Though
Alistair is cut from similar cloth as Rickie, the fantastically loveable queer
Latino kid from another Winnie
Holzman teen drama (My So-Called Life,)
the character is executed in a way that’s wholly his own. And he’s just lovely. Terrific writing aside, I’m glad that Huge existed so an excellent actor like
Harvey Guillen had the opportunity to play this rich character. A few Alistair-related spoilers. (Note:
I think it’s entirely possible that, had Huge lasted longer, Alistair would’ve come out as trans. However, since that never happened on the
show – what we know for sure is that Alistair likes boys and dislikes labels –
I’ll stick with male pronouns.)
Making
his first appearance at fat camp, Alistair demonstrates optimism and resiliency
almost right away. Despite his friendly
openness, the other boys in his cabin avoid him and make fun of him behind his
back. They auto-assume his sexuality,
they have secret conversations about who should tell him he smells (Alistair is
uncomfortable with the communal showers,) and his unhip hobbies, like knitting
and magic, win him no favors. But
Alistair is no stranger to bullying, and he doesn’t let it get to him at camp
any more than he lets it get to him back in the real world. He has a c’est
la vie attitude to it, pointing that he is
fat, and he is weird, so there’s no
benefit to wring his hand when people call him out as such.
None of
the misfits on the show, Alistair included, spend much time longing to join the
cool group, which I love. Like Ian, Alistair
does have a crush on one of the cool
kids, and there’s the added discomfort of his popular twin sister Chloe not
wanting people to know they’re related. Still,
there’s no big yen on his part to “fit in;” like I said, it doesn’t bother him
when other kids give him a hard time. But
Alistair is a little different than his friends, who are either too shy to
approach the cool kids or actively dislike them. Alistair doesn’t have anything against anyone. Instead, he’s amiable to all, almost
unquenchably positive and sunny.
Furthermore,
Alistair is wonderfully confident. One
could argue that, as a teenager who’s both obese and non-heteronormative, he’s
kind of had to – see the resiliency and optimism mentioned above. When the kids are asked to “choose new names”
as part of an activity, he has no qualms about calling himself Athena, smoothly
shutting down the haters who get incredulous about him picking a female name. Plus, he has an endearingly geeky enthusiasm
that he’s 100% unapologetic about.
Whether it’s the aforementioned knitting or the magic, the LARP Becca
creates, or his mad Risk skills, he’ll share his zeal with anyone who will
listen.
I would love to get to know Alistair. He would become my bestie. And if anyone bullied him I would stick up for him.
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