Netflix’s hit show Sex Education is well known for it’s gender and sexuality diversity, as well as the relatable way in which they approach potentially sensitive teenage topics. The show portrays a wide variety of identities, and has never been hesitant to touch on hard to manoeuvre topics such as sexual harassment, consent, identity crises, all within the context of teenage issues and sexuality. Most notably in their third season, they highlight non binary identities through their character Cal. 

Cal navigates the challenges of being gender non conforming in a school that does not provide adequate support for them and their identity, with strict gender based uniform specifications and a lack of a safe space for them, one of the more notable incidents being forced to change in the girl’s bathroom for physical education due to the old toilets – a place many genderqueer students were known to use as a changing room – being demolished. The relationships they form with other characters are also very realistic, their relationship with Jackson being one of the more interesting ones as it blurs traditional notions of sexuality, acknowledging the relationship between “straight” Jackson and non binary Cal as an inherently queer relationship. 

It is also worthwhile to examine the relationship between Cal and the other non binary character Layla, where the very sore reality of many queer individuals feeling the need to compromise their identity in fear of criticism is portrayed. With Layla abiding by the school rules despite their dysphoria and Cal actively shunning the school rules but receiving severe backlash for it, the exploration of non binary individuals and the issues they face in Sex Education provides a level of intricacy not often explored in other portrayals, which are rare enough to come by as is. 

Younghyun Kim

Citations:

Nunn, L. (2021) Sex Education. Netflix.