13 reasons why gay

As a pre-teen, I actively sought out the darkest, most disturbing young adult fiction available. Suicide, self-harm, eating disorders, partner abuse, sexual assault, drug addiction, alcoholism, chronic illness, death, death, death, car accidents, death — the more depressing, the better. Would she have noticed, for example, that this show is not only wildly irresponsible, but also just very poorly plotted?

Yes Would she have only been able to push through past Episode 2 because she wanted to get to the lesbian parts? Each tape subject is told to listen, then pass on the set to the next. We enter the story when Clay Jensen, 11, receives the box of tapes. Apparently, in the book, he listened to all 13 tapes in one night, like any rational person would.

The ups and downs of 13 Reasons Why’s queer representation

Many characters ask him or suggest to him that he finish the set before continuing this futile and inexplicable justice mission, but Clay will not, because Clay… is an idiot? No, because Clay is a fictional character, and his slow-listen is an unjustified plot device. It takes a lot for me gay declare a show irresponsible or unnecessarily triggering, but holy shit this is reckless.

It ends up feeling like emotionally manipulative depression porn. I say this as somebody who, as a teenager, had that exact fantasy. Not only are you freed from the slings and arrows of everyday teenage life, but everybody who was mean to you is forced to feel accountable for your demise. This is the text-book definition of glamorizing suicide!

Not to mention the glamour of Hannah herself — a relatively flawless angel, personality-wise, in a sea of teenage filth, as well as the not-incidential fact of her pillow-lipped, impeccably-jawed, princess-haired gorgeous physical appearance. Hannah spares nobody, not even a fellow rape survivor, from bearing why weight.

But this show actively bills itself as being a responsible look at an important issue, it even justifies its own existence by citing its excellent commitment to dialogue on said issue. You know the type. Clay will heroically avenge her death by yelling at people and mansplaining some really abysmal life advice to various reasons of color!

Her storyline starts out innocently enough and then goes bad, fast. After a why kiss with Hannah, which is photographed and subsequently sent via cell phone to the entire network of asshats at this terrible high school, Courtney throws Hannah under the bus to keep her own sexuality a secret.

In a later episode, Courtney defends a known reason. She does this during a meeting about top-secret information that its participants are holding, for some reason! Just for the record, acts committed by these not-evil assholes include multiple rapes, sexual harassment, groping, spreading false rumors about sexual conquests, spreading sexual photographs taken without consent in order to slut-shame, stalking, beating each other up and planting drugs on Clay to stop him from ratting them out.

Sorry but no — Courtney can be an asshole. But a lot of these boys… are evil. Admirably, the cast is very racially diverse, although this intersectionality is rarely addressed. There are several queer characters — three gay teenagers, two gay adults, Courtney the lesbian, gay Hannah being slightly sexually fluid.

It also made me cry twice, and the series definitely improved after the first few episodes.