Here for It; Or, How to Save Your Soul in America: Essays

by R. Eric Thomas

Grover is the Willy Loman of Sesame Street.

To this day I am amazed that someone as chill and Presbyterian as Fred Rogers created someone as over-the-top fabulous as Lady Elaine. She has a royal title and she is constantly in feuds with her brother; she’s essentially a reality star. And like the most successful reality stars, Lady Elaine Fairchilde is the gay icon we need and want. She has all the hallmarks of

gay iconography, eighties edition: an old-timey name, frequent appearances in musicals despite a lack of apparent singing ability, eyebrows, no time to date because she is too busy plotting drama, hates people. Why is there not a Lady Elaine float at every Pride? Why can’t I buy a bedazzled tank top that says “TOOTS!” to wear to the beach? Where is the justice in this world?!

But maybe it was always falling apart, getting more diffuse, small explosions sending identities careening toward each other, definitions of self, like detritus, landing just out of reach.

sometimes clichés are true and that’s a real paradox for a person who is trying to write interesting things.

At a certain point, you forget where you end and pop culture begins.