While procrastinating studying for finals, I started watching Dear White People on Netflix.
So far, the show keeps closely to what the movie characters say with one uncomfortable exception. In the movie, Lionel was gay and he was ~normal~. The show takes a complete 180, and he is not normal. In the show, he does things that are obviously uncomfortable for others and is honestly just creepy.
In the show, he was an informer and innocent passerby just noticing some of the blatantly racist things happening on his college campus. He was only mentioned to be gay, and it was not a plot point. We were supposed to know he was gay through the problems he ran into with his ex-roommate in the movie.
Of course I could empathize with Lionel in the movie because its not fun being criticized for something you don’t control. I, on the other hand, could not relate to him in the show. He did quite a few things that the TV likes to perpetuate as something all gay folks do. For the most part, we don’t.
Don’t get me wrong, I'm not out here to kink shame people, but Lionel would sniff his roommate’s underwear. Now if that’s what you like to do—live your life, but the persons whose underwear you’re sniffing should definitely know, and be ok with that. All gay folks, and those that identify with the LGBT+ community, aren’t all like this but now this show has used its token gay person as a creep. It’s not a good look on the LGBT+ community.
Masturbation is natural and common. It’s not a big deal to most people, and is steadily more talked about. That being said, the LGBT+ community DOES NOT need a portrayal of a gay boy masturbating to the sound of his roommate having sex. It’s not appropriate, and frankly most folks don’t do that. The TV show uses this as a way to, again, use their token gay person.
Another thing is that not all gay folks fall in love with our straight roommates or friends. Most people understand that the feeling won’t be reciprocated, and drop it. This is something almost every show with a gay person does: they make it a requirement for the gay person to fall in love with someone who will never love them back.
With all this being said, the show is pretty decent, but there are glaring problems with the representation of the LGBT+ community. This isn’t a problem just in this show, its everywhere and pretty easy to spot.
