Vulgarity and sensitive scenes aside, "Orange Is The New Black" is a Netflix original that brings many social issues to light. A few discussions include: transgender visibility, corruption in prisons, homosexuality, prison overcrowding, and showing everyone that inmates are still people.

When it comes to transgender visibility, the main spokeswoman is Laverne Coz (Sophia Burset in the show). She was the firsttransgender woman on the cover of "TIME" magazine and now uses her fame in order to promote equality for transgender people and empower others. In 2016 she was also named a woman of the year by Glamour Magazine which likely would not have been possible without her media exposure from "Orange Is The New Black." In a "Huffington Post" article, Laverne stated how she has had other transgender people tell her how she has given them a voice and a chance to be who they really are.

When it comes to the second issue of corruption in prisons, there are many items addressed here. The corrections officer, Sam Healy, is homophobic and misogynistic and, in a prison full of women, mistreats many of the inmates off of personal biases alone. In season three, another issue arose: one of the prisoners is raped by a guard, and in season four, it is portrayed that the guard did not view it as such. Rape in female prisons is not as big of a problem as in male prisons, yet in November of 2015 a female inmate was raped for 20 minutes by a guard and another guard watched. "Orange Is The New Black" highlighted this issue directly and brought the problem of prison rape to the forefront.

Homosexuality is very prominent in the show and sometimes not in the subtlest way. This, however, is not a problem. Sometimes for social issues to be absolved they have to be shown often in order for the issue to become more accepted. It also shows how sexuality does not have to be defined as specifically gay or straight as many people think must happen.

The last way that "Orange Is The New Black" is crushing social abnormalities is with making inmates seem more human. Throughout the four seasons, the background of the characters are shown and many inmates had been arrested for the fault of others or merely for their association to the guilty party. One of the inmates, Lolly, was arrested because she was a homeless schizophrenic and was accused of loitering by the cops. The voices in her head told her that the cops were out to get her so she began to yell. Many of the stories are worse than this, an inmate not being accepted by their parents, their parents working in the drug trade, etc. These back stories allow the viewers to sympathize and even empathize with the characters on an emotional level.

Even if you are against this show and how the prison life is portrayed, this show has many powerful lessons to learn when it comes to social issues in America. If you have never seen it, giving it a chance is a something I strongly recommend.