LAW & ORDER SVU RECAP:
(by riese)
I’ve watched approximately 5 bajillion/500 episodes of Law & Order. At any given time of day, I’m hoping Law & Order is on. As I age and consume more & more episodes, I worry about the eventual future when it’ll be unlikely an episode of Law & Order I haven’t already seen is on at any given time. 75% of my average weekly television intake is Law & Order. Though I usually catch the show in syndication, I anticipated this brand-new episode — in which Kathy Griffin plays a lesbian activist — with GLEEish fervor, though I’d already decided it’d probably be offensive.
See, tonight, Law & Order SVU dared to cover its designated topic area — “sexually based offenders,” the detectives who investigate these especially heinous crimes, and the district attorneys who prosecute these offenders — using LGBT characters. If you’ve never seen the show ’til tonight, it may have seemed offensive. But let’s remember this is a crime drama about offenders. If you watch enough L&O:SVU, you’ll find the program is a relatively equal opportunity offender. There’s a lot of Offense going on here, is what I’m telling you. Offenses, offenders, offensive… Tonight, in my opinion, was fair. At times, it was even heavy-handed in its fairness. I think they tried?
Twitter, however, sayeth that the episode sucked. Everyone but me hated it! Admittedly, I found Kathy’s character relentlessly annoying and wanted Ice-T to give her ten Xanax, draw her a bath and sign her up for the Bette Porter School of Schooling. However, Kathy’s bizarre performance, IMHO, was further evidence that the character of “Babs” was meant to be a hyperbolic parody rather than a true-to-life representation.
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Lesbian Political Blogger Pam Spaulding
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I understand why it seems that way, but I think that might just be the nature of the beast. See, when we think about our community’s most damaging stereotypes, we think about crime (whether we articulate it that way or not). Our community’s worst representatives are our criminals, and until homophobia ends or equality wins, we’re going to cringe when the media uses LGBT characters in criminal contexts.
See; crime is legally sanctioned Wrong. Unlike plots regarding love, friendship, drinking copious amounts of alcohol in bikinis, religion, or illness, crime plots require a unanimously guilty person. There’s no grey area of moral ambiguity for a crime drama’s Baddest Character — in every episode there’ll be one or more characters (whether they’re the actual criminals or not) who have to be assholes, hyperbolic extremists, or otherwise embroiled in Special Disturbing Situations. You can’t say that for How I Met Your Mother or Queer as Folk. With so much negativity already established, someone’s gonna get scathed a bit, and sometimes it’s gonna be gay people, because we exist.
Anyhow, let’s break it down:
Evidence of Trying: (Gay psychiatrist) Dr. George Huang (B.D. Wong) & Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay)’s chat about “aggressives” and discussions about same-sex domestic violence were pretty carefully done. In fact, this dialogue was so fair and well-crafted it verged on Homo-Friendly Afterschool Special territory, but luckily I love Afterschool Specials & homos! However, they failed to note that the AG/Aggressive subculture is a QPOC community and specifically is used by Black queer people. In the show, having a white person as the “AG” was appropriative.
Benson: Are “Aggressives” known to be violent?
Dr. Huang: Not at all. Like everyone else, it all boils down to the individual. Which is why gays and lesbians aren’t immune to domestic violence, substance abuse, rape — just more proof that we’re all equal.
The Cool: They filmed in West Village lesbian bar Rubyfruit and called it “Kitty Corner,” which is a throwback to former lesbian hotspot Meow Mix, a bar I tried to go to in the summer of 2004 during Pride only to find it’d gone out of business. So then I had to go home and be straight in my room.
The Hot: All the jokes about Olivia’s sexuality were delightful! (The first article I ever published on the internet, at a crap entertainment news website called “ElitesTV,” was a gushy/lame tribute to Mariska Hargitay [I have no idea what happened with the natch/snatch situation there, thanks editors], I am totally biased/in love.)
Also I enjoyed Kathy Griffin giving Cabot the sexy-eyed once-over and Benson pretending to be a lesbian to get the guy to confess. (Sidenote: it’s always creeped me out when Stabler pretends to be a child molester or rapist to get a guy to confess).
The Weird: Was LesBeStrong aiming to parody the Lesbian Avengers? If so, epic fail, Avengers had more fun and were far more complex. However:
The Stupid: Honestly, I’m glad they cut the kiss, though the actual edit was laughably terrible (see video). I don’t think the story warranted a full-on kiss and I don’t need to see a straight girl pushing away a pursed-lipped eyes-closed lesbian, thanks! And Olivia was totally cool afterward and it later turned out to be Babs’s personal problems motivating her, rather than her savagely uncontrollable lesbian lust & hunger.
+
However Twitter disagrees, and Lynne makes a good point:
The Bonus: Hay! We weren’t the criminals! It turned out that Kathy Griffin Lesbian Warrior was wrong about Olivia Benson’s sexual orientation, but she was right that the perpetrator was targeting lesbians. You guys, L&O gave us a crazy lesbian activist, but it also validated her seeming “paranoia.”
Final Word: I can’t even talk about the bisexual part at the end aside from saying I think it was admirable that Benson spoke with enlightenment regarding Babs’ potential bisexuality instead of it being a like, “of course you’re going back to men, patriarchy rocks” situation.
You guys, and don’t hate me for saying this, but Law & Order: Special Victims Unit sometimes does some really crazy-ass shit in the last seven minutes. See; that’s the twist.
My token straight male friend @davelozo got the message, obviously.
HOUSEWIVES:
This however IS offensive! The headline is “Dana Delaney may exit Desperate Housewives: So far this season on “Desperate Housewives,” Dana Delany has been a stalker, a psycho and now a lesbian.” Read the article; it’s actually about her getting a job on another show. (@reuters)
TEGAN & SARA:
A Take Away sat down with Tegan & Sara for an acoustic jam session featuring Nineteen, Alligator and Feel It In My Bones. Obvs they were adorable.
LINDSAY LOHAN:
Sit down for this one kids. La Lohan has graduated from Twitter and is now writing a full-fledged memoir. “I write a lot, and it’s very therapeutic for me because then I can see what’s happening on paper. I’ve started writing a book. It’s going to take a while, all my life experiences. I started writing it a year ago. There’s a lot to put down, you know?” Really, Papi. (@eonline)
HAVILAND:
Autostraddle BFF Haviland Stillwell is trying to raise some funds for her debut album. Check out the video:
JOHNNY WEIR:
Johnny Weir appeared on The Joy Behar Show and addressed the comments that he is “too gay” for figure skating and those remarks by Canadian commentators that he “needed a gender test.” If you followed Weir in the Olympics this clip is a must watch, if only for Johnny saying “too gay? It’s figure skating — hello!” (@cnn)
In other Weir news, Johnny Weir is strutting around New York City this week and looking fierce. (@dlisted)
LAMBERT:
Adam Lambert has confirmed that he’ll be playing at Mardi Gras in Sydney this Saturday! (@samesame)
LADY GAGA: Gaga is on the cover of the new issue of Cosmopolitan and fills out the Cosmo Quiz. (@ontd) And! Alejandro is officially the song of the summer and will be the 3rd single!
JESSICA SIMPSON: After initially telling Oprah she wasn’t angry, Jessica Simpson backtracked and admitted she was hella pissed about John Mayer’s douchebaggery and said she “doesn’t accept his apology” for describing her as “sexual napalm” to Rolling Stone. She also touched on the media’s fascination with her weight, saying the fact that she was famous last year for gaining 10 pounds was “ridiculous.” And those infamous “Mom Jeans” that sparked name-calling across the Internet? Simpson said they were a size 4. (@abcnews)
Wait… Kathy Griffin’s character seriously ends the episode realizing she’s not a lesbian, she just hasn’t given men a fair chance? I want to be clear on this point before I start shouting “Fuck you, Law & Order!” at my computer screen.
–and at the sky. And at random passing cars.
Seriously, WTF?
No, she doesn’t realize that she’s not a lesbian who hadn’t given men a chance. She still identifies as a lesbian. She admits that she had met a man a few months ago and fallen for him, which made her feel conflicted as he’s the only man she’d ever felt that way about. Olivia suggests that KG might be bisexual.
We then realize that KG’s militant lesbian act was partially a response to her insecurity about maybe being bi, which is good, because that act was over the top and obnoxious and a bad representation of our community. Realizing that she might be bisexual inspires her to open up her organization to not just defending lesbians, but also trans, bisexual, and gay men, and also to work more closely with allies. I liked that her commitment to gay rights was still strong at the end and it didn’t make her like switch teams altogether, as it did for Lindsay in QAF and Tina in TLW. At the end the guy breaks up with her anyhow.
But it’s Law & Order, crazy stupid shit like that always happens at the end, because they need to have an unexpected ‘twist.’ It wasn’t politically or socially motivated, it was just bad writing.
I’m gonna become a lesbian separatist now, because I saw a lot of “lesbian rights” signs and they were hilarious and nonsensical. LEGISLATE LESBIAN RIGHTS
I don’t think you can be a lesbian separatist because you just can’t find a good labrys these days.
I don’t know, this seems like a good deal for $39.99
http://www.realmcollections.com/double-head-axe-with-plaque.html
but what’s on the plaque?!
wow, that’s a steal!
The plaque is so you can hang it on the wall… I may or may not have owned something like this at some point in my life.
Ah…but does it come as a set of earrings?
It’s never politically or socially motivated. It’s always bad writing. But the social and political implications are still kinda, you know, there.
I don’t know Riese, it’s cool that you liked it and want to see the best from it; it’s that upbeat, generous attitude I like about Autostraddle. But when I was twelve and just beginning to question my sexuality, I already knew that lesbians hated men, wanted to be men, and deep down still wanted men. I got that message from somewhere. And apparently if I was a kid today (whose parents let me watch L&O) I’d still be getting it.
The whole “miss hoity toity lesbian thinks she doesn’t want a man, huh, we’ll just see about that, LOOK SHE TOTALLY DOES” storyline has been a staple, since, IDK, ancient Greek comedy writers made Sappho fall in love with Phaon and kill herself because she couldn’t have him. To these lesbian eyes it just looks like the focus is on taking the militant lesbian down a few pegs, not on drawing positive attention to bisexuality. The fact that she gets dumped by the dude at the end kind of reinforces that for me. *Shrug.* You’re the one of us who’s actually seen the episode though, so maybe I shouldn’t spout off on it.
I wanna get knocked up JUST in the hope that my kid grows up to be like Johnny Weir. That would rock.
sidenote: Where’s Lola? I miss her. :(
i have no idea. :-(
Hahah, “Realistic: Bad Lesbian Website Design” is amazing. Got me chuckling in a café.
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I’ve watched a lot of SVU, and I’ve been impressed in the past with a mainstream show addressing (occasional) sensitive issues with a touch of nuance. Last night’s ep was an absurdly horrifying farce all around, as far I’m concerned. I was happy to watch it with a queer/bi friend of mine, and we mainly just shrieked our way through it, in horror and in laughter (because it was downright hilarious, damaging portrayals aside). The show’s been fairly good at representing diversity, in its not always charming but usually kind of passable crime-drama way. So the episode last night didn’t impress me with its inclusion of queer characters…I don’t really think inclusivity was part of the point. Not that there was a point, but noone should ever let Kathy Griffin act in a drama again…ever.
George Huang, the resident psych. is gay, which is a nice, non-stereotypical, non-sensational portrayal of a gay man. Also some hot blonde DA came out as her character was leaving the show after getting axed (that was admittedly bizarre, though more spontaneous and far less heavy-handed). And a handful of storylines have dealt with lgbt stuff in more subtle, less hilaribad ways.
Anyway, Huang’s weirdo disclaimer speech about diversity should have come at the end. But maybe he was warning us to ignore everything that was about to happen?
The episode admittedly made a few good points. Namely that a) Lesbians LOVE blogging. and b) … just A I guess.
Also I think Kathy Griffin forgot to not play a gay man. So perhaps her character can be forgiven out of ignorance?
Either way I’m glad I DVR’d that shit because that hulking dyke smashing through the crowd to push over that dude in the stretcher was too funny. I can’t even think about it without laughing.
oh gawd, i got a screenshot of that for you but forgot to put it in. i wish we had an animated gif of it.
i thought kathy griffin’s acting was horrible. she was legitimately annoying the entire time, i really couldn’t stand it. I like “My Life on the D-List” but I don’t like her stand-up (i think it’s unnecessarily mean and I’m not interested in celebrity gossip) but I was interested in how a gay icon of sorts would play a gay activist.
The weirdest thing for me was watching this show — which I generally associate with being alone in my room, watching a re-run (therefore no twitter to discuss the ep with, as what are the chances someone else is watching the same 12:30 Criminal Intent rerun) — with a bunch of other people, albeit electronically. I sort of became hyper-aware of how terrible the writing is sometimes.
inexplicably, my friends and i used to get drunk and watch it in college. which is weird in retrospect, it being about sex crimes and all. i’m pretty sure we had a drinking game figured out somewhere along the line.
yeah, i actually started liking Kathy’s Bravo show. While I generally find her irritating and abrasive, she sets up some hilarious situations and her alcoholic mom is absolutely amazing. Her mom is gay for Betty White, which is amazing.
also, oh my god animated gif. i might get fired for uncontrollable hysterical laughter though
Alex! Wasn’t it Alex who came out as gay at the last second? That was great. She was in this episode too, Kathy Griffin even gave her a once-over. Would’ve been nice to hear her talk some Big Gay Sense into everything. I bet there’s Alex-Casey fanfic out there. brb.
alex yeah! i forgot her name
No. It was Serena Southerlyn from L&O the original.
They won’t make Alex gay, not in a million years. Because if Alex becomes gay on the same show that has Olivia and Elliot, that means she might come in between and finish the old business – developing the subtexty relationship between Alex and Olivia into a maintext relationship – and scare away the E/O homophobes tweens…. And GOD FORBID two unattached women be involved when the Catholic married man “Elliot” is ready enforce adultery and infidelity by leaving his wife and 5 kids to go after Olivia so can drive away into the sunset together.
Seriously people, did any of you here actually watch the same crap I did??!!
My college roommate wrote her thesis on Law and Order SVU lesbian slash (fan fiction) with Benson. I’ve been trying to get her to send me a copy forever (I haven’t read it since she graduated) but from what I remember, there’s an entire community that’s been crafting their own renditions of that NBC censored kiss.
Sort of loved the list of lesbian icons KG rattled off in describing Benson– film nerd fist pump.
Personally I think (having seen only that clip and other full episodes) that awkward cut provided more support for my suspicions that Olivia’s not entirely on team straight. Excuse me while I go start up Word and get some fanfic on.
(I’m also going to watch the full episode- but Riese, as always, thanks for the insightful analysis)
SUMMAH JAM TWENTY-TEN! – ALEJANDRO!
Hot like Mexico.
You forgot the romantic name Mitch!
I love Tegan. Sara loves that sweater. We all love that acoustic version of Feel It In My Bones. The end.
P.s. I love them both and congrats on their Juno nomination!
And the dissenting opinion on Law and Order SVU. I love the show not only because Olivia Benson looks good in a SWAT vest but their constant ability to make me cry has won me over.
I am a huge Kathy Griffin fan, and as such anything she does in my eyes is amazing. On the episode she appeared in last night, I think she did what she does best. By making this character so horribly cliche and awful, she has people talking about it the next day which is probably what she wanted.
Yes Babs Duffy was aggressive, in your face and reported fake acts of discrimination but hey at least this time the lesbian wasn’t the serial killer. It was the white guy that does the copies at Kinko’s, talk about accurate portrayal in the media.
I feel like we need to give L&O some credit for a very key plot point: the militant lesbian said someone was targeting and killing lesbians. no one took her seriously. SHE TURNED OUT TO BE RIGHT. Honestly it barely even made sense, so I felt like they did that just to win over the LGBT audience, but we’re still bitching! At least we weren’t the serial killer, and because it’s a show about crime, there’s often a good chance that we could be.
BUT i think that that key plot point was undercut by the over-the-top characters and terrible writing. What could’ve been a good examination of hate crimes committed against lesbians or even a look at same-sex domestic violence came out more like cartoonish ridiculing of lesbian organizers and ‘the PC police.’ I don’t think they did everything wrong or that gay people should only ever be portrayed as saints I just think that a lot of this episode was done badly. Most of it reminded me of that time Alice told Max that “OurChart is for lesbians.”
What could’ve been a good examination of hate crimes committed against lesbians or even a look at same-sex domestic violence came out more like cartoonish ridiculing of lesbian organizers and ‘the PC police.’
That’s true, good point.
It didn’t do much and it could’ve. But I feel like that could be said for almost every single episode of Law & Order ever? I mean it’s a show about crime. So there are gonna be a lot of ridiculous people, and SVU in particular has just gone nuts.
Although we clearly don’t need to be represented by our worst representatives, Babs Duffy wasn’t invented out of thin air — clearly her group was meant to be a parody of lesbian separatist feminism which did believe all the things that Babs said in the episode — the whole idea of the “women-identified-woman,” that women could only get strength from other women and should remove themselves entirely from the patriarchal root of all evil.
However perhaps that’s the problem. That radical theory isn’t relevant to the movement now, not like it was in the 70s and 80s (hey remember when we were all fighting about mary daly, good times). By and large lesbian feminists no longer feel lesbianism should be every woman’s educated political choice and also, third-wave feminism is more inclusive of LGBT issues.
Perhaps it would have been better if that had been put in context like they did with the AG bit. That this group represented a radical strain of a 70s-era political philosophy which has undergone significant and necessary transformations since that time.
‘Cause what happened with Babs did happen… in the 80s when many women who had made lesbianism as a political choice found themselves falling for men and not knowing what to do, questioning if they still had a place in the movement.
Babs Duffy, I think, is based on a real person and that real person’s name is Lani Ka’ahumanu.
Basically this whole episode should have been done in 1979.
Also isn’t anyone going to stand up for the vampires. They made male vampires look abusive and manipulative. WHO IS HERE TO DEFEND THE VAMPIRES.
i def would rather have had the lesbian as the serial killer. though probably they’d be killing men because lesbians hate men…so i retract that statement. I’m surprised you were struck by the plot itself, because I don’t really feel like
“It didn’t do much and it could’ve. But I feel like that could be said for almost every single episode of Law & Order ever? I mean it’s a show about crime.”
I disagree- Haven’t seen newer episodes, but up until a few years ago it was usually just a fairly predictable crime drama that happened to have Benson as a hottie. The new eps seem more absurd and over the top, so maybe that’s what went wrong here.
but most of the hundred thousand episodes I’m kinda embarrassed to admit I’ve watched dealt with things like incest, child pornography and sexual assault (obvs) in a usually not terribly sensational way. i think the show explores nuances of its situations insofar as a cookie cutter crime drama probably can.
that’s not to say that offensive stuff hasn’t happened- for every semi nuanced portrayal of a victim rediscovering their agency and becoming empowered there’s a handful of eps where women are weak and relentlessly victimized and it’s kind of like Lifetime is 24/7. which is unfortunate.
Also I really don’t think the portrayal was a parody to anyone but us- with the exception of Kathy Griffin (who is always a parody?) nothing else was handled in a self-aware way at all. Because we’re the only ones who get the (unintentional) insider jokes (hey- that dyke’s wearing flannel!) and to everyone else sitting with their eyes glazed over in anywhere USA, it’s just another reinforcement of pre-existing contempt.
Utimately my problem is that I think it did way more harm than good. The harm of disseminating destructive, farcical portrayals of queer identities far outweighs any benefit of representation in my mind. And yeah, it’s just a shitty crime drama and clamoring for ratings must be taken into account, but good lord i wish it hadn’t aired. and i hope to god the more militantly conservative members of my family (or anyone’s family!) didn’t watch it.
“Basically this whole episode should have been done in 1979.”
this.
I agree that I don’t think it did any good. I didn’t say that it did, though I suppose by defending it I did imply that I thought more good than harm was done, though that wasn’t my intent. I completely agree with you there, if there’s any confusion.
I think I’m judging it against other L&O episodes featuring LGBT characters, rather than looking at it from a “is this good for lesbians?” perspective.
Maybe that’s the crux of my controversial disagreement — I absolutely don’t think it provided positive representation and I wouldn’t defend it on those merits. I just don’t know that anyone watching L&O is expecting to draw conclusions about LGBTs or any other minority group for that matter as it’s a show about criminals and other extreme people involved with criminal activity in some way.
This is strange, b/c usually I’m on the other end of fights like this!
Honestly I think it’s possible I’m numb because I watch very little television but I do watch probably 6-12 hours of Law & Order a week… and always in syndication. Watching a re-run you hadn’t heard anything about when it originally aired has a numbing effect… of the 47 eps of the L&O franchise featuring LGBT characters, I’ve probs wanted to scream through 24 of them. I also often take issue with their portrayal of sex workers. I’ll see a bad-gay ep and be like “well clearly no one cared about this poor representation of gays ’cause it aired two years ago and I didn’t even know it existed ’til now, and I’ve been paying! attention!”
Do you remember the time that Shannyn Sossaman, aka my girlfriend, falsely accused a dude of rape, like ’cause she was deranged or something? Which is mixed up in my head with her role in Rules of Attraction but anyhow… I think that’s when I stopped thinking any of it mattered.
Regardless; 1979. Would have been a better time period for the episode. Without a doubt. I LOVE TIME TRAVEL.
I totally remember that episode where she accused her professor of rape right? That weird art guy and she like drank wine.
I like the idea of it being set in 1979. Would watch that episode.
I like the point you made about people not watching this show for accurate portrayals of LGBT people. That is completely true.
I watch this show for accurate portrayal of hot female police officers with mother issues and an aversion to men because every career woman is like that. Also because of Ice T because let’s face it he knows how to say things like “Bitch” and make it look endearing.
one time Ice-T was on my flight from Atlanta to NYC and it was the best day of my life, maybe. He was with a woman with a giant leopard hat probs 2 ft in diameter. I had to put that out there.
yeah, i think any emphasis on the plot and any possible good message was drowned out entirely.
AfterELTON: “A-Ha! So it’s another one of those “ripped from the headlines” episodes … if the headline was from 1987. “
You have faith in LiLo right now, AS!
What publicist told Jessica to be outraged? She know she liked the compliment. I wanna be sexual napalm.
Yep. Go to NBC’s production blog and read yourself. Or twitter or facebook for that matter. LOTS of nasty homophobic comments. All they did achieve by that episode is to set back the image of the LGBT community among the populations. Oooh how thrilled I am by reading something like “Hahahaha lolz da lezbian r mad! she doesn’t lyk Elliot cuz she’s an angry dyke.. lolol”… Or “ooohh so the lizzie is not a lizzie after all! haha that’s a given.. you just can’t look at Meloni and still be a liz”..
Kudos for NBC, Dick Wolf, Neal Baer and crew for enforcing the stereotypical again. Thanks for assuring us that we just haven’t found the right man yet.
Thank you, and fuck you!
I’m kinda suprised that people expected anything from Kathy Griffin. She has never shown a like of lesbians, only gay men. Some straight women try to act LGBT friendly but are really only gay men friendly. Kathy Griffin and Chelsea Handler and two examples.
i kinda got that impression too, though i believe she’s very close with rosie o donnell. they have a cute relationship actually (the two of them and gloria estefan- rando!). i am still on the fence about kathy though in some regards.
Yeah, I met Kathy on a lesbian cruise actually. She’s friendly with Rosie and with other closeted lesbian celebs who live in the Miami area I think. Also her assistant Jessica is a lesbian.
Honestly I think D-List is really funny, but other than that she annoys me. Her obsession with celebrities is just so absolutely worthless. Most of what she does is meaningless, yet mean-spirited, and therefore grating. I just figured it was going to be a fun character but you know, it was lame.
Ultimately I think I could be convinced to take back everything I said about it in this post.
OK, there was some stereotyping here, but this was my favorite episode. This was perfectly written for Griffin. Her calling Stabler Jack Webb and her snappy comebacks??? I don’t care who you are, that was funny. And the scene where Benson asks if she gives off a gay vibe (c’mon, tell me you lesbians reading this wouldn’t like her to be in your bed) and then Stabler NOT answering her…I loved it. There are still people who view lesbians as dressing like men and hating men. If you looked at the crowd, they dressed individually. Yeah, there was at least one in flannel, but go to Wisconsin Gay Summerfest and you’ll find the same thing. As a lesbian, I was glad that they brought up the entire subject matter. I wasn’t offended by it. Oh, and my girlfriend said she’d like to kiss BOTH Benson and Stabler. She is HOT.
Ok, so I’m a few years late to this conversation, but for the record, this was the worst episode of Law & Order SVU. I love the show and have watched about a million episodes, and this is the first one I’ve disliked.
I cringed through most of it but the worst bit was where Benson says that her rejection of Babs when she tries to kiss her is because she’s ‘Straight.’
How about because;
a) Benson is a professional who doesn’t make a habit of hooking up with people on the job,
b) Babs is crazy and annoying,
c) Benson is straight,
d) Babs is not her type and wouldn’t be even if Benson was into women.
Why is it just because she’s straight? This feeds into the homophobic belief that Lesbians always hit on straight women, and the reason that straight women should be afraid of that is because they’re straight (because otherwise it would be ON!).