My Two Cents or Why Glee Should Not Ship Karofsky/Kurt After Last Week's Ep
shamanonramen.com/2010/11/david-the-gleeliath/
Read the article first about last week's ep. It's very good and I completely agree with everything he says *until* the end.
I think a Kurt/David relationship needs to happen. Blaine, Kurt’s gaydian angel, is so incredibly Kurtesque that their relationship would essentially be masturbation. Kurt/Karofsky (affectionately dubbed “Kurtofsky” by fans) provides a plot that is both challenging to write for the show’s authors, and more importantly would provide a beacon of hope to every high school homosexual who is scared straight.
I love, love, love what they did for the show and the character, and I felt so much pain and pity for the dude (Dave Karofsky), but to have someone fall for their abuser is abhorrent. And dangerous for people to see. If it were a man and a woman no one would even suggest such a thing. Kurt had the appropriate reaction in that scene: shock and horror. He later tried to get him help, because he's a good-ish person, but I don't think he can ever see Karofsky and not think he's about to get punched in the face. Karofsky has a long, painful journey ahead of him--and I very much look forward to seeing it on the show, but I don't think he and Kurt can, and more importantly *should*, have that type of relationship.
Though fandom is the guiltiest one of all on this front. You can't expect much from people who think healing!sex right after a rape is totally legit. jk (though not really)
Actually, that's not true. I know a much guiltier party than fandom: soap operas. Specifically, General Hospital and their (and soap's) most famous couple: Luke and Laura Spencer. For those of you who are too young to directly remember this storyline or didn't watch GH like I did from childhood up, Luke and Laura are the One True Pairing of Daytime TV. Their love is epic and Twilight has *nothing* on it. Now, the clincher of this pairing, that many people wouldn't know if they hadn't seen the original storyline in the late 70s or knew the personal history of the pairing, is that Luke raped Laura. She was with someone else and he loved her so much, felt so much passion for her, that he couldn't control himself and raped her in a department store (after hours). My mother described it as "the most romantic rape ever".
Now, what happens after this? Not what you would expect (a trial, jail time etc). They get together, fall in love, get married and have two kids. The rape is totally justified, as is her falling in love with her rapist, because he loved her. Now, GH eventually realized the error of their ways and at least attempted to address this issue in a storyline that happened around 2000 or so. Lucky, the son of Luke and Laura, finds out that his father raped his mother and she *stayed* with him when his friend (and later romantic interest) Elizabeth is brutally raped by her teacher. GH, having realized that rape *isnt'* romantic at all, makes this a very brutal attack and takes great care to do the story justice (and they do. They handle the trauma and aftermath of rape for a victim and the people around them very well). Now Lucky, when he finds out his parents history, is horrified and angry and confused. He confronts both of them. For his father he has nothing but anger and contempt. For his mother he has nothing but confusion and disbelief ("how could you *stay* with him??"). They both try and explain how "different" it was and how he doesn't understand the situation (there really is no good explanation for this), but he doesn't get it, doesn't want to, and it causes a huge rift in their relationship.
We are supposed to sympathize with Lucky because falling in love with your abuser, the person that hurt you, is crazy! And sad. And likely cause for an intervention. Not saying it doesn't happen, or can't happen, but it gives me an unsettling feeling. The whole idea behind this is that love conquers all. A big enough person can forgive anything. True enough. But to forgive is not to *forget*. There were plenty of kids that tortured and bullied me in school, and I know some of them did it because they had romantic feelings for me. I could possibly see it in myself to forgive them--but I could NEVER be with them that way. Even if I were attracted to them. I don't compartmentalize that well. Or maybe I just haven't had the right kind of healing sex.