the aftermath

This in the context of our discussion about the many ways Mariska's persona (and how fans approach it) can be seen as parallel to/blurred with Olivia's. Sally also pointed out that, until Mariska's latest relationship/engagement became public, she was also an apparently single workaholic seemingly too busy with her career to focus on a relationship (like Olivia). And I'd like to also note that the fact that SVU is a highly realist drama ("ripped from the headlines" and all) encourages this sort of slippage. So (as Joe says elsewhere) the logic of the show suggests that one has to look beyond the obvious suspect or the obvious boyfriend.

I think your idea that fans are interpreting recent Mariska developments as "closeted behavior" is right on. And it intersects with another discussion I want to have. Because, while the proliferation of detective strategies may help explain why some fans are approaching Mariska's explicit sexuality and relationships with the same skepticism as Olivia's, it doesn't necessarily explain the level of anger and vitriol that have been in evidence in the course of this investigation. I guess I am going to have to do into a little background here, so I'm quoting from your site, Sally, regarding the April 2003 Conan interview that started it all (or download the clip):

She went on to tell a story about walking down the street with her boyfriend's arm around her waist. A man ran up to her yelling excitedly, "Damn, I thought you was a lesbian". Conan: "Really? Because of your character on the show?" MH: "Yes. Everyone thinks that". Ms. Hargitay's apparent unease at being labelled a lesbian resulted in a ripple of displeasure and melancholy across the lesbian online community. Rightfully or wrongfully, some proclaimed her a homophobe.

I was trying to talk through the level of rage that this really quite groundbreaking and adorable exchange stimulated in some corners of fandom (see the "Debate Club" link above) with another friend of mine. And the only explanation I could come up with is that people have a lot of pent-up anger about the oppressive operation of the closet that they in essence projected onto Mariska. Some lesbian-identified fans are mad that Olivia's lesbianism isn't more openly representable, they are probably also mad about the effects of the closet in media and culture in general, and these comments seemed to tap into that. I think this could happen because Mariska framed her story within the very same Mariska/Olivia ambiguity that we've been remarking in fan discourses. She seemed exasperated, not so much with being taken for a lesbian, but with the various (gender-inflected) ways she alternately is and isn't taken for Olivia (e.g. "you're much thinner and prettier"). Within this framework, her attempt to disavow her own alleged lesbianism and at the same time perhaps retain/reclaim some of her association with her character is easily refigured as a denial of Olivia's lesbianism -- which, I'd assume, people were particularly pissed about. And then the Olivia closet reverberated back into a fantasmatic Mariska closet. Still sorting this out...

For me, the whole "is she/isn't she" debate about Olivia Benson is moot without the complicity--either intentional (doubtful) or subconscious (yey!)--of Mariska Hargitay. As an actress, MH is bound by certain things (the script, obviously, as well as character integrity and the framework of the show), but must certainly have some freedom to control the more subtle behaviors of OB. And those subtle behaviors are just so damn gay! It seems unlikely that MH, who seems ambivalent (at best) about fans' desire for a lesbian Olivia, is intentionally pinging everyone's gaydar.... Which, of course, allows us to assume (rightly or wrongly) that MH is unintentionally providing us with subext because she just can't help herself.

Secondly, what about comparisons between the fan frenzy over MH's personal sexuality to the perceived sexuality of other women who have portrayed queer women? For instance, though Allison Hannigan (sp?) of "Buffy" fame portrayed a powerful lesbian, to the best of my knowledge, most fans did not feel "betrayed" by her real-life marriage to a man; Eden Rigel ("Bianca" on "All My Children") seems to have escaped the spectlation as well. Is it because their characters were definitively queer and so provided ample fodder for the restless fan, because the dykey Olivia Benson violates more gender norms (both "Willow" and "Bianca" are pretty traditionally femme), or because the actresses themselves just don't "seem" as queer as MH can?

Last, but not least, Oliva can't be your girlfriend. She's mine! (Until Jodie Foster finds out, that is.)

a) being reluctant to acknowledge the perception of Olivia as a lesbian/Olivia's lesbian fans or b) actively denying that Olivia is a lesbian.

Ah, I think you have hit the nail on the head. I was trying to identify characters similar to OB, and finally came up with Major Sam Carter (played by Amanda Tapping) on "Stargate SG-1." Here is another short-haired, leather-jacket-wearing, ultra-competent (and seriously dykey) woman who carries a gun, and who, like Olivia, occasionally references male relationships, but who is also deliberately kept out of main-text romantic relationships (unless that's changed recently...I really can't bear SG-1 too often). There's a large body of slash work pairing Sam with a (now-dead) doctor (with whom she was raising a child--can it get more main-text??) on the show, but as far as I know, there is not eqivalent furor over the actress's own sexuality.

Part of that is almost certainly because SVU is vastly more popular and MH more well known, but I wonder if some of it isn't that Amanda Tapping is on record as being a pretty tolerant--and explicitly feminist--woman. Fans can have fun with the character's sexuality without feeling betrayed or let down by the actress who plays her.

That rascally Oliva. She does get around, doesn't she? Alex, Abbie, Casey, you, me....

Olivia benson is not a lesbian just because she is a strong and confident woman!