Pride Month 2020: 'Work in Progress' gave us one of the best written queer roles in the last decade with Chris
Pride Month is celebrated each year in the month of June to honor the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in Manhattan. Every pride month, hundreds and thousands have conversations surrounding gender, sexuality, and representation. In the last few years, the LGBTQIA+ representation on television and films has reached new heights.
No longer are queer folk solely used as props in heterosexual stories, where they serve as stereotypes (often wrong ones) and tokens. The breakthrough in this pop-cultural representation, however, hasn’t yet reached full potential. Often, transgender and gender nonbinary characters have found lesser representation as compared to cis-gendered gay and lesbian characters on television and films.
One of the few shows that seem to get both the necessity of this representation and the representation itself right was Showtime’s queer dramedy ‘Work in Progress’. The show created by and starring Abby McEnany takes a look at mental health, suicidal tendencies, relationships, and life in Chicago. Opposite Abby, the middle-aged cis-gendered lesbian woman with anxiety and OCD, was Theo Germaine’s Chris, a 22-year-old transgender man, who is charming, cheeky, confident, and sensitive.
Germaine, a non-binary transgender person, who prefers both “he” and “they” as his pronouns, played what is arguably one of the better-written queer roles in the last decade. Often, when depicting genderqueer folks in media, writers tend to make their sexual orientations and gender identities the sole focus of the characters. In ‘Work in Progress’, however, Chris’ character is not defined by just that facet of his identity. He’s shown to be funny, sensitive, compassionate, and often disarmingly charming.
Through his character, the show treads a kind of romantic relationship that is hardly ever explored in media, that between a lesbian woman and a transgender man. Chris loves niche queer parties in Chicago. He is assertive about what he wants and doesn’t want from a relationship. And he speaks his mind regardless of consequences, or rather perceived consequences.
What makes Chris come alive, however, are his don’ts. He has his insecurities and one rule that needs to be adhered to. Arguably one of the most vulnerable scenes in the show is when Abby and Chris have sex for the first time. They both discuss their body image issues before that. Abby, who is conscious of her weight, doesn’t want the lights to remain on while they had sex. Chris, who had not yet gotten his top surgery, or male chest reconstruction procedure, insisted that Abby not touch his chest.
What follows is a lot of grunting and bumping in the dark with a couple of little accidents as well. But what it effectively shows is something that is real and not made up and retouched for the camera.
The other thing that Chris is absolutely resolute about is Abby never asking, finding out, or using his deadname. A deadname is the name that a transgender person was given at birth and no longer uses upon transitioning. Much like proper pronouns, a deadname (or the distancing from it) is a very important part of genderqueer identity.
The show explores Chris’s reaction to Abby finding out his deadname. And how he reacts -- he breaks up with Abby. It was a powerful moment on screen. That a transgender person does not have to reconcile their personal beliefs with love is important in terms of positive representations in media.
Theo Germaine’s Chris is undoubtedly a stellar example of how a character can be equally defined by their gender and sexual identities as by their other attributes. ‘Work in Progress’ no doubt is McEnany’s brainchild. But it’s hard to imagine the show without Germaine anymore. That’s how good that portrayal is.