Choosing the Sanctified Reply: A Case for Optimism
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Accentuating the Positive
Like many fans of the Netflix reboot of Queer Eye, I can’t help crying over every single episode. What is it that makes this show so brilliantly poignant, week after week? Each segment goes much deeper than a mere external makeover.
It’s really about five men unequivocally and profoundly helping someone in need. Each episode features a person who has been nominated by a loved one because it’s time for a change. The chosen individual has agreed to meet the one-week challenge of making the first crucial steps toward transformation.
What strikes me the most about these guys — also called “The Fab Five” — is that they’re able to see what we can’t see. Invariably the chosen subjects are scruffy, even unattractive, living in a disorganized and unkempt environment. By the end of the episode, we barely recognize these individuals — now appealing, confident, and ready to live their lives with newfound resolve.
How do Bobby, Karamo, Antoni, Jonathan, and Tan do it? Focused on the positive, and eliminating the negative, the Queer Eye guys always manage to see the silver lining in every situation. Then with no-holds-barred truth-telling, each applies his unique gifts to go to the heart of the matter and points out whatever problems need to be met.
Yet never is there any snarkiness or vulgarity so prevalent in entertainment today. They build trust right from the start with unequivocal acceptance and gentle humor. Their authentic kindness and openness are obvious. In each one-hour show, we find out that there’s more to learn than we bargained for. And in the process, everyone is changed for the better.
How important Queer Eye is for us all these days. One by one, these remarkable examples of transformation are teaching us to really see others and therefore to see ourselves in an entirely new way. In fact, one reporter has even stated that it’s “actually making America great again.” How can we join the Fab Five in their crusade to make the world a better place?
