Queer Eye (2018)

Available Summaries:

"Queer Eye is an American reality television series, initially released February 7, 2018 on Netflix. A reboot of the original 2003 series produced by Bravo, each episode five advisors spend a week applying their expertise to help improve someone's life situation. [In S02E05] Skyler, a trans man, has just recovered from his top surgery and needs to have his legal identity reflect his true gender. The Fab 5 help him redesign his apartment and throw a celebration at his favourite bar." -Wikipedia.

"The Fab Five meet Skyler, a trans drag king six weeks out from his top surgery. Skyler is a pile of energy and charisma, at various points gushing about his hero Todrick Hall, grimly relating his tumultuous history with his family and bureaucrats, and ruminating on the deep bonds he’s developed within the Atlanta queer community. Most vitally, the Fab Five consistently treat Skyler with respect, even when he’s not around, and appear to approach his makeover from a careful and affirming standpoint. Karamo even provides emotional support while Skyler renews his driver’s license, something which Skyler expresses deep gratitude for... But just as [the original show] has its problems, [this episode] has its own. The episode begins with the Fab Five watching video of Skyler’s top surgery with shocked expressions. “This is his top surgery,” murmurs Karamo, stating the seemingly obvious. This scene is deeply uncomfortable in numerous ways: besides the audio-visual “othering” of Skyler (separating him from every other man on the show by making his introduction so different while also reinforcing the medicalization of transness in pop culture), Skyler later appears unaware that the Five were allowed to watch his surgery video, remarking with some surprise, “you got to watch that?” This raises questions about the show’s already dubious policy on consent... Queer Eye is a show about well-heeled cis gay men dishing out corporate-funded makeovers and redecoration that many of their subjects could never afford on their own. This most emphatically includes Skyler, who was forced to raise $8,000 from his community for top surgery and needs at least $100,000 more to deal with complications — a problem the show discards immediately after acknowledging it, preferring instead to shame Skyler and his roommates for keeping a “cat pee couch”... One might suspect they didn’t have enough money to replace it." -Them.

"It’s been almost a year since we did the original filming for the show and when I had my initial surgery, which was aired in the episode. I’ve had some procedures since then as well. So really, between filming and the show airing, my life has been focused on paying for those additional surgery costs and recovering. I just got off my medical restrictions yesterday, so a good portion of my year has been spent healing... One of the things that makes me saddest about what viewers get to see is that you see so little. It makes me so sad for the world, because the questions I keep getting asked are “Are these guys really that nice? Are they really that awesome?” My response is always “No. They’re even better than what you get to see on TV.” We spent a week and then some filming, they crush it into less than an hour, and there’s so much that’s left out." -Skyler himself.