How to Get Away With Murder

Hey guys, since my last few posts have been a little negative, I thought I'd write about something positive. I don't want to project that I'm a negative person because in reality, I'm the exact opposite. I'm a positive person who sees the negative, however, projects as much positivity as I can. I heard a quote once that said, "When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change." There's enough negativity in this world to kill half of it, so without further build up. . . Today's topic!

About a month ago, me and my boyfriend were searching through netflix. Every night we get home from work and we'll be looking for something to watch because let's face it, TV just isn't what it used to be. All that is ever on these days are shitty remakes of classic shows, shitty reality TV shows, and the shit that no one wants to watch. Of course there are some good shows in contrast to those, but you only ever catch them if you stay home all day or its one of those once a week type shows.

So we were scrolling through trying to do d something to watch, and we came across this show called How To Get Away With Murder. The show came up in Kyle's top picks or most recommended,  but honestly we don't pay much attention to that section because 12 other people use his netflix. (Sorry Netflix) However, we had both came across this previously in passing and decided to give it a shot; it was another series to get into and it starred the wonderful and fabulous Viola Davis.

Mrs. - miss? I don't know if she's married or not... she should be, she's fucking Viola Davis! - Viola Davis has been a huge star for both of us in everything she's played, especially for me. She played one of the main characters in the movie The Help, which was an incredible story about what it was like during the Civil rights movement of black people's rights. I loved her ever since that film because she had been a huge advocate for black people and a wide inspiration to many.

In this show, Davis plays the hard ass professor of a law class in what I believe to be in the graduate school level. On top of that, she is also an active defense attorney in the courtroom whom does not lose cases. From the very beginning she takes on five students she names the "Keating Five" ( because her name in the show is Annalise Keating) that she essentially interns them and takes them into the courtroom with her and they are to help her solve and fight her cases. They are taken under her wing with her two associates and must continue their struggle in hiding and uncovering more about their dirty, little secret.

Right off the bat, you can tell that this show is a crime - drama. It includes the law and the fighting in the courtroom, however it is so much more. If you wanted to see law fighting and excruciating cases, you could just watch Law and Order or NCIS, or something, but I brought you to this show! Why? Because once you are engaged, you are hooked and there is so much more that you need to know before you can just jump ship. You need to know how she does it. How does she somehow manage to get these people who admit murders to her, off? You need to know how she plans to hide their dirty little secret. You need to know why she cares so much for these students. You need to know why more and more shit keeps happening to her. You need to know, what happens to the students in the very end.

Like in every show, at least in every good one, you get attached to the characters. In all honesty, that's what creates a great movie in my book! My ability to connect with the characters is crucial to me enjoying most things. I guess that is the psych major and sociology minor in me speaking. I just love people and I love getting to know more and more about them. Why did I feel so connected to Harry Potter? Because I literally grew up with him. When he cried, I cried. Harry was like a good friend to me, I listened even when he thought no one else did. I was there fighting with him in every book, in every movie, and just like his parents, I never left his side. Same goes for divergent. I felt like I grew up with Tris Prior. I've only read up to Insurgent, but I've known her since she was 16 and finding out in herself that she didn't belong in abnegation. Her panic in understanding in what it was to be different and having to hide it and fall in line to secure your safety?  I couldn't understand more. Harry and Tris are both important people to me because I was able to connect with them. To me that is key. In that case, How to Get Away With Murder has got me.

I am so involved in these characters, it is unbelievable. I think it even helped to bring in a familiar face for me to, and I do remember it being one of the bigger pushes to me watching it as well. Alfred Enoch stars in HTGAWM (typing that out everytime was getting to be murder) as Wes Gibbons or amongst the "Keating Five" he was formally known as "wait list" because of his unprepared first day in class was do to him being just allowed in because he was wait listed. If you look at Alfred Enoch closely, or have watched Harry Potter as much as I have, you could tell that he is Dean Thomas from Harry Potter. Dean is a longtime friend between Harry, Ron, Seamus, and really the rest of Gryffindor house. In Order of the Pheonix, Dean Thomas is actually dating Ron Weasley ' s sister, Ginny Weasley. Already, I was hooked from there because it involved Mr. Mudblood Dean Thomas!

However, the character that has really got me clinging to my bed sheets - Sorry Dean -  is Jack Falahee's character Connor Walsh. Connor is the clever, smart guy in the room who also has that sexy appeal to him. It's funny how much he rivals another student in the Keating Five by using his sex appeal to get him what he wants. Now, if you guys know me really well, you guys will also know why he is my absolute favorite. He is more than just a pretty face with a brain. . . That's right readers, you've guessed it; he's gay. (Enter applause)

You don't know how proud I was to find out that he was gay. At the very beginning, you know he's a major character because of the dirty, little secret he's involved in, but you don't find out right off the bat that he's gay. If you've been following along for a while, and if I had posted the paper I wrote my freshman year of college on The Fosters, you'll know that I LOVE it when they don't make it obvious that a character is gay. I just find that in so many shows, four out of five, that the gay character has got to be the traditional stereotypical gay guy with the flamboyant voice and traditional gay attributes. It's insulting. Yes, there are guys with those attributes in the gay community, howevwr, that is not all we are made of! In my paper, I even address how Will from Will & Grace is even made out to be a "straight - acting" gay guy with feminine attributes and is even sought out to end up with Grace!  We are a community with as wide a range of personalities as any other community, and it's about mother fucking time they noticed it!

What made Connor so much more meaningful to me was the fact that he was actually even competent. More so, he and his life are both relevant! How many times do you get the gay character that can't stop focusing on himself enough to be fucking competent in anything that the rest of the cast is doing! In addition, how many times do we actually find a good representation of a gay guy and then he's only seen for fucking 5 minutes and then he's never seen again, and if he is, he's only there for only five more fucking minutes! We don't ever get to know him or what his real attributes are like; they just so happened to have leaked that he was gay, or they probably blurted it out just to say they had a gay character, and exempt him from the show and claim to the public that they are proud to include a gay character. Bull. Shit.

In HTGAWM, everything Connor does has an impact on the show, his life, and the Keating Five. I believe in either the first or the second episode, he reveals that he is gay by seducing a member of the jury or a client and it works in their favor, also shooting at the sexual appeals of his rival, Michaela. Can we just stop to talk about this for a moment! The fact that his rival is supposed to be fucking Aja Naomi King is fucking awesome! She's an incredible actress, she's fucking gorgeous, and she's a great advocate for a black woman. Usually in these kinds of shows, there are two girls battling between sex appeal and brains, but in this case, they brought a King and a Queen. ( Ba Dum Dum) In this show, both of them are great looking people with great brains.

Back to Connor, the show holds him at being a little promiscuous, but as I'm growing up, I'm learning that what young adult isn't? It's not like they are doing it because he's gay and that's a stereotype, most young adults are just a little over horny, trust me, I know what I'm talking about! Even his colleague, Asher, is the same way! It is just nice to see that for once there is a character that can represent for those of us in the community who are so widely underrepresented. The nice thing is, a tiny spoiler, he grows out of being the obnoxious, sex crazing guy he is and "gets comfy."

In addition to Connor, and this is just me being the horny, young adult I am, you get to see some really good looking guys! Good thing is, everyone in the show so far is actually very attractive, but this guy Charlie Weber has got me running to all my girlfriends! I must have told almost 100 people about this guy. Google even knows when I'm going to search him up and what picture I want. Naturally, I don't go for the skinny and in fit guys as much, however, the second I seen that guy, I was fully hooked onto the show. He's not as big a character as Connor or the rest of the Keating Five, but he does have a pretty major role.

This show is a fantastic show. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone under the age of 16, but it is absolutely incredible. I am the furthest thing from being included in the topic of law, and this show still appeals to me. I think what this show has really even done to me has made me make that final push to thinking that I want to be a professor. For the longest time, I've always thought about being a twacher, but I could never find the age group that I liked enough to put up with it. On top of that, teaching jobs are hard to come by and there isn't anything within the couple subjects that schools teach that I would really want to teach to the extent I would want to. I have the patience to be a teacher and I think I have the personal skills for it as well. I think if I could be anything, I would want to be just like Annalise, just without the dirty little secrets everywhere.

I would love to teach my own class and then have my own little group of interns to work under me and I can get to know them all individually and I can build them up and set them off into the workplace, maybe even make my own office and have them work for me. I just love the idea of getting to be a role model just as she was. To have people look up to me and want to be me as people look up to Annalise and want to be like her. I would love to have that diverse group of interns that we all have something in common and individually we have even more in common and just becoming a good group altogether is amazing to me.

I have a research study that I take part in on campus that makes me feel almost how I would imagine Annalise makes the Keating Five feel. Everytime I am in the classroom with my professor and the other students, I feel special. Honorable. When she speaks about certain things, she keeps an extra eye out for us and we sneak glimpses at each other knowing that we're the special group she'll be talking about. Moreover, we've even got our own research lab! We've decorated it, brought in chairs and snacks and stuffs. I even go there in between classes as my time to get away. We've just gotten so comfortable in there and it has really given me that connected feeling to ESU that I always wanted in a college. In that form, is what I would want to give to kids in the future along with my own profession on the side.

How To Get Away With Murder is a must see. I have told everyone about this show because it is truly a show that needs to be known out there because of the underlying strengths that it carries. All of the first season is up on netflix and Hulu and the second season is playing on all the major news channels - excluding Fox and NBC - at 10 o'clock (I don't know what central, I guess 9?) on Thursdays. Please give this show a watch because that will make it continue to grow and we need more shows like this on TV that can actually benefit society.

That's it for today's post. I hope you guys had as much fun reading this as I did writing it. I enjoy writing about topics like this. They just flow so much better for me, especially since I've probably told this story almost 40 times. I hope to write again soon, and check out the show! Tell me what you think! I'd love to hear how everyone feels about it.  Or even just to say Hi! I have slowly been looking into more and more posts. I know these things are mostly internal, I love to hear from people, so I assume so do others.

Have a great weekend everyone!
~Be Breezy!~

Making Us Look Bad

Good morning guys, I know it's been a while, and I'm sure you're expecting the same usual BS. Well, that's good because that's really all it is. (Enter shameful emoji)

Today's post is brought to you by an experience I've been having in my Intro to Cultural Diversity lecture class. I can only hope that my writing is getting better as time goes on; however, being that I keep taking such huge hiatuses, it may be getting worse. But this post is mainly to get my thoughts out, however crude they may be, and hopefully get some feedback or answer my own questions.

I have an 8 AM lecture class that is required for my minor in Sociology and required for most other people's majors and minors, whatever they may be. In difference to some others, I actually find this course interesting, which I assume should be important if it is related to your choice of field. I actually care about what the professor is talking about and find the information interesting and engaging from time to time. Now, because I'm saying that I find the topics interesting doesn't mean that I don't find some parts uninteresting and boring. To all wide range courses, there are parts you like and dislike. In general, I think there are parts of things that you like and dislike, but you have to take the good with the bad. In fact, this course was going to be the deciding factor on if I was going to keep sociology as my minor because I didn't find the first course I took, Intro to Sociology, that interesting. It turned out to be my professor that I found less interesting than the course itself, which is good because it means I have a good professor this semester to keep me engaged. The problem this semester lies with this insanely rude student in the class.

This is a class of AT LEAST 100 students! The fact that ONE student could annoy me this much is insane! I never used to notice him until after he presented his project with his group. His group's topic of choice was nothing interesting and his performance was dull to say the least. What made him stand out to me was that he was obviously gay.

People like this always stand out to me because of their strength and their egos. They stand out to me because despite what the general population of males may think about guys who are flamboyant and for lack of a better term shoot rainbows or a purse falls out when the talk, they stay true to who they are and they do it with pride. This guy in particular where's the tight skinny jeans, the long, flowing cardigans, talks in a very effeminate voice, and paints his nails. I think the nails is what caught me right off the bat.

I remember painting my nails when I was little. I thought I looked soo cool. My older sister and mom did it, so I thought I would be just like them. And then my parents seen what I had done. My parents were obviously disapproving and made me take it off immediately. I never cared about it much growing up, it was just one of those things we did when we were little and got in trouble and never bothered with it again. I don't think about it now and I'm not jealous of the kid that wears it, I'm just proud of him for wearing it outright and proud.

So why does he bother me? No doubt he made me proud and made me feel like I wasn't alone. He stood up against stigma and fought it off of him. He stays himself among anything else. Why does he annoy me to my last nerve? Because of the rest of his character.

Ever since I noticed him that day, EVERY time I'm in class, I know he's there. Not because I can see him, and not because I find him attractive. (Gross) It is because I can hear is rude, obnoxious ass.

Every class period, this guy is fucking belching up a storm and talking over the professor about the STUPIDEST shit! He'll be complaining, or talking about what he's doing or what he would want to be doing, or gossiping, or talking about someone, and those kind of people aggravate the SHIT out of me!

It would be one thing if I only heard him or he only annoyed me whenever I had to sit near him, but he's obnoxiously annoying from everywhere in the room! He always sits in the back left corner of the room and his voice just fucking travels; mainly because everyone else is fucking quiet. One day, I had to sit next to him because I was already late and I didn't want to be picky on where I sat, so I sat next to him and a friend of mine who is friends with him. I never wanted to hit someone as bad as I did that morning.

This guy kept fucking complaining that he was getting sick, and then how he was going to shop online, asking our mutual friend if she liked the sweater he was going to buy, and why he should get it, and other clothes that were ugly, and how he wanted to go get coffee. I shit you not, this is the short list of what he actually did. What made it all so much worse was that he knew he was being obnoxious, and he was feeding off of it.

Today was just as bad, if not considerably worse. Today, the professor won't off lecture and started to talk about an experience that had touched him personally about genocide. He went on about the topic and even broke down and started crying because of how strongly this topic meant to him, and the kid was still being obnoxious and whatnot. I was unbelievably infuriated that the kid could not even hold himself together while the professor is pouring his heart out in front of the class and couldn't help myself from shooting him dirty looks for the remainder of the lecture.

So why did I choose to write about him? I'm in college now, I've had TONS of people annoy me in this manner before, if not worse! What makes this guy special enough to make me write about him? The impression be leaves behind.

Over the summer, the United States courts finally did the right thing and legalized gay marriage in all 50 states. This was an incredible victory for the gay community, and I wish I could have gotten myself to post something before I went to work that day, but I couldn't. After the initial excitement and tears and feelings had been gradually eradicated, I couldn't help feeling like we still aren't where we need to be. No doubt, we passed an incredible milestone and have come a long way, however, our fight and struggle are not over. We still have battles of stigma we need to fight. What about our Transgender brother and sisters? What about the youth that kill themselves and struggle with the knowledge that coming out could mean dire repercussions and exile from family and friends. What about that guy that doesn't know that being gay doesn't have to change who you are?

What makes this guy different from anyone else to me is the impact that he has on other people's meaning of what it is to be gay. I remember my dad and my assistant manager talking about how "all gay guys are catty and throw themselves out there, etc." What this kid is doing is proving to some people that that stigma is true. He's showing how we only care about ourselves and be obnoxious, etc. Guys like him make it hard for guys like me who come out because we don't want to be stigmatized that way just because we're gay.

Standing on the inside, however, I understand and know that it shouldn't be looked at that way, but sadly, it is. I know that he shouldn't be looked at as a spokesman for gay people, but when the population is scarce and uncommon, that's what happens. He didn't ask to be, just like I didn't ask to be, but we are; the difference is, I plan to use it to benefit the community.

As I continue to write and rant, I can see how my arguments can sound kind of weak and may seem like I'm picking at straws, but to me, that's what I see. It's what racist people see whenever they see that ONE black guy act obnoxious, and that's what bigots and ignorant people will see when they see him. No matter where we go or what we do, we are constantly being watched and constantly being stigmatized. It is our job to turn that into a proactive thing. I'm not saying to change who you are as a person, because trust me, I am far from perfect! What I am saying is watch what you do and where you do it, because it can sometimes be your footprint that people find.

That's my rant for the day. I'm still deciding on if I want to confront this kid publicly or do I want to do it gracefully and pull him to the side. The problem is that this kid isn't going to take me seriously unless I make an impact, but I have to remember that this is college and that things don't work out as easily as they should. Let me hear your guys' input, I'd love to hear what you guys think.

Enjoy your weekend,
~Be Breezy ~