#wayward

[echofades]

MAE MARTIN in WAYWARD (2025)

[not-a-choice]

Diversity win? This cop is trans and this cult is queer-affirming

[emliyarmstrong]

Alyvia Alyn Lind & Elizabeth Adams in WAYWARD (2025)

[bluebyrd-screaming]

There is something so vitally important about all of Evelyns favorites being white girls with blonde hair and blue eyes and her promise to give them power in life and to take away their pains with he One Easy Trick that I cannot quite articulate eloquently

They never say it out loud in the show, but there is something inherently white supremacist going on here

[phosphorusab]

I love how subtlety bigoted Tall Pines is to Alex.

The way everyone just humors his manhood, just like they humor him as Laura’s partner, but never truly accepted him because he was never ‘one of them’. His manhood is only affirmed when he does something in favor of the Tall Pines Ponderosa cult to manipulate him. Like when he kills Riley, he’s just ‘a husband protecting his heavily pregnant wife’. But when he starts doing what he knows in his gut is the right thing, suddenly it’s all,

‘You’re a murderer and we are too forgiving of how fucked up you are because no one else will accept you, you just can’t help yourself when you get the chance to be violent, how many times are you gonna be the victim, I’m tired of cleaning up your messes, are you gonna arrest me officer, you’re a coward, I never liked you, you’re playing house, you’re a tragic cliché, living in a nuclear family fantasy, using Laura and her baby to make you feel like a Real Man’.

Just like Julia Serano says in Whipping Girl, a transsexual woman’s gender is considered ‘artificial’ if she’s particularly gender conforming. Laura’s personal bullshit aside, Alex wanted to be a better dad and a better man than his father was for Laura and their baby, and he’s ridiculed, accused of delusion and manipulation to roleplay his idea of what a ‘man’ is. Alex’s traditional masculinity in his transsexual body is considered ‘artificial’ and ‘false’.

The series ends with its two queer protagonists, Alex and Leila, stuck within the clutches of Tall Pines, because Tall Pines broke them into not seeing a future for themselves beyond its ‘safety’.

[dearreader-archive]

“you didn’t kill her. you’re exhausted, evelyn is fucking with your mind.”

“but what if i did?”

“… then i’m best friends with a murderer.”

and what if i told you that was the most loving line i’d heard? what if i told you in this entire series about erasing the worst of us having a friend say they’ll still love you even if you murdered someone. what if your best friend saw your deepest darkest thought and true self you’re afraid to show in the light and embrace it fully because that’s what friends do…

that line alone made this whole series worth the watch fuck man

[exquisacreamcheese]

I forget sometimes how cis people, even well-meaning cis people, even ally cis people, even queer cis people, just don't know about a lot of trans things.

That struck me when I was reading Jackson Weaver's review on Wayward, Mae Martin's horror/mystery show on netflix

[Wayward] both presents Alex as a character whose trans identity doesn't need to dominate his motivations or plot, and injects late-stage questions around his desire to live a "normal" life. By trying to walk this tightrope, the story undercuts both admirable goals by not fully committing to either.

I'm not saying I have the one true understanding of this show or whatever, but the millisecond Alex showed up as a trans guy cop with a blonde pregnant wife and a dog trying to live in this tiny little Vermont town, I was IMMEDIATELY like "this is gonna go bad for you king."

That subtextual uneasiness of a trans guy who is clearly going for the most traditional possible masculinity, even though it doesn't seem all that toxic on its surface, was so satisfyingly paid off in the confrontation with Evelyn at the end. Those weren't late-stage questions; they were an acknowledgement of what the show had been building to for the whole season. Otherwise, Alex's increasing descent into violence makes no sense. Alex's decision to stay doesn't make sense. He's trying to be a man "the right way" and it is spiralling his life into hell.

Anyway. Sorry Mae. It's impossible to make trans art without hearing from cis people that don't understand. But I liked it :)

here's the rest of weaver's review