On April 22nd, MTV will be premiering a new show called Faking It. According to MTV, “Faking It is a new romantic comedy about two best friends who love each other — in slightly different ways. After numerous failed attempts to become popular, the girls are mistakenly outed as lesbians, which launches them to instant celebrity status. Seduced by their newfound fame, Karma and Amy decide to keep up their romantic ruse.” I have so many feelings about this.
Best friends and fake couple Karma and Amy. via MTV
First of all, I hate so much about the premise. Especially the way it was originally pitched: a show about two best friends who were outed as a lesbian couple despite the fact that both were straight and, when they found out that being lesbians made them super popular, still decided to keep up the ruse. This was a terrible idea with not much to redeem itself, but the premise has since changed to make it so one of the girls is actually queer.
Even so, “girls pretending to be gay to get attention” is already a frustrating stereotype, and it also gives viewers the impression that being gay is a trendy thing that makes you popular when in most schools, it’s a scary thing that could get you bullied. We regularly hear news stories about queer high school students being bullied and discriminated against, and we also regularly hear anti-gays arguing that we don’t have it that bad and that therefore don’t need equal rights. While there are some schools where being gay might make you a cool kid, there are still many, many more where it’s a major liability. I’d honestly rather watch a show about two girls who actually are outed as a lesbian couple that follows how that affects their popularity at school. It’s also worth mentioning that a lot of that depends on what you look like — would being gay have made these girls so popular if they weren’t already thin, white, cis and conventionally attractive?
“This particular trope — ‘friends/co-workers pretend to be a couple to get [a thing]’ — isn’t new, and it isn’t new for a reason, which is that it’s a compelling scenario with a lot of built-in drama and sexual tension,” Autostraddle’s TV editor Riese told me. “It’s an actual trope, after all. Buttttt these stories always seem to work out better when it’s a fake heterosexual couple. When there’s a movie or TV show about a couple pretending to be gay, it tends to be awful, like I Now Declare You Chuck and Larry and Boat Trip. But then there are little diamonds in the rough, like the Tello series Roomies. My one wish for this show would be that it actually lampshades itself by going in the direction that heterosexual fake-couple stories always go in, which is that the two people involved end up falling for each other and becoming a real-couple. If that’s what happens in this show, then I might actually not hate this show!”
Amy and Karma being “outed” (and strangely censored). via MTV
Faking It reminds me a lot of another MTV comedy, Awkward, where a conventionally good looking girl with several friends and all the best looking guys at school in love with her has an accident that gets mistaken as a suicide attempt. She then has to deal with the awkwardness and identity crisis that comes from being labeled as a girl who tried to kill herself. Again, a much more interesting show in my opinion would have been one about a girl who actually does attempt suicide and has to deal with the social ramifications of that. Why does MTV prefer to deal with things like teen suicide and LGB issues by creating fake scenarios instead of real ones? I guess it’s a good way to seem edgy and hip without actually doing anything.
Showrunner Carter Covington with the cast. via mjsbigblog
However, showrunner Carter Covington, a gay man, said that he thinks the show has a chance to do some very positive things for LGB students. He says he sees a shift in the way younger people are viewing and treating their LGB peers and seemingly wants to promote more of that. Covington, who says he was initially offended by the idea of the idea of the show, decided to do it after working on The Trevor Project’s crisis hotline.
I had a caller one night who said, ‘I’m worried that my friends are only my friends because I’m gay.’ I was shocked. That idea seemed so foreign to me given the world I grew up in, but this kid explained that he went to a very tolerant high school where being gay was like a badge of honor. That’s when I realized there are schools out there where being gay is no longer a problem, and tolerance is viewed as an asset.
Covington said that he agreed to do the show because he thought “Faking It could work if we set it a high school like that and had one of the girls actually have a crush on her best friend.” So if one of the girls is queer, that gives me a glimmer of hope.
Karma and Amy “proving” that they’re for reals. via Hollywood Life
But I’m not all the way on board just yet.
I do think it’s good to have a show that explores the idea that sexuality is fluid for many people. The truth is that there are lots of people who identify as straight and don’t realize that they have any same-sex attraction until they find that one person or are otherwise opened up to that possibility. This could be something that the show deals with. However, while it could be interesting to see the journey of the one girl who develops a crush on the other, please, please, make the “two best friends pretending to be a couple to get popular” storyline only last one season. The premise already strains credulity, and to try to stretch it out over multiple seasons would be painful. Maybe we could see a second season where the girl who actually is a lesbian meets a girl who can return those feelings.
“I predict that halfway through the first season or at the start of the second, the queer girl will go to a concert or coffee shop and meet a girl who is a hard-core out-and-proud queer,” said Riese, “and then she will be torn between her best friend she’s always been in love with who is still not sure if she’s ready for a relationship with a woman and this other girl who is totally ready to commit and be gay but doesn’t make her feel head-over-heels like her best friend does. E.g., Kim/Sugar/Saint in Sugar Rush, Claude/Ellen/Lucy in All Over Me. Or slight variations on this theme where the allegedly-straight girl doesn’t actually consider dating but does tease the fuck out of her queer best friend, like Ali/Emily/Maya in Pretty Little Liars and probably your own life.”
Seeing as at different points in the preview Amy wears a sweater vest, overalls and this donut shirt, I’m pretty sure she’s the one who’s actually gay. via Entertainment Weekly
The show could also gain some points if it starts with the girls thinking that pretending to be lesbians makes them popular, but then quickly realizing that it also opens them up to bullying and discrimination. I honestly don’t think I could handle a show that had the premise that being queer in high school will lead to nothing but universal love and acceptance. My dream scenario would be that the premise would be quickly undermined and the two girls would learn a lesson about appropriating lesbian identities and that it’s not as easy a life as they thought.
Also, I have to wonder about the actual queer girls who undoubtably go to this fictional high school. In an ideal world, the main characters’ fake relationship would encourage actual lesbians to come out at the school and the show would possibly shift it’s focus to them. In the real world, the show is more likely going to ignore real lesbian relationships in favor of this fake one that is more scandalous and glamorous.
Faking It premieres on MTV on April 22 at 10:30 PM PT/ET. I think I’m going to cross my fingers and give it a shot. Although the premise leaves a bad taste in my mouth, I do feel like it has the potential to bring up some interesting and important questions. I’m just not sure MTV should be the ones to ask or answer them. At this point, I’ve become so frustrated with the way television treats queer women that I’m starting to give up a little. Like our very own Brittani said, “I feel like I don’t care enough to be angry. Let’s just all accept our fate and start a kickstarter to redo The L Word shot for shot.”
THESE ARE MY CONFUSING FEELINGS EXACTLY. Thank you for writing this!
I just wanted to mention that there IS a show where a girl attempts suicide and has to come back from that and it’s great and funny (it has its problems, but i love it) and it’s my mad fat diary. so great.
I almost wrote a musical with this exact premise. WHAAAAAAAATTTTTT
My Mad Fat Diary is so so good and I wish everyone would watch it. I wish it was required at schools. The feelings are real and the soundtrack is 90s and it’s British and I love it. It also does have a gay character who comes out and deals with negative social consequences, toned down from reality, I’m sure, but it is addressed well. This programme has everything. <3
omg it is SO GOOD.
I love it and try to recommend it to all!
Fart noises. This show sounds like another pile of shit which shouldn’t have made it past the front door.
I’m going to assume that a possible silver lining here is that there will be recaps done so we can get through this monstrosity (while all crossing our fingers for the queer character) together???
Yes, a screener is on its way to my apartment! But if it turns out to be awful then I will probably not recap it, since I already have a deep burning resentment for that other awful show I agreed to recap when I could be performing my other top autostraddle duties such as accounting, panic attacks, conference calls and making lists of foods i like to eat
I know that the awful show you agreed to recap 5 years ago really is the worst. But your recaps are the way the rest of us get through it! Thank you for your sacrifice and service to the community, lol. :)
is it normal to feel a little nauseous after watching the trailer? there is so much to unpack emotionally. i’m sweating? i dont know.
since some paid idea-haver at mtv already decided this was a quality idea and went ahead with it, i think the AS team should really be brought in at this point to manage its creative destiny. it’s the only way i will feel comfortable and safe. (ps can you even imagine how awesome that would be?)
Mey and Riese, I would watch whatever show you two would come up with. I love your thoughts on this, and I’m hopeful that your optimistic predictions turn out, especially with someone who was initially skeptical on the project leading the way.
cringe worthy.
This sounds so terrible I don’t even wanna give it the benefit of the doubt..
I thought this show was stupid when I first heard about it and I still do. I have zero faith in MTV handling anything remotely queer in a scripted show, especially a female queer character after their last attempt. If you guys recap it, I will read them though. That’s about it.
This looks awful, and I’m speaking as someone who’s just watched an entire season of MTV’s “Are You The One?”
You know what *I* want to relive? All my painful crushes on my gorgeous straight best friends in high school. That sounds *great.*
*cheeers!*
I definately did the right thing!!!
In new zealand, TV recently went digital.
I never bought a decoder. The TV is still in the lounge but it hasn’t been turned on for *counts on fingers* 2 and a half years?
I have a lot of feeling about this new show. And all of them are negative.
Yes MTV show the bullying part so America can see what goes in when someone is outed.
I love how MTV and other mainstream sites that report on this show mention the producer being a gay man like that means he would handle lesbian issues sensitively. Apparently they’ve never heard of Ryan Murphy or Jack Kenny. Ugh.
THIIIIIIIIIIIIIS.
[I spent about a half hour trying to get back into my AS account (like 3 levels of password recovery none of which worked; then I just… remembered the actual password) JUST TO SAY: THIIIIIIIIIIIIS]
Oh, hi there repressed high school crushing-on-straight-girls-pain…I, uh, didn’t know you still hurt that much. Shit.
How could you not say this synopsis out loud and come to realize,”Huh. I guess that’d be kinda weird. Let’s not do it.” Hahaha.
Things with a horrible premise oftentimes have the tendency to turn out really well.Either way, this will be a show for a younger audience with at least one queer leading character so I’m all for it. The more shows like this we have, the more chances we have for getting them better and right. Also, this will probably address gay stereotypes head on and kids who are questioning will at least not have the feeling they’re invisible.I’ll probably watch it as a guilty pleasure. P.S.: Just no to the kickstarter recreating “The L Word”.No.
I think that this show is going to suck arse big time.
I think that the only way it is not going to suck is to plough innocently ahead with its stupid premise of “gaining popularity” by “two female best friends pretending to be lesbians”, whose shows storyline then gets hijacked by reality beyond MTV and Hollywood.
Hijacking of storyline includes: Riese and team at Autostraddle writing the scripts – best case scenario at salvage
The two female leads getting a lot of lesbian hatred, harassment and maybe attacked because lets face it, theres a lot of people out there who don’t at ALL think “It’s cool to be gay”
The two female leads close friends and families getting side eye, singled out as lesbian allies and lesbian supporters for being associated with the two “lesbians”
The two female leads growing some ovaries/integrity/credibility by being honest with themselves and practicing some “You do You” – being genuine in spite of being cool or uncool. Who gives a flying fuck. This show will have to grow some ovaries to gain an audience, and by pandering to some confused and immature strategy to increase one’s coolness by “pretending to be lesbian” is about as stupid as it gets.
So, after one of the two female leads gets a dose of unwelcome reality and say, gets raped by some lesbian arsehole with a vengeance chip on his shoulder and his bottomfeeders, then maybe said female lead could “reconsider” whether or not, she is really lesbian. Is this show worth it? Nup.
Should have read “Gets raped by some Republican voting Gun toting Arsehole with a vengeance chip on his shoulder”.
Maybe this show should just be called
“how to spend good hard earned money on a premise that insults and diminishes the experience of hardship, isolation, torment, homophobia, fear of violence that young gay, lesbian, bisexual, intersex and transsexual people face on a day to day basis.
How to insult these people and misrepresent their experience”
Great idea (lots of sarcasm)
Todays story, of a young boy who was killed by his Mother who thought he was gay. Makes me want to do more to support those people who are alone, vulnerable, have no supports, have no positive role models to look up to. I post this as an example of barometer for the infantile premise of this show creating a storyline around two female leads who have straight privilege, and who can always always return to straight privilege if neither of them are actually lesbian.
Another significant problem with this show’s premise is the main characters in “going along with pretending to be gay” gain no respect from their peers and people around them, who are genuinely gay or straight. No one will respect them. And that is a major problem if this show wants an audience. No-ones story is being depicted faithfully or with any validity or integrity.
Mother killed son, 4, because she thought he was gay
12:26 Fri Apr 4 2014
byNatasha Lee
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Four-year-old Zachary was so badly beaten, doctors compared his injuries to those seen in car crash victims. (supplied)
Four-year-old Zachary was so badly beaten, doctors compared his injuries to those seen in car crash victims. (supplied)
Zachary’s mother, Jessica Dutro, and her boyfriend, Brian Canady. (supplied)
Zachary’s mother, Jessica Dutro, and her boyfriend, Brian Canady. (supplied)
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A young mother from the US has been found guilty of beating her four-year-old son to death because she thought he was gay.
Zachary Dutro-Boggess died on August 16, 2012 after being beaten so severely his intestines tore.
After finding the toddler collapsed at the homeless shelter where the family had been staying, his mother, Jessica Dutro, 25, rang police.
Little Zachary was rushed to hospital where doctors diagnosed him with blunt-force trauma to the abdomen.
The injuries were so severe that they caused the little boy’s bowels to tear. Two days later he was taken off the ventilator and died.
In a Facebook message to her boyfriend, Brian Canady, 24, Dutro said the boy was going to be gay and it made her angry.
“He walks and talks like it. Ugh,” she wrote.
Dutro also wrote that Canady would have to “work” on Zachary.
It took the jury less than an hour before finding Dutro guilty of the little boy’s murder.
During a hearing last month, the jury heard an audio recording of an interview that detectives had conducted with Dutro’s seven-year-old daughter, who described how her mother and Canady allegedly hit and punched Zachary until he “got dead.”
The girl also told police that the couple often hit her and her siblings for “not being good.”
The little girl also recounted how her brother was repeatedly struck by his parents for not listening until he got sick.
Canady, who also participated in the beatings, managed to escape the murder charges by agreeing to testify against Dutro.
Dutro and Canady are still waiting to be sentenced.
There is a small, very, very, very small chance that this could turn out to not be the cluster-fuck it looks like it will be. Some serious and real issues can actually be addressed here and it could possibly address some really good points regarding sexuality and labels.*prays to black Jesus I’m right*
I hate how people are like “Well a gay guy is in charge of this girl/girl project so it’ll be fine.” I’ve (personally) experienced more face-to-face sexism and lesbi-phobic comments and inappropriate touching from gay men (white ones mostly). Idk but I trust them just as much as I trust dudebros…
Eh. I suspect this show will be terrible in the same way that Glee, Secret Life of the American Teenager, Make It or Break It, and Pretty Little Liars are. Meaning, I’ll happily grab myself a friend or two, a drink or three, and watch the hell out of it.
I have to say I object to PLL being included in that list. LOL It has some of the best lesbian and queer female representation on US TV right now. It is far above things like Glee.
Agreed, far superior to Glee. :)
This looks like shit, I can’t wait to watch it!
Honestly, I do know a few places where kids become popular for being gay, and at my high school the majority thought it was a non-issue. But they still thought it was okay to use “gay” as an insult, toss around homophobic slurs and joke about sex and stereotypes. And there were definitely people scared to come out. So I’m hoping the main characters will realise that their classmates mostly think of them as a joke and become uncomfortable, or younger students start asking them for advice and looking up to them and they start feeling bad.
Thing 1) Yes, I am hoping this is actually a romping little romcom for girls.
Thing 2) The danger you cite in depicting an idealized reality where being gay is an asset could become one of the best things about this show. People build fiction from reality, as Covington implied; and people learn reality from fiction. Honestly. How many phrases have we stolen from Buffy and the L Word? How seriously has “you have a lot of feelings” become a genuine part of our world view? If kids are growing up seeing a maybe-too-rosy depiction of high school, they may unconsciously normalize the values it depicts. Including the seemingly unrealistic levels of tolerance.
Let’s hope :)
I agree. I’m intrigued to see how well they tackle issues of being out in high school *without it being a horror story*, and the use of a rom/com trope that everyone’s familiar with kind of adds that to that normalizing potential.
The gay-until-graduation sorority girls at my women’s college totally got cool points for messing around with the ladies, but that’s really the only instance I can think of and it only worked if both girls involved looked a certain way, sooooo…
yeah this is a crapshoot. Not excited.
There’s also an entire teen movie built on the premise of an out gay boy at high school being fought over by the popular girls. This isn’t a brand new concept, so while I understand why people are rolling their eyes at it, I’m kind of surprised that everyone is expecting it to be the worst thing ever.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tquCoQvDWWk
and it might encourage a lot more of those straight bitches who mess around with us and rip our hearts out to keep on doing it.
Damn.. I didn’t realize i’m still hurting over some of that.
“but this kid explained that he went to a very tolerant high school where being gay was like a badge of honor”
Where does he live? I want to go back to high school and enroll my queer self in his school.
One of the showrunner is gay? Uh… Mm… Uh…. Okay, I’ll give it a shot. What if they actually fall in love at the end? be positive.(fingers crossed) :)
Lol I ran into the whole cast of this show at the Clevver TV office when I was there last week. Except I had no idea who they were or what show they were in. Well, I guess I know now. How random.
BUT the burgeoning screenwriter in me is already taking the basic premise and rewriting it in my head, where one of the characters is totally gay for her seemingly straight best friend and has been for years now. She doesn’t really care to be popular, just wants to hang out with her best friend. The allegedly straight best friend comes up with all these schemes to become popular that her closeted friend halfheartedly goes along with; because who hasn’t been in that situation where we did something stupid for the straight best friend we were so hopelessly (and naively) in love with when we were a wee teenager?
Anyways, when the straight friend comes up with the (not so) bright idea of faking it as a lesbian couple – the queer best friend is less than enthusiastic about it. It’s one thing to be straight and pretend to be gay; and a completely different thing to be closeted and have that kind of attention brought onto you.
The scheme lasts for a hot second before the entire thing blows up in their face. The straight best friend quickly realizes that being gay is far from being a “trendy cool thing” and her friend gets outed as a real lesbian which causes the girl to become a social outcast. The whole thing basically ruins their friendship, causing the straight friend to reevaluate herself and how she feels about her best friend; but before she can work things out – her friend has already moved schools.
Time skip to 10 years down the line!
The queer friend is now out and proud. She’s doing incredibly well for herself. While the allegedly straight best friend is still trying to figure herself out and has gone through a string of relationships that have gone nowhere. She periodically still thinks about her best friend from high school and wonders about her and what could’ve been.
And through some Hollywood contrived coincidence the two run into each other again. Except the situation has reversed itself where the straight best friend is pinning after her gay ex-best friend who has grown to be a very confident and self-assured woman. For the first time in her life, the seemingly straight girl has to really confront her sexuality and latent feelings she didn’t even know she had for her ex-best friend.
Things are super awkward between the two of them for a while and there’s a lot of misunderstandings because Hollywood melodrama plot. But eventually they work it all out and get together, because we still haven’t had that cliche story of getting the one who got away yet.
Wow, this comment is long. In my defense it’s 2AM and I just saw an idea and ran with it.
I hesitated on posting this, but #yolo
P.S. I would also cast both of them as WOC because I am all for that interracial dating.
Presumably women of different colours, then?
I love you!!!!
Awesome story line :)
They should make that show instead *dreams*.
I think the upshot of this article and the comments is that Autostraddlers should have complete control over all queer women’s storyline’s from now on.
Also, the producer said in one of those other articles that he hoped it would work with boys. I doubt it. I think that this storyline will only work in the mainstream because men will get to watch two girls making out. It’s basically gonna train teenage boys to believe that lesbians are faking it for their attention! *fumes*
Others have expressed my thoughts already. The likelihood of this show being incredibly offensive and fostering dangerous attitudes towards our community far outweighs the potential for good.
My heart breaks to think of some closeted, isolated babyqueer living in an unaccepting place, watching this and feeling even more cut off and down on themselves.
Does anyone know if there are actually any queer women in the cast/crew/writing room? ‘Cause that would be a telling point.
Having a gay male as the show runner inspires zero confidence.
The fact that this guy takes one isolated (and highly privileged) incident from another gay male’s experience and decides to come up with this?
They have to worry about their friends not being genuine and how to continue to lie to stay popular. Seriously?
They are lying about being lesbian for attention. I’m confident that the majority of people on this site have been accused of this exact thing many times before and rarely with positive outcomes.
Maybe we should have an open thread about queer women’s actual experiences on this subject and send it to MTV. They need to be told.
Although let’s face it, if they actually gave a single crap about us, this show would never have been allowed to exist in the first place.
I think it’s gonna be really bad, considering mentality and attitudes toward lesbians of people who stand behind this show:
“Gregg, do you think part of Liam’s attraction to Karma is about the fact that he thinks she’s a lesbian?
GS: Definitely. I mean, realistically, with straight guys in school, I think if you ask a bunch of guys, do they think it’s hot? They’ll say yes.
MJW: Well, it’s hot and it boosts your confidence, right?
GS: It’s like a challenge, you know? Everyone wants what they can’t have. So Karma, to me is…
MJW: I conquered the lesbian.
GS: Yeah. Conquered the lesbian. She’s mine.”
http://www.thebacklot.com/mtv-faking-it-michael-j-willett-greg-sulkin-interview/02/2014/
Ew. The wording of that is so gross.
Ewwwwww. So much wrong there.
It would be an interesting and realistic plot twist if some of the “popularity” that the girls got was actually sexual harassment or even sexual violence from guys who fetishize or want to “conquer” women who are attracted to women.
I’m so sick of this cultural idea that queer women don’t experience oppression as queer men do because everyone knows chicks making out with each other is so hot amiright? As though being hypersexualized by men is such an awesome thing and not oppressive in any way. As though “women making out with women is hot” is even applied to women who don’t fit fairly narrow looks and gender presentations. As though there aren’t plenty of women who think men getting it on with men is hot (I’m pretty sure that’s where most slash comes from) (and yet nobody thinks this means that queer men don’t experience oppression).
not to exclude any backlash that may arise from some straight folk who give the lead females some form of “justice” due to “their lying about themselves” and if they then become “straight” – there will be backlash. Just witness real life when someone masquerades as something they are not, people are pissed off and let down. Add homophobia to this mix and this is dangerous.
Okay, this changes my mind. I can’t see the show redeeming itself if THIS is one of their plotlines. Jesus fucking Christmas…
Can’t be any worse than The Real L Word right? I’ll give it a try.
One of the things that grosses me out is that the popularity almost definitely comes from the sexualization of these women’s supposed relationship by the men at their school. Ew. No.
Honestly, if 15 year old queer me from the past actually sat down and watched this show I think it’d do more harm than good. It’s hard enough to be in that situation, thinking your alone, with all the feelings and teenage anxiety. But then to have it validated on national television? Eck.
Where are these people looking when they “see” a shift in views concerning queer sexuality (not even going to mention gender identity, because well…)? I mean I’m sure in cis- white America there have been drastic improvements, but what about the other reality? I guess other queer experiences don’t matter as much. I don’t know, maybe I’m just bitter.
Meh, this show could have a chance at potential (given Mey and Riese’s ideas were actually implemented), but considering MTV’s track record I’m expecting a train wreck.
The last time MTV tried lesbian was skins right? Where they quit her lesbian storyline halfway through?
But that was a few years ago so now that the topic is here to stay I wonder what MTV will do, since their entire mission is to be hip.
I hope for some bisexual screen time in this show.
It’s not either-or for a lot of people and it could be that the other best friend is bi
A girl can hope
What’s probably going to happen is that it’s going to focus on Straight Girl’s angst over the fact that she likes Some Guy but can’t be with him because she’s faking being gay! Oh the horror!
I have conflicting thoughts about this show as I don’t want to watch, because of the premise, but I do because Bailey Buntain, who was on the awesome Bunheads, is in it. Ugh.
I think I actually will go out on a limb and say I’m for this show. Here’s my reason- by showing an ideal situation where the two girls are supported in high school, and understanding that this show is targeting an impressionable age, maybe it can actually change the climate of some schools. (if done well. If not, they just reinforce the idea that femmes are there for a man’s benefit. Not cool with that.)
a) If I had seen this in high school, (as an impressionable child) I would have been over the moon. Because it would have showed me being queer was alright and there was hope. In HS hope is so important, even if it wasn’t necessarily ‘real’.
b) The premise left a bad taste in my mouth. So did the trailer. Like drinking coffee with salt. But after seeing the pilot, and judging it by “mediocre teenage TV” standards, it is alright. Some irritating tropes but it has potential. By the end of the episode you’re kind of guessing (with some help with an Ep2 preview where Amy says, “Karma might be pretending… but I’m not so sure”) that Amy’s either gay (or bi? who knows). So if the writers deal with the issue with some sensitivity, it might turn out to be a good show for tweens/teens after all.
c) Doesn’t solve the fact that they’re faking it… but ugh. Bottom line, why do kids have to pretend to be something they’re not to fit in?
Obviously a keep point in the show is being missed. They are NOT trying to desensitize gay bullying. They ARE however, trying to draw attention to the changing ideas in our society and how far one goes to fit in. The extra little plot is what draws you in, but what should be most importantly noted is that they are not trying make a joke out of being gay.