Sophia, Blanche, Rose, and Dorothy; image courtesy of bestweekever.tv
This Andrew Gold song covered by Cynthia Fee says it all, doesn’t it?
Four elderly ladies living together in Miami in a configuration similar to what my friend Leigh refers to as “the porch.” It could also be a lesbian commune (barring Dorothy and Sophia, of course). The thought of spending the autumn of my years with my best girlfriends definitely warrants celebration. Break out the cheesecake and happy holidays!
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Blanch OWNED the house, remember? She also was a horny southern gal. With MEN! What’s all this shit about gays lately? Who cares?
Oh, I remember who owned the house. Save for what I feel to be the obvious queer potential of women sharing a home together, a few things are going on with “this shit about gays lately.”
1. The Golden Girls had a huge gay following, which it continues to cultivate. So “lately” is really “ongoing.”
2. The show itself had multiple stories that involved lesbians and lesbian desire for some of the principal characters, most notably Rose Nylund.
3. Despite her sex category and voiced preferences, Blanche often reads as a gay man or a drag performer to me. Her excessive sexuality often bolsters this to comedic ends. Similar things could be said of one of her closest televisual analogs, Samantha Jones. As a matter of fact, SNL parodied this to hilarious effect in a sketch by revealing that she’s actually a man.