#queeranalysis

Trevor and Ian. 

Queer is queer.

Shameless has been a show that I have found very raw and real. It tells you the stories of characters as the people they are. Each person has flaws, quirks, and things about them that make them unique and special. The media can often be used as a place to sugarcoat the representation of characters that they choose to portray. Shameless is a refreshing change to the commonalities that are seen in the heteronormative society we live in. There are little representations of queer characters, but Shameless shows these relationships between people who aren’t like everyone else, but are so important and such a big part of our society. The two characters that I will be talking about are Ian and Trevor, and analyzing their relationship together. 

Ian is found out to be gay from the very first episode of shameless and has numerous sexual and emotional relationships with people. He is very strictly gay, but does not really have a “type” as he goes from “Cash” to old men and “Mickey”. Prior to season 7, Ian has been very sexual and had a lot of things happen in his life, and then Trevor comes along. As far as  Ian knows, when they meet Trevor is a man to him. What Ian does not find out until they begin dancing and touching each other is that Trevor is a trans man. Ian happens to grab “Trevor’s” fake penis that he is wearing, and compliments it, Trevor responds with, “It should, It cost me 80 bucks”. 

At this point Ian is shocked and does not know how to respond so he says some very rude and hurtful things about Trevor. At first Trevor is pissed off and starts to storm away until Ian apologizes and claims that “He really didn’t know better” and was unaware of how to address a trans person. They come to an understanding and Ian slowly starts to learn more and more about Trevor’s life and what it means for him to be a man.This relationship is such a great thing to see in the media and on a show with such high ratings and prowess. There are often two sides to when it comes to trans people. There are those who are hateful and rude whether it be from ignorance, stupidity or just hate, and there are those who are loving and supporting; most importantly willing to learn. 

A lot of people who do not encounter trans men and women or see them represented have no idea how to act when they see them. Showing this progressive relationship start slightly rough and then to blossom out was great to watch. Trevor and Ian get very close and only have one hang up, the bedroom. Ian had always been a “pitcher” and not a “catcher” when it came to sex, and Trevor was the same way. They were both very hesitant to try it with each other because it was out of their comfort zone and what they had experienced before. Eventually they both are willing to try and they actually enjoy it very much. This is another positive that I find within the relationship portrayal between Ian and Trevor. Shameless shows a lot of sex, whether it be straight and/or gay, so it was so nice to see an inclusion of a trans person in that same sexual light. Transgender people are very much of the time seen as “disgusting” or “freaks” but they are humans and experience the same actions and emotions that everyone else does. It is very important for everyone to see trans people as the same as the rest of us, so including the sex life of Trevor and Ian was well done to normalize and familiarize the experiences of trans people to the rest of the world. 

Kyle Buchanan talks in one of his articles about trans characters having movies made about them, but in reality the story is still connotated with the straight people in the movie. How the movie can have trans or gay people in it, but it is not centered around them. Instead those characters are used as a sort of “tool” for the straight characters. These trans people are seen as fascinating and different in the eyes of straight people, but not given the stardom and respect they deserve. This is one thing that I think Shameless did a fairly good job with. By having Ian meet and have a love interest with transgender Trevor, it allows the relationship to feel more raw and natural. The truth isn’t out at first and honestly it is impossible to tell that Trevor is transgender from one glance. They made their little relationship it’s own part of the show by feeling intimate and cute, and then they opened it up to other plots and story lines to have inclusion.

It is interesting to compare the other mediums that include trans characters and how they compare with relation to class and race. In Shameless, Trevor and Ian live in southside Chicago, which isn’t the nicest area. In Tangerine, a movie about two black trans men who are sex workers in L.A., they are also portrayed to live and work in a shaky area. In each of these outlets of media, the trans life is associated with some level “dirtiness” and sense of lower class standing. Whether this is done on purpose in each case or not shows in what light that society sees these people. Very rarely will there be a movie or show about a powerful and successful trans man or woman, and when it is they are most of the time white. But there are sights of change taking place in the world today. Everyday people are becoming more and more supportive of the trans community. In a short TV series titled, “Her Story”, about a trans female who is living life in fear of her “lover”, there are more sights of trans people with success. One of the trans characters is also a black woman who has quite a reputable career as a lawyer for the rights of trans people. It is shows like that, and like Shameless that make the stories of trans people and queer people more public and more normal to be seen. 

ABC Family's "The Fosters" is a drama unlike any other on national daytime television. Produced by Latina singer/actress/executive producer Jennifer Lopez, The show profiles Stef and Lena Foster, an interracial lesbian couple raising a mixture of biological and foster children. Their oldest son, Brandon is Stef's son from a previous marriage with a man, and is the only biological child of the Fosters. They have opposite-sex latino/a adopted twins and the plot begins as they take in Callie, a troubled young teen thrown around from foster home to foster home, as well as her younger brother Jude. The show chronicles many hardships and celebrations of life and touches on a wide range of topics such as sexual identity, gender expression, being a person of color in a white family, high school relationships and friendships, etc. This show is one of the most intersectional approaches of a show that I've yet to see in modern American media. This show is filled with characters, story lines, and scenes that one could endlessly analyzed, however I'm going to solely focus on the four pieces of The Fosters that screamed queer to me.

1. Lena Beautifully Represents Intersectionality Within a Queer Character.

Lena often talks about black issues that are not often mentioned in pop culture. In an early episode, she talked about disliking her big, curly hair as a child and all of the things she would do to it to attempt to make it straight (this represents assimilation into a white dominated culture). Black women are often criticized for their natural hair, and further ostracized for not straightening it. Lena acknowledges this and then speaks of her newfound love of blackness and of course, her hair. This stuck out to me because in contrast to the “Queer in the Choir Room” queer analyses we read in Queer Pop Culture about television’s Glee, Lena’s identities both as a lesbian and as a black woman are acknowledged in a way that is progressive instead of oppressive.

2. The Youngest, Jude, Callie's brother, is Probably the Queer-est of Them All. 

. . .and his best friend Connor is the ultimate ally, he just doesn't know it yet! The Fosters take Jude and Callie in after she is released from juvenile detention (bashing in her step-dad’s car—but only after he physically assaulted Jude for wearing a dress). Jude likes to paint his nails, and gets picked on for this when going to school. A meek boy, he ignores the bullies instead of standing up to them, and his best friend Connor comes to school the next day with painted nails. Yeah!

Additionally, Stef and Lena explain to him that wearing nail polish has nothing to do with whom you are attracted to and love. Additionally, they explain to him that even if he were gay, it would of course be okay. They also explain that it’s not always necessary to put a label on it either, touching on important issues of gender identity and gender/sexual fluidity, and through the education of a young, possibly queer boy.

3. Stef and Lena's Relationship is Painfully Stereotypical

The ever-so-popular stereotype that is the relationship between butch-femme lesbians and the gendered stigmas and stereotypes that correlate. Lena is the more physically feminine, and the principle of a middle school. Though she works, she is often at home cooking and tending to the children and their problems while Stef is at work. She is often more lenient with the children and less impulsive than her partner. Stef, being the more masculine appearing of the two, is a police officer, and the hard-ass of the family. She is emotionally regressive and tends to make more firm decisions when it comes to punishment with the children. 

Additionally, there are no conversations about issues of the LGBTQ+ community between Stef and Lena (or the kids) other than marriage. This is a major let down. C'mon, it's about time. 

In an extremely gendered example, Stef is also the one who ends up proposing to Lena (the butch to femme, or “man” to the “woman”), bringing me to my next point . . .

3. A Queer Couple Meets Heteronormativity at the Altar?

Since this is a queer analysis and not a gay analysis, I must mention the heteronormatizing of Lena and Stef’s relationship through marriage. I am in no way looking down upon marriage, however there have been some queer critiques that link the institution of marriage to heteronormativity, and denying the correlation is impossible. The couple doesn’t start out married; in fact, they’ve been together over 10 years without speak of it. Of course, Stef, being the more masculine figure of the two, is first reluctant and sarcastic about the idea of getting married, which is something often associated with masculinity.  

However . . .

There is a part of this storyline that has impact. Stef, though having sour feelings about the wedding, realizes that she has internalized her father’s homophobia. This is especially important because we see a queer character recognizing the bias that is her own, acknowledging it, and then moving forward. It also shows that anyone can harbor homophobia, even those who may identify within the community.

4. Last--But Certainly not least--Cole!

Cole is the only transgender character on the show, and The Fosters does it well. For starters, the actor Tom Phelan is a transgender boy in real life. This is wonderful for queer representation because it isn't always this way. Cole also represents the hardships that trans* and other gender non-conforming people face: homelessness from family after coming out. Additionally, we see Cole struggle to fit into a group home for girls, as he is identified by the state biologically only. We see him experience a conundrum of transphobia within the home, as his counselor works hard to get him into an LGBT group home.

A few episodes into meeting Cole we find that his doctor is going to take him off his hormones because he is no longer able to afford them. He then is forced to turn to the black market, and ends up accidentally overdosing on whatever he is given from a back-alley drug dealer. Cole lives, but the scene was incredibly horrific and terrifyingly realistic. I appreciated the brutal honesty of Cole's story, because it is often the reality of many trans* folks' experiences.

That being said, The Fosters is filled with queerness--both beautifully and disastrous. However, when it comes to it as a whole, it's one of the most intersectionally inclusive TV shows centering queer characters. All in all, it's definitely worth the watch, and with a few minor tweaks, the show could be even better.