I wouldn’t say Closet Monster is a coming out story because high school senior Oscar, played by Connor Jessup, doesn’t really come out. It’s more of a coming of age story.
***SPOILERS*** Oscar’s parents split up when he was about 8, and he continues to have issues with both of them. His mother left, married another man and formed a new family. Even though Oscar spends time with his mother and has his own room at her new home, he still feels abandoned by her. On the other hand, his father can be a bit nuts. For instance, Oscar isn’t allowed to have a key to his own house because his father is afraid someone will steal from him, so if Oscar comes home from school or work when his father is out, he has to retreat to his tree house in the back yard. Oscar witnessed an especially brutal gay bashing when he was a kid, so now when he starts thinking about having sex with guys, he experiences flashbacks and associates intimacy with violence. He wants to be a makeup artist for the movie industry, and he’s especially interested in the horror and fantasy genres. He has pinned all of his hopes on attending a specific school in New York City, and he plans to share an apartment with his best friend, a girl whom his father assumes is his girlfriend. Oscar gets a job at a home supply store, and there he meets Wilder, a lanky pretty boy brimming with self-confidence and social ease. One day, Wilder surprises Oscar in the employee locker room when he asks Oscar if he can borrow his work shirt. Oscar is coming off of his shift and informs Wilder that the shirt is sweaty. Wilder doesn’t care and puts it on anyway. Oscar is instantly smitten. Oscar and Wilder become friends. They hang out together, go to a party together, and one night, they share Oscar’s bed in the tree house. It becomes awkward for Oscar when he accidentally reveals he’s attracted to Wilder. Wilder, ever the cool dude, kisses Oscar and gives his crotch a squeeze. But Oscar doesn’t feel anything because Wilder doesn’t really mean it. He’s merely indulging Oscar. Wilder leaves town the next day. I thought a tree house would be a wonderful place to lose your virginity, and for it to happen with the boy you’ve been longing for… Wow! That’s a story you could happily tell for the rest of your life. But things don’t work out the way Oscar wants them to. He isn’t accepted at the school in New York, so he has to quickly make alternative plans. Even though the story ends on a down note, we get the sense that Oscar is going to be okay. He’ll find another way to get the training he wants, and he’ll be better prepared the next time a special boy comes along.
I found the second season of American Crime streaming on Netflix last weekend, and I just finished it. I was interested because the sweet and beautiful Connor Jessup played a gay boy. I first saw Connor in Falling Skies, and for a while, I didn’t think he could act. He seemed wooden, and he had a pronounced Canadian accent. Nothing wrong with having a Canadian accent, of course, but it wasn’t right for the part, and doing accents goes along with acting. Well, he apparently worked on his accent and acting skills because by the end of the series, I thought he was pretty good…not to mention adorable. However, he really showed he can act in American Crime. ***SPOILERS*** I was right there with Taylor, played by Connor, when he admitted to his mother he had gone to a party and had a beer, but he swore he had not indulge enough to explain the pictures of him that appeared online. The photos showed him passed out by a pool of vomit with his pants down. He tells his mother that he believes he was drugged and that someone did something to him. What follows is a terrifying, complicated examination of the worst of human instincts. This series is like a film noir because no one comes out smelling like a rose. A lot of people get their comeuppance. As Terri, a fiercely protective mother who is forced to look at herself in the mirror, says, no one is coming after us; things are catching up. However, at the end of the story, Taylor is the one sent to prison, and Eric, his rapist, is riding off into the sunset with some guy in a muscle car. My first reaction to those last scenes was anger. Taylor had made some horrible decisions, but the whole mess had been set into motion by the angry, self-hating Eric. However, once I began to think about it, I saw that Taylor was setting himself free by taking responsibility for what he did. And he didn’t allow his rapist to play the hero and save him from prison. Eric, on the other hand, is still running from the truth. And that man in the muscle car offering him a ticket out of town, he’s probably an abusive asshole who wants to use Eric for sex.
I think extremism is likely to take hold during times of economic crisis, and I think there has been an economic crisis taking place in this country since the ‘70s. Massive amounts of wealth are being transferred to the 1%. The middle class is shrinking. The belief that your children will be better off than you is fading. The American dream is dying. Yet too many in power continue to gauge our economic wellbeing by looking at the profits of corporations, the stock market and the unemployment rate. Never mind that corporations can make money hands over fists, stocks can be sky high, and official unemployment rates can be relatively low, and still, ordinary Americans can be struggling. Many have stopped looking for work, so they’re not counted in those stats, and many who are employed have low wage jobs. The Republicans have done a wonderful job of convincing poor and lower middle-class whites that the reason they’re not getting ahead is because the government is overtaxing the rich, placing too many restrictions on business, and spending too much on minorities and allowing illegal immigrants to steal their jobs. The only answer to bigotry is to say no to it and to challenge it. But I think the Democrats can do a much better job at offering economic hope. Rather than being a coastal status quo party, or an incremental change party, I think the Dems need to acknowledge the serious assault on the middle class, and they need to offer solutions. Those who work for a living should not have to work more than 40 hours a week so they can have a life outside of work, and working people should have a decent income even if they work at Wal-Mart or deliver pizza. Education and training should be accessible and affordable. Medical care should be a right, not a privilege, and you shouldn’t fear poverty if you become too old or too sick to work, or if you can’t find work. That last bit is more important than many realize because it’s not really other people who are taking away those storied factory jobs of the 1950s, it’s automation. We have to convince working Americans that lower taxes on the rich and fewer regulations will not bring back those factory jobs. We can’t return to the past. Most of us wouldn’t want to even if we could. We also can’t count on perpetual economic growth. There comes a point when there is already enough goods and services available. Then the problem becomes a matter of distribution, not scarcity. Our ancestors would likely be amazed at our abundance, but they would also likely be disheartened that so many are not allowed to share in that abundance or live in fear of going without. We’ve allowed Republicans and the Religious Right to exploit that fear long enough. We have to be the ones who offer a shining city on a hill. We have to find political candidates who can speak to the people, listen to their concerns, and offer soaring, inspirational goals for the future. We need to take emotion into account and use it. But we have to make sure our rhetoric isn’t empty or manipulative. Our shining city will be real.
