In this bonus episode Alexia talks queer representation, colorblind racism, and the evil cripple trope in Season 2 of Sex Education. Full transcript available here.
In this bonus episode Alexia talks queer representation, colorblind racism, and the evil cripple trope in Season 2 of Sex Education. Full transcript available here.
Alexia: 0:00
Thank you for listening to Whatever, I'll Watch It, a podcast bringing queer of color critique to your favorite movies and TV. Each episode me had a guest will pick a film or television series we love or love to hate, and we'll talk gender, race, sexuality and all things representation. Because TV podcasts are way too fucking white.
Alexia: 0:18
I agree. I think it's super refreshing to see multiple queer couples on a television, so especially something for teens because that's something we don't often see. You might get the token gay person or the token gay couple, but on this show we see different characters that have bisexual pan sexual and even a sexual identities, which I really I can't think of a single show that has characters with such favor sexual identities, especially including a sexual perspective. I do want to point out, though, that it's misleading to say this show has great LGBT Q representation, because where is the tea? There aren't any trans or non binary characters in the show, and I think it does a disservice with our language if we say L g B T Q. When we're actually not talking about trans people at all, gender and sexuality is not the same thing, and there's not trans representation in the show. So let's not just clump that in with the rest of the acronym. I do think we could argue that Eric might be gender nonconforming, but he hasn't used this language to describe himself. That's not really a theme that's been explored that much yet on the show, but maybe that's something that will come up. Maura's We Progress into the next season as Eric embraces his identity more and explores more with his gender presentation. While the show has LGBT Q characters, it does still fall into this problematic pattern where the primary protagonist is someone who belongs to the dominant class. So in this case we have Otis was assist gender, middle class, if not upper class. That house is pretty fucking nice Street white guy. He is the protagonist of the show. Most of what we see is through his own point of view. All of the other diversity we see and race sexuality, gender in class is in the supporting roles of thes secondary characters. This dynamic is something that we see in other shows, like Orange is the New Black Um, and I've read that Tales of the city also repeats this dynamic. I haven't seen it yet, but I've heard that I should watch it. And to be honest, I could care less what Otis is up Thio. He's the least interesting of all of the story lines, as far as I'm concerned, and I really hated that threat this season about Otis discovering masturbation. I mean great. I'm glad that he's discovering masturbation and getting over some of his sexual traumas. But I do not want to spend my life watching a teenage boy masturbate on TV, but I guess this is ultimately a show made for teens, and it makes sense that I might experience some discomfort watching it as an adult. Also, that Quran, gee, drunken party scene where he was dancing around and made was watching him from afar that absolutely made me want to die. But at least with voters, this storyline with an excuse to see Gillian Anderson and all of her silver fox glory, she is fucking hot. I was a little side bet you dyed her hair blonde and season to the silver is sexy. I do have to say, though, as someone I'm an anthropologist. I do research with human populations. I am appalled by her ethics on this show. Ah, the way she was about her research in her writing, even engaging with the students. It's deeply fucked up. I think the show is hinting at the fact that she has bad boundaries with Otis, but I'm not sure that she's meant to be as problematic as she really is. But anyways, let's move on from Otis and Gillian Anderson and talk about what's good. I think it's great that this show is teaching teens about consent and having open and honest communication one of the best lines of the season. I think that's when Rahim says, Look, if you're not ready to talk about anal Duchin with your boyfriend, you're definitely not ready to have his dick in your ass. That's such an important message about sex that teens need to hear, and I'm really glad that things like anal sex are being talked about when de stigmatized on the show. Another thing that I liked from Season two, I was really moved by the episode where all the woman realized that sexual violence is the only thing that connects them together. I like that they were kind of breaking apart some sort of idea of united sis womanhood across racial identities, because we know you know, Intersectionality has taught us that there is no such thing. But I like this idea of focusing on how these shared experiences of sexual violence can provide a catalyst for your mutual aid and safety for the woman banding together to create their own community which we see when they help Amy to be able to get on the bus again. It wasn't like over gun and convinced her to go to therapy and get over this trauma. They're like, Girl, we will come with you. We will keep you safe, Will make you laugh will take your mind off of things I thought that was really beautiful I didn't love that may have urged her to talk with the cops as if coughs are ever kind or helpful to sexual assault survivors but maybe still a teen, and she ultimately still has a lot to learn. So season to have sex education does pretty well in terms of feminist story lines in terms of queer story lines. But where there's a really big problem in this show is when it comes down to race and especially anti blackness, you might be thinking, but there's so many characters of color on the show that is true. There are a lot of characters of color in Season two, but we don't actually get a black role in the show until season two, and then that black girl Lola, is that picks it has less desirable than May of the primary white female protagonist. So that, and of itself is in a great message to send two black girls watching the show. But it actually gets worse when you follow what happens with the other black characters and characters of color on the show. So this pattern actually continues three times twice with block characters and once with a character of color. Rahim. I'm actually not sure what his ethnicity is, so Otis is dating Allah, but he actually wants to be with Maeve Mavis dating Jackson. But she actually wants to be with Otis, and Eric is dating Rahim, but he actually wants to be with Adam. So we see this pattern happen three times, where the characters of color in the show to black characters Sola and Jackson are not as desirable as their white counterparts. And we see this happen again when Eric ultimately makes the decision to choose Adam over Rahim. All of this is unfolding in this really dream like beautiful, gorgeous U K town, where apparently racism and homophobia don't exist. Unless maybe you're Eric and you belong to an immigrant African family. Then we might see a little bit of homophobia, but your family will get over it. One of the things I liked in Season two is the friendship we get to see between Jackson and Fifth. But we never get to see how being black affects their drive for success and the pressure that they might feel to be the best and what they dio. There's never any discussion about how their shared experiences around race and being black play a role in their burgeoning friendship when they're primarily surrounded by non black characters in their school. I think the show is trying to create affirming story lines for its LGBT Q and characters of color. But teaching teens the color blindness, teaching teens that love is love and they're not gonna face homophobia isn't actually that affirming for queer people or for people of color. It just makes it easier to ignore racism and anti blackness when it happens to act like race doesn't play a role in dating and that it's just a coincidence that the white students at their school keep desire ing each other more than their black or POC counterparts. I can see why I'm even Jackson wouldn't be a good couple. They don't really seem that compatible. But am I really supposed to believe that she would fall for Otis? Am I supposed to want them to be together? I actually really agree with Isaac when he's like, Look, Otis is never gonna understand you. This line is kind of problematic, and I'll get into that when we talk about Isak Leader. But I agree. How is this poor working class, brilliant feminist character supposed to be crushing on and wanting to be in a relationship with his entitled Rich Wipe Wei, who won't even help his mom clean up the house after he trashes it during his party? Me deserves so much better than Otis. It was shitty, and it was controlling when Isaac erased the voicemail from Otis on her phone. But ultimately in the wrong run, he's doing her a favor. Maybe stay away. You can do better. There seems to be a recurring theme in this season of woman, either ending up with or pining after these men that honestly don't deserve hm. Another example. VIP index taxes, such a piece a shit, and I was so happy when he finally gets the point of realizing he's not actually that cool. I also had a really hard time with Emily Sands, the English teacher. She is so sweet. She is so beautiful. She is brilliant. She's a sexy, confident woman. Might really supposed to believe that she would be wasting her time dating that absolute goober of a teacher. I can't even remember his name. But I think that I have blocked it out because I truly do not care. He is terrible. Shorts are terrible. The way he acts is terrible. And the way that he has sex with her is terrible. It honestly made me really sad to watch those sex scenes because she deserves so much better. In more unlikely pairings, Adam and Eric Adams storyline is complex. I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, I really like that we're thinking about the root causes of violence. Harm people, harm people. And it's important for us to understand that in our work of eradicating in addressing violence, it is worth noting, though that very often on Lee white men are extended the sympathy and the sense of humanity, which we see time and again in the way that you know, shooting sprees get reported when they're committed by white men versus people of color. So I want Adam to change. I really want to see him learn vulnerability and kindness. I want to see him addressed his internalized homophobia and his toxic masculinity. But I don't want is for Eric to be responsible for sparking this change of holding him accountable to it. I don't want to see Eric and a relationship with someone who abused him for years and never took accountability for that abuse. Adam is showing signs of growth, sure, but are we really supposed to believe that his violent outbursts or over we're supposed to believe that he's no longer gonna harm the people who were closest to him? Which at this point is Eric and Allah, which again, I think it's important to recognize in terms of the racial dynamics of the show. It's also important to to think about how Adam's story line we're seeing a really individualized process of healing and growth. I mean, sure, Eric. And although play a role in this process of growth by showing him friendship and vulnerability, Adam's actions harmed a whole community of people. Eric wasn't the only person who was affected by his bullying. I'd like to see the community kind of band together toe work towards accountability and healing. What does Amy have to say? As someone who also dated him and also at least like to see Adam and therapy, he has a lot to unlearn, and he's gonna need a lot of support in the process. I hope that all of that emotional labor doesn't fall on era next up on the topic of problematic white guys. At first I was really excited to see the appearance of Isaac on the show, especially after the really token izing representation of a disabled person that we saw on the L word Generation. Q. Were basically Julian Mercado plays Sophie sister, and she's just There is a support role on Lee to help Sophie think about and talk about her love life. She's not given a love life of her own, her any of her own background or story line on sex education. We see Isaac as a pretty complex, fully developed person. He has a sense of humor. He has a dark side, he has a past, and he has perhaps a future with me. But my friend Danny. Shut up, Dani. She pointed out that Isaac engages in a lot of behaviors that might end up being warning signs for abuse. So that line that I mentioned earlier he says to me of Look, Otis is never gonna be able to understand you. He's basically trying to convince her that no one else is ever gonna understand her. The way that he does, because of their shared experiences, might not end of itself be problematic. I think that he has a valid point in terms of, you know, working class experience and how that shapes certain perspectives that they can only share with others. But this might be a way of trying to isolate her from anyone else that she's bowling community with. We see this kind of happen again with the way that he immediately does not trust maybe's mom and works to isolate them from each other and also at the party with her ex Jackson. It seems in general that there are these patterns of maybe control where he's trying to isolate me from others. It's subtle because he's charming and he's funny. It doesn't come off as completely controlling, manipulative yet But I do think his decision to erase the voicemail shows another side of him that might continue to grow in Season three. This is a little bit disappointing. When disabled people are on TV, they're often cast as villains, so this is sometimes called the evil cripple. Truth. You could think about Dr Evil Captain Hook. There's plenty of other villains that have disabilities in some way or disabled. Characters are often shown as being villainous. Let's hope we get some more complexity in his storyline in Season three, and they don't just continue this trend of look. Nobody expected that the disabled kid would be evil because they all thought that he would be harmless storyline. Isaac deserves better, and so do we. That's all I have for this many episode on sex education. There's more to be said, but I think those are the most important points. I would love to hear your thoughts, so please follow me on Twitter at whatever TV pod. You can also send me an email at whatever TV iPod at gmail dot com. I want to know what you thought about the show, what you thought about Season two and what you want to hear about in my future episodes. Thanks for listening
Alexia: 0:00
I agree. I think it's super refreshing to see multiple queer couples on a television, so especially something for teens because that's something we don't often see. You might get the token gay person or the token gay couple, but on this show we see different characters that have bisexual pan sexual and even a sexual identities, which I really I can't think of a single show that has characters with such favor sexual identities, especially including a sexual perspective. I do want to point out, though, that it's misleading to say this show has great LGBT Q representation, because where is the tea? There aren't any trans or non binary characters in the show, and I think it does a disservice with our language if we say L g B T Q. When we're actually not talking about trans people at all, gender and sexuality is not the same thing, and there's not trans representation in the show. So let's not just clump that in with the rest of the acronym. I do think we could argue that Eric might be gender nonconforming, but he hasn't used this language to describe himself. That's not really a theme that's been explored that much yet on the show, but maybe that's something that will come up. Maura's We Progress into the next season as Eric embraces his identity more and explores more with his gender presentation. While the show has LGBT Q characters, it does still fall into this problematic pattern where the primary protagonist is someone who belongs to the dominant class. So in this case we have Otis was assist gender, middle class, if not upper class. That house is pretty fucking nice Street white guy. He is the protagonist of the show. Most of what we see is through his own point of view. All of the other diversity we see and race sexuality, gender in class is in the supporting roles of thes secondary characters. This dynamic is something that we see in other shows, like Orange is the New Black Um, and I've read that Tales of the city also repeats this dynamic. I haven't seen it yet, but I've heard that I should watch it. And to be honest, I could care less what Otis is up Thio. He's the least interesting of all of the story lines, as far as I'm concerned, and I really hated that threat this season about Otis discovering masturbation. I mean great. I'm glad that he's discovering masturbation and getting over some of his sexual traumas. But I do not want to spend my life watching a teenage boy masturbate on TV, but I guess this is ultimately a show made for teens, and it makes sense that I might experience some discomfort watching it as an adult. Also, that Quran, gee, drunken party scene where he was dancing around and made was watching him from afar that absolutely made me want to die. But at least with voters, this storyline with an excuse to see Gillian Anderson and all of her silver fox glory, she is fucking hot. I was a little side bet you dyed her hair blonde and season to the silver is sexy. I do have to say, though, as someone I'm an anthropologist. I do research with human populations. I am appalled by her ethics on this show. Ah, the way she was about her research in her writing, even engaging with the students. It's deeply fucked up. I think the show is hinting at the fact that she has bad boundaries with Otis, but I'm not sure that she's meant to be as problematic as she really is. But anyways, let's move on from Otis and Gillian Anderson and talk about what's good. I think it's great that this show is teaching teens about consent and having open and honest communication one of the best lines of the season. I think that's when Rahim says, Look, if you're not ready to talk about anal Duchin with your boyfriend, you're definitely not ready to have his dick in your ass. That's such an important message about sex that teens need to hear, and I'm really glad that things like anal sex are being talked about when de stigmatized on the show. Another thing that I liked from Season two, I was really moved by the episode where all the woman realized that sexual violence is the only thing that connects them together. I like that they were kind of breaking apart some sort of idea of united sis womanhood across racial identities, because we know you know, Intersectionality has taught us that there is no such thing. But I like this idea of focusing on how these shared experiences of sexual violence can provide a catalyst for your mutual aid and safety for the woman banding together to create their own community which we see when they help Amy to be able to get on the bus again. It wasn't like over gun and convinced her to go to therapy and get over this trauma. They're like, Girl, we will come with you. We will keep you safe, Will make you laugh will take your mind off of things I thought that was really beautiful I didn't love that may have urged her to talk with the cops as if coughs are ever kind or helpful to sexual assault survivors but maybe still a teen, and she ultimately still has a lot to learn. So season to have sex education does pretty well in terms of feminist story lines in terms of queer story lines. But where there's a really big problem in this show is when it comes down to race and especially anti blackness, you might be thinking, but there's so many characters of color on the show that is true. There are a lot of characters of color in Season two, but we don't actually get a black role in the show until season two, and then that black girl Lola, is that picks it has less desirable than May of the primary white female protagonist. So that, and of itself is in a great message to send two black girls watching the show. But it actually gets worse when you follow what happens with the other black characters and characters of color on the show. So this pattern actually continues three times twice with block characters and once with a character of color. Rahim. I'm actually not sure what his ethnicity is, so Otis is dating Allah, but he actually wants to be with Maeve Mavis dating Jackson. But she actually wants to be with Otis, and Eric is dating Rahim, but he actually wants to be with Adam. So we see this pattern happen three times, where the characters of color in the show to black characters Sola and Jackson are not as desirable as their white counterparts. And we see this happen again when Eric ultimately makes the decision to choose Adam over Rahim. All of this is unfolding in this really dream like beautiful, gorgeous U K town, where apparently racism and homophobia don't exist. Unless maybe you're Eric and you belong to an immigrant African family. Then we might see a little bit of homophobia, but your family will get over it. One of the things I liked in Season two is the friendship we get to see between Jackson and Fifth. But we never get to see how being black affects their drive for success and the pressure that they might feel to be the best and what they dio. There's never any discussion about how their shared experiences around race and being black play a role in their burgeoning friendship when they're primarily surrounded by non black characters in their school. I think the show is trying to create affirming story lines for its LGBT Q and characters of color. But teaching teens the color blindness, teaching teens that love is love and they're not gonna face homophobia isn't actually that affirming for queer people or for people of color. It just makes it easier to ignore racism and anti blackness when it happens to act like race doesn't play a role in dating and that it's just a coincidence that the white students at their school keep desire ing each other more than their black or POC counterparts. I can see why I'm even Jackson wouldn't be a good couple. They don't really seem that compatible. But am I really supposed to believe that she would fall for Otis? Am I supposed to want them to be together? I actually really agree with Isaac when he's like, Look, Otis is never gonna understand you. This line is kind of problematic, and I'll get into that when we talk about Isak Leader. But I agree. How is this poor working class, brilliant feminist character supposed to be crushing on and wanting to be in a relationship with his entitled Rich Wipe Wei, who won't even help his mom clean up the house after he trashes it during his party? Me deserves so much better than Otis. It was shitty, and it was controlling when Isaac erased the voicemail from Otis on her phone. But ultimately in the wrong run, he's doing her a favor. Maybe stay away. You can do better. There seems to be a recurring theme in this season of woman, either ending up with or pining after these men that honestly don't deserve hm. Another example. VIP index taxes, such a piece a shit, and I was so happy when he finally gets the point of realizing he's not actually that cool. I also had a really hard time with Emily Sands, the English teacher. She is so sweet. She is so beautiful. She is brilliant. She's a sexy, confident woman. Might really supposed to believe that she would be wasting her time dating that absolute goober of a teacher. I can't even remember his name. But I think that I have blocked it out because I truly do not care. He is terrible. Shorts are terrible. The way he acts is terrible. And the way that he has sex with her is terrible. It honestly made me really sad to watch those sex scenes because she deserves so much better. In more unlikely pairings, Adam and Eric Adams storyline is complex. I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, I really like that we're thinking about the root causes of violence. Harm people, harm people. And it's important for us to understand that in our work of eradicating in addressing violence, it is worth noting, though that very often on Lee white men are extended the sympathy and the sense of humanity, which we see time and again in the way that you know, shooting sprees get reported when they're committed by white men versus people of color. So I want Adam to change. I really want to see him learn vulnerability and kindness. I want to see him addressed his internalized homophobia and his toxic masculinity. But I don't want is for Eric to be responsible for sparking this change of holding him accountable to it. I don't want to see Eric and a relationship with someone who abused him for years and never took accountability for that abuse. Adam is showing signs of growth, sure, but are we really supposed to believe that his violent outbursts or over we're supposed to believe that he's no longer gonna harm the people who were closest to him? Which at this point is Eric and Allah, which again, I think it's important to recognize in terms of the racial dynamics of the show. It's also important to to think about how Adam's story line we're seeing a really individualized process of healing and growth. I mean, sure, Eric. And although play a role in this process of growth by showing him friendship and vulnerability, Adam's actions harmed a whole community of people. Eric wasn't the only person who was affected by his bullying. I'd like to see the community kind of band together toe work towards accountability and healing. What does Amy have to say? As someone who also dated him and also at least like to see Adam and therapy, he has a lot to unlearn, and he's gonna need a lot of support in the process. I hope that all of that emotional labor doesn't fall on era next up on the topic of problematic white guys. At first I was really excited to see the appearance of Isaac on the show, especially after the really token izing representation of a disabled person that we saw on the L word Generation. Q. Were basically Julian Mercado plays Sophie sister, and she's just There is a support role on Lee to help Sophie think about and talk about her love life. She's not given a love life of her own, her any of her own background or story line on sex education. We see Isaac as a pretty complex, fully developed person. He has a sense of humor. He has a dark side, he has a past, and he has perhaps a future with me. But my friend Danny. Shut up, Dani. She pointed out that Isaac engages in a lot of behaviors that might end up being warning signs for abuse. So that line that I mentioned earlier he says to me of Look, Otis is never gonna be able to understand you. He's basically trying to convince her that no one else is ever gonna understand her. The way that he does, because of their shared experiences, might not end of itself be problematic. I think that he has a valid point in terms of, you know, working class experience and how that shapes certain perspectives that they can only share with others. But this might be a way of trying to isolate her from anyone else that she's bowling community with. We see this kind of happen again with the way that he immediately does not trust maybe's mom and works to isolate them from each other and also at the party with her ex Jackson. It seems in general that there are these patterns of maybe control where he's trying to isolate me from others. It's subtle because he's charming and he's funny. It doesn't come off as completely controlling, manipulative yet But I do think his decision to erase the voicemail shows another side of him that might continue to grow in Season three. This is a little bit disappointing. When disabled people are on TV, they're often cast as villains, so this is sometimes called the evil cripple. Truth. You could think about Dr Evil Captain Hook. There's plenty of other villains that have disabilities in some way or disabled. Characters are often shown as being villainous. Let's hope we get some more complexity in his storyline in Season three, and they don't just continue this trend of look. Nobody expected that the disabled kid would be evil because they all thought that he would be harmless storyline. Isaac deserves better, and so do we. That's all I have for this many episode on sex education. There's more to be said, but I think those are the most important points. I would love to hear your thoughts, so please follow me on Twitter at whatever TV pod. You can also send me an email at whatever TV iPod at gmail dot com. I want to know what you thought about the show, what you thought about Season two and what you want to hear about in my future episodes. Thanks for listening
Alexia: 13:35
I'm your host, Alexia. And this week I'm bringing you a mini episode on Season two of sex Education. So generally, on this podcast I'll have a guest or two guests and will spend about an hour digging into a whole different themes and characters of a show, but with sex education and really just wanted to get this episode out quickly because there has been a lot of conversation on the Internet about Season two and how wonderful of the LGBT Q representation is. And what positive progressive messaging this is. Sending two teens? Well, I agree with some of that. I'm going to complicate some of it on. I just had to weigh in with my queer color perspective, so let's jump into it. I agree. I think it's super refreshing to see multiple queer couples on a television, so especially something for teens because that's something we don't often see. You might get the token gay person or the token gay couple, but on this show we see different characters that have bisexual pan sexual and even a sexual identities, which I really I can't think of a single show that has characters with such favor sexual identities, especially including a sexual perspective. I do want to point out, though, that it's misleading to say this show has great LGBT Q representation, because where is the tea? There aren't any trans or non binary characters in the show, and I think it does a disservice with our language if we say L g B T Q. When we're actually not talking about trans people at all, gender and sexuality is not the same thing, and there's not trans representation in the show. So let's not just clump that in with the rest of the acronym. I do think we could argue that Eric might be gender nonconforming, but he hasn't used this language to describe himself. That's not really a theme that's been explored that much yet on the show, but maybe that's something that will come up. Maura's We Progress into the next season as Eric embraces his identity more and explores more with his gender presentation. While the show has LGBT Q characters, it does still fall into this problematic pattern where the primary protagonist is someone who belongs to the dominant class. So in this case we have Otis was assist gender, middle class, if not upper class. That house is pretty fucking nice Street white guy. He is the protagonist of the show. Most of what we see is through his own point of view. All of the other diversity we see and race sexuality, gender in class is in the supporting roles of thes secondary characters. This dynamic is something that we see in other shows, like Orange is the New Black Um, and I've read that Tales of the city also repeats this dynamic. I haven't seen it yet, but I've heard that I should watch it. And to be honest, I could care less what Otis is up Thio. He's the least interesting of all of the story lines, as far as I'm concerned, and I really hated that threat this season about Otis discovering masturbation. I mean great. I'm glad that he's discovering masturbation and getting over some of his sexual traumas. But I do not want to spend my life watching a teenage boy masturbate on TV, but I guess this is ultimately a show made for teens, and it makes sense that I might experience some discomfort watching it as an adult. Also, that Quran, gee, drunken party scene where he was dancing around and made was watching him from afar that absolutely made me want to die. But at least with voters, this storyline with an excuse to see Gillian Anderson and all of her silver fox glory, she is fucking hot. I was a little side bet you dyed her hair blonde and season to the silver is sexy. I do have to say, though, as someone I'm an anthropologist. I do research with human populations. I am appalled by her ethics on this show. Ah, the way she was about her research in her writing, even engaging with the students. It's deeply fucked up. I think the show is hinting at the fact that she has bad boundaries with Otis, but I'm not sure that she's meant to be as problematic as she really is. But anyways, let's move on from Otis and Gillian Anderson and talk about what's good. I think it's great that this show is teaching teens about consent and having open and honest communication one of the best lines of the season. I think that's when Rahim says, Look, if you're not ready to talk about anal Duchin with your boyfriend, you're definitely not ready to have his dick in your ass. That's such an important message about sex that teens need to hear, and I'm really glad that things like anal sex are being talked about when de stigmatized on the show. Another thing that I liked from Season two, I was really moved by the episode where all the woman realized that sexual violence is the only thing that connects them together. I like that they were kind of breaking apart some sort of idea of united sis womanhood across racial identities, because we know you know, Intersectionality has taught us that there is no such thing. But I like this idea of focusing on how these shared experiences of sexual violence can provide a catalyst for your mutual aid and safety for the woman banding together to create their own community which we see when they help Amy to be able to get on the bus again. It wasn't like over gun and convinced her to go to therapy and get over this trauma. They're like, Girl, we will come with you. We will keep you safe, Will make you laugh will take your mind off of things I thought that was really beautiful I didn't love that may have urged her to talk with the cops as if coughs are ever kind or helpful to sexual assault survivors but maybe still a teen, and she ultimately still has a lot to learn. So season to have sex education does pretty well in terms of feminist story lines in terms of queer story lines. But where there's a really big problem in this show is when it comes down to race and especially anti blackness, you might be thinking, but there's so many characters of color on the show that is true. There are a lot of characters of color in Season two, but we don't actually get a black role in the show until season two, and then that black girl Lola, is that picks it has less desirable than May of the primary white female protagonist. So that, and of itself is in a great message to send two black girls watching the show. But it actually gets worse when you follow what happens with the other black characters and characters of color on the show. So this pattern actually continues three times twice with block characters and once with a character of color. Rahim. I'm actually not sure what his ethnicity is, so Otis is dating Allah, but he actually wants to be with Maeve Mavis dating Jackson. But she actually wants to be with Otis, and Eric is dating Rahim, but he actually wants to be with Adam. So we see this pattern happen three times, where the characters of color in the show to black characters Sola and Jackson are not as desirable as their white counterparts. And we see this happen again when Eric ultimately makes the decision to choose Adam over Rahim. All of this is unfolding in this really dream like beautiful, gorgeous U K town, where apparently racism and homophobia don't exist. Unless maybe you're Eric and you belong to an immigrant African family. Then we might see a little bit of homophobia, but your family will get over it. One of the things I liked in Season two is the friendship we get to see between Jackson and Fifth. But we never get to see how being black affects their drive for success and the pressure that they might feel to be the best and what they dio. There's never any discussion about how their shared experiences around race and being black play a role in their burgeoning friendship when they're primarily surrounded by non black characters in their school. I think the show is trying to create affirming story lines for its LGBT Q and characters of color. But teaching teens the color blindness, teaching teens that love is love and they're not gonna face homophobia isn't actually that affirming for queer people or for people of color. It just makes it easier to ignore racism and anti blackness when it happens to act like race doesn't play a role in dating and that it's just a coincidence that the white students at their school keep desire ing each other more than their black or POC counterparts. I can see why I'm even Jackson wouldn't be a good couple. They don't really seem that compatible. But am I really supposed to believe that she would fall for Otis? Am I supposed to want them to be together? I actually really agree with Isaac when he's like, Look, Otis is never gonna understand you. This line is kind of problematic, and I'll get into that when we talk about Isak Leader. But I agree. How is this poor working class, brilliant feminist character supposed to be crushing on and wanting to be in a relationship with his entitled Rich Wipe Wei, who won't even help his mom clean up the house after he trashes it during his party? Me deserves so much better than Otis. It was shitty, and it was controlling when Isaac erased the voicemail from Otis on her phone. But ultimately in the wrong run, he's doing her a favor. Maybe stay away. You can do better. There seems to be a recurring theme in this season of woman, either ending up with or pining after these men that honestly don't deserve hm. Another example. VIP index taxes, such a piece a shit, and I was so happy when he finally gets the point of realizing he's not actually that cool. I also had a really hard time with Emily Sands, the English teacher. She is so sweet. She is so beautiful. She is brilliant. She's a sexy, confident woman. Might really supposed to believe that she would be wasting her time dating that absolute goober of a teacher. I can't even remember his name. But I think that I have blocked it out because I truly do not care. He is terrible. Shorts are terrible. The way he acts is terrible. And the way that he has sex with her is terrible. It honestly made me really sad to watch those sex scenes because she deserves so much better. In more unlikely pairings, Adam and Eric Adams storyline is complex. I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, I really like that we're thinking about the root causes of violence. Harm people, harm people. And it's important for us to understand that in our work of eradicating in addressing violence, it is worth noting, though that very often on Lee white men are extended the sympathy and the sense of humanity, which we see time and again in the way that you know, shooting sprees get reported when they're committed by white men versus people of color. So I want Adam to change. I really want to see him learn vulnerability and kindness. I want to see him addressed his internalized homophobia and his toxic masculinity. But I don't want is for Eric to be responsible for sparking this change of holding him accountable to it. I don't want to see Eric and a relationship with someone who abused him for years and never took accountability for that abuse. Adam is showing signs of growth, sure, but are we really supposed to believe that his violent outbursts or over we're supposed to believe that he's no longer gonna harm the people who were closest to him? Which at this point is Eric and Allah, which again, I think it's important to recognize in terms of the racial dynamics of the show. It's also important to to think about how Adam's story line we're seeing a really individualized process of healing and growth. I mean, sure, Eric. And although play a role in this process of growth by showing him friendship and vulnerability, Adam's actions harmed a whole community of people. Eric wasn't the only person who was affected by his bullying. I'd like to see the community kind of band together toe work towards accountability and healing. What does Amy have to say? As someone who also dated him and also at least like to see Adam and therapy, he has a lot to unlearn, and he's gonna need a lot of support in the process. I hope that all of that emotional labor doesn't fall on era next up on the topic of problematic white guys. At first I was really excited to see the appearance of Isaac on the show, especially after the really token izing representation of a disabled person that we saw on the L word Generation. Q. Were basically Julian Mercado plays Sophie sister, and she's just There is a support role on Lee to help Sophie think about and talk about her love life. She's not given a love life of her own, her any of her own background or story line on sex education. We see Isaac as a pretty complex, fully developed person. He has a sense of humor. He has a dark side, he has a past, and he has perhaps a future with me. But my friend Danny. Shut up, Dani. She pointed out that Isaac engages in a lot of behaviors that might end up being warning signs for abuse. So that line that I mentioned earlier he says to me of Look, Otis is never gonna be able to understand you. He's basically trying to convince her that no one else is ever gonna understand her. The way that he does, because of their shared experiences, might not end of itself be problematic. I think that he has a valid point in terms of, you know, working class experience and how that shapes certain perspectives that they can only share with others. But this might be a way of trying to isolate her from anyone else that she's bowling community with. We see this kind of happen again with the way that he immediately does not trust maybe's mom and works to isolate them from each other and also at the party with her ex Jackson. It seems in general that there are these patterns of maybe control where he's trying to isolate me from others. It's subtle because he's charming and he's funny. It doesn't come off as completely controlling, manipulative yet But I do think his decision to erase the voicemail shows another side of him that might continue to grow in Season three. This is a little bit disappointing. When disabled people are on TV, they're often cast as villains, so this is sometimes called the evil cripple. Truth. You could think about Dr Evil Captain Hook. There's plenty of other villains that have disabilities in some way or disabled. Characters are often shown as being villainous. Let's hope we get some more complexity in his storyline in Season three, and they don't just continue this trend of look. Nobody expected that the disabled kid would be evil because they all thought that he would be harmless storyline. Isaac deserves better, and so do we. That's all I have for this many episode on sex education. There's more to be said, but I think those are the most important points. I would love to hear your thoughts, so please follow me on Twitter at whatever TV pod. You can also send me an email at whatever TV iPod at gmail dot com. I want to know what you thought about the show, what you thought about Season two and what you want to hear about in my future episodes. Thanks for listening