'wtFOCK': for one a fixed value, for another a rather strange combination of consonants. Young people can’t seem to stay away from the successful web series. The new season has started, so we can look back on the previous one. For three months, many fans were glued to their screens for a sixteen-year-old’s coming-out. Did this pave a way for more and honest representation of LGBTQ+-problems or did they occasionally stray from that path?

"Secret series 'wtFOCK' became the most popular keyword on Google in 2019," various media reported in December. The news seemed to come as a surprise, because a lot of people hadn't heard of the term, let alone the web series. And still the series could crown itself the proverbial king of last year’s Google. How did that happen?

The online series, originally from Norway, appears to be a big hit - especially with teenagers and young adults. According to SBS Belgium, in nine weeks' time, the third season reached about 11.8 million online views. In total, around 400,000 young people between the ages of 15 and 34 have watched the series.

The likely reason for the success? Young people can follow the characters on a daily basis, from their smartphone via short, real-time updates and real Instagram accounts. Ideal in a world where linear television viewing, especially for the younger generation, becomes increasingly out of style. The series is deliberately kept out of the media as much as possible, in order to preserve its authenticity and let young people discover it for themselves. So far, so good, it seems.

Homosexual main character

'wtFOCK' follows the lives of young people in high school, where all kinds of teenage perils are shown. Since the last season, more socially relevant problems have also been added. The series tackled a subject that has still not completely escaped the taboo sphere: homosexuality, a coming out and everything that surrounds it. From the absolute highs to the sometimes painful lows, we witness the bumpy road to self-acceptance that sixteen-year-old Robbe goes through.

But is it a new thing, a LGBT-character in Flemish fiction? Florian Vanlee researches the LGBTQ + representation in Flemish television series at 'Ghent University'. He explains: “About 20 percent of the productions is said to have a prominent LGBT-character. As for supporting roles, that's about 33 percent. That is a relatively large share.”

It does appear to be the first time that, in commercial youth television, full attention has been paid to homosexuality as 'the lead role'. “It's striking how instantaneously the focus explicitly goes towards homosexuality. 'wtFOCK' is therefore a very valuable program, ” Vanlee states. The question then arises how this new form of representation was received by the LGBTQ + community.

About recognition and self-acceptance

Amber Maselis, a 20-year-old bisexual college student from Hove, has been a fan of the original 'SKAM' for several years now. When the series ended in Norway, she started to follow the other remakes. Her interest also led to 'wtFOCK'. She talks passionately about the concept which she clearly values a lot. "I've been following the project for a number of years, and despite the subtle differences between shows, the main topics are always portrayed nicely.”

Out of all the remakes, she thinks 'wtFOCK' is the best one. Then again, the Flemish version connects the most with her own environment. “Now that the series has arrived in Antwerp, in my own culture, it suddenly feels very close to home.”

It helps that she can identify strongly with Robbe, the main character, who comes out to friends and family in his teenage years. “It touches me, because I notice that sometimes I have literally said or felt the same things. I've fallen very deep and struggled with the same feelings. Back then that was a huge secret I kept to myself. Now I know that it'll all be fine. For other young people, the series may be a bit of a boost, as 'SKAM' was for me three years ago, when I had just come out and still had to learn to accept myself."

22-year-old Fabio Olivieri from Antwerp seems to share that opinion. When he was a teen, he barely saw a gay character to which he could relate. It reassures him that it's different for young people today. In addition, he thinks it's good that they portray how members of the LGBT-community still have to learn to accept themselves too. "Sometimes it's hard to learn how to deal with it, to know how you feel and whether you want to feel that way. That's portrayed beautifully."

"Do you have questions?"

The storyline can therefore be a comfort for young people who relate to it. 'wtFOCK' consciously wants to focus on that. Not only by pushing the content forward, but also by collaborating with the online platform WAT WAT. The initiative of the Flemish Government is a joint cooperation of more than 70 organizations to inform young people. These organizations want to work together to ensure that "all young people are confident and develop their identity in a positive way." On the website, young people could find answers about exam stress, problems at home, but also about sex, sexuality, ... you name it.

After each clip of 'wtFOCK', the possibility to visit watwat.be is shown, “if you have any questions”. This initiative is certainly well received by Ferre Lambert, a 25-year-old from Antwerp, who remembers how he also used the internet for questions about his homosexuality. “Sometimes it’s just hard to tell someone, that you’re doubting your sexual orientation. So I can definitely imagine how young people will look online for answers.”

'wtFOCK' wants to be more than just entertainment. “Although it's fiction and this automatically entails the aspect of entertainment, that is not the essence of the series,” says screenwriter Bram Renders, also the author of the former youth series 'W817'. “We especially want to show young people that they're not alone. That element is strongly present, and it’s nice that we can convey that message like this.”

The harsh reality

Thus, the series carries an important reality, which can be harsh sometimes. Fabio is not sure he always appreciates that. “I thought that the homophobia in 'wtFOCK' was pretty cruel at times. It could a good thing, because real life is like that, too. I’ve experienced certain things myself. But in tv series, the focus is generally on all the problems gay characters come into contact with. It would have been nice to see that this isn’t always the case. It has two sides.”

One particular scene that - for the same reason - detonated a bomb of critical Twitter responses, was when gay bashing was shown shortly, but very explicitly. The choice to portray it, is understandable based on the fact that it’s still a real and current problem today. At the end of December, two LGBT-boys in Ghent became victims of gay bashing. In 'Het Nieuwsblad', they called for other victims to not remain silent, but to report such senseless violence to the police. However, 'wtFOCK' shows how the main character and his boyfriend decided to not go to the police.

Ferre understands that decision. “As a victim you want to avoid even more trouble and you need the strength to do something about it. I understand that not everyone feels the same. There's no right way to deal with gay violence.”

Ferre is concerned by the way the series depicted the incident in its entirety. The scene shows how Robbe and his boyfriend get verbally abused and attacked. It ends abruptly with the two left injured on the ground. Only the next day, the viewer got to know if everything is okay. "I thought that was the most striking thing," said an indignant Ferre. “Two years ago, when I hadn’t been with my boyfriend for that long, we were also chased. That evening we didn't go to sleep immediately. We cuddled, drank a cup of tea, watched a series together,… After such a moment, you just want to be together lovingly. You want to know if everything will be okay. But in 'wtFOCK' nothing happened on the night itself and the matter was dealt with quickly afterwards."

Criticism

So more clarity would have been appropriate. The possibilities you have as a victim after such an incident, weren’t emphasized enough according to Ferre. Especially not for a show that has the support of a platform like WAT WAT.

It's clearly not the first time Bram Renders has heard this criticism. He's already given up reading the reactions on Twitter, he jokes. Hesitantly, he does admit that they could've handled the scene better.

“How it is portrayed, is more intense than how I imagined it during the rose-colored writing process,” he says. “It's not criticism towards the director, because you never know something like that in advance. But in retrospect, it would have been appropriate to show a follow-up clip, in which they come home, for example. As a writer you'll always have moments where you think you could have handled it better; this is one of them."

In addition, it was a conscious choice to make 'wtFOCK' tougher than the original 'SKAM'. That decision came after prior conversations with the LGBTQ+-community. “According to the most people I talked to, the inner struggle of the main character of the original version was too small and the world around him too rose-colored. So we made that world a bit more raw”, says Renders.

Ignorance

Then again, the advantage of such harsh scenes is the awareness they generate among viewers outside the LGBTQ + community. “If you don't know anyone who is gay, then you don't know how we feel and how we experience certain things,” Fabio emphasizes. “I think people can gain a better understanding through 'wtFOCK'. Especially with so many young people watching the series, it can provide more understanding and tolerance. ”

Ferre thinks it important that a large audience is shown what LGBT-people have to deal with. “Nowadays we, as humans, do not know enough about each other's reality. I noticed this when colleagues or friends were surprised and asked whether certain scenes are true, and if I'm really scared to hold hands with my boyfriend on the street. The different seasons of 'wtFOCK' provide strong insights into different problems and how people deal with them”, he concludes.

Of course, purely scientifically it’s hard to determine the exact impact on the audience. But intuitively, that impact is already logical, researcher Florian Vanlee ('UGent') clarifies. “On the one hand, it might be important for people who do not meet the social standard to see their own experiences reflected. On the other hand, it could make those experiences much more self-evident for people who have less insight into them.”

New insights are often subtly implemented throughout the series, but sometimes in a more explicit manner too. Like the scene about Gay Pride. At one point, Robbe mockingly tells his homosexual roommate that he is not the person who will dance with "feathers in his butt" at Pride. That roommate is a more extravagant character, who's mainly portrayed as a support, always with strong advice. He quickly offers Robbe (but especially the viewer) a rebuttal with a short but emotional history lesson. "Do you know that those people had to fight to be who they are?"

The series undoubtedly refers to the protests of Stonewall that later grew into Gay Prides around the world. What is often forgotten, is emphasized once again: people in the LGBTQ+-community had to go down a long and difficult path to achieve equal rights today and be able to completely be themselves.

Amber thinks it is very important that this history is highlighted. “That people would rather die than not be able to be who they are, is the basic principle of the Gay Pride. There is more to it than just the many colors and the half-naked, dancing people, as some still see it.”

Better representation

Referring to that Gay Pride, Ferre admits to be somewhat disappointed with this season's lead character in 'wtFOCK'. For him, it would have been better for Robbe to be a more outspoken type. According to him, the LGBTQ +-representation is too often focused on the so-called 'mainstream' LGBT-people.

At the start of September, the topic got a lot of attention, when radio-dj Wanne Synnave ('MNM') made the following statement in the talkshow 'Vandaag': “The biggest problem is that the role models you see today, fit the cliché image. I've never been able to identify with them. I think that there’s a need for more mainstream LGBT-role models, the common man and woman in the street. And not flamboyant role models who are a bit cliché."

That statement caused a lot of outrage in the LGBTQ+-community. Many did not agree, and said that there were already plenty of LGBT-people portrayed by ‘hetero standards’. Florian Vanlee ('UGent') confirms that in Flanders, there are very few stereotypical characters. “You could almost go so far as to say that the majority of the LGBT-characters are some kind of reverse-stereotype. You will very rarely find flamboyant gay characters.”

So program makers represent their characters (albeit well intentioned) in a very general way. “But it's precisely because of that, that a large part of the LGBT community are completely kept out of the picture,” Vanlee explains. So there's a need for more varied representation.

Balance

In the specific case of 'wtFOCK' we can argue that the show follows the original format from Norway, and takes satisfaction in the extravagant gay character Milan, the roommate. “It's difficult to always find a good balance,” says screenwriter Bram Renders. “In this case I thought that balance with the 'out in the open, take it or leave it' roommate was enough.”

In addition, according to Florian Vanlee, it’s not fair to judge individual series on those choices. “That’s not the right way to deal with what we want to see in media and popular culture”, Vanlee thinks. “Nowadays, in Flanders, it’s normal to represent LGBT-characters, as well as transgender characters, like Kaat in the soap 'Thuis'. That already was an important step. What could be better, isn’t the responsibility of the television-industry, but also the debate it generates,” he concludes.

Finally, representation in Flemish series doesn't only concern LGBTQ + characters. It's also important to look at the representation of people with a migration background or with different religions, for example. But 'wtFOCK' doesn’t shy away from that either. In the fourth season, the series takes on a new taboo by putting Yasmina, a Muslim character, in the lead role. It remains to be seen how this new theme will be perceived by the young, but critical audience.

Text: © StampMedia – Léonie Van de Vliet