(no subject)
Okay, so, now that I'm slightly more drunk and slightly more removed from the shitstorm that was Tuesday, let's sort out why I'm so annoyed by it. And, shockingly enough, it comes back primarily to how Quinn Fabray was shit on...
So, before we get into the depth of my drunken annoyances, let's pause and continue two things. Firstly, there's what have absolutely and irrevocably seen Quinn deal with:
-Teen pregnancy. Say whatever you want about how she got pregnant, but she was still a tenth grader (TENTH GRADE) in Ohio who had both taken a vow of celibacy and gotten pregnant. BIG SHIT.
-She was kicked out by her parents. BIGGER SHIT. And that's not even counting the issues that she was kicked out because her boyfriend felt it was okay to take an issue regarding them and make a decision on his own to expose it, that her father did it cruelly and with the aid of a kitchen timer, and that she was subsequently thrown out by that same boyfriend.
-She had a baby. As a tenth grader. This is so far removed from "teen pregnancy". There were at least ten girls that I knew/had class with in high school who got pregnant, and only one of them carried the child to term. This is huge, because it was demonstrative of her actually believing in her religion and the ideals behind it. Regardless of what I think about abortion, this was a child-- and you can't really argue that she was much more than a child at that point-- making an incredible adult decision to put herself up for ridicule and disdain from everyone in her life, jsut because she believed.
-She gave up her daughter. There really isn't any need to deal with that. All you have to do
is look at images from when said daughter was born. There wasn't any fear or relief in her face. That was all baby mama love. She loved that kid, and she gave her up without questioning her own ability to keep said kid.
-She lost all respect from her peers. Enough said.
-She was forced to choose between cheerleading and glee, and chose glee (unlike some extremely tall quarterbacks), despite knowing that it would crash the reputation she had earned back.
-She was accused of being heartless and cruel for being the one person to not force an opinion on Rachel about the nose job thing. Whatever her intentions were, she stood out as the one person who never said she should (like Santana) or shouldn't (Finn, mostly) get a nose job. There was never any pressure or condescension.
-She got dumped at a funeral. While I can debate the meainingfulness of the "funeral" part, what really matters is the fact that the boy she had given up another (wonderful) boy for (after uncertaitny and then prodding, no less) sat there next to her and said she felt nothing, ignored the outrageous insecurities associated with the fact that she was willing to deal with him wanting someone else so long as he came back to her. And he still said she didn't feel anything.
-The same boy ignored her completely when they were in NYC and took the other girl out on an elaborate date and kissed the same girl during the competition, at the expense of the entire club's wellbeing, and the only people who saw her even wince were her two closest frenimies.
-The daughter she gave up was brought back and dangled in front of her face, and then yanked away before she even had an opportunity to see her, because she was dressed like a punk.
-Not a single person paused to ask "why?" or "are you okay?" when she reversed her entire transformation and came back to the glee club.
-She suffered as clsoe to a psychotic break as Glee is ever likely ot show, snapping from the realization the she couldn't get Beth and jumping to the idea that she could create a Beth clone from betting pregnant by Puck again.
And then there are the things we never saw: Lucy Caboosey. Whatever the hell her relationship with her mother post-paternal-exile. Whatever it was she did to get in the good graces of the skanks. If she went directly from Finn's house to Puck's house, or if there was some limbo period. The literal and immediate aftermath of giving up her child.
And then there's this episode, where St. Kurt is once again held up as some paragon of virtue becuase, hey, he may have blown off Karofsky's calls, but he's feeling guilty about it, and he was bullied for being gay, so of course he understands it more than anything. And of course that gives him the right to belittle Quinn's suffering.
WHAT. This is the same guy who was a total bitch to Rachel numerous times when she reached out to him. Who has a kind, loving boyfriend who adores him. Who has literally the most supportive father on the planet, and a stepmother who didn't think twice to give up her honeymoon so they could pay for Kurt to go to Dalton, and a stepbrother who's come around to being a great ally. He has Puck and Sam and the rest of the glee boys watching his back because of the whole Karosfky Thing. He has Karofsky watchign his back because of the whole Karofsky thing. He has the admiration and respect of the glee girls for the advice he can offer.
And Quinn has...what? A mother who let her get thrown out and wouldn't take her back until she'd thrown out her husband. No romantic partner. No real support form her "friends" until she went out on limb to bring the Troubletones back into New Directions. The aftermath of being fifteen or sixteen and homeless.
And yet Kurt is allowed by the narrative to condemn Quinn speaking out against Karofsky's action because she's never suffered as much as they have. Because clearly, nothing can be worse than being bullied.
Let's be clear here: I have been bullied. I know how terrible it is. Kurt has more friends than I did in high school, and I wasn't even out then. And once I did feel comfortable coming out as bisexual in college, I still dealt with countless people ridiculing me as a whore or greedy or needy or so lucky because I could always "choose" to be straight if I wanted to. My entire family dismisses the idea of bisexuality because it just isn't feasible to them that someone could be attracted to men and women. At work, gays and lesbians are sinners who just can't help themselves, but bisexuals are just outright terrors because they clearly could be "normal" but the just as clearly choose not to be. And that's not even getting into the absolute shit I've gone through as a girl who races motorcycles, because that remains one of the few bastions of straight white male heroics in the country.
So yeah. I know what Kurt's been through, and I still think he was absolutely full of it. And if he had been called out on it, by anyone-- by Blaine, Mercedes, Sam, Biblethumping Teen Jesus-- it would have been okay to have him saying those things. But no one argued, no one spoke up for Quinn. Not even Quinn spoke up for Quinn, which added to the idea that not only did Quinn know that she was wrong, but she was so aware of it that she chose to stay quiet. Kurt, as always, is written as a hero, and just as predictably, it's a female character who takes the fall. And who, more than any female character, has taken the fall in the last two and a half years?
And then there's the car accident. Not even touching on the fact that they just had to make it her fault for running a stop sign, which is like a negative ten billion points for characterization because Quinn is a survivor far more than she is a victor. They could have just made it another driver running a stop sign, because that shit unfortunately happens all the time, and preserved at least one bit of the character integerity they'd stuck with-- that Quinn is smart-- instead of destroying it.
But no. Quinn is texting, so Quinn gets run over by a half-ton chassis mid-21st century Dodge, and who the fuck knows how she's going to survive that.
This entire episode, any time Quinn was involved, she was the scapegoat. I have never in my life seen a television character more despised by her creators. She's not just been used by a punching bag for huge life experiences, she's been turned into an example of BE KURT HUMMEL OR YOU'RE A VIRGINAL WHORE BITCH.
I hate glee.
So, before we get into the depth of my drunken annoyances, let's pause and continue two things. Firstly, there's what have absolutely and irrevocably seen Quinn deal with:
-Teen pregnancy. Say whatever you want about how she got pregnant, but she was still a tenth grader (TENTH GRADE) in Ohio who had both taken a vow of celibacy and gotten pregnant. BIG SHIT.
-She was kicked out by her parents. BIGGER SHIT. And that's not even counting the issues that she was kicked out because her boyfriend felt it was okay to take an issue regarding them and make a decision on his own to expose it, that her father did it cruelly and with the aid of a kitchen timer, and that she was subsequently thrown out by that same boyfriend.
-She had a baby. As a tenth grader. This is so far removed from "teen pregnancy". There were at least ten girls that I knew/had class with in high school who got pregnant, and only one of them carried the child to term. This is huge, because it was demonstrative of her actually believing in her religion and the ideals behind it. Regardless of what I think about abortion, this was a child-- and you can't really argue that she was much more than a child at that point-- making an incredible adult decision to put herself up for ridicule and disdain from everyone in her life, jsut because she believed.
-She gave up her daughter. There really isn't any need to deal with that. All you have to do
is look at images from when said daughter was born. There wasn't any fear or relief in her face. That was all baby mama love. She loved that kid, and she gave her up without questioning her own ability to keep said kid.
-She lost all respect from her peers. Enough said.
-She was forced to choose between cheerleading and glee, and chose glee (unlike some extremely tall quarterbacks), despite knowing that it would crash the reputation she had earned back.
-She was accused of being heartless and cruel for being the one person to not force an opinion on Rachel about the nose job thing. Whatever her intentions were, she stood out as the one person who never said she should (like Santana) or shouldn't (Finn, mostly) get a nose job. There was never any pressure or condescension.
-She got dumped at a funeral. While I can debate the meainingfulness of the "funeral" part, what really matters is the fact that the boy she had given up another (wonderful) boy for (after uncertaitny and then prodding, no less) sat there next to her and said she felt nothing, ignored the outrageous insecurities associated with the fact that she was willing to deal with him wanting someone else so long as he came back to her. And he still said she didn't feel anything.
-The same boy ignored her completely when they were in NYC and took the other girl out on an elaborate date and kissed the same girl during the competition, at the expense of the entire club's wellbeing, and the only people who saw her even wince were her two closest frenimies.
-The daughter she gave up was brought back and dangled in front of her face, and then yanked away before she even had an opportunity to see her, because she was dressed like a punk.
-Not a single person paused to ask "why?" or "are you okay?" when she reversed her entire transformation and came back to the glee club.
-She suffered as clsoe to a psychotic break as Glee is ever likely ot show, snapping from the realization the she couldn't get Beth and jumping to the idea that she could create a Beth clone from betting pregnant by Puck again.
And then there are the things we never saw: Lucy Caboosey. Whatever the hell her relationship with her mother post-paternal-exile. Whatever it was she did to get in the good graces of the skanks. If she went directly from Finn's house to Puck's house, or if there was some limbo period. The literal and immediate aftermath of giving up her child.
And then there's this episode, where St. Kurt is once again held up as some paragon of virtue becuase, hey, he may have blown off Karofsky's calls, but he's feeling guilty about it, and he was bullied for being gay, so of course he understands it more than anything. And of course that gives him the right to belittle Quinn's suffering.
WHAT. This is the same guy who was a total bitch to Rachel numerous times when she reached out to him. Who has a kind, loving boyfriend who adores him. Who has literally the most supportive father on the planet, and a stepmother who didn't think twice to give up her honeymoon so they could pay for Kurt to go to Dalton, and a stepbrother who's come around to being a great ally. He has Puck and Sam and the rest of the glee boys watching his back because of the whole Karosfky Thing. He has Karofsky watchign his back because of the whole Karofsky thing. He has the admiration and respect of the glee girls for the advice he can offer.
And Quinn has...what? A mother who let her get thrown out and wouldn't take her back until she'd thrown out her husband. No romantic partner. No real support form her "friends" until she went out on limb to bring the Troubletones back into New Directions. The aftermath of being fifteen or sixteen and homeless.
And yet Kurt is allowed by the narrative to condemn Quinn speaking out against Karofsky's action because she's never suffered as much as they have. Because clearly, nothing can be worse than being bullied.
Let's be clear here: I have been bullied. I know how terrible it is. Kurt has more friends than I did in high school, and I wasn't even out then. And once I did feel comfortable coming out as bisexual in college, I still dealt with countless people ridiculing me as a whore or greedy or needy or so lucky because I could always "choose" to be straight if I wanted to. My entire family dismisses the idea of bisexuality because it just isn't feasible to them that someone could be attracted to men and women. At work, gays and lesbians are sinners who just can't help themselves, but bisexuals are just outright terrors because they clearly could be "normal" but the just as clearly choose not to be. And that's not even getting into the absolute shit I've gone through as a girl who races motorcycles, because that remains one of the few bastions of straight white male heroics in the country.
So yeah. I know what Kurt's been through, and I still think he was absolutely full of it. And if he had been called out on it, by anyone-- by Blaine, Mercedes, Sam, Biblethumping Teen Jesus-- it would have been okay to have him saying those things. But no one argued, no one spoke up for Quinn. Not even Quinn spoke up for Quinn, which added to the idea that not only did Quinn know that she was wrong, but she was so aware of it that she chose to stay quiet. Kurt, as always, is written as a hero, and just as predictably, it's a female character who takes the fall. And who, more than any female character, has taken the fall in the last two and a half years?
And then there's the car accident. Not even touching on the fact that they just had to make it her fault for running a stop sign, which is like a negative ten billion points for characterization because Quinn is a survivor far more than she is a victor. They could have just made it another driver running a stop sign, because that shit unfortunately happens all the time, and preserved at least one bit of the character integerity they'd stuck with-- that Quinn is smart-- instead of destroying it.
But no. Quinn is texting, so Quinn gets run over by a half-ton chassis mid-21st century Dodge, and who the fuck knows how she's going to survive that.
This entire episode, any time Quinn was involved, she was the scapegoat. I have never in my life seen a television character more despised by her creators. She's not just been used by a punching bag for huge life experiences, she's been turned into an example of BE KURT HUMMEL OR YOU'RE A VIRGINAL WHORE BITCH.
I hate glee.