Ashamed of His Partner’s Heels: How a Netflix Series Exposed the Fear of Judgment Within the Gay Community

Sometimes you don't feel like watching something grand, heavy, and clearly vying for the title of the year's biggest series. Sometimes you just want to sit down in the evening, turn on Netflix, and escape to New York for a few hours.

With its fashion, beautiful people, gossip, sex, relationships, and problems that, of course, feel like the end of the world when you're in your early twenties.

For me, that series was «Glamorous».

It's a lighthearted series that I'd happily save for a Sunday binge—when you want to take a break from the daily grind, switch off your brain, and enjoy a little New York, fashion, and other people's gossip.

If I had to describe it in one sentence, I'd say «Glamorous» is like «The Devil Wears Prada» meets «Sex and the City», «Ugly Betty», and a gay soap opera—all set within the world of the beauty industry.

And honestly, that was enough for me.

The series follows Marco, a young, vibrant, nonbinary person who gets the chance to enter a world they could previously only dream of: cosmetics, fashion, successful people, and a job at legendary Madolyn Addison's company.

But what captivated me most while watching wasn't even what was happening around Marco—it was Marco themself.

He seemed very inexperienced.

And I don't mean that as an insult. He's just over twenty, and at that age, it's probably perfectly normal to make mistakes. To choose the wrong guys, screw up at work, and not understand what you want from a relationship—or from your own life in general.

While watching the series, I often thought back to what I was like about ten years ago.

And I think I could easily have acted the same way.

I'm in my thirties now, and of course I see many situations from a completely different perspective. There are many things I would do differently. In some cases, I wouldn't demean myself like that; in others, I'd tell someone to fuck off sooner; and sometimes, I simply wouldn't make such obvious mistakes.

But that was exactly why I found Marco so interesting to watch.

Because perhaps growing up is largely about learning to look back at yourself ten years ago and think: “God, why did I ever do that?”

That said, I certainly can't say I liked every decision Marco made.

Especially in his relationships.

I really liked Ben. And I genuinely felt sorry for him when Marco kept blowing him off and sometimes treated him pretty badly. That’s probably why, more than anything, I wanted to see their relationship develop.

Ben seemed to me like exactly the kind of person you pass over for some reason, even though he might actually be the one you could have a healthy relationship with.

Parker, on the other hand, made me feel the exact opposite from the very beginning.

He literally gave off total asshole vibes. And the further the story progressed, the more convinced I became that my first impression had been right.

Though perhaps that’s exactly why this storyline worked. Marco keeps choosing someone who is completely wrong for him, because sometimes, in our early twenties, we really do find ourselves drawn not to the people who would make us happy, but to those with whom things will be difficult, dramatic, and inevitably full of emotional ups and downs.

I especially liked the way the show portrays queer life in general. Here, it doesn't exist separately from everything else.

LGBT characters don't appear on screen solely to tell viewers how hard it is to be queer. They work, date, have sex, make mistakes, get jealous, build relationships, and live perfectly ordinary lives.

And this is exactly the kind of normalization I like. When a queer character is simply a character, rather than a walking tragedy or a mandatory lesson in tolerance for the audience.

At the same time, the show does portray another side of things as well. For example, gay men who are still afraid of being judged by others for dating feminine guys.

And this is where I honestly don't understand what difference it makes.

You can be anything you want—masculine, feminine, in heels, with or without makeup. Why should anyone be ashamed of the person they're dating?

I suppose that's one of the things I especially like about modern queer content: it is gradually showing that all these internal rules about what a gay man is "supposed" to be like actually exist only in our heads.

Of course, I have to mention Kim Cattrall. Yes, the very same Samantha from "Sex and the City".

And here, to be honest, I didn't even recognize her at first. Though she fit the role of Madolyn perfectly.

A strong, confident, commanding woman who built her own empire—this character seems tailor-made for Cattrall.

She's fantastic, and without her, the show would definitely have lost a significant part of its charm. I also really enjoyed the whole beauty-industry world portrayed in the show.

I love “The Devil Wears Prada”, I love “Ugly Betty”, I love this corporate New York, the offices, the fashion, the career intrigue, and the sense that somewhere behind glass doors, beautifully dressed people are making decisions that will determine the fate of the next brand.

So “Glamorous” was right up my alley.

Admittedly, the show ends abruptly because the creators had planned a second season but ultimately changed their minds.

And that is precisely what is a little disappointing. Because after the finale, you are left with the feeling that the story had only just begun to open up new storylines. And it seems to me that the story could have been wrapped up with at least a standalone film.

That is what happened, for example, with the series «Looking»: after it ended, the story received a full-fledged continuation in the form of the film «Looking: The Movie». And after the cancellation of Sense8 Netflix also eventually released a special two-hour finale to bring the story to a close.

Why couldn't they have done something similar with «Glamorous»?

They do not necessarily need to make another ten episodes. Sometimes one good film is enough to wrap up the characters' storylines and give viewers a proper sense of closure.

Especially when the finale clearly leaves far too many questions unanswered.

For example, I was incredibly curious to learn more about the personal life of Madolyn's son Chad. He keeps talking about how he is gay too, but we never get to see his relationships with men.

And at times, I found myself having a completely ridiculous thought: is he actually gay, or is he just really convincing when he says he is?

I really wanted to see this side of his life. In the end, “Glamorous” turned out to be exactly the show it perhaps should have been all along.

Light. Funny. Beautiful. With no pretensions of grandeur.

I don't think I'll ever watch it again. But it was definitely worth watching once—especially if you enjoy this kind of genre, New York, fashion, the beauty industry, and gay life without endless melodrama.

I stumbled upon it completely by chance in the Netflix catalog while simply looking for something to watch.

And I suppose it's these kinds of unexpected finds that make me love streaming services.

You don't expect much.

You just put on the show.

And then you spend ten episodes watching beautiful people in beautiful New York create problems for one another.

And sometimes that's more than enough.