Get out of the Closet to Feel Good: An Analysis of Queerness, Gender, and Sexuality in Mae Martin’s Feel Good
Introduction
Earlier this year, Mae Martin released a semi-autobiographical romantic comedy series, Feel Good (2020-) that is centered on her eponymous character, Mae, and her life as she navigates romantic and familial relationships, gender identity, and substance abuse recovery. In just six short episodes, this comedy series brings somewhat of a coming of age story, despite the characters being set in their late 20s, related to sexuality and sexual orientation. Mae falls in love with George, and within the first few minutes of the series, the two move in together and begin their new lives together; that of a non-straight woman for George, and that of sobriety and questions about gender identity for Mae. Though Feel Good (2020-) offers much in terms of queer representation, focusing on both non-cis gender identity and non-straight sexual and romantic relationships, and that the series is dedicated to Mae, this paper will analyze George’s character. I utilize the term queerness under its definition as an umbrella term, relating to individuals who fit into a non-straight construct.
Through discussions of how George’s friends and family treat her, and how she navigates and comes to terms with her own sexual orientation, I will argue as the supposed to be influential and supporting character to Mae, George’s queerness has been portrayed in contrast to Mae’s. I will explain how George has actually been projected as the opposite of Mae, and this can be seen through acceptability of Mae’s actions that are depicted with the ability to be fluid, changing, and conditioned by society. George’s character arc offers a different look at several key course concepts as she is not specifically the main focus of the show. In this paper, I provide an analysis of George’s character and her “coming out” story and I will argue that this story toes the line of gay (and not queer) visibility and politics, and that Feel Good (2020-) offers representations of anxious displacements, the closet and monolithic truths, and essentialism through George’s character arc.
Gay Visibility
Post breakup, George becomes upset with her friends for not asking how she has been doing. Her friends suggest that George was only dating Mae as a joke. The audience is offered a moment to feel sad for George while also angry at her friends for not taking her relationship seriously when George storms out. This interaction promotes a same-sex relationships and gay visibility through an assimilationist lens. Hilton-Morrow and Battles (2015b) suggest that “assimilationist argue that gay marriage extends civil rights and social acceptability, provides social stability, and civilizes gay men the same way that heterosexual marriage civilizes straight men” (p. 95). When the audience is offered the chance to be upset with George’s friends for discounting her love for Mae, the show is attempting to provoke the idea that George and Mae’s relationship encompasses civility, social acceptability, and validity.
George’s character exemplifies ideas of gay visibility as her coming out is pushed through an assimilationist framework. Her character does not promote queer visibility or politics as her arc does not challenge in anyway heteronormativity. Quite frankly, George still holds dear her childhood dreams that appear to be internalizations of heteronormative constructs: growing up, marrying a man, and having children. Her explicit rejection of marriage to Mae suggests that same-sex marriage is not as “dream worthy” or acceptable as a heterosexual marriage. George even rejects Mae’s expressed desires consistent with a homonormative life (settling down, marriage, family, children) in Episode 5 during their breakup. I caution that this rejection of a same-sex relationship performing similarly to the heterosexual characters’ relationships does not suggest a queer political visibility. Despite one’s ability to perceive this rejection as out of line, George’s rejection appears to stem from internalized homophobia and not the rejection of assimilationist representations and straight culture. This is a portrayal of gay politics and visibility as the tension between George and her friends, as well as between George and herself, as it is an extension of the fight for “the same visibility and rights as [her] straight counterparts” (Hilton-Morrow and Battles, 2015a, p. 18).
Anxious Displacement
Although I believe Feel Good (2020-) utilizes anxious displacements in the same way that Cavalcante (2015) describes this process, it appears that the cultural anxiety of George’s developing queer sexuality is displaced onto Mae, another queer character. However, I argue that this series utilizes anxious displacements to normalize the non-straight sexual orientations of many characters (Mae, George, Laura, the photographer at Dina’s wedding in episode 2) by heightening the focus of certain character’s substance abuse, financial insecurities, and non-traditional parental relationships. The anxiety typically caused by the threat of representations of gay and lesbian characters on screen to heterosexuality is traded in for anxiety caused by characters coded with other social and cultural tensions, particularly onto Mae’s struggle with substance abuse (Cavalcante, 2015, p. 457).
It is strange that the supporting character received the benefits of the process of anxious displacements, particularly since George’s story line revolves mainly on how her coming out (or not coming out) affects Mae, the main character. Nevertheless, George’s conflict with being out publicly to friends and family and her simultaneous internalized rejection and yearn for a homonormative life with Mae is normalized and allowed by the socially anxiety inducing storylines being displaced onto Mae. George is depicted as the responsible partner of the pair; She has an established career as a teacher, a stable living situation, a group of friends she has kept for a good portion of her life, and a relationship with her mother that appears connected. All of these traits, along with the portrayal of Mae as “troubled,” allow George to be viewed as “‘normal,’ rational, and responsible” (Cavalcante, 2015, p. 455). The anxious displacement process is focused on reducing the volume of anxiety in relation to queerness throughout the series by amplifying the anxiety in relation to Mae’s story, both past and current.
The use of this process of anxious displacements throughout the series also speaks the targeting of a specific audience. Feel Good (2020-) premiered on two very different platforms: Channel 4, a free-to-air British public broadcaster, and Netflix, a subscription-based online streaming site. The censored-ness as result of anxious displacements, the mix of assimilationist and essentialist arguments for one character while the other is allowed to challenge ideas through queer-radical politics, and the role reversal of rejection and yearning for homonormative family values suggests that the targeted audience was likely members of the “SLUMPY (Socially Liberal, Urban Minded Professionals) class” (Becker as cited in Hilton-Morrow & Battles, 2015a, p. 73). George’s character and her sexual orientation become acceptable and relaxed as she represents the ideal viewer (a SLUMPY) and her narrative is in sync with public opinion and acceptability. The displacement of cultural anxiety away from the femme, white, educated woman, offers George the ability to explore and express queerness while remaining a socially satisfactory character.
The Closet and Monolithic Truths
George immediately becomes the closeted non-straight character to Mae’s out and proud non-straight character. Although Mae does struggle with other parts of her identity, her queerness as sexual orientation or attraction toward women is not questioned throughout the series. In positioning George as closeted in contrast with Mae’s out character who is never hurt because of being queer, this forces George’s character arc to be working toward the culminating declaration of her sexual orientation and coming out to her friends and family. Although the portrayal of George’s choice to remain closeted is not one that is violent, this choice is shown as deeply challenging and vulnerable. Consistent with Peter’s (2016) analysis of teen tv, George’s choice to remain in the closet, despite her knowledge of acceptance from Mae, is depicted as self-subjecting to internalized homophobia. However, Feel Good (2020-) does not erase the idea of all social or structural homophobia through the offering of the text messages from George’s friends the morning after. That being said, George is never seen to be the victim of any specific bullying or blackmail as she maintains relationships with friends in her post-closet life. Again, this is evidence to Peter’s argument that homophobia is depicted as produced and perpetuated by non-straight closeted characters on television (2016, p. 497).
George’s character faces her biggest conflict in regard to coming out with Mae. What is interesting about George is that she does not attempt to be passing or pretending to be straight around strangers. At the wedding in episode 2, she openly tells the photographer that has a girlfriend. However, she does immediately become defensive when questioned about why Mae is not present, furthering the idea that homophobia is innate and her discontent at the wedding is due to her choice to remain in the closet. At the sex shop, in front of her friend, George states that she cannot make her boyfriend finish, however, it seems likely that when she speaks privately with the worker, George shares that she in fact has a girlfriend. This arc depicts the discontent and lack of sexual “success” for both Mae and George to be rooted in the fact that George has not yet told her friends about Mae or the relationship. The series only briefly portrays George’s experience in the closet as “tormented” when she yells at her school children: “Do you want to try calling me a fag, you little rat?” (Martin and Hampson, 2020d). In this understanding of the closet that Feel Good (2020-) exemplifies, if George would simply decide to come out, she would no longer be hiding her true self or sexual identity.
When she does in fact come out, it “predictably goes unexpectedly well” (Peters, 2016, p. 499). These events are all relatively small background pieces of the series’ story. After George has come out, the new issue is whether or not she is a true lesbian because of her history dating exclusively men. This questioning of her “real self” is not portrayed as homophobia, however is instead depicted as a projection of Mae’s insecurities of abandonment onto George leaving for the heteronormative dream for which she always wished. Although grounded in relationship and gender insecurities of one partner, this questioning of George’s “true self” actually appears to be an extension of what Wilchins (2004) described as Derrida’s idea of final or monolithic truths (p. 41). Through George’s coming out, predominant arguments of essentialism and the closet, provoked through the same “procession of grand truths” (Wilchins, 2004, p. 41), arise. The challenging of her queer sexual orientation is also a projection of the process of othering. Within this framework, George must now reject all that is part of the straight binary to qualify for the non-straight binary, despite Mae’s ability to question her own gender identity, and engages in heterosexual acts without judgements on her sexual orientation. It would make sense that the closet be an annex to monolithic truths in this way, as Peter’s argues that the closet stems from white, Eurocentric, Western thought, the same place that Derrida focuses his critique of tyrannical knowledge.
Essentialism
Throughout the series, we are reminded of the essentialist argument through George’s character. True to essentialists, the need for George’s acceptance of her sexual identity and subsequent reveal of her true self is never explicitly stated. Through the questioning of George’s adherence to lesbian codes, essentialism is prevalent in her story often through the judgements of others. Funnily enough, Mae’s character is allowed to freely explore her gender identity and even states her belief that sexuality is fluid and changing over time in her comedy set (Martin & Hampson, 2020c). The head to head of acceptable socially constructed and fluid identities versus the need for George’s adhere to rejection of the other binary is an interesting mix when layered with the essentialist nature of George’s narrative. Although she suggests that the only woman she is attracted to is Mae, the response from Mae suggests a straight essentialism with the social acceptability of George’s homosexual acts. Whereas the response from George’s friends suggest that her participation in a same-sex relationship is the automatic coding of her being a lesbian, who has “finally” divulged her hidden self and that this queerness has always been an inherent part of George’s personality and role.
It is possible that essentialist themes are projected onto George in connection with the process of anxious displacements as noted above. Positive public opinion of LGBTQ+ individuals is still linked with LGBTQ+ activism and gay politics that pushed for the acceptance into existing structures. By allowing George’s character to remain in keeping with essentialist arguments, Feel Good (2020-) re-affirms audience acceptance of queer individuals being. “born this way,” or uncovering and becoming their most authentic self. The projection of socially constructed, radical, queer politics remains heavily focused on Mae, and George contends with both straight and non-straight essentialism, as her identity is repeatedly challenged due to the history of her relationships and sexual acts. The implications, regardless of whether George is straight or not, is that she must be one. There is little offering of choice and we see George being subjected to the need to come out, accept that she is a lesbian, or to go back to hiding her “real desires” by dating men. This idea is continuously reiterated but is particularly evident in two separate scenes. First, in Laura’s words to Mae:
Laura: She’s straight, and she’s wasting your time. You should be with someone that knows what they’re doing.
Mae: Uh-huh.
Laura: Yeah. I don’t mean about sex. Just don’t let her shame rub off on you. It’ll give you bad posture. (Martin & Hampson, 2020a).
Second, when Maggie exclaims “I’m so proud of you for setting yourself free!” (Martin & Hampson, 2020b). Both scenes suggest that George’s sexual orientation is an innate part of her identity and personality.
Conclusion
The appearance of all these concepts throughout the short series speaks to the continued targeting of valuable viewers. It is possible to hypothesize that if this were not a semi-autobiographical and non-American text that the main characters might have been men instead. However, there is no mistake in the fact that the majority of the characters are white and upper-middle class. The contrast of one character who is in the closet matched with one character who is out of the closet continues to perpetuate ideas that homophobia is no longer a social or structural violence but an internalized violence (Peters, 2016), and this is proven with George’s struggle with the hurdle that is her coming out. This contrast also serves the allowance of one over another; a “more queer” character is allotted more “deviancy” over George who is deemed “culturally straight” (Martin & Hampson, 2020c). The projection of essentialist arguments through George’s character is striking in comparison to the socially constructed and radical arguments projected through Mae. These tensions, within the same relationship, offer an important understanding of the conflicting social and political views that influence queer media.
References
Cavalcante, A. (2015). Anxious Displacements: The Representation of Gay Parenting on Modern Family and The New Normal and the Management of Cultural Anxiety. Television & New Media, 16(5), 454–471.
Hilton-Morrow, W., & Battles, K. (2015a). Introduction. In Sexual identities and the media: An introduction (pp. 1-34).
Hilton-Morrow, W., & Battles, K. (2015b). Visibility. In Sexual identities and the media: An introduction (pp. 69-99).
Martin, M., Hampson, J. (Writers), & Pankiw, A. (Director). (2020a, March 18). Episode 3 (Season 1, Episode 3) [Tv series episode]. In Farrell, B., Pankiw, A., & Stevens, T. (Executive Producers), Feel Good. Objective Production.
Martin, M., Hampson, J. (Writers), & Pankiw, A. (Director). (2020b, March 18). Episode 4 (Season 1, Episode 4) [Tv series episode]. In Farrell, B., Pankiw, A., & Stevens, T. (Executive Producers), Feel Good. Objective Production.
Martin, M., Hampson, J. (Writers), & Pankiw, A. (Director). (2020c, March 18). Episode 5 (Season 1, Episode 5) [Tv series episode]. In Farrell, B., Pankiw, A., & Stevens, T. (Executive Producers), Feel Good. Objective Production.
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Peters, W. (2016). Bullies and Blackmail: Finding Homophobia in the Closet on Teen Tv. Sexuality & Culture, 20, 486-503.
Wilchins, R. (2004). Derrida and the politics of meaning. In Queer theory, gender theory: An instant primer (pp. 33-45). Los Angeles, CA: Alyson Publications.
