Bette Porter

Bette Porter
File:Bette 800x600.jpg Promotional Image from Showtime
First appearance	Pilot (episode 1.01)
Created by	Ilene Chaiken
Portrayed by	Jennifer Beals
In-universe information
Gender	Female
Occupation	Art Curator (1.01 - 2.13) Unemployed (3.01-3.12) Dean of School of Arts (4.01-4.12)
Family	Melvin Porter (Father) Kit Porter (Sister) Angelica Kennard (Daughter)

Bette Porter is a fictional character on the Showtime television network series The L Word. She is played by the American actress Jennifer Beals.

Fictional character biography

Back story

Bette is introduced as an affluent, Ivy League-educated lesbian of multiracial heritage. She attended art school (Yale), where she had sex with a gay man (Coleman) who at the time was her boyfriend, but she realized she had no interest in men through her crush on her Art History professor. Eventually, she came out as a lesbian.

Before Bette met Tina Kennard, she dated Alice Pieszecki, whom she once secretly had sex with while the two were at the opera Lakme.

Season one

Bette and Tina's relationship appears to their friends as very strong. However, from the very beginning they seem to have problems, and even as they attempt to start a family, it is revealed that they no longer make love. Although they seem to move past this problem as the series progresses, Bette's career in the California Arts Center is shown to come between them, with Bette frequently not having time to spend with Tina.

Tina gave up her own career in order to have a child, leaving Bette as the sole breadwinner. Bette has a difficult family life, with her father Melvin only barely tolerating her relationship with Tina, and flatly refusing to acknowledge Tina's baby as his grandchild.

In addition, Bette at first has a difficult relationship with her sister Kit, a recovering alcoholic who has often let her down. As the series progresses, however, Bette begins to support Kit's attempts to turn her life around, and their relationship is shown to improve.

Tina's miscarriage takes a toll on Bette, and when her partner decides to become involved in a charitable organisation, Bette finds that their careers make it almost impossible for them to spend any time together. At the same time, she finds herself drawn to Candace, who is working as a Carpenter at the CAC. Although Bette tries to resist this attraction at first, she eventually gives in to desire, and cheats on Tina. When Tina discovers what is going on, she flies into a rage. The resulting argument ends with a violent, painful lovemaking session, after which Tina moves into Alice's apartment.

Season two

In Series Two, Bette is desperate to make amends, and finds that her relationship with Tina is disrupting all other elements of her life. Her job becomes an increasing pressure, especially when Tina's new lover, Helena Peabody, is added to the Board of Governors, and her boss hires another curator who threatens Bette's elevated position.

At first, Bette feels isolated from Alice and the others, who she feels have mainly taken Tina's side in their argument. Although Shane and Jenny are both supportive of her, it takes a while for Bette to feel on good terms with Alice again. After Tina begins to see Helena, however, the group appear to rally around Bette, who is now aware that Tina is pregnant again and has a great desire to raise their child together.

Matters are further complicated when it is revealed that Bette's father Melvin is dying from advanced prostate cancer, and is refusing treatment. A distraught Bette brings him home to die, so that he will not be trapped in a hospital, but this difficult experience leads her to reach out to Tina. Tina, who by now feels trapped by her relationship with Helena, grows closer to Bette again, and although Melvin never really blesses his daughter's homosexual relationship, he does once refer to Tina as 'Tina' rather than 'Miss Kennard' before he dies. His death is a great blow to Bette, who receives news of the loss of her job at Melvin's funeral.

Though upset and furious, Bette continues to derive comfort from her improved relationship with Tina. Bette's relationship with Kit is also vastly improved in this series, with Kit being her main source of comfort at the beginning of the season. She helps Kit to take over The Planet cafe, and begins actively involving herself in Kit's life. Eventually Tina chooses Bette over Helena, and the end of the series shows Tina asking to move back in with Bette. Tina's labour is surprisingly difficult, but their daughter Angelica is eventually born, and the end of the season shows Bette as calm and happy in her new family.

Season three

Six months later, Bette and Tina are feeling the stress of raising Angelica, Bette's unemployment and Tina going back to work for Helena at her film studio. The relationship ends yet again due to Tina's renewed interest in men. She becomes involved with a divorced father and Bette has her move out. Bette becomes a Buddhist and goes on a silent retreat, but leaves it. After seeing Angelica being raised in Tina's "white privileged, heterosexual world", she hires the same lawyer who tried to get with Tina last season in a custody fight in which Bette hopes to get sole custody of Angelica on the basis that Tina is unequipped to raise a biracial child.

At Shane and Carmen's wedding, Bette begins to have second thoughts about this, but when Tina gets the lawyer's letter and digs in her heels, Bette kidnaps the baby.

References

• Kera Bolonik, The L Word: Welcome to Our Planet. New York: Fireside. 2006: 64 - 68

---