The Unicorn Scale: True Blood

By Florianne Humphrey

July 23, 2019

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True Blood is a Southern Gothic romance where queerness is as much the social norm as vampires, werewolves, fairies and shapeshifters. True Blood represents stories of prejudice and marginalization through a fantastical lens, and many viewers and critics have interpreted the show as an allegory for the LGBTI rights movement. For example, True Blood borrows and adapts several well-known phrases, such as “God Hates Fangs” and “Coming out the coffin”; intermarriage between vampires and humans is only legal in Vermont, one of the first states to legalize same-sex marriages; and vampires face heavy opposition from fundamentalist Christian groups who see them as Satanic and unnatural.

In fact, True Blood’s fresh take on queerness and its unusually high representation of queer characters contributed to its winning of a GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Drama Series in 2011.

But, despite its critical acclaim and accolades, how well does True Blood really portray its bi characters in particular? Let's find out. If you're unfamiliar with our Unicorn Scale, here's a quick rundown. From here, we will run into some SPOILERS

What I Liked:

I like the high representation of queer characters in general. The openly bi characters include Tara Thornton (Rutina Wesley), Sookie’s best friend, and Sophie-Anne Leclerq (Evan Rachel Wood #bi2), the vampire queen of Lousiana, who regularly takes both male and female lovers, including the cousin of Sookie.

Even if most characters aren’t explicitly bi, there’s certainly a lot of sexual fluidity among the vampires that tends to come with dark romances. In True Blood, feeding off humans is definitely sexual for both vampires and victims – there’s a lot of moaning and nakedness and, once the human had been fed off, sex dreams about the vampire in question. And the vampires don’t discriminate between genders. It’s a queer free-for-all, with even the supposedly straight characters (Bill Compton, I’m looking at you) enjoying a feed from a male subjugate.

And yes, it does somewhat fetishize queerness, and especially bisexuality, as something predatory, dangerous and consummative. But the representation is certainly there, and it’s nothing if not sexy.

What I Didn't Like:

What I don’t like is the presentation of Tara’s bisexuality. Tara is initially straight-presenting in the first few series. Her relationships with men are more than a little troubled. Starting with a brief and hopeless fling with her boss, she suffers the pain of unrequited love with Sookie’s brother Jason and is kidnapped and emotionally tortured as the bride — or blood bag — of Franklin, one of the show’s most ruthless vampires. Even her most tender and deepest relationships with a man, Eggs, is cut short when he’s murdered by the town’s sheriff.

Tara Thronton

And then — plot twist! — when Tara flees her town to put the supernatural life behind her, it’s revealed at the start of Season Four that she’s now dating a woman, Naomi (Vedette Lim), in New Orleans. Finally (and I do mean finally), after leaving Naomi, Tara’s exhausting roller-coaster of relationships ends with another woman – or vampire, to be precise.

Now, the big question — is this a sensitive portrayal of bisexuality?

Actress Rutina Wesley has stressed that Tara’s "switch" from men to women is just a result of Tara “becoming a little more Zen” and open to new possibilities after escaping her old life. Perhaps this is true. Tara’s relationship with women could represent a fresh start, a new identity, and a happier life. Perhaps it’s an act of rebellion, of Tara throwing off the oppressive traditions and strictures of her small-town life (her mum is a strict Christian who at one point tries to exorcise her demons).

However, there is a whiff of "midlife crisis" in Tara’s sexual journey. It’s as if her bisexuality is not authentic or validated, it’s just a result of her traumatic experiences with men in the past. Maybe if Tara showed any interest in men once she came out, this might not be an issue. But from the moment she leaves her town and starts dating Naomi, Tara is, for all intents and purposes, a lesbian. There’s no hint that she’s in fact bi — her hatred for men simply triggers a switch from straight to gay. A bit problematic, don’t you think?

The Rating:

This is a hard one, because I really love True Blood. I’m on my third re-watch of all seven seasons, and I think it’s one of the best examples of the vampire genre. But, while I don’t have space to wax lyrical about all the positives on the show, I am going to give it a two unicorn rating for its presentation of bisexuality. Overall rating for queerness — 100%. Plenty of queer characters, who are just as memorable, diverse and richly-imagined as the straight characters. Bi characters? Not so enough of them, and Tara’s sexual awakening raises some difficult questions. 

Maybe it’s just because True Blood now seems slightly dated — the season finale came out ten months before the US Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage was legal across all 50 states — or maybe it just needed to be a bit bolder about bisexuality.

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