Stacking the Dyke Deck

Charting queer culture, one dyke at a time.

I used to be ashamed that I learned about Catherine Opie from “The L Word.”

Bette Porter: Huge Opie fan

Listen, I was 19 when the show came out, and a lesbian by the time the second season premiered with its new opening credits that had Bette Porter enjoying Opie’s “Being and Having.” The photographer’s iconic 1993 “Self-Portrait,” alongside several other pieces and Opie herself, were featured in Season 1, which I rented in its entirety from the Blockbuster with my first girlfriend, who had been a lesbian several years longer than me — she'd met her first official girlfriend on an Ani DiFranco message board.

Anyway, that girlfriend gave me a good education in some of the beginner stuff, coming of age in the Y2k era — “Go Fish,” Michelle Tea, “Better than Chocolate,” “The Incredibly True Adventures of Two Girls in Love.” I’d already discovered “But I’m a Cheerleader” by then — Clea DuVall at The Cocksucker was practically my gateway drug — but “The L Word” we watched together, first in the privacy of her/our home, then, all caught up by the Season 2 premiere, in a room full of dykes sandwiched between pool tables at the first lesbian bar I’d ever been to (R.I.P. T’s).

I was so hungry for lesbian culture, and the tangible tidbits I could scrounge up from fictional T.V. shows like “The L Word” were integral parts of discovery. The mere mention of Lisa Yuskavage, books like “Eros the Bittersweet,” or on-screen performances by indie bands like The Organ were like easter eggs I eagerly collected and cracked wide open. (I highly recommend this Art of the L Word Instagram account for anyone similarly curious.)

Catherine Opie playing herself on “The L Word”