This series is about Charlie Spring that just come out as gay and his deskmate Nick

Nelson that Charlie develop feeling with. Nick and Charlie become close to each other and
without Charlie realizing Nick also develops feelings toward him, but he is confused and scared
about his own sexuality. Even when they finally date each other Nick still hasn't come out
completely and this makes Charlie really insecure about their relationship. But Charlie on the
other hand never complains or demands Nick to make an announcement regarding their
relationship because all Charlie ever wants is a word of affirmation that they were indeed in a
relationship.
I watched all the episodes of Heartstopper. I had been exposed to boy love (Bl) or LGBT
genre since 2019 and had read the novel version of Heartstopper even before the release on
Netflix. I think this series really puts balance in the acronym of LBGT. Usually a series of LGBT
genres will only focus on one specific type of sexuality. It can be boy love (BL) or gay where it
solely focuses on the relationship between man and man. Girl love (GL) or lesbian where it all
about two women that love each other or bisexual men and women and trangender that can be
pansexual in term of relationship. Heartstopper on the other hand put balance by having all of
this acronym a representative in the series. Since I’m not a foreign to this type of genre, it feels
like I’m just watching my watchlist rather than doing the assignment.
I think this series is very fresh and fluffy which is not really my type of BL but I really
enjoy the storyline, the cinematographic all the detailed rainbow that is secretly shown, the editor
and director really try to make this series suitable for teenagers. I feel like I understand love
better, following the norm a man are supposed to be in relationship with a women but in same-
sex relationship their relationship are beyond that. Gender is just a word and if you ignore gender
in the context of a love relationship you will see a lot of other possibilities. I feel happy about
their relationship and glad that they can be open to people around them regarding it. It can be
said this series is “too good to be true” since the parents are really open and acceptance to the
fact that their kid is gay and bisexual and how Tao’s mom accept Elle by calling her as Elle and
not her “old name”. We all know that not really how it like in real life, how people can be
prejudice and throwing verses of Holy bible toward LGBT people, stating that they are devil that
try to contaminate people with their gayness.
Solely based on my opinion this series would be the best series for teenagers at the age of
15-18 to watch if they are facing a confusion in terms of their sexuality. They could relate to the
character and this actually would help them to open up regarding their sexuality. I also like how
they actually cast a real trangender women to act as Elle Argent in the series. Usually media just
cast a real women to play transgender character to make thing easier but it won’t be the same and
transgender person need a representative in media. Speaking of the media it is also refreshing
how all the plots in this series are not sexualized. On usual occasion LGBT character would be
portrayed as third parties in the relationship, the villain, they only been seen as character that
focus on sex rather than feeling. It gives a news light to the LBGT industry to have more
impactful storyline, more creative plot and more real LGBT representation. I think this series
might be the first and last LGBT series for other people to watch but as for me it is just another
day with another great storyline about people that love others with the same gender as them.
After all love is love and gender is just a word.

Gender identity

According to (Solomon , 2021), Gender identity refers to a person’s understanding and

Charlie Spring is the main character in this series , he is openly gay and people
surrounding him especially Harry always find way to bully him. Although in general Charlie
does sport and eventually joins the rugby team, people still think that he is weak and not suitable
and ignore the fact that he still is a boy just like them. Charlie are no different that any other
boy in their school the only different is his sexual prefeerrance. Even so Charlie did seem softer
or more to feminine than any other boy but that was just his attitude and he was very insecure
about his sexuality due to constant bullying.
Meanwhile Elle Argent , is completely different, she is transgender and her gender
identity and role would be totally different than Charlie. She is identified as male in the
beginning but she becomes Elle and goes to women's highschool. She has long hair and dresses
in women's clothes because she is a woman now, Elle even has feelings toward Tao who is her
best friend. Elle did follow the stereotype of females in general and it is understandable since
she chose to be women. Tara Jones also stereotypically like any other female in general the only
different is she is lesbian. She did kiss Nick Nelson before but that just confirms that she doesn’t
like men at all. It can be clear that our gender identity and how similar are we with the gender
role doesn’t mean we also fall in the same heterosexual category.
Darcy Olsen also looks like any typical female but with a rough personality. She is more
outgoing, more open, more expressive than her girlfriend ,Tara. She doesn’t fit into feminine or
soft spoken categories, she always says whatever she feels, always positive and can be annoying
and entitled to her own opinion. She also acts more boyish than Tara and is considered the
‘men’ in their relationship. When Tara and her publicly announce their relationship, Darcy
seems unbothered about people's reaction but Tara on the other hand really bothers with people's
opinion.
Nick Nelson's character screams “masculinity” even from far away, he looks neat, plays
rugby, is friends with all the cool kids and can be seen as the “straightest” among all the
characters in the series. His body is buff and looks like a model all the time, but he is not like any
other typical high school buff guy character that turns out to be a bully. Rather he is the nice guy
that acts friendly to almost everyone and protector to Charlie everytime Harry tries to cross the
line with his word. He is also really tolerant about Charlie's sexuality and doesn’t mind people's
opinion of his relationship with Charlie, what he is confused about is his sexuality and his
feelings towards Charlie.

Gender expression

Gender expression refers to the ways in which a person chooses to present their gender to
the world around them. This can include clothing, mannerisms, pronouns, names and a lot other
(Solomon , 2021). Gender expression can include behavior and outer appearance to express their
gender but some scholars believe that gender expression doesn’t speak for the person's sexuality.
Gender expression is one’s preference that influence by culture, experience and environment but
sexuality is one’s sexual feeling.
 Charlie Spring and Nick Nelson gender expression are no different, they dress like any
typical boy, short hair, T-shirt or hoodie and play rugby for sport. Even though Charlie is openly
gay he doesn’t dress flamboyantly or try to dress like a girl. One thing for sure is that Charlie is
more timid in all his actions, the way he walks, talks, dresses and interacts with others, it is
clear that he is wary about others' perspective about him due to constant bully. His sexuality
makes people judge him and this then contributes to his insecurity and trauma. Nick on the other
hand is sweet and friendly with everyone, he acts like golden retrievers, happy and easy going. In
the middle of the series Nick is visibly scared and confused of his feelings toward Charlie, he
was not sure if the feeling is bromance or love related. Nick also ponder of his sexuality, the
unclear of which categories does he belong to is making him afraid of people discrimination.
Tara Jones and Darcy Olsen dress like any other typical girl, none of them look boyish
and they both look pretty confident with their own skin. Tara did kiss a boy before and she stated
the kiss that she share with Nick Nelson is a “confirmation” that she doesn’t like boy in sexual
way. She feels discomfort due to people's attention after she and Darcy announce their
relationship on Instagram. She did have a mental breakdown and cried before performing at the
school function but Darcy comforted her and everything when well. Darcy did act boyish
occasionally but overall that was just her playful, happy go lucky and positive vibe. She is the
mood maker in every scene she appears, and even though she can be insensitive at some point no
one can hate her personality.
Elle Argent is trangender that just attend all girl high school, she is trying her best to fit in
and make friend. She try to be friend with Tara Jones and Darcy Olsen where she got close with
this two cause they are lesbian. Elle has long hair, dresses in women's clothes and has a soft
voice, she also has a crush on Tao, her best friend. She becomes more comfortable with her body
after becoming Elle and being who she wants to be. Elle is lucky cause she had friends and
support from people that care about her, calling her Elle and not by her “old name”, accept her as
a female and not the “old gender”, respect her just like any other women. If we ignore the fact
that Elle had a flat chest no one would know she is trangender because of how gorgeous she is.
Sexuality

Sexuality is about your sexual feelings, thoughts, attractions and behaviours towards
other people, it is diverse and personal and it is who you are (Better Health Channel, 2019).
Sexuality is diverse and there are different type of sexuality for example lesbian, gay, trangender,
bisexual, asexual, pansexual and the typical heterosexual. Heterosexual is normal in all culture
but not the other sexuality, some of people that had this sexuality face discrimination all their
life. This series show lot type of sexuality for instance Charlie is gay, Tara and Darcy is lesbian,
Elle is trangender and Nick is bisexual.
Charlie had “coming out” as gay the year before and he got bullied a lot by people. He
even gets harassed by Ben who uses Charlie's sexuality orientation for his own benefit. Ben is
still confused or denied of his sexuality but he exploits Charlie's feelings and harasses him by
kissing Charlie by force. Charlie's face literally shines when he is with Nick and at the beginning
of the story he did have a crush on Nick, but was not so sure of Nick's sexuality. Hence Nick is a
boy that is full of masculinity and screams “straight” from far away. Even so, they did end up
together in the end as an official boyfriend and they also announce their relationship to their
family and friends.
Tara and Darcy is lesbian and they been in relationship since the beginning of the story.
Tara did have a history with Nick in middle school where they kissed each other and that kiss is
justification for Tara that she definitely isn't into men. Yasmine Finney who plays the character
Elle is also trangender in real life just like her character. This character have sexual feeling
toward Tao, but she is scared to confess about her feeling cause she know how much Tao cherish
their friendship.
Nick Nelson's discovery of his own sexuality deserves an applause in this series. The self
diagnose from google website and watching Youtube video for confirmation, plus all the confuse
and blurry relationship that he had with Charlie make him realize that he is bisexual. The last
straw is when he watches the movie “Pirate of the Caribbean” again and still has a crush on
Kiera Knightley. He just know that he have sexual feeling to both gender and date Charlie
officially at the end of the series. He also came out to his mother regarding his sexuality and her
mother was happy for him and felt sorry if she ever made Nick feel it hard to confess to her.
Conclusion

Gender identity, gender expression and sexuality depend on the individual, their culture,
their experience and the environment. No matter what people say their feeling and love is valid
and real, it will always stay that way forever and LGBT is not an illness it is human right and
equality. It is well informed that this equality will not appear in our society but we should always
respect their right to be who they are and not discriminate against them. If sexuality is a choice
no one wants to be different.