The White Lotus, HBO’s newest white male-created drama, is a present that follows the lives of eight individuals as they work together with Hawaii. Staying at The White Lotus resort, two of those individuals, newly engaged couple Rachel (Alexandra Daddario) and Shane (Jake Lacy), are celebrating their honeymoon earlier than heading to Tahiti. With the whole lot at their fingertips, the 2 are on a dream honeymoon: an all-you-can-eat buffet, an ocean view suite. 

After all, for the ultra-rich, the whole lot you ever want is usually not ok.

Regardless of Maui sunsets and steak dinners, extraordinarily wealthy asshole Shane has a bone to choose with lodge supervisor Armond (Murray Bartlett) relating to a room mix-up the primary few days there. Having booked the Pineapple Suite for his or her honeymoon, Shane shortly realizes the room they’re in is second-best to what they might have, devoid of an expensive plunge pool. A cat and mouse recreation ensues between him and Armond: Shane chases Armond down, Armond units up a romantic dinner for Shane and his spouse, solely to have Jennifer Coolidge scatter her mom’s ashes all over the place. 

A drained story of males with two egos making an attempt to outdo the opposite. 

The recreation begins to wind down in episode 4, when Armond’s very severe plotline overshadows the entire thing. 5 years sober, Armond falls off the wagon and into the lap of some very darkish demons. Flirting with forlorn Mark Mossbacher (Steve Zahn), Armond tries to sway Mark into having intercourse with him earlier than providing a lodge employees member a lot youthful than him medicine in trade for intercourse. It’s messy, uncomfortable, and borderline unlawful to observe.

It’s the Wicked Gay. 

As a queer individual with a historical past of sexual assault, watching this scene was extraordinarily uneasy. Not solely was Armond abusing his place of energy, he was benefiting from a youthful man with little to no company. To make issues worse, the scene is slowed all the way down to insinuate Dillon (Lukas Gage) was previous the purpose of consent—we get a shot of him barely held up by Armond after ingesting no matter drugs got to him. The drawback of consent is pervasive within the queer neighborhood, as it’s anyplace the place intercourse is concerned, however this blatant portray of Armond as a predator benefiting from a significantly youthful man refuses to bear in mind the murky historical past of homosexual males as predators in movie and cinema.

Based on Media Smarts, Canada’s Centre for Digital and Media Literacy, homosexual characters had been most frequently painted as violent or predatory from the 1960s to the 1980s. Media illustration from there progressed certainly however slowly in it depiction of homosexual characters, all the time two steps ahead, like with the delicate dealing with of a queer storyline in Brokeback Mountain, and one step again, like with the predatory relationship of Armie Hammer and Timothée Chalamet in Name me By Your Identify. Now, in 2021, The White Lotus furthers a dangerous stereotype as an alternative of actively addressing points that do occur inside the neighborhood. By failing to flesh out Armond as a personality, the present leans into Hollywood’s drawback with linking homosexuality to promiscuity.  

“The sheer incontrovertible fact that male rape is a gay act, regardless of lack of consent, mixed with unfavourable cultural conceptions of homosexuality permits homophobia to not solely endure, but additionally to thrive,” writes Rebecca Krelko. “Viewing male-on-male rape as purely sexual and never violent doesn’t problem the deep-seeded homophobia related to male sexual assault, however moderately endorses it.”

The dealing with of queer characters in media, even now, must be handled with skilled sensibility. As society deconstructs homophobia that has perpetuated the inhabitants for years, writers should have in mind the results that include incorporating homosexual panic into artwork. Persevering with the narrative of predatory queer characters, like in Mike White’s extremely anticipated The White Lotus, advances the concept anybody’s interplay with queer individuals may lead to undesirable advances or worse, assault. 

“Norms are embedded and bolstered in our tradition by means of the gradual and cumulative technique of repeated publicity to them within the media,” writes Shannon Wall. “It’s by means of these norms, as portrayed on tv and in movie, that individuals come to count on the identical actuality of their every day lives.

With summer time’s “hottest drama this 12 months” comes a slew of unhealthy writing: Jennifer Coolidge’s character promotes a poisonous picture of Borderline, Belinda (Natasha Rothwell) serves because the insightful Black lady. The irony of the present, a self-identified critique of privilege, is that it depends on the underprivileged as background characters, sashaying away from absolutely creating them, perpetuating dangerous tropes on the expense of gorgeous surroundings and poisonous sensationalism. Marginalized teams function a method to an finish for creator Mike White and, within the hype of all issues The White Lotus, a extra sinister message comes by means of: The dismissal of the dismissed for shock worth and laughs. 

Armond’s fall into alcoholism and subsequent sexual assault of anyone considerably youthful than him performs into the dehumanization of the queer neighborhood as a complete. As extra individuals lean into their queer identification, media ought to intention to replicate and develop, not demonize and ignore, a rising inhabitants. As an alternative of embracing tales that normalize the queer neighborhood, we’re pressured to take a seat by means of poisonous characterizations. 

Whereas homophobia steadily pervades society, The White Lotus leaves the queer neighborhood at an obstacle. We watch from our tv sighing, unfairly questioning if our ache will ever be legitimate. As Armond backslides, a curtain is drawn apart and the window exhibits precisely what media execs nonetheless purchase into.

That the queer agenda is one nonetheless constructed on hate, hurt, and long-lost tropes.

Picture: Mario Perez / HBO