‘The Bold and the Beautiful’ Opinion: BB Producers Rewriting Rick Forrester’s Character to Fit Transgender Storyline? (POLL)

We can all agree that transgender issues are front page news right now. But is “The Bold and the Beautiful” rushing too fast to take advantage of the trend and bending characters to fit? It was one thing to rewrite Maya Avant’s [Karla Mosley] history retroactively to explain that she was born Myron and has transformed herself to Maya. But it’s quite another when Rick Forrester [Jacob Young] has a major and unexplainable personality shift to fit the storyline.

The question becomes, is Rick redeeming himself? Or is it sloppy writing to try and make a social point? It seems like everybody but Rick knew that Maya was born a man. That inconceivable notion aside, Maya and Rick are up at Big Bear at the Forrester cabin and Rick popped the question. Maya asked him to ask again after the big news. He hasn’t yet, but no doubt, soon will.

Mosley said of the big and long-awaited scene, “Ultimately Maya trusts Rick, she loves him enough to risk everything, including letting down some of the walls she’s built up to protect herself, in order to be with him in a healthy way.”

Rick has always liked that Maya was so “honest” but it turns out she’s been dishonest in the most primal of ways. Rick has talked about having children with Maya. And, of course, they can always adopt, but the physical inability to have children is a HUGE issue to keep from your partner – aside from her being born a man even if she never identified as a male. She was raised as a male, after all.

And while it is understandable that Maya might want to keep her secret, it seems that she waited very, very deep into their relationship to offer up the truth. After all, this is the same man who took a shot (a literal gunshot!) at Ridge Forrester [Thorsten Kaye] and Caroline Spencer [Linsey Godfrey] for just a kiss. If Rick was being Rick, he would rant and rave at Maya – not because she’s a transgender, but because she was dishonest with him for so very long.

As Rick prepared to propose, he told Maya that she’s shown him how to be a better man. Except that Rick hasn’t been acting like a better man when it comes to pretty much everyone else around him. Rick said he knows Maya is not “someone who will let him down with lies and betrayal.” He says he cares about Maya because she “has no secrets.” Then she drops the HUGE secret she was LYING about.

Anger would be the expected reaction based on Rick’s well-established personality traits. But instead, it was utter acceptance – admittedly followed by embarrassment when the story broke in the press and there were ugly mocking headlines about them. We are expected to view this as a scenario where Maya’s real and meaningful love for Rick has altered him fundamentally. That would be okay except…

Even very recently, Rick and Maya have been horrible bullies to Aly Forrester [Ashlyn Pearce] and Ivy Forrester [Ashleigh Brewer] which is truer to Rick’s nature than his lack of outrage at Maya’s lies. Are we to believe that Rick just had an epiphany and is going to be a better person – or that he’s carved out a niche in his temperament for Maya alone?

What makes this storyline hard to swallow is not that a man can accept that he’s fallen in love with a transgender and their love can stand the test of social and family pressures. What makes it tough is that Maya and Rick are terrible, unlikable people. It almost seems like a waste to have played this storyline with these two characters rather than people who are not all-around jerks.

The storyline itself makes Maya likable because Mosley plays the part perfectly and you can see the pain in her transgender issues and past. But aside from when they’re facing this issue, the duo behaves despicably. Rick later defended Maya to his mom saying that Maya never lied – he says there were things she didn’t tell him, but she never lied. Hmm… That’s a stretch, right?

Fan reaction has been either greatly positive or greatly negative. Some see this is the best plot line ever and the some think it’s the worst. What’s interesting (and wonderful) is that the majority of fans are very accepting of a transgender character on the show. The negative fan reception has nothing to do with rejecting the inclusion of a trans character – it’s more of a backlash against Maya and Rick’s cruel treatment of others and then wondering why they are treated poorly in response.

What do you think? Was Rick’s reaction in line with his character’s nature or does it seem contrived to make the plot play the way they want? Do you think they’ll make it to the altar? Will Rick and Maya last as a couple?

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