Queer Eye

Dear Grandma,

I am writing to you about a show we watched recently. It is called Queer Eye, about five homosexual males that help to change the lifestyle choices of people that need it. In the episode I watched, the focus was the person being transformed Neal, who had not had anyone in his house for almost ten years. The reason I am writing this to you is because, I know in the past you have told me stories of people in our family that have had to hide coming out due to the conservative nature of our family. I was thinking about how this show would have been received when you were a kid and also in our family even in the past two decades. I was thinking that there would not have been a very strong acceptance, or even acceptance at all of this show. I think most of the people would not have found it in good taste up until recent years. I think in the culture now, the show is received fairly well, but in past generation’s culture’s, it would not have been received as well. If this trend continues to progress, I feel like the meaning of this show will be obsolete due to the rising acceptance of the meaning. There will be no special aspect to the “fab 5”, they will just be another group of people. The work they do now is more than just changing the lifestyle of the people they help on their show, but they provide an image. The image they provide is to all of the people out there that watch Netflix, to show them that it is not only accepted to be who you are, but you should embrace it. You should not be afraid to be who you are. I think this is the most important aspect of the show. They gave this realization to Neal in the boxing ring, they taught him that he could be both who he and his mom wanted him to be at the same time. I think this is a good message for all people regardless of race, gender, or sexuality. I think the message is fairly powerful for Neal, to the point were he made changes in his life that made him more of who his mom wanted him to be and also allowed him to really show off who he is when he is not an isolated recluse. I think another thing the show does is break cultural and race barriers because one of the “fab 5” is Pakistani, another is polish-canadian, and one is African American. This creates a level of diversity and they use these other barriers to help people on the show and also to break the barriers. I think this show does a very good job of breaking down barriers in society, that have been slowly breaking since you were a kid. These are some issues that society argues and debates about, and I think will continue to diminish going into the future.

With Love,
Josh