Coming out on "Grey's Anatomy": Industry scandal, constructing a lesbian story line, and fan action

Abstract

This analysis focuses on a series of industry scandals that created a need for and the development of a lesbian story line on Grey's Anatomy (ABC, 2005–), resulting in the creation of a lesbian-focused fan group dedicated to the lesbian pairing, Erica_Callie on LiveJournal. The resulting constructed representation portrays authentic lesbian and bisexual characters on mainstream broadcast television, promising inclusion to those who identify with these characters.

Keywords

• Authenticity
• Discourse analysis
• Emotional realism
• Fan studies
• Identification
• Knight/Washington scandal
• LGBT studies
• Online ethnography
• Production