Short Review: Homosexuality--Degrassi 2011 (television show)

Many teenagers and young adults of this generation watch the teen drama television program, Degrassi: The Next Generation that was created by Linda Schuyler and Kit Hood in 1979.  This is a Canadian show that is based on teens who encounter family, economic, child abuse, drug abuse, pregnancies, peer pressure, self-identity and sexuality challenges that create problems that each teen must learn to overcome. One particular issue that has been on-going not only in the television series but also in reality, is the homosexuality that is expressed throughout the characters. Currently, there are two main actors that are homosexuals. One, a teen girl who in transgendered and is attracted to females, and the second, a teen boy who plays the quarterback position on the football team who is transgendered and attracted to men. Each one of these characters encounters problems with the acceptance from their parents, peers, and themselves.

The young teenage girl, Adam Torres who is played by Jordan Todosey has an appearance of what we call ‘normal male’ and acts like a man. She hangs out with the guys, does boy-like activities, is interested in boy-like things and attempts to show affection towards females. In this show, it shows how he gets discriminated by verbal abuse, calling him names, making fun of him and not accepting his sexuality.
But eventually the other students become to accept that his decision of her sexuality is completely autonomous and acceptable. Later on in the episodes, after he gets turned down by another female because of his physical appearance so he decides that he wants to under-go a surgical process that will permanently remove his female genitals and change to have male genitals This show expresses the emotions and stress that a transgender may feel and it helps to provide solutions and guide him through his situation .

Not only has this show encountered problems of acceptance within the characters, but also in real life. There have been many controversies that have been targeted towards the actress and the producer as well. A viewer of the show had posted a comment on the Degrassi website, “I think that it is statistically improbable that you will have a female-to-male transgender who is in love with a lesbian or bisexual in a school setting.” (Canton, 2011) which caught the attention of some journalists.  Therefore some people think that it is inappropriate to associate school with this type of behavior making heterosexuality seem like a wrong thing to conform to.

But then there are some people who think that this idea is great for young people in today’s society. “The episode acknowledges that there are transgendered people out there and, due to bullying and harassment in a school setting, they really have a hard time. Our message boards got overwhelmingly positive feedback, from trans kids saying how much it helped them to kids saying that, while they didn’t have any transgender kids in their school, they would act positively if they did” (Owen, 2011). This show is one of the first Canadian teen dramas that transgendered teens learn to express their sexuality. And I think that this show has become very helpful for other transgendered teens and young adults in our society.

Unknown Author. June 23^rd, 2011. The Huffington Post – Women Canada: Degrassi Boycotted By Florida

Family Association Because of Transgender and Gay Characters. Retrieved November 9^th, 2011 from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/23/degrassi-boycott-florida-family-association_n_883252.html#s296800&title=Degrassi