Glee's Repeated Disability!Fails
I don't have a TV, but when Glee first came on Hulu, I watched it because I like musicals and it wasn't too bad. But slowly, I realized something: Glee sucks at portraying disabilities. Absolutely sucks.
The actor who's playing Artie is obviously not disabled. He's not comfortable with the chair. He's just kind of sitting in it; that's it. He doesn't have any rhythm at all. The chair even has handles on it. I mean, what teenage paraplegic wants handles on his wheelchair? He doesn't need them, and he sure as heck doesn't need somebody randomly grabbing them and pushing him around (which, y'know, is probably exactly what the typical idiot teenage bully would do). Plus, the whole deal with him dreaming about dancing? "I dream about the one thing I can't do... boohooo, I have to learn to dream more realistically"? Yeah, you ever heard of wheelchair dancing? Glee hasn't. We're supposed to feel sorry for Artie because he's just such a trooper, goshdarn it; he's had such a horrible horrible life and he's still got spirit! Wow! He's an inspiration to all of us!! (This is where the Internet needs a sarcasm tag.)
And then Sue Sylvester, the show's villain cheerleading coach, gets a nice moment that shows she isn't such a horrible villain after all because she visits her sister (who has Down's) in her retirement home or wherever she lives. And we're supposed to see "Awww, she's not so bad! She must be secretly a nice person, deep down, because she's kind to her retarded sister!" Obviously, being kind to someone who's got Down syndrome is an extraordinary thing that makes you an extraordinary person. And as we all know, treating one's own sister like a human being is just downright saintly. (Sarcasm tag again.)
And then there's Tina, who finally admits to Artie that she fakes a stutter so she doesn't have to interact socially, and thus is actually not disabled at all. And Artie promptly gets mad at her because she's faking disability, and disability is Serious Business, and she doesn't "really" know what it's like to be disabled. So, tell me, Glee writers, what do we call social anxiety so severe that one fakes a speech impediment for years? A disability, maybe? Oh, that's right. Social phobia doesn't count. It's a mental illness, not a real disability. (Seriously. Why does the Internet not have a sarcasm tag?)
When I first watched Glee, I was glad to see a show that had a lot of the music I like in it. I'm fond of Broadway musicals and some of the stuff they were doing was pretty cool. But gradually, the unfortunate implications just began piling up, and by the end of the first season, I couldn't watch it anymore. It's no fun to watch a show where you find yourself yelling at the screen for yet another disability fail, and realizing that people around the country are probably looking at that and thinking that this is what disability is really like, or even worse, that Glee should be commended for even mentioning disability at all.
The actor who's playing Artie is obviously not disabled. He's not comfortable with the chair. He's just kind of sitting in it; that's it. He doesn't have any rhythm at all. The chair even has handles on it. I mean, what teenage paraplegic wants handles on his wheelchair? He doesn't need them, and he sure as heck doesn't need somebody randomly grabbing them and pushing him around (which, y'know, is probably exactly what the typical idiot teenage bully would do). Plus, the whole deal with him dreaming about dancing? "I dream about the one thing I can't do... boohooo, I have to learn to dream more realistically"? Yeah, you ever heard of wheelchair dancing? Glee hasn't. We're supposed to feel sorry for Artie because he's just such a trooper, goshdarn it; he's had such a horrible horrible life and he's still got spirit! Wow! He's an inspiration to all of us!! (This is where the Internet needs a sarcasm tag.)
And then Sue Sylvester, the show's villain cheerleading coach, gets a nice moment that shows she isn't such a horrible villain after all because she visits her sister (who has Down's) in her retirement home or wherever she lives. And we're supposed to see "Awww, she's not so bad! She must be secretly a nice person, deep down, because she's kind to her retarded sister!" Obviously, being kind to someone who's got Down syndrome is an extraordinary thing that makes you an extraordinary person. And as we all know, treating one's own sister like a human being is just downright saintly. (Sarcasm tag again.)
And then there's Tina, who finally admits to Artie that she fakes a stutter so she doesn't have to interact socially, and thus is actually not disabled at all. And Artie promptly gets mad at her because she's faking disability, and disability is Serious Business, and she doesn't "really" know what it's like to be disabled. So, tell me, Glee writers, what do we call social anxiety so severe that one fakes a speech impediment for years? A disability, maybe? Oh, that's right. Social phobia doesn't count. It's a mental illness, not a real disability. (Seriously. Why does the Internet not have a sarcasm tag?)
When I first watched Glee, I was glad to see a show that had a lot of the music I like in it. I'm fond of Broadway musicals and some of the stuff they were doing was pretty cool. But gradually, the unfortunate implications just began piling up, and by the end of the first season, I couldn't watch it anymore. It's no fun to watch a show where you find yourself yelling at the screen for yet another disability fail, and realizing that people around the country are probably looking at that and thinking that this is what disability is really like, or even worse, that Glee should be commended for even mentioning disability at all.