i don’t want this to be long. it just truly offends me that POSE is performing so poorly by commercial tv/ratings standards. the fledgling numbers support the notion that our LGBT stories & the illustration of our ground level history cannot be marketed beyond the internet or beyond the structure of supporting, primetime storylines.
the people simply are not tuning in to watch the series every Sunday night on FX.
episode 1: 688,000
episode 2: 548,000
episode 3: 561,000
i hear people saying they don’t watch POSE because: “im not into balls or houses like that"🙄
CLEARLY, the series only uses ballroom as the framework for the shows premise. POSE is about our real f*ckin lives – non traditional family. love. rejection. heartbreak. perseverance. hardship. competition. triumph. identity. acceptance. and carving out a piece of the world to fit oneself into.
the language of this F/X series is quite universal if some could simply get past “ballroom” as the framing of the show.
for me, POSE embodies much of what helped shape my outward experiences, identity & comfort with accepting my sexuality as a young, gay black man.
i fell in love with my first dude at 21, attended my first ball inside of the paradox on a saturday night at 22, i was introduced directly to two trans women acting as mothers & nurturers to several LGBT youth when i was 23, i learned very intimately about prostitution/escorting as a means of survival in our community & not necessarily by choice at 24 years old. around then as well, two of my male friends were diagnosed with HIV & that was totally new for me – a disease i segmented to solely be something we learned about in school, but nothing id ever be affected by. i was exposed to drug usage around 24 too… it was during my excursions to BUNNS on Thursday nights in baltimore.
this is the period when id become immersed in the history of ballroom culture. i ended up being introduced to “Paris is Burning” by one of my film thesis professors this same year. the documentary then explained a lot of what i was seeing play out in front of me while Aaron, Patrick & i would be in attendance of these Thursday night mini functions at BUNNS.
and then, Syrai “CJ” Mugler & Ayana Khan-Christian walked into my life at 25; not only giving me an inside to what id just started peering heavily into, but then also becoming permanent friends & fixtures in my day to day.
POSE vividly highlights four of the most exciting, informative and transitional years of my young life. i literally fill up with an unexplainable sense of emotion as i watch each episode unfold.
for me, Blanca represents the dominant, forceful, matriarchal image i was introduced to & the stories ive read about Angie Xtravaganza. it was an article presented to me maybe 10 years ago, written by michael cunningham for “open city” magazine that i’m so confident was given to the staff writers of POSE before they began developing Blanca’s backstory, her personality, demeanor, personal triggers, her dreams, mannerisms & look. there is no denying that Angie served as the pure inspiration.
and in my mind, Angel, who for me delivers the most exquisite on-screen performance, is modeled after Angie’s daughter, Venus Xtravaganza.
while i have not ever been able to find articles about Venus the way i have with Angie, every word Venus spoke during her one on one interviews in “Paris is Burning”, were obviously used to shape & create Angel’s fictitious character. Venus wanted nothing more than to have real romantic love, a family of her own, the beautiful home, a man who saw her for the woman she had become & most of all… ACCESS.
meanwhile, Damon & Ricky for me are the embodiment of so many young butch kweens ive had the privilege of meeting & mentoring over the past 17 years, specifically. in fact, though i was never tossed from my home by my father, he did stop hugging me for an entire year once i told him that i was in love with another man at the age of 22. and six months later, i moved into my first apartment alongside my then boyfriend.
i further identify with Damon’s naivety about the world at large, his youthful artistic dreams, the desire to become so much larger than his surroundings & then, this infectious, organic connection he has established with Ricky.
it saddens me, honestly, that Damon is seemingly being infected with the HIV virus so prematurely. i get that men like Luna Khan and many others can testify in real life to contracting the disease so young & upon one of their first ever sexual experiences. however, i wanted the relationship between Damon & Ricky to mature a bit more before weaving such a visceral reality into their storyline. my heart felt really heavy watching the previews for this upcoming fourth episode.
i really want more people to give POSE the opportunity it deserves to entertain the masses. the FX series is already doing such an incredible job of painting a portrait of life on screen that so many outsiders do not fully understand.
i truly thought that audiences would connect to the POSE series on a grandeur scale & i think i assumed that ratings would match the critical acclaim that the show is rightfully receiving.
PLEASE encourage your friends, co-workers, associates, lovers & classmates this summer to watch the final five episodes of this pilot season. we need POSE to return in June of 2019 with continued stories that reflect the ongoings of our real life pioneers of the past, as well as our communities present heroes & sheroes, alike.
let’s not allow POSE to only strike this once – for consistent poor reception in numbers may deter other producers & networks from green lighting & developing additional programs that place our lives on mainstream’s front line.
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