GEP Update: Fighting for equality for Klaine and other LGBT couples

[lola_mejor]

I hope this is ok to post - I've looked over the rules and think so?

A lot of you may be aware of the Glee Equality Project (GEP).

They've been trying to raise awareness and encouraging people to write or call FOX about what they (and I) perceive as a bias against LGBT couples and characters on Glee.

Earlier this week deconstructingglee posted an open letter to GEP. Today, GEP responded, and I'm posting the response under the cut because I think it's really calm and factual and thought-provoking.

If people wish to discuss you can do so at deconstructingglee, on the GEP tumblr, or in comments here :)



GEP Open Statement in response to an anonymous letter posted on deconstructingglee

We at GEP are pleased that our campaign is prompting people to ask their own questions. We welcome all contributions and feedback for our campaign, and have no qualms if people choose not to support us. We believe in what we’re doing, however, and we believe we’re on solid ground with our views and our campaign.

The gifsets, picture montages and videos on our tumblr, facebook and twitter represent our beliefs. We carefully considered each one and stand by them on the basis of what Glee has shown us on-screen.

The basis for all of our content is cold, hard facts from data collection and observations of season 3. We restricted ourselves to season 3 to keep the task manageable for our volunteer data recorders and analysts, but also to provide what we felt would be a fairer picture as there were established, canon straight and LGBT couples throughout that season. Including data from earlier seasons where there were not as many pairs would have skewed the statistics and made the inequality look even worse than we believe it is. We’re campaigning for equality, but we don’t want to mislead anyone.

Our research and observations fall into three streams.

The first stream of research looks at physical affection. We absolutely recognize the importance of other measures of equality on the depiction of relationships on television, but we believe first and foremost that equal amounts of physical affection are important. Why? So that gay kids watching can see that they’re normal and natural and not “inappropriate for family hour”. So that gay affection can become normalized for straight people too. We don’t believe that there is equal treatment on Glee, and we believe it needs to be fixed.

In our data collection on physical affection, we did not limit ourselves to kisses, and we’re glad people realize this. We tend to concentrate on the kissing statistic because it is clear and grabs attention, and also, kisses are important. These are teenagers we’re talking about. They like to kiss. But that has not been the only focus of our research. Our dedicated data recorders also noted, for ALL couples:

• Hugs
• Handholding
• arm-linking
• arms around/side snuggles
• Various other indications of affection such as blown-kisses, shoulder pats, back rubbing, giving flowers etc.

As far as possible, where we have used statistics in our campaign, we have tried to normalize the figures to remove differences due to the standing of a character. Equal representation for us means proportional, appropriate and respectful representation. Thus, in considering our statistics of displays of physical affection, we took into account things like the percentage of LGBT couples in Glee out of the total, as well as the amount of time the core pairings spent talking to each other. We have been clear on this since the beginning - in our first video, comparing kisses, we note that:

• 23.8% of the pairings in Glee are LGBT
• 10.5% of the kisses in Glee are LGBT.

If we had equality on the show, those figures would be much closer.

This is not equal treatment.

Our second stream of research looks at the respect given to each of the couples in terms of blocking in the choir room, dialogue, and public vs. private scenes etc. We have a couple of great photosets planned to be released soon on blocking, and we have previously pointed out as part of our campaign that Brittany/Santana is the only couple that has been forced to share every conversation they have had in season 3 (and this means one on one) in the presence of other people (i.e. public).

This is not equal treatment.

The dialogue information is interesting because it highlights unequal treatment for Brittany/Santana and Kurt/Blaine in different ways. We have not used this information in the campaign yet, but can provide it here as an example of this type of research:

• Finn/Rachel shared 2031 seconds of dialogue (over 30 minutes)
• Kurt/Blaine shared 1217 seconds of dialogue (over 20 minutes)
• Sam/Mercedes shared 317 seconds of dialogue (just over 5 minutes)
• Brittany/Santana shared 311 seconds of dialogue (just over 5 minutes)
• Tina/Mike shared 155 seconds of dialogue (not even 3 minutes)

Unsurprisingly, the two most verbose couples were Finn/Rachel and Kurt/Blaine. Given FOX has indicated that Rachel, Finn and Kurt are their “lead characters”, this does not surprise us, nor do we think it unusual. What did surprise us, was that Sam/Mercedes spent slightly more time talking to each other in season 3 than Brittany/Santana did. We don’t think this is fair, especially considering Sam wasn’t even in the first 7 episodes.

This is not equal treatment.

We also use data from this second stream of our research to further normalize our physical affection statistics. Calling back to the kissing statistics, we found it interesting to look at how much dialogue a couple must share before they warrant a kiss:

• Tina and Mike technically fared best on that front - they kissed once for every 38.75 seconds of dialogue.
• Finn and Rachel came in next with a kiss for every 67.70 seconds.
• Then we had Brittany and Santana with a kiss for every 103.67 seconds and Sam and Mercedes with a kiss for every 158.50 seconds.
• The startling statistic linking dialogue to kisses came with Kurt and Blaine - they only got a kiss for every 608.50 seconds of dialogue.

In other words, the two boys had to talk for over 10 minutes in order to warrant a kiss - that’s roughly 15 times longer than for Tina and Mike, and almost 10 times longer than for Finn and Rachel.

This is not equal treatment.

Our third stream of research for the campaign looks at more qualitative issues including agency. This is of course a more subjective and fluid area for consideration and discussion, and tends to focus more on the lack of respect afforded to LGBT couples. This stream is characterized by observations, such as the fact that Santana and Brittany never once talk about Santana’s forced outing (including what it may mean for Brittany) in “I Kissed a Girl” or elsewhere, or the fact that Kurt and Blaine do not talk about what to do with the evidence Santana collected against Sebastian following the slushy incident in “Michael”. We don’t believe the straight couples on the show were treated so dismissively.

A specific example concerns conflict resolution among the couples. In the episode “Saturday Night Gleever”, each of Finn, Mercedes, and Santana had storylines to do with being uncertain about their futures and were helped out by their significant others in this regard. All three storylines were resolved in that episode. Finn/Rachel and Sam/Mercedes both kissed as part of their resolution, while Brittany and Santana hugged in front of Sue Sylvester in her office.

This is not equal treatment.

In the episode “Dance With Somebody”, Kurt and Blaine had a fight that was resolved. Like with Brittany and Santana in “Saturday Night Gleever”, however, they were not given the privacy or opportunity to share a kiss as part of this resolution. They hugged in front of Emma Pillsbury in her office.

This is not equal treatment.

We believe there is a problem, and we’re going to keep fighting for that problem to be rectified.

In this statement we’ve included examples of the kind of work we’ve been doing - in terms of quantitative data, qualitative data and observations - to provide more insight into our campaign. We tend not to publish too many statistics, relying on them instead to inform our videos, gifsets and picture montages, because we don’t want to pit specific couples against each other. This isn’t a Klaine campaign. This isn’t a Brittana campaign. This isn’t an anti-straight couple campaign. This is a respect campaign.

It’s an equality campaign.

And, for us, the importance of this has been borne out by what we have seen in the letters of concerned fans writing to FOX and messages we have been sent.

• A twenty-three year old lesbian woman wrote, ‘…frankly I find it offensive that such affection is apparently not deemed appropriate for “family hour”. If it’s appropriate for a straight couple, it’s appropriate for a gay couple.’
• A school teacher wrote, ‘The message my middle schoolers were getting from Glee (and I should note that they all started watching the show this season) is that being gay is okay as long as the characters never act on it. When I asked the kids why they thought that, they kept using Kurt and Blaine as their examples. They correctly pointed out that these two were dating but never showed affection so that must be what Glee was trying to say.’
• An eighteen year old fan wrote, ‘But I can say that Glee does not deserve to call itself ‘the gayest show on television’ anymore. One season back, yes, now not anymore. In two seasons Glee has indeed done a lot for the LGBT community regarding visibility on mainstream television. A lot of people are thankful for that, that will never change. But it has come to a point where it’s not about numbers anymore. It has come to a point where many fans don’t accept the poor development regarding Glee’s gay characters anymore.’
• And an anonymous Tumblr user wrote, ‘I’m fighting against the shaming Glee currently creates. As someone who is attracted to the same sex, when I see the same-sex couples being censored, it’s telling me that same-sex relationships are okay, as long as they’re not being affectionate. You’re allowed to love them but children should never see you touching them. It gives me a sick feeling in my stomach and I want to see it stopped.’

We have also featured consistently some of the individual concerns about the way they have handled these characters’ journeys. There have been serious errors and alarming problems in the portrayal of these characters’ arcs and we will continue to highlight these in our campaign, urging others who are concerned to write FOX and make their voices heard.

We believe Glee has been a great show and we want it to be great for all. We want equality and proportionality in the treatment of LGBT and straight couples and the writers to consider the impact of the way they write these characters. We urge anyone who agrees with us to write or call FOX - instructions are on our tumblr.