Sometimes Breaking Up ISN'T Hard To Do

You're not going to believe this, but Adam and Becky broke up on Degrassi last night! It's a shock! I was so sure that Becky (Sarah Fisher), the minister's daughter, and Adam (Jordan Todosey), the trans boy, were totally going to stay together forever! ...Not really: I haven't bought this pairing for a single second, and of course they weren't going to last. But the reason they broke up is horseshit.

For the record: the last time I was a teenager was literally half my life ago, so I freely admit that I don't know what it's like to be one in the year 2013, which is why I don't go around trying to front by saying idiotic things like "It feels like such an Instagram moment," NINA. I know that it's more common now for people to realize they're trans at a young age and to start the transition process (that is, living as the correct gender, regardless of biology) early; I read The New Yorker! So when Adam, the first trans character in Degrassi history, gained the acceptance of the other students at his very diverse and multicultural school, it seemed plausible to me, as were the other obstacles he faced as a result of his unusual situation (enumerated in the story linked in this post's first paragraph).

However: hooking Adam up with Becky, who was introduced as a naïve Christian girl, was always a pretty big stretch. It's not that, after being put through a series of storylines that served mostly to dramatize the serious life challenges that almost any trans person would face, Adam didn't deserve a win; it's that for Becky not just to overcome the prejudices she was raised with but to choose, affirmatively, a romantic relationship with someone her parents believe is violating God's law or whatever the fuck is...a lot.

That Adam and Becky would break up, then, was inevitable -- not just because they're in high school, but because the odds are stacked so high against them. Even the show's producers didn't seem to know where to go with the characters once they became a couple: we've basically only seen them kiss this season because it's necessary for the plot (to establish jealousy on the part of Cristine Prosperi's Imogen, who's obviously going to be Adam's next girlfriend). And okay, sure, the circumstances provided a useful lesson for teenagers:

Screen: Fox

But the fact that this is what broke the couple up, as opposed to the shaky foundation their relationship has stood on from the start, feels like producers want to have it both ways. That is, someone finally pointed out that Adam and Becky never should have been together in the first place, but they don't want to seem as though acknowledging the bigotry Becky was raised with is the same as endorsing it -- which, obviously, it never has been any of the other times that Adam has had to deal with the specific sorts of painful things trans kids do have to deal with as society crawls, so very slowly, toward understanding and accepting them. That it's something so banal breaking up Adam and Becky is fine in the sense that it makes their relationship seem no different than that of any other pair of dumb teenagers, but that also feels like a cop-out given all the other important, interesting ways that the show has explored Adam's life.

All that said: in fairness to Adam, Becky was acting super-sketchy; it isn't really cool to have 80-something chats with a dude you know without mentioning your boyfriend, and PS: