Sometimes you learn lessons when you least expect it. I often turn on the TV for background noise to keep me company or when I have to do tedious household tasks so this weekend I tuned into season 1 of Queer Eye on Netflix. My kids have often raved about it so I thought I would check it out (Late to the party- I know!). I like makeover shows, be it a person or house but was surprised to find out that this show is much, much more.
The Fab 5 on the show are men who specialize in different aspects of a makeover- fashion, hair, interior, culture, and cooking and are all openly gay. Their mission is to help people, gay or straight, who need a redo. Queer Eye can be light hearted and funny but also delves into some deep emotional issues and the big subject of tolerance. One show in particular was a makeover for a man who was white, straight, and a strong Republican cop in Georgia. Neither the Fab 5 or the man knew what to make of each other but by the end of the show they were able to overcome their blatant differences and accept each other as human beings and actually became friends in the process.
It finally hit me after a few shows that the real mission of the Fab 5 is to put themselves out there and make a connection with people who normally would not accept and/or acknowledge them and who, quite frankly, they wouldn’t go out of their way to be around either. The result of every show is that deep down we all just want to be loved. Tolerance at its best.
Coincidentally, I just finished Michelle Obama’s autobiography, Becoming. Her charge at the end is, “Let’s invite one another in. Maybe then we can begin to fear less, to make fewer wrong assumptions, to let go of biases and stereotypes that unnecessarily divide us. Maybe we can better embrace the ways we are the same.”
Tolerance.
