Betty DiMello, Masters of Sex

Betty DiMello (Annaleigh Ashford)

Masters of Sex is a period drama set in the 1950s and 1960s that tells the fictionalized story of Dr. William Masters and Virginia Johnson, known as pioneers of research into human sexuality. In real life, the Masters and Johnson Institute not only studied sexuality, but ran a program to convert homosexuals to heterosexuality well into the late 1970’s, years after homosexuality was no longer classified as a psychological disorder by the American Psychiatric Association. They justified their conversion therapy with pseudoscience and were known to have fabricated statistics supporting the practice; anti-gay groups have used their book “Homosexuality in Perspective” as proof that conversion therapy works and the long-debunked study was cited in support of conversion therapy as recently as 2006 by the Catholic Medical Association.

Virginia Johnson later admitted that the results in the book were fabricated by Masters and that she argued against publishing the book in first place. On the TV show, the story is fictionalized and their work in conversion therapy has not been addressed.

Betty Dimello is one of the main characters, who identifies as a lesbian. She is a former prostitute and was part of Masters’ original study on human sexuality, and is shown, from the first episode, having sex with men. She was also married to a man named Gene. In Season 2, she was promoted to series regular and her long-term girlfriend Helen was introduced and appeared in 2 episodes, much of which centered on them being forcibly outed.

Season 3

In Season 3, Helen returned to the show for a 3 episode arc that centered around Helen and Betty deciding they wanted a child and their search for sperm donors. By episode 8, Betty had recruited a man named Austin to have sex with Helen, while she was next to them, watching. Television recap site The A.V. club called it the “dumbest storyline of the week“.

Season 4

In Season 4, Helen returned again for only 2 episodes, which was just enough time to go into labor and then die in childbirth. Making the tragedy worse, as Helen’s non-legal gay partner, Betty holds no rights to the baby, and watched with devastation as the infant ended up in the arms of Helen’s homophobic parents, who had cut her off due to her sexuality. The title of the episode was “Family Only,” and was what Betty was told when she attempted to see the child after Helen’s death.  Read more in this great Vulture recap.

The show manages to use Helen’s very brief appearances on the show (and Betty’s in Season 1) to hit a new trope in every season:

Season 1: Lesbian sleeps with men (Betty)
Season 2: Helen and Betty go through an emotionally devastating outing.
Season 3: Lesbian sleeps with a man (Helen) and a predictable “All lesbians want kids” storyline centered around them looking for a sperm donor.
Season 4: Lesbian dies.

Appearances:

• 39 episodes. Recurring S1 (3 episodes), Regular S2-S4

Female love interests:

• Helen 💀 (Sarah Silverman, lesbian, recurring, 7 episodes)

Relationship story arc with a woman: Yes

Male love interests:

• Gene Moretti (husband, Greg Grunberg, guest, 1 episode)
• Others (Male clients)

Relationship story arc with a man: No

Male love interest after being identified as a lesbian? Yes

Filter Relationship Arc:

• Female (Recurring)

Storyline during sweeps? No

[1] A relationship story arc is defined as explicit, developed on screen, and lasting more than 3 episodes. It is listed as questionable or subtext if romance is only implied, mentioned instead of shown on screen, part of a dream sequence, or otherwise not explicit for the viewer.
[2] Sweeps episodes air in February, May, July and November, the periods when advertising rates are set. A character is marked as "sweeps" when there is a very limited number of episodes that address their sexuality, all air during sweeps period, and the storyline is otherwise ignore/dropped.