“It Feels More Like a Parody”: Canadian Queer as Folk Viewers and the Show They Love to Complain About.

The nighttime television series Queer as Folk (U.S.) was set in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, but was filmed in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Beginning with a brief textual analysis of the representation of lesbians on Queer as Folk, this audience reception study outlines how Canadian viewers who claimed a wide range of sexualities interpreted the representations of lesbians on the series in vastly different ways. While some viewers described the lesbian characters, Melanie and Lindsay, as “an embarrassment” and “more like a parody of lesbians,” others enjoyed the “accuracy” and “realism” of these characters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]