Why did Lifetime include a strap-on joke in its otherwise wholesome first-ever lesbian Christmas movie?

Slate

According to Christina Cauterucci, a dearth of strap-on references are a major problem in on-screen lesbian love stories. But the Lifetime film Under the Christmas Tree's strap-on joke seemed out of place for a wholesome holiday film. "Why, when the lack of strap-on representation in lesbian pop culture has long been a point of great bewilderment and annoyance for me, did this harness reference cause me actual physical pain?" says Cauterucci. "Why did I feel like I’d just walked in on my grandparents confusedly rifling through the box under my nightstand? These are the questions I’ve contemplated in the days since my viewing of Under the Christmas Tree, as I’ve struggled to iron the cringe lines off my face. At first, I identified my reaction as a symptom of internalized homophobia: Maybe I was embarrassed by the reference to queer sex because I’ve been socialized to see it as shameful, especially in a thoroughly wholesome space like this movie. I’ve been queer for more than 15 years—shouldn’t I have outgrown that impulse? What was wrong with me? But after giving it a little more thought—too much thought, one might argue, for a Lifetime movie—I came to believe that there was something else going on. Something that doesn’t reflect poorly on society or on me as a person, but on the broader economy of holiday entertainment. That something is: bad, bad writing."