I've mentioned several times that One Life to Live is currently the best soap on the air. It's incredibly well written in a way that used to be fairly standard for soaps in the glory days of Douglas Marland and Agnes Nixon but which is sorely lacking these days.
I've limited most of the blogging I've done about soaps to gay characters, which is why I haven't written much about One Life to Live. I'd really love to see them add a gay character or two into the mix because I think they'd do it better than even the groundbreaking As the World Turns and All My Children have. I mean, let's face it, Luke & Noah have been popular because of the enormous talent of Van Hansis and of Jake Silbermann, not because of the writing. Nuke is popular in spite of the writing, actually.
But, I digress. The moment that I wanted to write about from last Tuesday's One Life to Live came about after ten year old Shane Morasco walked in on his parents, Rex Balsam and Gigi Morasco, having sex. Rex, who only recently discovered that he had a son, was left with the awkward responsibility of having The Talk with Shane.
While the whole conversation was very well done, being both amusing and touching all at once, the part that really made my day was how Rex began the talk.
Rex: You see, when a guy loves a woman... or another guy, you know, whatever, it makes no difference to me, anyway they-
Shane: It's called sex.
I love it! One of the first gay themed movies I ever saw was a British film called Get Real and there was a moment at the end, after the teenage lead of the movie has just come out to his parents and entire school at an assembly, in which he says to the parents in the crowd that their assumption that their children are heterosexual may be hurting them.
That struck such a chord with me at the time, because even the most liberal of parents still seem to assume that their children are straight until they hear otherwise. How much better off would the world be if parents made no assumptions one way or the other? I mean, no one automatically assumes that their child will like the same foods, books, movies, or sports they themselves like, so why must they assume their kids will be attracted to the opposite sex just because they are?
Until I saw this episode of One Life to Live, I'd only seen one similar scene in which a parent didn't just assume their child was heterosexual. It was in the movie Love Actually, in which Liam Neeson's character finds out his young stepson is in love and asks what the girl or boy's name is. That moment alone made me love that film.
Anyway, I just thought it was such a fantastic moment, seeing Rex make it perfectly clear to his young son that whoever he loves will be fine, that anyone loving someone of the same gender is fine. It wasn't the focus of the conversation, in fact it was almost an offhand comment, but it said so much. All parents should see something like this and think about what messages they may be sending to their children, just through their own assumptions.
It made me want this show to write in a gay character- or a gay couple, better yet- even more than I already did.
You can watch this scene here if you'd like to see it. It starts around 38 seconds into the video.
Shane: It's called sex.
I love it! One of the first gay themed movies I ever saw was a British film called Get Real and there was a moment at the end, after the teenage lead of the movie has just come out to his parents and entire school at an assembly, in which he says to the parents in the crowd that their assumption that their children are heterosexual may be hurting them.
That struck such a chord with me at the time, because even the most liberal of parents still seem to assume that their children are straight until they hear otherwise. How much better off would the world be if parents made no assumptions one way or the other? I mean, no one automatically assumes that their child will like the same foods, books, movies, or sports they themselves like, so why must they assume their kids will be attracted to the opposite sex just because they are?
Until I saw this episode of One Life to Live, I'd only seen one similar scene in which a parent didn't just assume their child was heterosexual. It was in the movie Love Actually, in which Liam Neeson's character finds out his young stepson is in love and asks what the girl or boy's name is. That moment alone made me love that film.
Anyway, I just thought it was such a fantastic moment, seeing Rex make it perfectly clear to his young son that whoever he loves will be fine, that anyone loving someone of the same gender is fine. It wasn't the focus of the conversation, in fact it was almost an offhand comment, but it said so much. All parents should see something like this and think about what messages they may be sending to their children, just through their own assumptions.
It made me want this show to write in a gay character- or a gay couple, better yet- even more than I already did.
You can watch this scene here if you'd like to see it. It starts around 38 seconds into the video.
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