Web series review: Rose By Any Other Name

A lot of the discourse on the internet (which, frankly, is where I get most of my non-academic discourse) when it comes to bisexuality centers around biphobia, bisexual erasure and how non-supportive the gay and lesbian communities supposedly are.

Maybe this is just me, but I very rarely feel like this describes a situation I find myself in on a regular basis.

What it does create, I think, is a lot of negativity. Add to this the discussion I keep seeing crop up about whether the word ‘bisexual’ implies binarism and before you know it, being bisexual is more of a heavily debated political standpoint than a part of everyday life. And I admit I do like identity politics sometimes. I just only like it when it can be a little fun, too. That is, unless something terrible happens and/or someone gets all offensive, just to include this caveat, but for the most part, I don’t understand why everyone’s so serious. Perhaps I feel this way because I’ve heard more crap and hurtful things about liking girls than about being bi specifically, and all of this came from straight people.



I’m sure I’m not the only one who wants to get away from all this negativity sometimes. That’s why the American Institute of Bisexuality created an It Gets Better video, and why some people, like bisexual activist and director Kyle Schickner, develop films and web series that center around bisexuality in a fun and light-hearted way. Kyle Schickner is the founder of FenceSitter Films, that was founded on “the belief that films don’t need straight white men as heroes in order to be successful and entertaining”. Right on.



Most recently, FenceSitter Films produced the web series Rose By Any Other Name, that, back in 2009, got posted directly to YouTube. With its second season on the way, the entire first season is up to rent for $3,99 (€2,83) for 24 hours. The second season, which premieres June 1st, will not go up on YouTube for free, which is completely understandable, although a bit of a shame for those of us without PayPal accounts.



The first time I saw the web series was two years ago, and when I watched it again for this article, it was better than I remembered. Rose (Stephanie Reibel), a lesbian who works at the LGBT community center, meets Anthony (Kyle Schickner himself), a straight man who works in software, while waiting in line for Prince concert tickets. When she asks him out, everything gets complicated really fast. Anthony’s friends at the office give him a 101 on how to date a lesbian and one of Rose’s friends fumigates her apartment to get rid of all the ‘negative male energy’. Rose By Any Other Name is rife with funny quotes, especially from Anthony and Rose’s crazy friends (“If you have to buy her something, buy her flannel”, or “Rose, you have to be a lesbian.”)

I also love the interaction between Anthony’s friend Chris (Steph Davis) and Rose’s friend Veronica (Fay Wolf). I don’t think you need to be a lesbian for this kind of friendships with men, because I can totally recognize me and some of my guy friends in this.
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Despite the hilarious, almost panicky conversations that make up most of the season, in the end it does get a bit serious after all. When Rose mentions she thinks she might be bisexual, even previously supportive Veronica switches positions. “When you tell someone you’re a lesbian it brings up certain connotations. It’s a stance. What kind of stance is bisexual?” she says. To which I would argue that the word ‘bisexual’ comes with a lot of connotations as well.

Now we’re back at the heavy political identity questions we were at in the first few paragraphs of this post. But here, it isn’t brought on by endless online debate, but by a storyline in a comedy. (Maybe my main problem is with endless online debate.) The fact that Rose By Any Other Name is a comedy, weighs in with how we perceive even these in essence quite offending comments by Rose’s friends. We know that the web series is taking on serious issues in a not-so-serious way, and it’s not like anything before those last scenes was very politically correct if it would have been presented in a different context.



All I’m worried about is if Rose and Anthony can stay together even while yielding so much opposition. My secret wish for the second season is however altogether unrelated to Rose and Anthony or the seemingly complicated inner workings of the bisexual mind: I want Veronica to get a girlfriend, because she seems so cute and lonesome. I would offer myself for this position, but she lives on the West Coast. And, you know, she’s fictional.

While you’re waiting for Rose By Any Other Name’s second season, you can take a look at the FenceSitter Films website, the trailer for the first season below, or the first episode, which is still on YouTube in its entirety.

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