I first avoided “The L Word” as much as possible, vowing to never support a show about lesbians that has a cast of Victoria’s Secret models as actors. The queer women I knew looked nothing like them, and I preferred real dyke drama from friends to some fake, catered-to-straight-men series from Showtime.

I had already been avoiding “Queer as Folk” for the same reasons. But then, I was sucked in to these two shows in a matter of months. I was disgusted and intrigued, left out and included, but hooked without a doubt.

Who is to blame for my addiction to “The L Word”? My housemates Jes Albrecht and Ali McNeill. Jes bought the first season as a present for Ali just to see what the talk was about, and they soon found themselves immersed in a world of chic lesbian drama and struggle.

We all admit the producers did a horrendous job representing queer women; but at the same time, the struggles many of the characters encounter are very real to queer women.

Take the situation of one of the main characters, Dana, played by Erin Daniels. She faces the dilemma to come out of the closet and risk her career and family, or stay in and remain a “closet case” full of fears and darkness. Her struggle with the closet is what queer people must face their entire lives. Although rejected by her family, she is also able to land a business deal with Subaru as an “out” lesbian. As is often the case for queer people, coming out has both beautiful and dangerous consequences.

Although the show does portray a variety of issues and themes that queer women face, I take issue with the cast. This is a group of white, upper-class, skinny, lipstick lesbians.This is one of Jes’ main conflicts with the show.

“It’s not representative of all lesbians,” she said. “It just perpetuates the stereotype of the kind of lesbians men want to sleep with. They are not going to cast some 250-pound raging bulldyke, (but) I think it would be really cool if they did.”

The other important issue Jes brings up is that “the men who are on the show, like Snoop (Dogg’s character Slim Daddy), think lesbians are hot, and that is totally written off as flirting. This gives men an excuse to make real lesbians into an object of their pleasure – just something else to get off to.”

What angers me the most about the show and about much of the gay and lesbian movement in general is that both depict LGBTIQ people as mostly affluent, in-shape, white people. Sure, there is Pam Grier’s character Kit Porter, the only nonwhite main character. But she rarely receives as much time as the other characters, she has an alcohol problem and her sexuality is barely touched upon.

There are two other notable nonwhite characters. Alice is an angry black feminist lesbian and brings up very important points in the show. However, the other sides of her arguments are given no time to develop, and she is written off as an exception to some arbitrary rule. The other character, Candace, is a love affair for Bette (portrayed by Jennifer Beals). She is given more time on the show but just as a sexual interest. She is also very light-skinned, which can easily be seen as a sign of colorism.

Yet another drawback of the show is the affluence of most of the characters. For “The L Word” to depict queer women as void of financial struggles is a lie. It downplays the systems of sexism, racism and heterosexism that keep queer women from being financially confident.

Last but not least, Jes brings up a highly ironic aspect of the series – the sex scenes. One might assume that in a show about lesbians, it would be bursting with delicious, erotic, warm scenes of lesbian sex. Funny, though, that straight sex occurs just as often or more and gets more time and detail.

There was also a borderline rape scene between characters Bette and Tina in a recent episode. The scene went from “no, no, no” to “yes, yes, yes” very quickly. Rape happens between women, and it should not be overlooked or simplified and especially not made erotic.

So our feminist and queer politics may not agree with the show, but we must admit that we still had “The L Word” parties in honor of the premiere.

Like most media portrayals of queer people, this series is progressive and retrogressive at the same time. What we have may not be fair, but at least it is something – and there is always room for improvement.