S03.E06: Body

[Harvey]

Quote

Elle's art going viral on social media lands her an interview. Charlie tells Nick he's ready to go to take their relationship to the next level and Tara suffers a panic attack.

 

[possibilities]

That interview was painful. I wish Elle had been prepared to say she didn't want to talk about being trans, she wanted to talk about her art.  It was incredibly shitty of the interviewer to put her in that position, though, and it illustrated something about how that would feel.

At the same time, I think it's incredibly negligent and criminally naive when people in targeted minority groups are not coached early to handle bigots, so they aren't blindsided when this crap happens. 

I guess there is a way that early activists have failed to pass down our/their experiences to next waves/generations, who get used to living with the gains that have been won, but lack context to understand how those changes were made. It's a problem not just in this arena but in many others.

I've seen it in a variety of contexts. Girls nowadays having no clue what feminism did to get them anything from the vote to the right to a credit card in their own name and not a husband's, and to my utter aastonishment I've observed that there are many queer kids who have no clue what the actual struggles were to get them protections from being bashed or how it was to live under don't ask don't tell, and lots of disabled people don't know about how we got curb cuts or a right to an education or what the independent living movement is about or that people like them were forced into institutions as children, and their parents were literally told by doctors to forget them and move on with life as though they didn't exist.

It's better, I think, in communities where there is a family structure that passes things down (race, religion) vs people who land in families or situations where they might be the only one who is targeted (disability, LGBTQIA). But it's really a problem that we collectively have not found ways to celebrate and enjoy our freedoms while also being grounded in what to do to preserve and increase them, and deal with the problems that still exist.

I think this show is doing a service, so I'm not blaming the show or even diagreeing with the choices they've made about what to portray and how they do it. But it is still painful.

[lgprimes]

Yeah I was actively upset when they showed Elle googling articles about transgender issues after that failed interview. As if she had no idea prior to that, that people were upset about bathrooms, etc….

Elle has always been portrayed as intelligent! That was insulting s well at unrealistic.

[jacehan]

I didn't take it to be that Elle didn't know about those things, but that she felt she was caught flat-footed/off-guard and didn't want to be again. Her responses in the interview itself were good responses (at first).