LGBT
Emily Comes Out
In Pretty Little Liars, Emily Fields comes out to her friends and family that she is gay. Unfortunately, her mother does not accept this fact. Pam wants to know where they went wrong raising Emily and what they can do to reverse it all. Guerrero wrote about Haas and Stafford and the maintenance strategies that they have found. "Spending time with friends and family remembers who recognize and accept their relationship was a key relational maintenance behavior, as was being able to introduce each other as "my partner" (31). In the clip posted below, Emily's parents do not want to spend time with Maya and Emily, but since it is their daughter and who she loves, they sacrifice and have Maya over for dinner. Later in the clip, Emily says something very powerful that opens her mom's eyes to the overall thought of her daughter being gay.
Her mom begins by telling her that she is no longer allowed to see Maya because she feels that Emily is doing drugs with her. After her mom says that, Emily comes back at her and says, "This doesn't change the way I feel about her," which is one of the most powerful moments in the video. Her mom pauses, because she knows Emily was right. She is not able to control who Emily will love, but she does not want to admit it to Emily. Thankfully, through all of this, all of Emily's friends are very accepting. In fact, in the video they want Emily to be able to spend as much time as possible with Maya.
Another maintenance behavior from Haas and Stafford was that there are high levels of bonding and talking about the relationship. "Gay and lesbian couples tend to see their relationships in terms of commitment and communication, but dissimilar in terms of of nonconformity to sex-role stereotypes" (32). Emily wants to convey this to her parents the most. She wants to prove to them that her and Maya's love is just just like her parents love. They just happen to be two women instead of a man and woman. Later on, (not shown in the video) the concept of Emily being lesbian does become more widely accepted within the family, but until then, tension levels are still high.
In Pretty Little Liars, Emily Fields comes out to her friends and family that she is gay. Unfortunately, her mother does not accept this fact. Pam wants to know where they went wrong raising Emily and what they can do to reverse it all. Guerrero wrote about Haas and Stafford and the maintenance strategies that they have found. "Spending time with friends and family remembers who recognize and accept their relationship was a key relational maintenance behavior, as was being able to introduce each other as "my partner" (31). In the clip posted below, Emily's parents do not want to spend time with Maya and Emily, but since it is their daughter and who she loves, they sacrifice and have Maya over for dinner. Later in the clip, Emily says something very powerful that opens her mom's eyes to the overall thought of her daughter being gay.
Her mom begins by telling her that she is no longer allowed to see Maya because she feels that Emily is doing drugs with her. After her mom says that, Emily comes back at her and says, "This doesn't change the way I feel about her," which is one of the most powerful moments in the video. Her mom pauses, because she knows Emily was right. She is not able to control who Emily will love, but she does not want to admit it to Emily. Thankfully, through all of this, all of Emily's friends are very accepting. In fact, in the video they want Emily to be able to spend as much time as possible with Maya.
Another maintenance behavior from Haas and Stafford was that there are high levels of bonding and talking about the relationship. "Gay and lesbian couples tend to see their relationships in terms of commitment and communication, but dissimilar in terms of of nonconformity to sex-role stereotypes" (32). Emily wants to convey this to her parents the most. She wants to prove to them that her and Maya's love is just just like her parents love. They just happen to be two women instead of a man and woman. Later on, (not shown in the video) the concept of Emily being lesbian does become more widely accepted within the family, but until then, tension levels are still high.
Citations for footnotes 31 and 32 can be found on the citation page under the topic LGBT.