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Does the mashup, Otalia make you say who-what? Or does it inspire you to check twitter, or your favorite forum for the latest buzz? Or maybe it makes you want to share your latest thoughts and predictions for how the Natalia-Olivia story line will end when Guiding Light airs its final episode on September 18th? Or, perhaps the mere mention of their name works you up into fits of thinking, "for the love of god, will we ever get to see them kiss? Delayed gratification is one thing, but this is just plain torture." OK, maybe that's just what I would be thinking, if I watched Guiding Light. Is it really that unreasonable to expect to see a couple, who is supposed to be in love, kissing.
Snapper of SuperHero LunchBox seems to share my opinion on the lack of kissing issue.
Unless viewers take a stand and make our voices heard, we will never see anything resembling positive portrayals of same-sex relationships in the mass media. And make no mistake about this: if we do see an Otalia kiss, it won't be because fans sat back and accepted the ridiculously chaste relationship these two supposed-lovers share. If we see a kiss between these two characters, it will be because the pressure from viewers became too great to ignore. It will be because journalists and bloggers have been critical and pointed out how incredibly stupid and unrealistic it's been for CBS to expect us to believe that two adult women in love wouldn't even kiss one another. If we see a kiss, it will be because certain GL actors spoke out, and made TPTB aware of the Internet buzz about this issue. If we see a kiss it will not be thanks to people who sat back and didn't make any noise for fear of "ruining" things for everyone.
-Read Scrambling for Scraps
It would be interesting to know why this story line was propelled forward if it wasn't going to get equal treatment. It makes me wonder who the intended audience is for this story line.
Now I must admit, I am/was among the who-what crowd. I'm not sure how I remained so oblivious to one of daytime television's most beloved lesbian couples because, um hello, there is a weekly recap at AfterEllen.com. How do I read right past them every week? It's not that I didn't know that soaps were starting to write in lesbian characters. It's more that I had a hard time imagining that the characters would be believable as lesbians, and that the story lines would be more than just temporary plot twists that would eventually end with the women returning to heteroville. I don't mean that to come across as knocking soap operas. It's just a general skepticism I have about any television show using an LGBT character. It comes from years of poorly written, one dimensional, non-sexual gay characters, or lesbian characters who get to be gay for day during sweeps week.
While I have not watched the show, I do know that Otalia has a huge fan base. This particular story line really seems to have tapped into something that people, including the actresses, just don't want to let go of just yet. After Guiding Light was canceled, Crystal Chappell, who plays Olivia, tried to get the Otalia story line transplanted to Guiding Light's sister show, As the World Turns. She also suggested that it get spun into a web series. But Proctor & Gamble, who owns the show, was not interested in her suggestions. Chappell could have let it die in the hands of the Proctor & Gamble, but instead she did something pretty awesome; she decided to start a web series on her own.
The web series, Venice, is planned to air in November. The show can not use the characters Natalia and Olivia, but both Chappell and her Guiding Light co-star Jessica Leccia, have roles in the show. Chappell, who plays a lesbian named Gina, says that fans will have to wait as long as 30 seconds into the first episode to see the two kiss. Oh yeah, I'm pretty sure I just became of fan. My own perviness aside, it seems to me like a good idea to have a kiss between the two right off the bat. If the show starts off with a kiss, there isn't really enough time to develop those two actors as new
