BBC reboots Survivors brings us sole lesbian Anya Raczynski played by Zoe Tapper

You may recall we mentioned the BBC reboot of “Survivors” way back in early June, well there’s been some further information. As we mentioned then actress Zoe Tapper will be playing Dr Anya Raczynski in the series and she is apparently a lesbian.

Here’s the character rundown: The character of Dr Anya Raczynski is a young doctor stretched beyond the limit of her capabilities by the onset of the plague. She does not appear in the original series. She is, however, the ex-partner of the young Patricia who shares a flat with Jenny – both of whom do appear in the original series.

Further info though is not so good. Sounds like Anya will be the usual “lone lesbian” onscreen given Pat now has a boyfriend and seems to die in the first episode. Nice one BBC, way to aid character growth. On the upside Julie Graham stars as one of the main characters. She appeared in the Guin Turner film “Preaching to the Perverted”, but you probably would recognize her more from “At Home With the Braithwaites”.

Via [Survivors Blog]

Comments below from prior to site migration:

Tim
So the character of Anya will be limited because there won’t be another lesbian to hang out with? That’s quite a flawed claim…

Renee
Tim, anyone who has studied queer theory or even certain aspects of the media and homosexual visibility knows that claim is very valid.

The problem of the invisible, solitary and predatory lesbian in television and other media is well sourced and I think this is what the writer here is getting at.

The show has essentially negated her lesbianism by removing any potential ‘love’ – ‘sex’ – ‘partnered’ relationship on screen for the character. Therefore regarding her lesbianism, the character will be extremely limited.

I do hope that helps.

Lesbian Geeks – Thanks for the post, I had little interest in this series previous to learning about this aspect of the story.

Stephen
I don’t think it limits character growth at all. Simply because one aspect of her character isn’t explored as much as it could be doesn’t mean her character growth is limited. For one thing, it appears Anya will be unwilling to talk about her past at the start of the series, which will be explored later. Besides, we don’t know how the series will progress, nor whether more series’ will be made. It could happen in the future.

I doubt making Anya’s lesbianism not as much at the forefront as it could be is a problem; honestly, being understated is better and will help Anya not to gain a reputation as “the gay one”.

Dylan
“I doubt making Anya’s lesbianism not as much at the forefront as it could be is a problem”

But it IS a problem.

Visibility matters. If we’re not visible, we don’t matter. If we’re not visible, we get a bum deal when it comes to acceptance.

I had no idea this character was gay having seen the first episode, and does this matter? Yes it does.

Why does it? Well, for one it’s nice to know that at least one gay person was allowed to ‘survive’. I was under the impression we’d all been killed off in the program. I wasn’t going to continue to watch it if they’d just blatantly wiped the planet free of ‘teh gays’. Cause yunno, gay people would just complicate things anyhow right?

Keeping the character’s sexuality pretty much invisible means they WON’T have to complicate things though I guess. It’s easy to just pin a label to somebody and then ignore what it actually means rather than fully acknowledge that it’s a big part of somebody’s character and life.

We’ll have to see how it goes. Hopefully with it being the BBC it won’t end up being totally hidden and ignored. We shouldn’t be hidden and ignored. It SHOULD be allowed to be the large part of a person’s character that it actually is in real life. It’s not just a label we have pinned to us someplace; it’s who we are, not just what we do

Yuki
Agree!!! These are guys saying these things yes? And in my experience unless there is some hot lesbian sex they don’t care to know stories with lesbians in them. Dylan maybe you are a guy too, but you see it for what it is so thank you at the very least.

I hope we get to see some of this part of her life, not that it be force fed to me by the writer, but that is be a natural part of the character that is not ignored.

Stephen
“These are guys saying these things yes? And in my experience unless there is some hot lesbian sex they don’t care to know stories with lesbians in them.”

That’s an absolutely horrible stereotype of men and I hope you can learn not to be such a sexist.

Dylan, why WOULD all gays be killed off? The fact is, they’re not. And you know they’re not. And anybody who can watch the show can see that they’re not. I also have to question your comment of “I wasn’t going to continue to watch it if they’d just blatantly wiped the planet free of ‘teh gays’” because that honestly makes no sense. For one, that sounds like you’ll only watch television shows with a gay character in them and for another, it sounds as if you mean that if a gay character wasn’t present, you’d think it was an act of homophobia. If I’m wrong, please tell me because I’d be happy if that’s not the case but that isn’t how it seems to me.

The thing is, the longer people continue to make homosexuality an issue, the longer it will remain one. Same goes for things like racism and sexism and so on. There’s a gay character in the series and, since I’ve been watching, she’s already lost her ex-girlfriend in hospital and rejected a guy. Apparently this isn’t enough? Why not make a big deal of Greg being black or Najid being a Muslim?

The fact is, this is as much a part of the character as anything else and it HASN’T been ignored.

Ash
Ok, ive watched this show so far and yes my gaydar pinged like hell when the ‘friend’ asked to call the good lady doctor, then the kiss on the forehead by Anya.. Oh and not to mention the turning down of the guy who wanted to bed her… not that anyone who turns a guy down is automatically a lesbian (although some pig headed guys would like people to believe that) but the way she turned him down implied it was due to her sexual preference as opposed to HIM. The whole “Im not the girl for you” comment was said in a particularly poignant way.

Aside from the analysis and my gaydar going off like a bomb, where has this ‘info’ that she is gay come from? I havent read anything anywhere, and there is no mention of it on the survivors site. I mean if she is a lesbian then surely the BBC wouldnt write the following on her character profile “She is forced to stand by helplessly as her friend Patricia is among those brought to the hospital in the grip of the illness…” We all know the Beeb play it safe and like to keep suspense surrounding a new drama going, but this is a little to closeted for my liking.
Ive only seen up to episode 3 though so maybe if i continue watching on iplayer there will be more ‘outings’

Stephen
The next episode looks particularly Anya-heavy. Considering how close she seems to be getting to the convict guy I can’t remember the name of, it’s implied she could be bi rather than lesbian. I get the feeling that could lead to some annoyances . . .

Lesbian Geek
It was mentioned in a small article we’d seen that the character of Anya was going to be gay. This was months ago, perhaps on the BBC site itself (don’t recall).

We know from other occurrences we should never cast these little – gay – mentions in stone (look at what just happened with BSG’s Gaeta, he’s gay, then he’s bi!), which is why we still use words like “apparently”.

I hope they don’t remove that aspect of the character altogether, hopefully you guys that are watching it can keep us all up to date with how the Anya character grows. Thanks for all the input so far!

Faye
Apparently Anya is pansexual; she says she just falls for people – after the convict guy called her a “dyke” and then she said she didn’t know if she was a lesbian, she just fell in love with a woman. But then she tells him she has been with men.

Cobie
Thanks for the update Faye, seems like the BBC like so many other shows decided to take the cop out road and disregard the leak she was gay. Being gay isn’t the same as being bisexual, or pansexual. It is so irritating when mainstream media confuses this. And it was on the BBC site in a press release for those who were unsure. Bloody BBC.

SickPlusTired
It gets worse, here is an official BBC update from an upcoming episode synopsis featuring Anya the “lesbian” ROFLOL

“Anya and Tom’s mutual attraction becomes an increasing dilemma for her – can she reconcile her feelings for him with her sexuality? And if so, can she open up and trust a man whose cold menace and hidden past frighten her?”

WOW BBC way to use every stereotype in the book. She’s clearly bi, that being the case what is the need for reconciliation with her sexuality? If she were a lesbian she wouldn’t have a ‘mutual attraction’ with a guy in the show. GROW UP BBC, you can do better than the old greyhairs at the top tell you to do. Get with the times and stop pussyfooting around and playing silly games that damage how people see us queers. Like one of the previous commenters said, they HAVE killed off all the gays, in one sense or another.