here are my takes on “you can’t kind of be a lesbian” - one in the universe of the show, one in the context of the show’s production
in the universe:
i think what erica actually means is: you can’t kind of date me. i think she’s been suppressing her hurt feelings about callie telling her she slept with mark (twice) because she’s afraid that if she opens up, callie will walk out on her like she did that morning. i think callie walking out while she was crying and vulnerable really hurt, and then finding out that callie slept with someone else really hurt, and then callie taking izzie’s side over hers really hurt.
and i think at this point she is feeling deeply wounded and abandoned and afraid, to the point where she can’t really ask callie for anything anymore! she can’t open up again because she can’t get hurt again! so instead of telling her how she feels and asking for what she needs, which is support and comfort and commitment (not like major commitment. just like, affirming that she only wants to date erica) (yes callie said that earlier but she said a lot of difficult and painful things too which erica was undoubtedly still processing) - instead of opening up, she attacks her because the hurt has finally turned to anger and she feels like callie has already left her and she has nothing to lose.
to be clear i’m not trying to say it’s not biphobic, because of course it is. i just also think that she’s having a really shitty day and she doesn’t mean it, which does count for something for me. callie’s kinda shitty to her too when she comes out!! both of them are struggling with their own queerness and hurting each other in the process and i think if you can forgive callie for that, you can forgive erica too.
in the context of production:
there are many things that are unclear about brooke smith’s departure from the show. they never gave the actor or the media a concrete answer about why she was written off. brooke smith says she thinks people just weren’t ready for that kind of lesbian; journalists at the time suspected the same thing. i think maybe the fact that we don’t know exactly why speaks for itself, though. to me that suggests that they knew the real reason could attract negative publicity. so instead they gave vague answers about chemistry - which was strange because erica was a main character with storylines with a bunch of other characters before she was callie’s love interest; it wouldn’t make sense to write her off just bc their relationship was ending.
one thing that is clear, though, is that it wasn’t the show’s decision. the network told them to fire her. so they had to come up with a reason that she would leave, and i think they decided to make her go out in a way where people wouldn’t miss her much (and by extension not ask questions about why she was leaving). so….i think giving her a biphobic line as a parting shot was strategic, not like, an actual creative decision about an actual belief that the character holds. it’s phrased as an attack on callie, but in reality it’s character assassination for erica.
taking these two perspectives together:
i think it is possible to interpret this line as consistent with erica’s character, but not in the way people often interpret it, where it’s definitive evidence that she’s a Fundamentally Bad Person. a lot of effort went into demonstrating that while she is often mean, condescending, etc, a lot of that has to do with insecurity/vulnerability. again, that doesn’t excuse it! but it is a more nuanced explanation than moral essentialism.
i think the line is in some ways consistent with her emotional state at this point. (if it was too inconsistent, it would have been less effective). but! i think understanding the line as performing both narrative and industrial work is what makes it really understandable. it’s consistent with her character’s situation, but more importantly, it’s consistent with the network’s goals.
tl;dr while certainly the line itself is biphobic, i think it is necessary to interpret it in context, and i think all of the available context suggests that this is not so much indicative of erica’s underlying belief systems as it is her unique situation as a character in the process of being written off the show. so…i don’t really accept the equating of “the line is biphobic” to “erica is biphobic.” thanks
