The beginning of the new Hulu show Love, Victor exposes the privileges and criticisms of its film predecessor, Love Simon. In the first scene Victor Salazer (Michael Cimino) is sitting on his bed scrolling through Simon Spier’s (Nick Robinson) Instagram. He then messages him angrily saying “Screw you!” making Simon acknowledge the privilege of happiness Simon has with his boyfriend and accepting parents that Victor feels is not attainable for him. Simon is white and from a middle class liberal family while Victor is Latinx and comes from a religious more conservative family. Originally from Texas, Victor moved to Georgia to attend the same school, Creekwood High School, Simon attended a few years earlier. Unlike living in the wealthy part of town like Simon, Victor moves into an apartment with his two younger siblings Pilar (Isabella Ferrerira) and Adrian (Mateo Fernandez) and parents Isabel (Ana Ortiz) and Armando (James Martinez). Unlike Pilar, Victor is open to a new experience at a new school in order to figure out who he is.
He hopes to get away from the homophobia he has faced in the past within his family and at school. He hears about Simon from the Vice Principal who was the drama teacher in Love Simon who talks about how exciting it was for everyone to see Simon kiss Bram (Keiynan Lonsdale) on the ferris wheel at the Winter Carnival. However, Simon quickly realizes how Creekwood isn’t like he hoped with many of the students being rich and with homophobic comments still being tolerated. It becomes even more apparent at the end of the first episode that Victor’s story is going to take a different route than Simon, with Victor asking a popular girl Mia (Rachel Hilson) to ride the Ferris Wheel with him instead of the cute gay guy Benji (George Sear), the same Ferris Wheel Simon kissed Bram. As this ferris wheel scene plays out we hear the voice over of Victor writing Simon “My story is nothing like yours.” I first thought that Victor was going to be bisexual or on the spectrum since he does develop a relationship with Mia who he expresses care for unlike Simon who only dates Bram. A pen pal type relationship forms between Victor and Simon, with Simon acknowledging that they aren’t the same. Even though there are differences, Victor messages Simon for guidance about figuring out his identity.
Even though the show did a great job at exposing the flaws in Simon’s story being presented as universal, it does not dig deep enough into other aspects of Victor’s social location. Yes, he is not from a wealthy family and is seen getting a job at a coffee shop where Benji works in order to pay the $500 registration fee to join the basketball team. It does not seem that the Salazer family is completely lower class either since Armanado is not worried about keeping the family afloat and does not want Isabel to go back to work. However, their class standing compared to other classmates’ is never explored or discussed even though most of the other characters, Andrew (Mason Gooding), Mia, and Lake (Bebe Wood) come from wealthier backgrounds. Racial dynamics are never discussed either. I was surprised to see a black girl, Mia, be perceived as the hottest girl at school with a white sidekick disrupting the trope of the popular white girl with her black sidekick. We only hear about one instance of racism taking place with Pilar telling Victor a classmate called her “Dora.” I was surprised to see Victor’s family openly accept Mia as his girlfriend, specifically his conservative grandparents, especially considering anti-Black racism prevalent in Latinx families. The show lacks on how Victor’s racial and class dynamics impact his life living in the South especially for someone who comes out as gay. Even though the show does give implication the family is religious with references of going to church and dressing modest is important, it does not explore how religious the family is and if they are conservatively homophobic.
The show lacks on how Victor’s racial and class dynamics impact his life living in the South especially for someone who comes out as gay.
However, the show does give us a taste of how being in household traditional gender roles affects his identity. Victor says he has always been a fixer in the family. Isabel even thanks him for being her rock and that she is glad she doesn’t have to worry about him. Victor is constantly seen as interfering between Isabel and Pilar’s fights and between his parents’ marriage issues. He takes on this traditional masculine role of being head of the house when he is just a young teenager. Simon tells Victor that it is easier to worry about fixing other people than himself. I believe this is why we do not see Victor truly develop as a character because he is stuck in this role of being the glue that holds his family together. Besides caring greatly for his family, all we know is Victor likes basketball. Armando takes on the role of the breadwinner and has internalized views about homophobia and traditional masculinity. After seeing Benji and his boyfriend Derek (Lukas Gage) kiss at Victor’s 16th birthday party, Armando and his dad are both uncomfortable. Victor stands up for Derek and Benji and Armando later learns that he does not care about what other teenagers do but still does not want his youngest son, Adrian, to be “that way.” He is also delighted when Victor is dating Mia and applauds him for it but does not seem to care much about when Pilar gets heartbroken by her long distance relationship.
Love, Victor and Love, Simon both have interesting representations of masculinity and gayness. Simon and Victor are both masculine presenting. In some ways, Victor takes on a more traditional role of masculinity with being a star basketball player unlike Simon who was in the drama program. Benji and Derek also present as more masucline. Love, Simon had a femme presenting character Ethan (Clark Moore) who Simon did not want to be associated with. When Victor went to New York to visit Simon, he met his roommates, two of which are more femme presenting. This worries Victor since it implies he associates gayness with femininity which bothers him. Simon’s boyfriend Braum who is also masculine presenting takes Victor to play basketball with mostly black players who are also gay. Victor seems surprised of hypermasculine presenting people being gay. He later learns that Simon’s roommates have been giving Victor advice through the messages Simon sent since his roommates have been through experiences similar to Victor such as Braum had a girlfriend before coming out and Justin (Tommy Dorfman) was also from a religious background. Even though Victor met some new queer people who showed diffferent ways of being gay, Victor still looks up to Simon. Simon is presented as still the only guiding voice and we never heard from Simon’s roommates again. There is nothing wrong with Victor feeling more comfortable presenting himself as masculine but the show still positions white gayness as Victor’s aspiration. The scene with the gay black basketball players is so short that we do not see how much it impacts Victor. On the other hand, the gay people around Victor are white: Benji, Derek, and Simon. Therefore, the show lacks on giving Victor another Latinx queer person to look up and has him rely on mainstream ideas of white gayness.
There is nothing wrong with Victor feeling more comfortable presenting himself as masculine but the show still positions white gayness as Victor’s aspiration.
Love Victor, spends too much time developing the straight characters of the show while making Benji a sexual object. We learn a lot about Mia’s background story such as her dad is never home because of his job, her mom left her, and her dad is now marrying someone new. Again, Victor’s development and even coming out is stifled because of another character this time it is because he wants to truly be there for Mia. Thus, their relationship is dragged out to the end of the show. We also learn that Felix’s (Anthony Turpel) mom is a hoarder and that Lake’s mom puts a lot of pressure on her to care about appearance. Felix, the bully and jock, is also made more complex with showing a more caring side to him especially towards Mia. However, we barely know anything about Benji. From the first time we see Benji, he is represented as a very good looking guy. He is often sexualized. He is first seen in the first episode in slow motion drinking water and running his hand through his hair a couple of times. When Benji interviews Victor at the coffee shop a sexy song plays while Benji is rubbing his hair again and the camera zooms in on Benji’s muscles peeking out under his shirt. It is creepy in a way since Benji is also a teenager. In another time, Benji is seen wearing a tank top showing off his muscular arms. While at a thrift store together, Victor peers into Benji’s dressing room and sees him changing, revealing his muscular arms and six pack abs. Other characters like Lake often comment about how sexy Benji is. Benji embodies the white, gay, muscle man trope. Benji’s background often remains a mystery until the seventh episode of the 10 episode series where Benji reveals his relationship with his dad, his difficulty coming out, and how he crashed his car into a Wendy’s while drunk. We also learn he is a romantic, unlike his boyfriend Derek. However that is all we know about him. We do not know where his mom is or if he has siblings or who he lives with. Thus, it seems like Benji is more of a symbol to Victor, a symbol of an attractive, epitome of white gay masculinity. Even though Benji is sweet, his identity as a sexual object undermines the powerful moment when Benji and Victor actually kiss. It is hard to really feel the emotional bond between them when there was more of an emphasis on Victor’s physical attraction to Benji and emotional attachment to Mia.
Love Victor, spends too much time developing the straight characters of the show while making Benji a sexual object.
I hope the second season of Love, Victor we will see Victor develop outside of his family life and into a relationship with Benji, especially since the last scene showed Victor coming out to his family then cutting to credits. The second season needs to put more attention to the gay characters of the show by making them complex as the straight characters. Victor needs to meet other queer Latinx people to build a community around. I do think the show should be praised for recognizing the limits of Love, Simon and centering a Latinx character. Overall, in order for Love, Victor to be truly powerful and successful it needs to truly focus its efforts on the LGBTQ+ characters and do more than sprinkle a few representations of femme, non white gayness.