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One Day at a Time and its

Positive Effects on Queer Viewers

Jessica Chela Herrera

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

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Abstract

This essay will include an analysis on a new Netflix television show called One Day at a Time. It

will talk about episodes that reflect the issues on one specific character, Elena and her issues

about her sexuality. This essay will provide subtle advice in context to the issues Elena faces in

her family dynamic. It will provide an overview of the episodes and a more in depth analysis

about the effects the actions will have on the viewing audience. The main issue that is constantly

brought up are the lack of diverse characters. This essay is provide an overview of the television

show One Day at a Time and build a connection to queer viewers with representation of LGBT+

in media can provide advice and a different viewpoint on questioning sexaulity.

Keywords: diversity, LGBT+, representation

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Whitewashing of media has morphed into an inevitable issue that many people do not

acknowledge. The different forms of media--books, television shows and movies--hold the key

to introduce diverse characters; it holds a powerful key to eliminate insecurity issues and to

introduce a healthy form of accepting oneself.

Media, recently, has begun to show diverse characters, however, these diverse characters

tend to show three different roles in the text: background characters, comic relief ,and/or portray

stereotypes.

As a person that falls beneath two separate minority categories--LGBT and plus and

person of color--it becomes hard to find diverse characters that represent the struggles of a

minority. It becomes a struggle to view yourself in that character; and grasp that your own issues

and flaws are common insecurities across the globe.

Media outlets maintain the mainstream, whitewashed characters--heterosexual and

white--and ignore the audience's diversity. Netflix, a stream network, developed several original

series that include a diverse cast and diverse characters (Viruet, 2017). Netflix began developing

diverse television programs in order to provide a well-rounded representation of minority

groups--these television programs includes various cultures. A few of these television programs

are airing this year: Dear White People, One Day at a Time, and Las Leyendas (Viruet, 2017).

One Day at a Time--a show about a Cuban-American family with three generations living

in the same household--illustrates the clashing between generations and traditional values .The

show talks about social issues that are normally not targeted in mainstreamed media. These

issues include deportation, immigration, LGBT+, mental illness, and many more (Viruet, 2017).
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This essay will include spoilers about the Netflixs show, One Day at a Time. It will also

analyze episodes that contributes a positive effect on having culturally diverse characters.

Episode seven, Hold Please begins to hint the internal struggle that Elena is currently

facing (2017). Elena begins to speak about her internalized and conflicting thoughts when the

phone operator begins to ask personal questions about communication in the family (The episode

revolves around Penelope waiting on the phone to speak with a Veterans Affairs employee).

Elena immediately states ..I think I might like girls. And, afterwards she explains to her

younger brother, Alex, that she is confused and not certain about her sexuality (Hold Please,

2017).

This episode plays a role about teens struggling about accepting their sexual and romantic

urges. Elena is an example that you do not immediately know the answer and you still need to

figure out the details before confessing and explaining yourself. The words she used as she

confessed are common among those who struggle with their identity. They think they are one

hundred percent gay and do not questioned or to try understand their feelings. Elena, becomes,

this character that teens can view themselves in her, and becomes a pivotal metaphor that you do

not have to immediately label yourself within the LGBT+ spectrum (Hold Please, 2017). There

are endless questions that need answers and pondering through each question can lead to the

most satisfying and comfortable answer.

One Lie at a Time, episode eight, continues the new discovery of Elenas secret and

accidental confession to Alex (2017). In this episode, Penelope and Lydia are out of the

apartment, Elena ends up inviting Josh, her quinces escort, over to her home. Before Joshs

arrival, Elena explains to Alex that she does not know her sexuality and she wants to gain

experience between genders to understand her emotions (One Lie at a Time, 2017). This
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episodes revolves around lies and ironically, it becomes a word play about Elenas biggest lie,

her sexuality and her intentions with Josh.

This idea of questioning remains the center topic surrounding Elena; this correlates with

the age group that are beginning to mature and are struggling through puberty. Elena still

struggling to understand her emotions and even though she is against conforming to society, this

questioning if forcing her to conform to the idea that girls like boys. Elena is influenced by her

environment and becomes offended when another character assumed her sexuality was any

different from heterosexuality (One Lie at a Time, 2017). Even though Elena is confused about

her sexual orientation, she knows that she needs to experiment (kissing) the opposite gender to

understand the effects on her body. Elena used Josh to understand her romantic emotions and

sexual urges with male gender (One Lie at a Time, 2017). Even though, Elena accepted her

affections for Josh, it is more of a defeat of one battle, of one question. She used the word

think when she admits her feelings, which with the definition of the word think, Elena still

does not understand her hormones. But, Elena wanted to provide a satisfying answer to her

mother, in hopes she does not have to explain herself and not cause a strain in their family

relationship (One Lie at a Time, 2017).

The series takes a different route in the tenth episode, Sex Talk, it revolves around the

idea of parents giving the sex talk to their kids (2017). The controversial topic of virginity and

porn is highlighted in this episode. Both the grandmother and mother accepted the fact Alex

could be watching porn and it was to quenched his curiosity about the relationship between a

male and female. However, tension was risen when the main characters figured out that Elena

was the one watching porn (Sex Talk, 2017). The idea of purity and virginity was brought up

throughout the episode. Lydia stated that ...Girls are supposed to pretend they dont want the
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sex. (Sex Talk, 2017). This statement oppresses females to conform into the notion there is a

single sexuality for them, and that happens to be the type for reproduction-- heterosexuality. It

conforms females to the notion that they are not allowed to discover what certain kinks provide

them pleasure. Elena still does not understand what type of sex she wants, the lesbian or

heterosexual, so porn for her was an education tool to understand her body and sexual drive.

Even though she is fifteen years old, it has become normal for teens to watch porn and

understand their body--this should be normalized that both males and females have the ability to

manstrubate.

Porn in this episode helps Elena figure out her sexuality and answer the difficult question

of Who am I attracted to? At the end of this episode, Elena comes out to her mother and you

can see the strain it causes in Penelope. Shock is shown through Penelopes speech and her voice

sounds strain at the idea of Elena being gay, or in better words lesbian (Sex Talk, 2017).

Two episodes revolve around the acceptance of Elenas sexuality. Pride & Prejudice

opens the door of a positive reaction and acceptance, while Quinces has a heartbreaking and

negative reaction (2017). Both of these form of acceptance can show a teen that not everything is

black and white, but a range of different colors. People tend to comprehend information in

different levels, which takes time to finally wrap your thoughts around a new idea. Overall, the

show provides three different form of acceptance.

Penelope had exclaimed that some of my best friends are gay. (Pride & Prejudice,

2017). Many people make a statement that knowing a personal friend that happens to be a

homosexual can change your viewpoint on the community. (Altemeyer, 2002, 63-75). This type

of statement makes an excuse for homophobic people to defend their actions and view

homosexuals as a form of accessory. Penelope exclaiming that statement was a form to accept
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her daughters sexuality, and to find a common connection between her life and her daughters

new one. Her struggle to find a common connection with Elena made her reluctant to accept

Elena. However, later in the episode, Penelope realized that she does have common connections

with Elena and she does not need the interest of harboring romantic emotions with males (Pride

& Prejudice, 2017).

Lydia, a devoted Catholic, explained that she is not able to accept her granddaughters

homosexaulity. She used the tactic of her religion to defend her reasons (Pride & Prejudice,

2017). Within the few minutes of her explaining her lack of acceptance, she mention recent

quotes from the Pope, the head of the Catholic Church, Who am I to judge, (Pride &

Prejudice, 2017). Lydia spiralled down the list of contradictions between the Pope and God,

which ended up with Lydia accepting Elena. Lydia becomes a symbol of a religious person and

she becomes that key the love for a family member is more powerful than the religion. You can

have your faith in God, but it cannot blind you from loving and accepting a loved one.

Penelope and Lydia were both positive reactions, however the father, Victor, gave an

example of a negative reaction. In the final episode, Quinces, Elena came out to her father, and

he joked about her coming out (2017). His reaction is a common with homophobes; they are firm

believers that the person coming out is simply confused about their sexuality. Victor made it

seem that Elena had no voice or decision on her sexuality, simply base of her age (Quinces,

2017). Victor becomes a villain in this scene--he walked away from the most important dance of

the quinces, the father-daughter dance--him walking out changes the narrative of acceptance in

Elenas life. This provides a sense of not everyone will be accepting and change their values for a

family member; he contradicts the religious member of the family. His figure is the symbol of

tradition and traditions are always hard to break even with the difference in generations. Elena,
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like many people, are devastated over not being accepted by a close family member, but at the

end she realized that this family members opinion should not darken her other accepting family

members (Quinces, 2017).

Many people need to overlook the negative effects and find the positive that outshines it.

People, like Elena, are not alone and theres plenty that question their sexaulity. It becomes a

cycle and questions occur in random intervals. Television shows like One Day at a Time, can

encourage those who question their sexuality to use their resources and begin narrowing down

questions and finding comfortable answers.

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Works Cited

Altemeyer, B. (2002). Changes in attitudes toward homosexuals. Journal of Homosexuality,

42(2), 63-75, DOI: 10.1300/J082v42n02_04. Retrieved from:

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1300/J082v42n02_04

Kellett, G. & Royce, M. (2017). One day at a time. Los Angeles, CA: Netflix.

Viruet, P. (2017). Why has netflix decided to make diversity a top priority. Vice. Retrieved from:

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/why-netflix-has-decided-to-make-diversity-a-top-pr

ority
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Reflection

The most interesting idea that I learned throughout this inquiry process was streaming

networks like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, etc., do not need to conform their original series to

the Hollywood bias. These networks tend to provide the funds and greenlight the shows that

range in diversity. This provides a small insight of funding and money management these

networks do to provide the shows their subscribers want to watch. Also, they do not need to

worry about viewers ignoring a certain channel, since subscribers have the ability to choose their

own shows. I struggle the most with finding different information and using the sources to help

with my argument. My topic, my writing process, involved a broad stance and it could include

several different types of subtopics and go in various directions. I felt stress about narrowing

down my ideas to fit into the project without it overwhelming the reader with information of

different minority groups. It helped that I was able to talk out the process with Dr. Rand and I

was able to find coherent thoughts on a narrower subject. My question remained the same

throughout the process. It just morphed into a broader subject matter. This topic has a close

connection to my heart and I wanted to know more about the topic at hand. The history behind

the topic can help broaden and narrow down the writing direction of the question. It can provide

a general understanding of the history and know how it relates to current times. I feel that I was

able to think about the show I analyze more clearly as I talked out loud, but I was unable to write

it down on paper. I need to speak out loud and type as I spoke. I feel I need to better my

analytical skills to finally be able to answer the so what question. I am more proud that I was

slightly able to analyze a motion picture. I was unable to do such thing a few years ago even

early this semester. It gave me a sense of hope that I am able to better my skills. I want to know
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how others view on the subject about representation in the media and if there are any studies that

provide scientific proof about the effects on queer teens. I provide detailed sentences about how

my peers can improve their papers. It gave them a new perspective on inserting resources in their

paper without it conflicting with their own voice.