Wanting to be Anna: Examining Lesbian Sporting Celebrity on The L Word

Abstract

This article adds to the limited literature on coming out and on lesbians in sport by highlighting the presence of lesbian sporting celebrity on Showtime's series The L Word. Through a reading of The L Word's character/professional athlete, Dana Fairbanks, we explore the economic impetus and the racial and classed undertones of corporatized coming out narratives. We devote considerable effort to unpacking Fairbanks’ articulation that she wishes to be “the gay Anna Kournikova” and speculate on the consequences of this utterance for both real lesbian sporting celebrities and the lesbian fans that necessarily follow Fairbanks’ corporate-sponsored coming out.

KEYWORDS:

• lesbian celebrity
• sport
• The L Word
• coming out

Acknowledgments

Megan Chawansky thanks Dr. James H. Sanders, III for comments on an earlier version of this article. Both authors thank three anonymous reviewers and Dr. Esther Rothblum for important feedback on this article.

Notes

1. The series lasted for six seasons (2004–2009) and inspired its own reality show, The Real L Word, which debuted in the summer of 2010.

2. We are aware that other athletes have received endorsements after coming out, and we wish to distinguish those instances from times wherein the coming out was facilitated by the endorsement. For more on the former, see Elliott (2007).

3. Nancy Spencer (2003) makes a compelling case that Navratilova's inability to attract endorsements was not only reflective of her lesbian subjectivity when she demonstrates that timely cold-war anxieties and the “likeability” of Chris Evert also contributed.

4. Roxy is a company that sells products and gear to women and girls who surf and snowboard. For examples of their products, see http://global.roxy.com/

5. Ellipses indicate pauses in this speech and not words that have been eliminated.