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PORTSIDE CULTURE

THE L WORD: 22 YEARS ON, THE SEXY LESBIAN SERIES REMAINS A
CORNERSTONE FOR MODERN SAPPHIC CULTURE  
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Lucille MacKellar
September 8, 2026
The Guardian
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_ Made in response to the success of hetero Sex and the City, the
groundbreaking show follows queer women navigating love and life in
perpetually horny LA _

‘It’s impossible to exist even on the periphery of lesbian
culture and not know the show’s core references’. Pictured: Leisha
Hailey as Alice and Katherine Moennig as Shane in The L Word (2004). ,
Photograph: PictureLux/The Hollywood Archive/Alamy

 

I recently posted a simple question on Instagram: “Attention queer
people in my phone: what is your relationship to The L Word
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A few people responded with names of the characters: Bette, Shane,
Dana. Others lamented over storylines that should have been: Kit was
supposed to be a leather dyke journalist but apparently they wrote it
out; why did they let Alice and Tasha stay together for so long? Many
gleefully commented on the amount of sex the show has. One
well-meaning gay man said it takes him a while to say The L Word in a
relationship, then he immediately realised I was talking about the TV
show and retracted his statement. Overwhelmingly, however, was the
variation on one take: It’s so terrible and I love it so much.

Premiering in 2004, The L Word follows a group of queer women in their
mid 20s to 30s as they navigate relationships, careers, sex and
friendships against the backdrop of the permanently sunny and
perpetually horny Los Angeles. Created by Ilene Chaiken, the show was
based on her own experiences of flings, heartbreak and stereotypes as
a lesbian, and was positioned as a response to the success and
heterosexuality of Sex and the City, which was its own media mammoth
by the early 2000s. The L Word’s first season tagline was simply:
“Same sex. Different city.”

[Katherine Moenning, Leisha Hailey and Karina Lombard in The L Word
(2004). ]View image in fullscreen
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‘I was immediately enamoured by the reality of a show following a
group made up of entirely queer women who aren’t automatically
likable or agreeable.’ Photograph: Cinematic/Alamy

Running for six seasons, the show ended in 2009, yet remains a
cornerstone for modern sapphic culture and discourse. It’s
impossible to exist even on the periphery of lesbian culture and not
know the show’s core references from the infamy of “the chart”
(a massive web of names and lines connecting every queer woman in The
L Word universe by who’s hooked up with who displayed permanently on
a huge whiteboard in a character’s home), or the irresistibility of
Shane (the group’s resident womaniser who has a Don Draper tendency
to effortlessly hook up with every woman she meets).

Despite proudly calling myself a lesbian for nearly 10 years, I had
never seen The L Word until a few months ago. From the pilot, I was
immediately enamoured by the reality of a show following a group of
entirely queer women who aren’t automatically likable or agreeable.
In the decades following The L Word’s premiere, queer characters on
screen have increased significantly, but they are still usually only
one or two out of a cast, more often than not paraded out for a
serious identity storyline or sardonic comic relief. As the seasons of
The L Word go on, the extreme interpersonal drama enters an almost
soap opera landscape, with the situations these women find themselves
in ranging from an alleged murder plot, a burned-down hair salon and a
Hollywood film set sabotaged by rival lesbian nightclub owners, all
the while participating in some of the most explicit lesbian sex
scenes in television history.

[Mia Kirshner, Alan Cumming and Daniel Sea in season 3 of The L
Word]View image in fullscreen
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‘The treatment of the only trans masc character, Max [played by
Daniel Sea, right], is difficult to watch and widely regarded as a
stain on the show’s legacy.’ Photograph: Everett Collection
Inc/Alamy

In 2026, the enjoyment of seeing unapologetically queer women
navigating off-the-wall scenarios works overtime to offset the aspects
of the show that have spoiled with age. The treatment of the only
trans masc character, Max, is difficult to watch and widely regarded
as a stain on the show’s legacy. Max constantly brushes off
transphobic comments and behaviour, and is exempt from the loyalty and
compassion extended to everyone else. This ridicule seems vitriolic
even for the time, and it’s confounding to witness a show discuss a
wide berth of taboos around queerness but draw the line at transness.
The cast is also overwhelmingly white, despite taking place in a
hugely diverse city like LA, and clunkily navigates the inherent
differences of lived experience in interracial relationships with an
emphasis on the white partner’s discomfort.

 
In The L Word, queerness doesn’t equal moral goodness. These
characters make all the wrong choices, communicate in the worst
possible ways and never become better people, and that complexity is
why it endures. It has all the hallmarks of other lost media relics of
the 2000s: cringe-inducing takes on gender, an overwhelming sea of
thinness, white washing, bizarre fashion choices – but, as displayed
by the passion and numbers that blew up my Instagram, it is far from
forgotten. The emotional anchors of the show, the characters and their
relationships, paired with absurd plotlines perfectly engineered for
maximum drama, creates an authenticity that encapsulates the
idiosyncrasies of lesbian culture without ever feeling like the butt
of the joke.

The show knows queer people aren’t ethical angels; we can be mean,
selfish, greedy and delusional, and that’s its superpower. In the
words of the theme song, The L Word persists because “this is the
way that we live and love”.

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_The L Word is available to stream via Stan in Australia and the US,
and via Prime Video in the UK._ _Find more recommendations of __what
to stream in Australia here_
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* the L word
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* sexuality
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* Los Angeles
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* queer representation
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