Can RHONY Handle a Lesbian Housewife?
Jenna Lyons Lands on Planet Bravo
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Season 14 of The Real Housewives of New York City marks the first time the series has been entirely rebooted, with none of the cast members of previous seasons returning. Following a controversial thirteenth season, Season 14 purports to depict a more diverse, multicultural side of The Big Apple. The biggest casting news by far is the inclusion of Jenna Lyons, fashion mogul and former president of J.Crew.
Sometimes referred to as the "Woman Who Dresses America,” Lyons is credited with revitalizing J.Crew, a task she was so successful at that Michelle Obama made the brand a permanent part of her White House wardrobe. No stranger to reality TV, Lyons had a show on HBO Max called Stylish with Jenna Lyons, which premiered in 2020, along with a cameo role in the series Girls. In 2011, while in the middle of a divorce, Lyons was outed by the New York Post mere weeks into her first relationship with a woman. (In 2021, she told the story from her perspective in The Cut.) After nearly 100 seasons and over 150 housewives, Lyons has become the first openly gay housewife in the franchise’s history.
Lyons’ casting is not the first time the franchise has dipped its toes into queerness, but it is the most weighty. The series has always courted a gay fan base, though gay men are presumed to be the most avid viewers. Watch What Happens Live host Andy Cohen’s main dalliance with lesbianism is the question used to ask his women guests: “Have you ever taken a dip in the lady pond?” The playful question illustrates the franchise’s take on queerness among women – titillating, but not serious.
Within the canon of the show itself, queer moments have cropped up here and there. Julia Lemigova, a cast member on The Real Housewives of Miami, is openly bisexual and married to tennis star Martina Navratilova (who unfortunately has a history of making offensive remarks regarding trans athletes). Taylor Armstrong, who appears on The Real Housewives of Orange County in a “Friend of the Housewives” capacity, is also bisexual. Rosie, Teresa Giudice’s cousin on The Real Housewives of New Jersey, is gay and eventually moved up to “Friend Of” status in Season 7.
Other gay moments have not been as positive. Kyndall Cunningham writes that Housewives has a “Gay-Panic Problem,” the most prominent example being the alleged dalliance between Real Housewives of Beverly Hills stars Denise Richards and Brandi Glanville, a rumor that blew up to epic proportions. The Real Housewives of Atlanta has also been accused of trafficking in homophobia and transphobia and included some out-of-control lesbian drama several years ago. And then there are the many flirty moments between the women over the years, charged interactions fueled by alcohol and the particular ambiance of an all-women environment. (Autostraddle’s Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya maintains that cast trips produce the gayest moments of all.)
Jenna Lyons is a different beast altogether. She is quite literally a power lesbian, and the novelty of her sexuality aside, is by far the most high-profile member of the cast. When the lineup was first announced, many fans noted the only reason they’d consider tuning in was because of Lyons (keeping in mind the trainwreck that was Season 13). Cohen and the Housewives producers are nothing if not savvy, and they must have known that Lyons’ addition to the cast would tap into a previously undervalued fanbase – the lesbians.
They were right, of course. From the very first episode, lesbian and sapphic fans fervently latched on to Lyons, which is not at all surprising when you consider the tastes of young lesbians online. The site formerly known as Twitter is now filled with fancams of Lyons looking especially seductive or charming. “jenna lyons has me on chokehold. Afraid i’m never moving on,” one viewer wrote. Other fans have taken to calling it “The Jenna Lyons show” instead of RHONY. “not enough jenna lyons in the jenna lyons show last night,” another viewer complained. “ Does Jenna Lyons do it for anyone else? Or am I just gay 🥵” a popular post on the r/realhousewives subreddit asks. (Lyons seems to have caught on to her newfound fanbase – she has posted two of these thirsty fancams on her Instagram account.)
It’s likely that a good percentage of these Jenna Lyons fans were not previously Housewives viewers, which makes it even more interesting to look at how Lyons – and her new devotees – subverts the classic Housewives narrative. At first glance, Lyons doesn’t appear much like a typical Housewife, and that’s precisely what makes her such a good one. Her castmate Erin (real estate agent, potentially Trump-y) calls Lyons a “total enigma,” and she’s not far off with that description. Lyons is somewhat introverted, slightly odd, a bit aloof, and mysterious in an altogether alluring way.
Despite her professed fear of socializing with other women, Lyons is also extremely powerful and a respected figure in the fashion world. She is the only Housewife to have had her own reality show and a guest role on a Zietgesity HBO series, and definitely the only cast member to have her daily lunch order be the subject of a Bon Appétit article. She’s the richest of the cast (as the other women conceded on WWHL), has the chicest apartment (which had already been featured in several design videos prior to the show), and is the eldest by over a decade, having nearly two decades on a couple of the women. Perhaps because of her wealth and power, she’s also the most unbothered member of the cast.
For all of these aforementioned reasons, it’s fascinating to watch the other Housewives interact with Jenna. It’s so obvious they are all intimidated by her and want to impress her, which also gives the impression that some of them want to sleep with her. In fact, in Episode 6, Jessel (fashion publicist, wouldn’t know tact if it slapped her in the face) actually asks Jenna if she wants to have a threesome with her and her husband. (As a joke, presumably, but the implication still stands.)
Lyons is too cool for her fellow Housewives, but not in a way that comes off as snooty. In the first episode, she has a party at her magazine-ready apartment and tells the ladies the dress code is black, khaki, gold, and metallic. The women are all confused by this and mainly show up in black, not aware that, as Lyons reminds us in her confessional, khaki is a color, not just a fabric. Later, Erin and Brynn (chaotic but adorable fiancé-collector, deserves to be wrapped up in a blanket) raid Jenna’s closet and she only gets slightly annoyed when their sequin and lace outfits get stuck together. (“That's Valentino, but that's okay,” Jenna says while hiding behind her hands.)
The Housewives famously love to talk about sex, and Lyons’ party game continues this trend. She has the women play a game that involves asking each other sex questions, and they’re more than happy to respond. Jenna doesn't give a straight answer when they get to a question about being dominant or submissive in bed, maintaining that it’s “totally different” with women. (The fact the terms are ‘dominant’ and ‘submissive’ rather than ‘top’ and ‘bottom’ indicates that this game is already geared towards straight people.) When pressed for more, she claims that “it’s just assumed everyone gets taken care of,” which is a very Top thing to say. The other women are fascinated by her response, but she doesn’t go into details and the game quickly gets derailed by a re-hashing of #CheeseGate (don’t ask).
In the second episode, the ladies take a trip to Erin’s house in the Hamptons. While the other women show up in a black SUV, Jenna arrives in a vintage baby blue Mercedes, out-cooling the other Housewives yet again. At dinner that night, the topic of sex comes up once more. The women want to know how often Jenna has sex, but she demurs and says it’s different with women. Sai (straight-talking fashion influencer who is always hungry) literally yells “teach us!” across the table. She does not in fact teach them how to have lesbian sex, but Jessel’s question about how she knew she liked women gives her a chance to tell her story.
As the tale goes, Jenna once asked her good friend how lesbian sex works, and as she was explaining it in great detail, Jenna suddenly became hot and bothered. She started having dreams about her friend and they eventually started dating. As she’s describing her sexual awakening, the other women keep saying “wow” while slurping down oysters.
Sai then asks her if she ever came out. It’s not clear if Sai already knows the story and is giving her a chance to tell it, or if the other women just don’t read the news, which is very possible. So Jenna goes on to tell the story of how she was outed by the New York Post, which the Housewives all seem legitimately shocked by. She tries to explain that she didn’t even know women could be gay growing up and the only lesbian she knew was Billie Jean King, but none of the other ladies know who Billie Jean King is, which adds substance to the theory that none of them read the news.
When the women press Jenna about her current dating life, she says she is dating but will not share who this person is. The other Housewives – especially Sai – are miffed she won’t reveal this information, particularly because significant others tend to be a big part of the Housewives universe. Lyons isn’t playing by Housewives rules, but the other ladies can’t actually do anything about it and Queen Jenna clearly isn’t going to move the boundaries she’s set. Even the story Jenna told about realizing she was into women and being outed has already been told before – in the piece she wrote for The Cut – so there aren’t any revelations here anyway. The other women’s questions aren’t as invasive as they could have been, and it’s clear Jenna has chosen what she will and will not reveal.
On day two of their Hamptons trip, Sai and Uba (model and hot sauce entrepreneur, loves bananas) try to get Jenna out of her comfy lesbian shell. Sai tells Jenna she wants her to be “more seductive” (for whom, we might ask) in how she dresses. “Jenna as the largest closet out of everyone, but the whole closet is button-downs,” Sai says, cueing a montage of Jenna’s extensive button-down collection. Uba literally drags Jenan out of bed to try on one of her dresses (they’re both six feet tall), and they all fawn over her in her elegant black gown.
Sai and Uba clearly don’t understand that women across the world would let Jenna step on them whether she’s wearing jeans and a button-down or a fancy dress, and likely more so if it’s the former. In her confessional interview, Jenna explains that wearing dresses like that reflects the old version of her – when she was dressing to please men – something she doesn’t do anymore. No one is forcing Jenna to dress up, but it’s pretty obvious she’s mostly doing it for the other women’s benefit. “It’s fun for a night, but tomorrow I’ll be in jeans and a gray sweatshirt,” she explains.
Brynn seems a little hot and bothered herself as Jenna descends the stairs, quipping in her confessional, “Immediately I’m like – I need to flirt with that person.” Brynn is by far the most flirty of all the housewives, but this type of homoerotic flirting is not new to the franchise. What is new is the involvement of an out gay person in this dynamic. In a later episode, Jenna repeatedly grabs Erin’s ass in an effort to get her attention at her anniversary party, and seems to have no qualms about how that might come off to Erin or other party attendees. It’s refreshing to see this sort of abandon from Jenna, and her behavior in this context is both fittingly Housewife-y and quite novel.
Though Lyons reveals the least out of all the Housewives, she still manages to wield significant power, even when not present in a scene. As Coleman Spilde writes in the Daily Beast, “Instead of trying to follow the franchise’s formula for success, the show is guided by Lyons’ forceful hand and chic, enigmatic personality. She’s a puzzle of a person, unwilling to show all of her cards up front—and the other Housewives are following suit.” Above all, the Housewives franchise is about money and drama, and watching how that drama is manufactured in this season of RHONY is compelling.
Perhaps because of her penchant for introversion, Lyons is the least dramatic member of the cast. The main drama that has involved her thus far was the so-called Shakshuka debacle, in which Erin and the rest of the women decided Jenna’s early departure from the Hamptons was to blame for them not getting their morning breakfast. Later, the Wives dunk on Jenna for saying she had an “event” when she was really just decorating the Christmas tree with her son, but there’s not much bite to their criticisms. (The lingerie fiasco was all Jessel – Jenna was barely involved at all.)
Despite her professed introversion and anxiety when it comes to socializing, Lyons holds her own around these women who don’t know what to do with her. Part of this confusion likely stems from the fact that she’s a lesbian, but another part of it is her powerful aura of mystery. She doesn’t create the drama, nor is she the drama, but her presence alone changes the dynamic of the group.
Though she holds a lot back, Lyons is also strikingly vulnerable about her feelings sometimes, and she often makes self-deprecating comments about her body and age. All of these fancams indicate that Lyons needn’t be insecure about these things – lesbians half her age are standing at attention, ready to worship her if given the chance. In fact, Lyons might be the first Housewife to become a sex symbol as a result of her appearance on the show. (Denise Richards was certainly a sex symbol at the height of her acting career, but this was not due to her Housewives role.) The target audience for Housewives previous to this season was gay men and straight women, so ‘sex symbol’ is not an archetype that the show has often trafficked in. Lyons’ deified status is one of the ways this lesbian audience has changed how the show is perceived.
It’s striking to watch a lesbian reality star have so much influence while also being subject to some of the more frustrating reactions from straight people – prying questions about her sex life, and confusion about the (queer) way she carries herself in the world. As the season continues, it will be interesting to see how Lyons further shapes the series in her image, butting up against the constructs of a highly-produced reality show while subtly exerting her own star power. Will the other Housewives get to learn more about lesbian sex? Will Jenna ever introduce her current girlfriend, who attended the Jack Antonoff/Margaret Qualley wedding with her? Will the flirting reach a gay fever pitch? We’ll have to tune into the rest of the Jenna Lyons Show to find out.