Glee: “Pilot,” “Never Been Kissed,” “Furt” -- Reflections

 

 I have always been a supporter of Glee if for the only reason that it means that I didn’t have to watch Jersey Shore. There are definitely episodes that I enjoy, and the messages that it over all presents, are good messages to send: anti-bullying, pro-diversity. It is a piece of dominant discourse that, like Brave, is trying to resist dominant Ideology. However, that does not mean that I don’t have problems with it. 

This show relates to many of the course themes and discussions that we have discussed so far in this class, I was kind of uninspired by the pilot episode. It spent a lot of time introducing all of the characters. I do give brownie points to the creators for obviously trying to stay away from SCWAAMP, however, I don’t think that they achieved it all that well. There is someone physically handicapped in the show, but instead of celebrating that in this episode, the show lets Rachel complain that the lead singer is in a wheel chair, and instead of getting in trouble for saying that, she gets her way, she gets a new male lead. 

 

However, other episodes were more accessible for me. In “Never Been Kissed” I really hate the idea of the boys v. girls competition. Especially after Kurt wasn’t allowed to join the girls side. And to appease him, Will changes it up so that the boys have to sing “girl” songs and the girls have to “boy” songs. Not only does this only allow for two genders, but assumes that girls never listen/sing to rock songs and that boys only listen to rock songs. This fits into our course assumption that teens are culturally constructed. I see this because each member is being fitted into a role, there are expectations about how these teens are supposed to act. 

I was also disappointed in the episode “Furt” when Rachel gets the girls together who have boyfriends on the football team to stand up to Karofsky. This really bothered me, it also reminded e of Croteau and Christensen. Because it is secretly educated teens and anyone who watches the show that they need men in their lives who can stand up to bullies for them, they can’t stand up to bullies by themselves, it is also the dominant ideology. I believe that it is the dominant ideology because of the writers’ treatment of it. In order to justify this plot line, the writers give Quinn the line “I think you personally just set the Feminist Movement back 50 years” yet later, when Sam has a black eye she says hot it is, and it convinces her to go steady with him. So despite acknowledging that as something serious is made a joke of and then ignored.

Questions and Comments for class:

Am I the only one who felt like there were a lot of issues within the episodes?If not, what did you find problematic?