Queer Eye: Tackling Toxic Masculinity
Queer Eye, a makeover reality show, has taken the internet by storm in the past couple of months, and we couldn’t be more thrilled about it. The team in charge of these powerful and beautiful transformations consists of five gay men: Jonathan (Grooming), Tan (Fashion), Karamo (Culture), Bobby (Design), and Antoni (Food & Drink). When a new client is nominated, the “Fab Five” knows no barriers when it comes to self-care.
We have become comfortable in the double standards that are present in society. Skin care, hair care, makeup, and other external processes of self-care are deemed a feminine practice. Expressing emotions, asking for help, caring for mental health, and other internal processes of self-care are also deemed a feminine practice. Queer Eye breaks these stereotypes and shows their clients as well as the viewers that self-care is fluid.
In one of the earlier episodes of season one, an elderly man named Tom is nominated to be “makeover-ed” by The Fab Five. His go to drink is a Redneck Margarita or tequila and Mountain Dew. His style is something of a cargo short/t-shirt jumble, wearing Crocs 24/7. Because Tom has lupus, he endures the common symptom of a butterfly shaped rash that covers his nose and cheeks. However, Jonathan showed him how to quickly and easily apply a color correcting stick to dull down the redness. Without the Fab Five, Tom would have lived his whole life without ever using makeup because of the notion that makeup is only for women. After using makeup, Tom felt more confident in his own skin. Throughout the course of five days, Tom evolved to become a better version of himself.
One of the most beautiful aspect of Queer Eye is the genuineness. Often, men feel that reaching out for help shows weakness, something real men never do. Most of the clients on Queer Eye are men who are closed off with their feelings and emotions. The Fab Five completely dismantles this by asking questions, being empathetic, and showing that talking and expressing is healthy. The power of conversation gets lost in the dark hole that is toxic masculinity. At times, when people speak what they’re feeling, really put it into words, it comes out different then what it was inside. Through these conversations on Queer Eye, clients come out of these transformations with more knowledge, empathy, love, acceptance, and security because they opened up.
Being vulnerable does not make you weak, it makes you stronger.
