"Love Simon" is More Than Just A Movie....

..... it is representation that everyone needs on the big screen.

"Love Simon" is about a 17 year old boy named Simon Spier who is as gay as the day is long. As he hides his gay identity from everyone, life proves to be quiet complicated for him. He falls for an anonymous person online who goes by the pseudonym "Blue." And the rest is well - this is where you stop reading and go watch the movie if you have not seen it already - a roller coaster ride.

I would like to share a true story with you, which my friend Rosa shared with me.

Rosa and her best friend Amelia went to a coffee shop to catch up with a childhood friend of theirs'. Amelia is quiet shy so Rosa would excessively talk to keep the conversations going. When they arrived at the shop and sat down, the words naturally came to Amelia, and by naturally I mean with a bag of punches filled with what people have termed "roasting." But, its okay becuase Rosa knows that its all fun and games. She learned never to take any of Amelia's comments to heart. Rosa made a remark about how she thought the female protagonist of a show was amazing. Then, Amelia pointed to Rosa and told their friend "she is not exactly straight you know," followed by a condescending laughter. Rosa told me how she felt as if her world had froze and somebody had just sucker punched her in the stomach. She wanted to throw up. Now, I should tell you that Rosa is bisexual and she never came out to Amelia. But, apparently Amelia thought it would be okay to go ahead and assume Rosa's sexuality and then tell people they barely know and see once in a year or so.

Hearing Rosa's story broke my heart, especially when she told me the world of a difference a moment can make. She said that in the moment everything froze, things were like in a movie - everything in slow motion. She felt the weight of her friend's gaze harrowing down on her. The narrowing of the eyebrows, the slight tilt of the head as if she was trying to study Rosa, trying to figure out her queerness. "I felt like an alien," she told me. "It was a look of confusion but I could sense the potential judgement behind her eyes. I didn't know what to do. Well, actually what I wanted to do was disappear, but all I did was nervously laugh it off," she continued. The moment ended just as quick as it had started and everyone laughed it off, including Rosa.

Rosa told me how the only thing that made her feel better was "Love Simon." Granted Simon is gay in the movie and not bisexual, but she felt connected to his character nonetheless. In a certain part of the movie, Simon is outed as being gay and not to his own accordance. Simon struggles with this matter but eventually comes to acknowledge who he is and embraces himself and "Blue," his hidden crush. Of course, Simon's experience was very different from Rosa's, in the sense that Simon is strictly labelled as "gay" to a mass. However, watching this scene gave both comfort and hope to Rosa. She was empathetic towards Simon, especially when he says:

"I’m supposed to be the one that decides when and how and who knows, and how I get to say it, that’s supposed to be my thing!"

She was angry and frustrated that she was outed like that. She lived the struggles, she felt the pain, she should have had the experience of coming out. It was her right. But, instead she felt as if who she was, was so easily diminished with a few snarky laughs. That her one feet was in the boat and the other feet out. She was in this limbo where her sexuality had become a case of ambiguity and speculation, as if she were being dissected under a microscope.

So why did I decide to share Rosa's story with you all? I want to show everyone just how important representation is. Movies such as "Love Simon" is important for people like Rosa who need that representation to feel a sense of hope. Rosa is the only non-heterosexual person in her group of friends. She doesn't even know another queer soul. She had no one to rely on, or anyone who would understand what she was going through. But "Love Simon" saved her from feeling as if she was all alone in the world. Surely, if Simon was on the big screens and there was a movie made of struggles such as Rosa's then other people must have experienced such things as well? This was Rosa's hope.

I grew up watching rom-coms portraying heterosexual relationships. Watching "Love Simon," I felt like rom-coms had become more real. Like, if you were to stay cooped up inside your room for weeks and then finally if you stepped outside and the outside world just seemed so real, because it is real. Mainstream media shoves heterosexuality as the "acceptable norm" down our throats to the point when we see a movie like "Love Simon," which too is a mainstream rom-com, we are suddenly reminded that it is real. Heterosexuality in rom-com movies creates a construction of a false reality. In reality however, people love people from all colours of the rainbow. And "Love Simon" is a much needed reminder that all sexuality are the "acceptable norm," and the character's struggles are just as valid and so are the happy endings. It is representation that everyone needs to see and it is the reality that everyone needs to recognise.

Oh- and, don't worry about Rosa. She has come out to two of her close friends (besides me), since then, and they accept her for who she is, as they should and this time around, she was in control of her own narrative and she is continuing to write her beautiful story.