Understand the queer world of the L-esbian body: using Queer as Folk and The L Word to address the construction of the lesbian body.

Television is a tremendous force in constructing social understandings of the body. Using the first season of The L Word and Queer as Folk, this article addresses the manners in which the lesbian body is created and conveyed within a queer media world. Although diverse and complex, the images of the lesbian body have been created to be consumed by heterosexuals as well as lesbians and gay men. Central to this transformation of body is the creation of a consumable butch body--a body that is read firstly as a woman, but offers opportunities for the queer consumer to read lesbianism, even a version of butch. Additional aspects of body discussed include the evolution of body in conjunction with identity and the idea of "gaydar"--the reading of body to determine if one is lesbian.