouble to

do so.

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