"Isn't It Better To Be Who I Am?": Research into the Depiction of Eric's Intersectional Character in Sex Education

Abstract

Intersectionality can be described as the different axes of someone’s identity, such as gender, colour of the skin and sexuality, and how they all work together to define how a person is treated in this society, with each of these axes or categories being a privilege or an oppression. This term, that Kimberle Crenshaw coined, is what is used to make the experiences of the multiply-burdened visible, as they have often been forgotten. This research chooses to look into the representation of intersectionality by looking at a multiply-burdened or intersectionally diverse character in the series Sex Education. The character, Eric, is a gay, black, lower-class, unpopular, religious boy who dresses in drag. Through the quare theory approach, which aims to use textual analysis to analyse queer people of colour in an intersectional way, Eric has been put under close inspection. The analysis proves that Sex Education is a fore-runner for other series in how a character like Eric should be depicted, with his own storyline and situations that are appropriate depictions without concluding to stereotyping. The research question that was used to come to this conclusion is: how does the Netflix series Sex Education depict the intersectionality of Eric’s character?