American Love Stories
By Zoe Agnew
In the Fall of 1999, PBS aired a documentary series called An American
Love
Story. The series followed an interracial couple who had been married
for 30
years in their ongoing struggle to survive as a couple and as a family
within
a racist society. The show also followed the lives of their two daughters.
The elder is a 20 year-old college student working to navigate through
multi-racial world with her multi-racial identity; the younger is
a 12
year-old on the verge of full-blown adolescent struggles.
The PBS American Love Stories website is the classic internet companion
to a
television series. What this 'classic' quality often means is an overview
of
the series, and presentation of material relevant to, but not covered
by, the
show. There is often also an area where viewers can respond 'back'
to the
show and the site, through some kind of chat or email function.
The site opens with a collage of tiny images of couples. Around ten
or so of
these tiny images are set off by yellow borders, which most navigators
can
guess means these particular images are links. These links lead to
short
tales of love that has faced stress and challenge due to cultural
differences
or societal scrutiny. For example there are narratives of interracial
couples, one lesbian couple and couples with significant age differences.
These tales sometimes cross into the sentimental and melodramatic,
which is
not surprising since one or both members of the couple write them
all
themselves. Still, many of the stories are extremely well-written,
compelling
and honest.
PBS has done a better than usual job of portraying many styles of
relationships, but a large breadth of other relationships are excluded
from
this front page. After a very pointed key word search, I could only
find one
portrait of a gay male couple and none involving a bisexual or transgender
partner. There was also no mention of even less traditional relationships
such as polygamous or open relationships.
Thankfully, there is a section called Dialogues which allows the
user to
participate in this dialogue on love and relationships. Unfortunately
this
feature has been discontinued because the series aired so long ago.
But the
discussions are archived and cover a wide array of relationship topics
from
"Interracial couples who cringe at seeing other interracial couples"
to
"Dealing with distressed parents."
Finally there is a resource section called Dig Deeper with relevant
court
cases, studies and readings that relate especially to racism outside
of and
within relationships. The site also provides a thorough study guide
to help
teachers use of the television series and the website in the classroom.
Overall, the site does not deviate much from the formula used by
many
television sites to enhance their television programming. But this
PBS site
does an excellent job of using that formula to create a compelling
dialogue
that complements the series well.