Orphan Black: Crazy Media Science

Cosima Niehaus: Lesbian representation and its influence to the queer community

JJ Herdegen

• Publisher: Books on Demand
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN:
  9783752662160
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9783753483498
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Media Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

This academic paper is with the objective of investigating how representation of female homosexuality and femininity occurs of the character Cosima Niehaus from the television series Orphan Black. A character and relationship analysis of the lesbian Cosima will show the presentation of these two topics. The impact on the spectators of the series in this field and the use of stereotyping will be examined. Also it will be demonstrated how the impersonators Tatiana Maslany and Kathryn Alexandre (acting double) experience Cosima, which contributes representation. Up-to-date literature and internet sources, plus a survey and an interview conducted by the author enables this investigation. It will lead to the importance of medial representation of female homosexuality (thus including the topic femininity) and therefore also the importance of LGBTQIA+ topics for our whole society, to communicate an understanding of tolerance, one's own identity, the identity of others and the perception of reality. Consequently Orphan Black will be illuminated as pioneer in exemplary LGBTQIA+ representation.

1 Introduction

“Aktuell leben homosexuelle Frauen […] in einer Gesellschaft, die immer noch von Spuren aus der Vergangenheit gezeichnet ist, in welcher weibliche Homosexualität ignoriert oder abgelehnt wurde. Es gibt allerdings eine Tendenz zur zunehmenden Gleichberechtigung, sowohl auf rechtlicher, als auch auf lebensqualitativer Ebene. Der signifikante Mangel an Quellen über das Thema Homosexualität lässt sich einerseits mit Desinteresse in der Gesellschaft erklären und andererseits mit öffentlicher Ablehnung, die zur Folge hat, dass homosexuelle Frauen sich bevorzugt im Verborgenen aufhalten.“¹⁶

(Translation: “Currently homosexual women live in a society, which is still marked by the past, in which female homosexuality was ignored and refused. However, there is a tendency of increasing equality in law and quality of life. The significant lack of sources about homosexuality is caused by disinterest in society on the one hand and by public rejection on the other hand, which results in homosexual women preferring to live in secrecy.”)

1.1 Approaching the subject

Female homosexuality is still ignored and refused in society - even if there are increasing changes - as illustrated in the previous quote. The subject “homosexual women” also includes the subject “femininity”. In order to explain the problematic representation in film of female homosexuality it is important to clarify that cinematic portrayal of female characters is extremely low.¹⁷ Therefore it also reduces the possibility to represent homosexuality and femininity in combination.

Open-mindedness about own sexual and gender identity grew increasingly in the last few years.¹⁸ This provides a much greater audience for cinematic queerness. Medial representation provides an opportunity to educate queer as well as non-queer people and expand their awareness and understanding of reality. (cf. term definition “Representation“). The LGBTQIA+ community suffers from lacking portrayal or rather less divers and qualitatively negative cinematic representation of LGBTQIA+ characters including whitewashing (rare to none portrayal of BIPoC). “Leaving LGBT[QIA+] people out of the picture — or including them only as a punchline — keeps old prejudices alive and creates an unsafe environment, not only […] in America, but around the world where most audiences see these depictions.”¹⁹ Therefore influence on the LGBTQIA+ community and their reputation is intensively dependent on medial representation and affected by influence and significance. This significance for the LGBTQIA+ community with prior analysis of female homosexuality and femininity in the television series Orphan Black with special attention to the lesbian character Cosima Niehaus, should lead to knowledge and expansion of consciousness for queer representation.

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¹⁶ Tröstl, Stefanie: Femmes fatales und Kesse Väter. Über weibliche Homosexualität im Spielfilm, Diplomica Verlag GmbH, Hamburg, 2012, p.30f (Method of citation: Femmes fatales)

¹⁷ Cf. URL: http://www.indiewire.com/2015/02/sorry-ladies-study-on-women-in-film-and-television-confirms-the-worst-65220/ [Date: 20.04.2017]

¹⁸ Cf. URL: https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/teens-these-days-are-queer-af-new-study-says [Date: 20.04.2017]

¹⁹ URL: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/glaad-studio-responsibility-index_us_572772dce4b0b49df6abc868 [Date: 20.04.2017]

1.2 Formulation of the question

As queer people are part of the society and therefore are eligible for or rather are entitled to receive representation, this thesis will study the Canadian television series Orphan Black and its portrayal of the lesbian leading role Cosima Niehaus. In doing so it shall shed light on lesbian representation and compare it to failings and defects in reflection and presentation up to now. Representation of lesbian characters requires a multifaceted representation of femininity in order to realistically portray a woman as homosexual. So the female-lead series Orphan Black will be analysed in its portrayal of femininity, too. The significance of the series to the LGBTQIA+ community will also be examined to determine its impact on the audience and the whole society.

1.3 Constructing the thesis and used sources

In order to be able to answer this research question, this thesis first needs to shed light on the problematic portrayal of queer and female topics in the media. An executive summary of the previously aired four seasons of Orphan Black is needed to analyse the character Cosima. Further a characterisation of Cosima with special view of her relationship to her great love Delphine Cormier will show the explicit representation of female homosexuality and femininity in the series. The analysis of Cosima and the way her lesbian relationship is depicted in the series will be a large part of this paper, as the series with four seasons at ten each episodes of circa 45 minutes accompanies Cosima and her relationship through different circumstances of her life. To detect the result of representation of female homosexuality and femininity, the analysed presentation will be compared with previous prejudices of women and lesbians in filmic media. Stereotyping, which social and gender groups suffer from and how Orphan Black works with it, will be examined, too. To discover the significance of the series to the LGBTQIA+ community, a survey in the fandom was taken by the author, which will explain its influence on spectators in relation to female homosexuality and femininity. The completion of the analysis of Cosima’s character and her influences on femininity and female homosexuality is given by summing up statements about these topics by the two impersonators of the character: Tatiana Maslany and acting-double Kathryn Alexandre. For Kathryn Alexandre’s exemplification she was specifically interviewed by the author.

The series and the issue representation are currently very important and much discussed. As the quote in the beginning describes, a significant lack of sources about homosexuality exists. Therefore the main source of representation and character analysis for this thesis will be the series itself as well as recent articles from the internet. All used literature about female homosexuality, medial representation and Orphan Black date back to 2007, which therefore provides a wide-ranging and currently realistic examination possibility for the topic. Other sources to appoint are the specially conducted questionnaire in the fandom of the series and the interview with Kathryn Alexandre. These special sources are used to understand the influence the series has had on the audience.

2 Queer cinema and problematic
presentation of lesbian themes

“’It is difficult enough to be queer, but to be queer in the cinema is almost impossible. Heterosexuals have fucked up the screen so completely that there’s hardly room for us to kiss there.’ – Derek Jarman, filmmaker”²⁰

Derek Jarman’s statement describes how there is a lack of space in filmic media for other sexualities because of heteronormativity. But representation is essential to enlighten people, irrespective of their own sexual orientation, and to shape their own identity as well as to comprehend the identities of others. Filmic portrayals inspire and encourage believing in one’s self and cause change. Presentation of queer characters helps and supports queer people in outing themselves and in understanding that they are not alone: “[A film] encouraged me as a young kid that coming out was all right, and that these folks are walking around my streets and in my neighbourhood. Film can cause those kinds of spiritual, emotional shifts. I don’t think it’s too far off to suggest that film effects change.²¹ Indeed portraying queer topics is very complicated as it includes political and religious aspects, education and other themes and claims to examine these themes²². But representation of queer characters addresses humans and especially teenagers, who struggle with their sexual identity. Obvious medial expressions of these topics also cause conversations about acceptance and tolerance.²³ The significance of representing queer themes exists because many people long for truthful presentation, especially if they are stereotyped or demonized²⁴, which means presented in a negative way to society.

Non-heterosexuals and trans*genders [and other non cis-genders] often suffer from anxieties to be different or to be marginalised in society when they discover their sexual or gender identity.²⁵ Queer teenagers frequently resist their diversity from the dominant cisheterosexual cultural norm. But “[t]heir mental health depends on accepting their orientation, owning it, and being proud of it.”²⁶ Therefore it is even more important that media exert a positive influence on society if it concerns queer characters.

This thesis refers to female homosexuality. But it is not possible to just focus on the “L” of LGBTQIA+; as “queer characters” include lesbian characters, “queer” is commonly used instead of “lesbian”. The series Orphan Black portrays several queer characters, which stands for the representation of queer characters. This analysis will be mainly concerned with the representation of the lesbian character Cosima Niehaus.

Director Rose Troche says that filmic representation of female homosexuality is not positive. There are increases, she says, but in her fundamental statement, it is too little and not positive enough.²⁷ Stefanie Troestl’s investigations verify this. Filmic lesbian relationships often end because one woman turns towards a man and therefore emerges as a heterosexual woman, while the other woman is not emotionally important anymore.²⁸ Respectful interaction with lesbian love i...

Table of contents

• Notes
• Bibliographic original data
• Abstract
• Annotations
• Acknowledgement
• Table of Contents
• List of abbreviations
• Term definition
• Register of Illustrations
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Queer cinema and problematic presentation of lesbian themes
• 3. Executive summary of the series
• 4. Cosima Niehaus: Analysis and realisation of the character
• 5. Representation and significance
• 6. Survey results: Female homosexuality and femininity in Orphan Black and its impact on the audience
• 7. Cosima’s impersonators
• 8. Results and consequences
• 9 Conclusion and outlook
• List of sources
• Attachment
• Copyright