It could have been a beautiful representation of the unique queer Jewish culture that’s been finding its stride in America and elsewhere. It could have been a genuine moment of encounter between two holidays constantly pitted against each other. I don’t think it’s the job of a Christmas show to give us the Hanukkah content we deserve, but if Dash & Lily wanted to try, I wish they had given a little more thought to it. Rather than a complex being with a web of relationships, problems, and conflicting desires, they’re just flavors that add to the melting pot. Each identity is just a slight variation on the culture’s blueprint for the default person, in this case a straight WASP. This is the same misguided approach that many take when adding “diversity” to the mix: as aesthetically different elements who just need to be incorporated into the story but in no way should challenge our collective narrative.Īs tired as all these flat portrayals of communities I belong to are, they reflect how Jewishness and queerness live in mainstream American society today. Their differences from Lily are primarily aesthetic. They might have their own struggles with romance or Christmas, but in this world, those struggles would only distract from the focus. The characters who inhabit it add no nuance to the situation. It has no content or trajectory of its own. In the show, queer Jewish culture becomes a place where a “normal” girl can go to confront her fear of being weird, and maybe even learn that weird can be cool. The drag queen bouncer vanishes after her one-liner.ĭiego Guevara as Benny and Troy Iwata as Langston in Episode 103 of Dash and Lily CR. Lily’s gay brother and his partner appear for only a few minutes, just to give her advice and encouragement on which fierce dress to wear to this crazy Jewish party. While I’m excited that a Klezmer rock band and a gaggle of gay Jews got a spotlight on a mainstream Netflix show, the value of representation was undermined by the other unpleasant aspects of the episode.Īs far as I can tell, these Jewish people and queers are mostly set dressing for the plot of our lovebirds. While she meekly apologizes, they are perfect pictures of disagreeable and unforgiving Jewish New Yorkers.Įven with that heavily stereotyped characterization, you might be still be thinking, “Wow, Jewish and queer characters in a Christmas series? Great representation!” And you could be forgiven for assuming that. Lily’s first five minutes at the Hanukkah party is just one long string of her bumping into people on accident and getting drinks spilled on her. Otherwise, I’m afraid to say, Jewishness was depicted in this episode as the bland addition of “oy vey!” or “bubbeleh” to normal dialogue, or, even worse, by Jews just being generally more rude than their non-Jewish counterparts. This song made me nostalgic for that pre-COVID bliss, and the band’s appearance was a bright spot of legible contemporary Jewish culture. At a Purim schpiel in Seattle a few years ago, me and every Jewish queer I knew danced until sunrise to this exact, uniquely wonderful kind of music. Michael Cyril Creighton as “Door Queen.” Alison Cohen Rosa/NetflixĪnother one of the few highlights of the episode was that the real-life band Golem plays a punk Klezmer song about Shacharit, Mincha, and Maariv (the three Jewish daily prayer services for morning, afternoon, and evening) in the background of the party. It’s not clear to me if the scene was intentionally lampooning the amazing oppression olympics we’re prone to as a people, but the experience of having to show your suffering cred to get in the door was deeply relatable. The funniest part of the episode, for me at least, was that in order to get into the party, Lily has to prove that her life is a “drag” to a Jewish drag queen bouncer. Her gay friends help her pick out a dress for the night and off she goes into the unfamiliar and uncomfortable world of Jewish nightlife. In episode three, the notebook correspondence leads Lily to a secret Hanukkah show in the basement of a Jewish bakery. Dash and Lily (L to R) Midori Francis as Lily and Glenn Mccuen as Edgar in Episode 103 of Dash and Lily.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |