The F Word on The L Word

"Yet the stand-out feminist moment for me revolved around Jenny in season two. Mark, a wannabe filmmaker, moves in with Jenny and Shane and, unbeknownst to them, turns out to be as interested in lesbians’ lives as we viewers are: He has gone so far as to hide video cameras all over the house to record the “secret lives of lesbians”— imagine that! Eventually the cameras are discovered and the women express their sense of violation. In a shamefaced apology, Mark says: “When I moved in here I was the type of guy who was capable of doing shit like this, but I am not that guy anymore. …[Y]ou and Shane have made me a better man.”

Jenny responds with a speech that still makes me punch the air: “Oh, fuck off, Mark! It’s not my job to make you a better man and I don’t give a shit if I’ve made you a better man. It’s not a fucking woman’s job to be consumed and invaded and spat out so that some fucking man can evolve.”"

Sal Renshaw, Ms. Magazine