The Nonbinary Notebook

The One with Nana

April 10, 2016

(TW: biphobia, genital mention, sex mention, transphobia)

10:36 PM

I am a happy sushi roll. That one's for you, Livi. ;d

There's lots of reasons, actually. First off, we went to Disney this weekend! The fireworks were spectacular. And then my team performed in Odyssey of the Mind (we placed sixth out of the whole state!!!).

We left the hotel today and went to my Nana's house for lunch. (This is theNB part of my NB NB.) I helped her make the salad, and as I did, my mom mentioned something about the protest we would be at today (yes, a protest!). None of this is verbatim, but my Nana said "Oh, is it for those unisex bathrooms? Did you see about those on the news?" I'm not out to her yet. I couldn't read her tone, if she was approving or not. So I held my breath and let her talk to my mom. It was like this:

Mom: No, it's for Lake Okeechobee.

Nana: Oh. But did you see about the bathroom thing?

M: Yeah...(She was tentative, probably trying to read the reaction as I was.)

N: I mean, it's 2016. There's unisex people. There should be unisex bathrooms.

I'm pretty sure she mentioned something about Caitlyn, but I don't recall. I was too busy in absolute shock and elation to listen very much. Their conversation faded, and I broke the silence with "Do you want the peppers diced?" It was all I could think of to say! May I remind you that Nana is my grandmother. I was NOT expecting her to be so progressive, honestly. Pleasantly surprised is how I feel right now!

After this relieving incident, we said our goodbyes and went to the beach, where we hung out with my mom's boyfriend a while. And by "hung out" I mean all the children played in the sand and the water, the adults talked and laughed, and I read The Hunger Games for the third time. In the shade.

After the beach, we attended the protest. We stood on the bridge, along the side, with signs, and protested the release of water from Lake Okeechobee. It's a big deal. If you don't know about it, check it out. It's both intriguing and infuriating.

Oh, and I'm staying home from school tomorrow! I'm still not feeling very well from last week when I got strep, and I have a big assignment that I haven't finished that's causing me a lot of stress. I'm finishing it tomorrow. And I don't have my guitar with me, which is kind of important for a guitar class. I have to get the guitar from my dad's. Finally, there's been so much going on these past few weeks that I haven't got a good nights' sleep in a month. So I'm planning on sleeping to noon. Not really. But it has been a hectic week, and a day of rest will do me good. If I get all my work done I'll probably rewatch Grey's.

(WARNING: EXCITED RANT)

Friends used to be my go-to show, and at first I was excited by its LGBT characters. But I quickly realized that there was no reason to celebrate. The only real representation came from fetishized lesbians and flamboyant gay men.

One of the gay men is an exaggerated stereotype, and another later realized he wasn't gay. The "stereotype" might be a trans woman as well -- we never know for sure, because while they are described as a drag queen, they present as a woman almost all of the time. Even worse, they are mostly there for jokes. All the way from "her name must be Amanda. A man, duh!" to things like "don't you have a little too much penis to wear that dress?" "Gay" is often used as an insult as well, and the main characters take offense to it.

Speaking of main characters, one of them is CLEARLY bisexual (she fantasizes about women, and kisses them on occasion) but this is never established and is instead fetishized.

So as you can see, I have no reason to praise this show's representation.

Instead I will praise Grey's. If you've never seen Grey's Anatomy, I recommend it a LOT. It's a soap-opera type hospital show, but don't think it's cliche. It's the BEST. The plot is amazing, the episodes are captivating, the twists are unexpected, and there's even representation!

Not only does it have LGBT representation, it has represented EVERYONE IN THAT ACRONYM. While I haven't seen any enbies on it, I have seen a lot of screen time for LGBT characters. There's an episode with a pair of boyfriends, and an ongoing subplot with a pair of main-character girlfriends, one of which is bisexual(!). I've also seen an episode where a couple made up of a trans man and trans woman come in for his top surgery. And finally, from what I can think of off the top of my head, one of the main characters has a trans sister and is struggling to accept her. Another doctor aggressively defends the sister's name and pronouns. But that's not even the best part.

Not ONCE have I seen an LGBT person become the butt of a joke, and only one that I can think of has died (and it's one of those nobody-is-safe shows). This show is AMAZING.

UPDATE: INTERSEX REPRESENTATION IN SEASON ONE HOLY MOLY

(RANT OVER)

Ok I'm pretty much done except I'm thinking of names again. X names are awesome so I've been thinking about Phoenix and Onyx. I don't know if I'm cool enough to pull off Onyx though xD

What do you think?

~Eloenonyx