after rewatching some of glee, my love/hate show
There's something else about Glee's attempt at a strong friendship bond between the members that turns me off, aside from the fact that none of them seem to be fond of each other individually aside from the odd friendship like Kurt and Mercedes.
Another aspect of the attempt at 'friends to family' that strikes me as disingenuous is the fact that the group combines bullies with bullied, with little to no resolution over the conflict that I would expect from that mix. Puck seems to be fairly unrepentant about shoving people in dumpsters and slushy-ing them and basically being a misogynistic douchebag. Finn did nothing to help the victims of the football team's bullying, when he clearly had the ability to. (I do consider him a coward and I hate how the show paints him as a caring, wonderful person.) Quinn is a first-class bully and cyberbully. Santana, same thing. These kids get mixed up in a group of their former victims, and we're supposed to believe that their victims love and support them?
Now, I'm going to have to thank god I wasn't really bullied in high school. People typically stayed out of my way, I stayed out of there way. However, I have enough empathy and imagination to presume that if I had been tormented every day of my school career by someone who ganged up on me, threw me into dumpsters, insulted me, and flung beverages at my face, I would never in my life ever would want to be in a club with them. And if my love for music overrode my desire to keep away from the people who hurt me, I would not feel safe in that club. I wouldn't feel like I could truly loosen up and allow myself to be happy in it. I would be constantly on my toes, waiting for these people to attack me again.
I've noticed that Glee has a huge problem with cognitive dissonance. They attempt to send a message, but neglect to realize what the actions of the characters signify. They attempt to teach us that homophobia is bad, but they lionize homophobes like Finn Hudson and, using Burt as a mouthpiece, say that Finn's 'faggy' comment was justified because of Kurt's forward flirtation. They try to say bullying is bad, but allow half of the kids in Glee to be bullies who never receive backlash, and they have yet to take steps to resolve the frequent bullying that goes on in McKinley. They make a Lady Gaga episode about respecting women, but then we get Puck and Artie being misogynistic and Finn being a Nice Guy and the club being an ass to Coach Beiste. Will is a fucking useless waste of air and the most irresponsible teacher I have ever seen, but for some reason we're supposed to sympathize with him. Starting when he plants weed into a child's locker to pressgang him into joining a club, and continuing when he uses his club's RHP show to seduce another teacher.
I keep being torn between liking the show for the crack and hilarity and the music, and loving some of the characters I love, and HATING the show for how damn unlikable almost everyone can be, and for failing to deliver messages without being problematic and hypocritical.
(When I'm done re-watching, I should talk about some of the stuff I actually like about this show.)
Another aspect of the attempt at 'friends to family' that strikes me as disingenuous is the fact that the group combines bullies with bullied, with little to no resolution over the conflict that I would expect from that mix. Puck seems to be fairly unrepentant about shoving people in dumpsters and slushy-ing them and basically being a misogynistic douchebag. Finn did nothing to help the victims of the football team's bullying, when he clearly had the ability to. (I do consider him a coward and I hate how the show paints him as a caring, wonderful person.) Quinn is a first-class bully and cyberbully. Santana, same thing. These kids get mixed up in a group of their former victims, and we're supposed to believe that their victims love and support them?
Now, I'm going to have to thank god I wasn't really bullied in high school. People typically stayed out of my way, I stayed out of there way. However, I have enough empathy and imagination to presume that if I had been tormented every day of my school career by someone who ganged up on me, threw me into dumpsters, insulted me, and flung beverages at my face, I would never in my life ever would want to be in a club with them. And if my love for music overrode my desire to keep away from the people who hurt me, I would not feel safe in that club. I wouldn't feel like I could truly loosen up and allow myself to be happy in it. I would be constantly on my toes, waiting for these people to attack me again.
I've noticed that Glee has a huge problem with cognitive dissonance. They attempt to send a message, but neglect to realize what the actions of the characters signify. They attempt to teach us that homophobia is bad, but they lionize homophobes like Finn Hudson and, using Burt as a mouthpiece, say that Finn's 'faggy' comment was justified because of Kurt's forward flirtation. They try to say bullying is bad, but allow half of the kids in Glee to be bullies who never receive backlash, and they have yet to take steps to resolve the frequent bullying that goes on in McKinley. They make a Lady Gaga episode about respecting women, but then we get Puck and Artie being misogynistic and Finn being a Nice Guy and the club being an ass to Coach Beiste. Will is a fucking useless waste of air and the most irresponsible teacher I have ever seen, but for some reason we're supposed to sympathize with him. Starting when he plants weed into a child's locker to pressgang him into joining a club, and continuing when he uses his club's RHP show to seduce another teacher.
I keep being torn between liking the show for the crack and hilarity and the music, and loving some of the characters I love, and HATING the show for how damn unlikable almost everyone can be, and for failing to deliver messages without being problematic and hypocritical.
(When I'm done re-watching, I should talk about some of the stuff I actually like about this show.)