Yesterday, Nico Tortorella was on The Wendy Williams Show to discuss their gender identity, polyamorous relationship, and their new book, All of It Is You. The interview was undeniably a little awkward. I don’t think Wendy knew what to expect or how her audience would react to Tortorella sharing their very unconventional lifestyle. There wasn’t any awkward obvious reactions from the audience in the interview. However, the dismissive transitions Wendy made such as to referring to Tortorella’s ears or just changing the subject altogether to avoid an actual in depth discussion was the most cringe-worthiness of it. Tortorella showed up to the interview their true authentic self and shared their truth, however Williams did not know how to handle that on live television.
Its important to note that Wendy Williams isn’t exactly discussing deep philosophical topics on her daytime talk show. I’d argue that its one of the more superficial talkshows that makes money off discussing cheap celebrity gossip and her “Jersey” accent. However, I will acknowledge the success of Wendy Williams as a woman of color who is one of the few women of color to have a namesake talkshow since Oprah Winfrey.
The reactions in YouTube comments and Twitter feeds were mixed from the interview. Most people were saying that Nico has no comprehension of themselves and calling them a closet case not understanding their own gender and poking fun at their ignorance of gender.
However, what these people do not understand and what Tortorella can probably work on is bridging this gap between people’s current understanding of gender and sexuality and how to expand and evolve those views to the fluidity that Tortorella describes. I think the identity as polyamorous that Tortorella identifies with is the most difficult to comprehend as he describes in the interview with Williams. There was some confusion in when they described the only representations were in polygamy and Islam. Tortorella was referring to their polyamorous relationship with partner Bethany Meyers.
Williams fetishized Tortorella’s book, All of It Is You by defining it as “erotic poetry”. The societal connotations of erotic give the illusion that this is a book of pornographic poetry. It may be erotic in its radical emotions from the human body to the earth to the cosmos. However, to define something as erotic in a metaphorical sense to a wide viewership that might not be able to decode that meaning is ignorant in its idea.
The representation of the fluidity that Tortorella expresses in all fo their identities is nonexistent in mainstream media. As Williams was introducing Tortorella before they came out on stage, she was using he/him/his pronouns when Tortorella as repeatedly in the media expressed they use they/them/their as their pronouns. This rhetoric automatically dismissed Tortorella’s gender identity before they could even express that to the audience. The Wendy Williams Show had already established the viewer’s reactions and connotations of Nico Tortorella before they could even share their story, and when they did they dismissed their fluidity.
