Queer Eye is one of many successful Netflix Originals, and has just been renewed for a third season. It features five gay men who travel around the Kansas City area looking to help others. Each of the five men specialize in one thing – Antoni in food, Bobby in interior design, Karamo in self-love, Jonathan in beauty and wellness, and Tan in fashion. With their skills, this group goes into the lives of nominees and spend a concentrated week working to help them better themselves in all areas of their life.
Queer Eye is an important show for a host of reasons. The show is a champion for representation, both in the Fabulous Five themselves and the people featured on their show. The Fabulous Five is made up of five gay men – Antoni, Tan, Jonathan, Bobby and Karamo. Moreover, Tan is an Pakistani man and Karamo is an African-American man, both allowing for men of color to be given representation on the screen. The power of representing people who are both gay and men of color is incredible for marginalized groups.
Overall, Queer Eye is a bright spot in a dark society. The show is free of judgement and hate, and instead radiates positivity, self-love and self-improvement. In a world that can be stressful and exhausting, it is so valuable to have a space to forget about all the bitterness in our world and instead focus on the wholesome ideals of the show. What if we all took the time to focus a little more on how we take care of ourselves how our spaces feel, how we eat, how we look and how we see ourselves.
Not everyone get the opportunity to have their lives revitalized by the Fab Five, but what if we did their work for them? What if we took the time to take care of ourselves as if it were literally the job of five men? How many things would be addressed, changed or improved in your own life if that kind of specialized attention was paid to your well-being? Queer Eye gives audiences the inspiration and tools to care for themselves deeply and holistically, as we all should aim to do.
After the third season premiered, I found myself watching about an episode a day of the show. Soon, I challenged myself to incorporate one of these aspects into my own life per day. I started with the Bobby aspect – my space. I cleaned up, organized and fixed everything in my room that I had procrastinated taking care of. Soon, my dorm felt completely new. The next day, I treated myself the way Jonathan would, by doing my whole skin care routine and a hair mask. As the days progressed, I spent each one focusing on a different aspect the way one of the Fab Five would – I channeled my inner Karamo by affirming myself and spending time doing what I love, pretending I was Tan and dressing myself in an extra cute outfit, and ate food that made me feel good like Antoni would want me to.
Queer Eye aims to give people who need a little push in their lives the tools they need to sustainably care for themselves on a daily basis. The show does not look for quick, drastic changes to completely transform a person’s life, but instead seeks to help them in continuously creating a life they are happy in, and I believe that’s a goal we can all get behind.