Empire Strikes a Nerve
Wednesday night I watched, along with 16.7 million other viewers, the first episode of Empire, season 3. For Empire fans across the globe the show’s hiatus has been an entertainment desert for us. I considered Empire as just that entertainment. I mean Cookie is one bad ass broad. Who can forget “You keep forgetting one thing, Lucius. You can’t keep Cookie down.” Then there is her ex-husband Lucious who we love to hate, and their handsome sons Hakeem, Jamal, and Andre who are just fine for no reason.
This episode turned out to be way more than I bargained for. As I settled into entertainment nirvana I was stunned to be thrust into soul searching self-reflection regarding what I thought about sexual fluidity! WTF! This is supposed to be entertainment! Or is it Educainment? Here I was having my beliefs, values, perspective, and passions challenged by the Empire storyline.
For those of you unfortunates who haven’t experienced the raw grit, humor, celebrity, and family values of the Lyon Dynasty let me give you a brief synopsis.
Empire is about family dynamics, power, celebrity, sketchy decisions and actions, and powerful music. They have built a music Empire much like the empires of other wealthy families; the origins of their start up dollars is shady. Nevertheless, they colorfully reign over the Empire.
The season premier caught us up on the fate of Andre’s pregnant wife Rhonda who, during the last season finale, is pushed down a long marble staircase. Final scene is her lying in a pool of blood. We find out how Lucious reacts to being removed from his throne, as CEO of Empire and something I did not expect, was the fallout from Jamal’s attraction to a girl.
So rewind, again during the last episode of season two, Jamal and Sky played by none other than the fabulous Alicia Keys exchange a kiss. Remember this is after Jamal’s amazing coming out party as a gay man. Who can forget Your So Beautiful or the look on Lucious’s face? GASP! Jamal kissing Sky What does this mean? Jamal came out publicly earlier in the season and we all hated Lucious for his mean hurtful reactions to his son being gay.
Well, this season Jamal’s power backer Jameson threatens to withdraw his support of Jamal’s quest for the Grammy over his relationship with Sky.
Now the plot thickens, at the run up to event where Jamal is supposed to sing the song he and Jameson is pushing for the Grammy’s. Instead Jamal sings his new song entitled “Freedom”; a song celebrating his liberation from the box of sexual identity classification. This is a great song. So back to my inner reflections and soul searching. Imagine my horror and self -judgment as I watched this amazing performance and was unable to really hear the song because I was thinking that’s not what freedom is about!
So, As a lover of equal rights, social justice, freedom from all types of discrimination, acceptance, diversity, inclusion, WTF was going on with me!?. Where did that thought come from? Any time I am experiencing cognitive dissonance around anything I have to pause and investigate. Why was I uncomfortable? Feelings are not something to go over with a minimum of concern. I was sensing a shift.
You see freedom of sexual fluidity was not something in my frame of reference, not something I had ever had to do some perspective taking on. I mean why would I? My own sexuality is about as fluid as boy meets girl, girl decides if she wants boy the end.
I had fell prey to my own perspective. You see when you are a member of the dominant culture the less you are called to perspective take. Meaning as a heterosexual woman I just never had to question my right to sleep with whom ever I wanted to. The concept of sexual fluidity as a freedom was not on my radar but now that it was where was I with it?
As a woman shaped more by the civil right movement than the millennial movement I was being called to explore my core values and re-examine the concept of freedom.
Jamal’s courageous declaration and song smacked me in the face with who do I want to be in the world? I landed on the side of freedom. You see more than anything my values are love, freedom, justice, acceptance, and human dignity.
No I was not raised to embrace sexual fluidity, however, I was raised to defend a person’s right to be free and unfettered by isms. People are people and we all have a right to choose what is best for us.
So thank you Empire for widening my love circle, calling me on my stuff, and continuing to educate and entertain!
