Imagining community: Visibility, bonding, and L Word audiences

Abstract

This essay examines the ways in which L Word audiences engaged with each other, and used the text as a way to build community and find acceptance in hetero-normative privileged society. This is particularly apparent among marginalized sexual minorities: bisexual, transgender, older lesbians, and lesbians of color. Viewers found connection through representations, shared narratives, and discourse. The resulting imagined communities provided cultural visibility and worked to make all sexual and gender identifications accepted, visible, and safe.