So, I know that Jacq over at Deconstructingglee has been waiting for my thoughts and reactions to Pretty/Handsome.

I finally had time to watch it today. Overall, I do have to say that I’m pleasantly surprised at how well ryan murphy handled everything. Like. There are lot of problems with how so very, very white it is and how the only Black person is a woman as a secretary and being the other woman. And the only Asians are obsessed with having boys, and not girls. Like. not cool. But I don’t really expect ryan murphy to not be racist, since he is consistently terrible at poc.

I suppose the most striking thing to me is just how very whitebread the whole thing is. ryan murphy manages to ably hit pretty much every trope of the white trans narrative. And, whatever, I guess does a decent job with it. Of course, we get very little resolution from the pilot of a show that was never picked up. So can’t really know how the story would have developed.

One message the show had that is rather novel and not often discussed in media is the difficulties that trans people have in accessing medical care. Like. This is a big deal. I particularly liked that it was, in part, about health care beyond just transitional stuff, because trans people need basic health care too. We get colds, break bones, etc. etc. (now the doctor thing was more focused on reproductive type health care  and transitional stuff, but the implications were there)

I do have to say that this gives me a little teeny hope that Unique will be handled with a little be of respect and care on glee, inasmuch as Black women get any care and respect (which Mercedes shows us that this isn’t much and the best we can hope for is that Unique is handled similarly but I’m not really expecting better).

Perhaps I’ll write more when my brain is a little more online (not feeling too great today).