Can a Non-Psychotic, Non-Tragic Lesbian Character Win an Oscar?

The Kids Are All Right star Annette Bening is poised to make cinematic history on February 27th. If she takes home the Best Actress Oscar next month, it will be the first time ever that the Academy honors a portrayal of a lesbian character who doesn’t kill someone (including herself) or die before the film’s credits roll. While insider buzz suggests Bening has a good shot at taking home the gold, is the Academy really ready to honor a non-psychotic, non-tragic portrayal of a lesbian?

For gay men, that moment arrived in 2006, when the Academy named Philip Seymour Hoffman Best Actor for his portrayal of Truman Capote. The closest we’ve come is Penelope Cruz’s 2009 Best Supporting Actress win for her portrayal of a bisexual woman in Vicky Cristina Barcelona (although it’s important to note that Cruz’s jealous character attempted murder). Prior to that, Best Actress statues were awarded to Nicole Kidman for playing bisexual writer Virginia Woolf (who committed suicide), Charlize Theron for portraying a lesbian serial killer, and Hillary Swank for playing a trans character Brandon Teena, who was murdered.

Interestingly enough, Bening’s main competition for this year’s gold is a character that engages in a lesbian sex scene,  the role marvelously played by Natalie Portman in Black Swan. But…

SPOILER ALERT – STOP READING IF YOU WANT TO SEE THE FILM…

Portman’s perfectionist ballerina commits murder, which may or may not have been hallucination resulting from her descent into madness. Either way, an actress portraying a character with some lesbian tendency is almost certain to win this year. We just have to wait a few weeks to find out if that win is historic.

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