Orange Gives Way to a New Agenda

Orange is the New Black, a new hit series on Netflix created by Jenji Kohan, creator of Weeds, has received enormous amounts of feedback, both good and bad. The show follows the story of a character by the name of Piper Chapman (Taylor Schilling) and her time in prison – with her experimental past landing her in there. From her post-lesbian life with a fellow inmate, to her newly-engaged, cookie-cutter straight life, the show has inspired many to watch it out of either love or hate. The negative reviews can be seen right on the Netflix page, where the show first debuted. Those that have a problem with the show, largely in part have a problem with lesbian and bisexual relationships. The analysis of Orange is the New Black is pertinent in today’s society because it challenges stereotypes of lesbians and brings light to those experimenting with their own sexuality, it provides a non-stereotypical representation of lesbianism, and it gives a voice to lesbians as well as bisexuals and the right to choose one’s own sexuality.

When the audience first sees the present-day Piper Chapman, she is having one last supper as a free woman with her pregnant, married best friend as well as her own fiancé. Throughout the series, the audience is shown flashbacks of her former life and what inevitably landed her in prison. In her former life, fifteen years prior, Chapman identifies as a lesbian in a loving relationship with Alex Vause, played by Laura Prepon. Throughout the series, lesbian women are represented in such a way that challenges stereotypes. Orange is the New Black is a series unlike many others in that sense. Not many shows shed light on straight women who identified as lesbian many years before. As a media text, it resists the stereotyping of lesbians. Stereotypes as “lesbians just haven’t met the right guy yet,” or “in every lesbian relationship, one has to be the man.” The lesbian relationship between Chapman and Vause is much more complex and filled with emotion than one might believe at first. One viewer of the show had a positive remark, as many remarks have been in praise for the series:

“The show is unafraid of sexuality, queerness and race. Its humor is crass and unapologetic, but Orange is the New Black takes its characters seriously and sympathetically. The women make for compelling characters and believable human beings”(Liss-Shultz).

            The thing that makes the show so entertaining to the general public is that it is not about the fact that there are lesbian relationships, or bisexuals, or transgender human beings. In fact, the decoding of the show seems to be in light of the encoding. Kohan, the creator of the show states:

"I'm always looking for those places where you can slam really disparate people up against one another, and they have to deal with each other. There are very few crossroads anymore. We talk about this country as this big melting pot, but it's a mosaic. There are all these pieces, they're next to each other, they're not necessarily mixing. And I'm looking for those spaces where people actually do mix — and prison just happens to be a terrific one”(Kohan, NPR).

            The controversy of the show itself is not about the lesbian relationships of these women, it is about the relationships they create as a whole – lesbian or not. In that sense, it is hard to stereotype these women who identify as lesbians without identifying them as human beings first.

            The reproduction of the encoded meaning of Orange is the New Black has given a voice to lesbians and bisexuals in a mostly positive way. It is possible, but it is also difficult to find reprimanding and controversial arguments against the lesbian relationships that take place throughout the show. If there happens to be negative feedback, it more often than not, has to do with the language or the nudity that is portrayed – not the lesbianism. That is not to say that there is nothing at stake for these groups of people. However, it is uplifting to see that, at this point in time, the controversy does not lie in the nontraditional relationships. Jenji Kohan’s brilliant way of encoding her messages throughout the show really give lesbians and bisexuals a voice as human beings with agendas, rather than a group of people that are clumped together representing one thing: their sexuality. 

            The representation that Orange is the New Black stands for is important to analyze because it is refreshing to the medium that is television in the sense that it can represent lesbians and at the same time, represent something much more than a human’s sexuality. Kohan gives these women a voice, resists stereotyping these women, and challenges all other representations of lesbian and bisexual relationships through her messages depicted in Orange is the New Black. 


Bib.

Liss-Shultz, Claudia. "“Orange Is The New Black”: Taking Privilege to Task." Ms Magazine Blog. N.p., 17 July 2013. Web. 27 Sept. 2013.

( http://msmagazine.com/blog/2013/07/17/orange-is-the-new-black-taking-privilege-to-task/ ) 

NPR. "'Orange' Creator Jenji Kohan: "Piper Was My Trojan Horse"" Www.npr.org. N.p., 13 Aug. 2013. Web.

( http://www.npr.org/2013/08/13/211639989/orange-creator-jenji-kohan-piper-was-my-trojan-horse )