Skins is a British television show that focuses on a group of teenagers attending what is called "College" in the UK, but to us would be junior and senior year of high school. Every 2 seasons, the cast grows up and is replaced with a new set of characters at the same college. The show addresses some very controversial issues that are still very taboo for American audiences-- so in my opinion, it's no surprise that the US version of the show MTV tried to launch was a total flop.
In the most recent season of Skins available in the US, one of the main characters is Franky Fitzgerald, pictured above. Franky is female-bodied and the adopted daughter of a gay male couple. She androgynous and implied as being genderqueer in some sense. Throughout the entire season, despite being questioned and sometimes harassed, Franky never "defines" hir sexual orientation or gender identity, other than saying ze is not into men or women, but just people. Ze does, however, attempt briefly to be more "feminine", and struggles with depression, feeling lost, and feeling weird.
I think it's wonderful that these issues are being addressed in popular television, even if it's in Europe! All 5 seasons of Skins are available on hulu plus, which you can get free of charge for a month if you use your UCF e-mail address. In addition, the title of this post links to the first episode of the season which centers on Franky on youtube. Check it out!
1 comment:
I have not seen the original UK version of the show, but I did watch it on MTV when they aired the US version of it. I don't remember a character quite like Franky, but I know it touched on a number of "taboo" topics. I personally think it was an extreme example of how teens lives are, but was nonetheless a step in the right direction for putting the truth on TV without calling it "reality."
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