THOTless
THOTless (2020)
Created and written by: Michelle Zacarias
Directed by: CJ Thomas
Whether “white collar” or blue, work is hard across intersectionalities.
Valentina (Michelle Zacarias) is a queer disabled Latina and journalists whose boss asks her to stay late to make deadlines. Her friend, a Black trans sex worker and singer who performs under the name Ms. Understood (Zola “Lita” Chatman), regularly works for “exposure” over money. The pilot sets up a central tension about how individuals and people in power value femmes across race, ethnicity, and sexuality.
The pilot does not portray our heroes as victims, however. Both are well aware of their exploitation and negotiating the reality of needing to support themselves with survival. Valentina starts the episode late to work: she isn’t perfect! Ms. Understood owns her complicity in taking these unpaid gigs.
The series title refers both to the idea of the “THOT” – “that hoe over there” – and the idea that these two women have the sense to shape their own destiny but for the thoughtlessness with which they are treated (and sometimes treat themselves).
Unabashedly sex positive and embracing of difference – including the bartender who is unusually celebratory of Val’s physical disability – THOTless has both seriousness and levity, a balanced perspective on what it means to be marginalized and strive to live life to the fullest despite it all.