S03.E07: The Gay Award

[paulvdb]

Quote

Victor is conflicted about accepting an award at school. Felix and Lake confide in each other about their relationship problems. Mia and Andrew travel to see her family, which raises questions about their futures.

[festivus]

I liked Rahim standing up for himself like that. No, you shouldn't just have to stand there and take it. Most importantly though be safe. Which he was with three other people with him. But... I think he shouldn't make Victor's award about him. That's up to Victor whether he feels comfortable accepting that or not. Victor is kind of a people pleaser so I want him to do what he wants to do.

[ahpny]

I found Pilar irksome. So a guy must respect and honor a girl when the girl says no, a Pilar can go nuclear when Felix says no - to protect her and his relationship to her family? This’s pretty screwed up.

[Glade]

I love Rahim! So smart and stylish, and no you shouldn't have to deal with so much just for not passing as straight.

[Scarlett45]

I liked Felix’s Mom speech to him. And their rootbeer floats and Kimmel. I am glad she is doing so much better and Felix has a parent again. 

On 6/17/2022 at 4:40 PM, festivus said:

I liked Rahim standing up for himself like that. No, you shouldn't just have to stand there and take it. Most importantly though be safe. Which he was with three other people with him. But... I think he shouldn't make Victor's award about him. That's up to Victor whether he feels comfortable accepting that or not. Victor is kind of a people pleaser so I want him to do what he wants to do.

I get what you’re saying, but I also understand how Rahim feels. In 50yrs, we might be more accepting as a society and having openly gay kids on school teams as star players may be a thing people expect but it’s not now. I could see how Victor’s acceptance of the award would mean a lot regarding visibility.  If he’s the first openly gay starter that does matter. 
 

From my own cultural experience I think about all of the black athletes that broke color barriers and were “the first”, if they said they didn’t want to accept the award because it wasn’t based on their talent, I would understand what they were saying, but I would also think that was ignoring the cultural significance of their presence finally being allowed to participate. 
 

Race and ethnicity isn’t the same as sexuality, but that’s the first thing I thought of. 

[Bill1978]

I can see where Victor was coming from with the award. Initially he was excited because he thought he was getting a sporting award and to hear it was for another thing I can see his initial disappointment that it wasn't for sport. Kinda like how I imagine an academic kid might be excited for an academic award and then finding out it was for something else (if that makes sense). But I am glad that he came around to see how important it is to receive an award, especially for visibility. Sure it might seem, and feel, tokenistic but until all of society accepts non-straight as 'normal' then there is a need for these awards. Especially in schools.

I love how far Felix's mum has come during this season and how much she realises Felix needs her and she she wants to be the parent now in the relationship. It really is touching, cause Felix really does put others before him while he feels he can't bother others with his problems. 

I must confess that I'm not that heartbroken about Lake and Lucy breaking up and I'm not totally invested in what's happening over with Mia and Andrew. Mainly because I can't help but think, Mia doesn't have that much left of school before she can move in with her Dad and hang with the baby brother. I mean she has less then 6 months of school right. Zahir is not gonna remember she wasn't there or do anything really amazing that Mia will miss.

And regarding Benji? The less I say about him the better. I know the writers were trying to redeem him but having his response to seeing Victor kissing Nick be 'I'm off to boarding school' just reinforced why I feel Benji isn't the best fit for Victor. I'm onboard the Nicktor train even though I know full well that is not the train the show wants me on.

So one episode to go. Is it too much to ask for that episode to be mainly the cast hanging with each other in one plot like the first season as opposed to all these separate stories with limited interactions? If they can do that, I may be able to deal with the inevitable conclusion they are heading towards with Victor's love life.

[JustHereForFood]

I am more on Victor's side with the award. It wasn't clear to me if this is some regular award for doing something brave or impactful and he happens to be picked for it this year, or if it's a one-time thing specifically for him. The first would be more acceptable, I think. But I get why he doesn't feel like he should accept it.

On 7/2/2022 at 7:29 AM, Bill1978 said:

I can see where Victor was coming from with the award. Initially he was excited because he thought he was getting a sporting award and to hear it was for another thing I can see his initial disappointment that it wasn't for sport. Kinda like how I imagine an academic kid might be excited for an academic award and then finding out it was for something else (if that makes sense). But I am glad that he came around to see how important it is to receive an award, especially for visibility. Sure it might seem, and feel, tokenistic but until all of society accepts non-straight as 'normal' then there is a need for these awards. Especially in schools.

See, this is where I see it as counter-productive. I don't think this "normalizes" it - even though I hate that word and I don't think anything needs to be normalized. But for people who are simply neutral about LGBT+ issues (or any other minority for that matter), I can see how it can be an easy way to alienate them as potential allies. Some people don't want to be bombarded about talks of inclusivity nonstop, and if this comes off as "award for being gay", it just looks like unnecessarily creating conflict. Plus, the way that coach was talking about it, it looked like they (I mean the school) don't really care and just want to score some inclusivity points.

On another topic, I still don't feel Nick. There's something about him that feels off to me, but I'm not sure if it's the actor or how the character is written.