One of the many things I enjoy about Pose is its strong central heroine in Blanca. She has the kind of ambition that seeks to pull others up along with her, and I love seeing how seriously she takes her duty as a house mother (premise spoilers.)
When we meet Blanca, she’s in a hard spot, having just learned that she’s HIV+. However, staring down the barrel of a frightening virus, she decides it’s time to go for broke and fight for what she wants. Now, at this point in her life, Blanca has already demonstrated that she’s a fighter, asserting her identity as a trans woman in the face of her family’s disapproval and society’s demonization. She made her way to New York’s ballroom scene and got herself into a house, but she got a bit stuck there, putting up with the indignity of propping up Elektra in all things and having her creative ideas alternately put down and swiped without credit. But Blanca’s diagnosis lights a fire under her ass – she breaks with Elektra and forms her own house, seeking to reframe the idea of what a house mother ought to be.
While, as a mother, Elektra expects her children to remain in grateful servitude to her, Blanca wants to better her children’s lives both in and outside of the balls. Collecting an assortment of misfit-toy young people, she goes all in on helping them put together looks for the balls and practice their voguing, but she also tries to teach them values and help them work toward their dreams. She pushes Damon to apply to dance school and encourages Angel to find a safer job than working the docks, she expects the children to be present for family dinners and won’t tolerate drugs in her house, and she demands honesty from her children. As someone who was tossed aside early in life by the people who were supposed to care for her, she works hard to create a nurturing environment where her children are protected and have their ambitions cultivated.
Part of that, for her, means serving as a role model for her children. Starting her own house is a big dream of Blanca’s, but it’s only one of them. She also wants to start her own nail salon, and when she faces discrimination in securing a space for her new business, she doesn’t back down, eager to show her children that they can’t let the world push them around. “Never give up” is a major theme of House Evangelista, and although that can seem like a corny mantra, Blanca takes it seriously. From the seemingly-small things, like standing up to the owners of a gay bar who won’t serve trans patrons, to literal life-or-death matters, like fighting for her own survival against HIV while simultaneously joining Act Up protests and fundraising for hospitals, she always swings for the fences.
Amid
all that, though, Blanca is new to most of the ventures and campaigns she
undertakes, and while she’s a quick study, she’s not perfect. As much as she
strives to be a great mother, she doesn’t have a clear roadmap and she doesn’t
always get it right. Sometimes she goes in too hard when she ought to show
compassion, and she has an issue with playing favorites and making allowances
for certain children that she doesn’t give others. Tough as she is, one major
lesson she has to learn is that it’s not enough to simply fight tenaciously for
herself and others – there are some things she can’t do alone, and learning to
ask for help when she needs it is another important value she can model for her
children. I’ve really enjoyed watching Blanca these first two seasons,
sometimes kicking ass and taking names, sometimes getting in over her head, and
I look forward to seeing where the show takes her next.
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