Rants! I Has Some

[shadowravyn]

Also known as: shadowravyn has Opinions (news at 11).

So, touchthesoul, who is made of awesome and great, posted this video on her LJ. I, of course, love Glee, and had to watch it. However, watching it, I became aware (or, perhaps 'more aware' is a better term) of two things:

1. I am not pleased with the way they are portraying homosexuality in Glee, and

Comments

[thevirtualjim]

I think you expect too much from mainstream TV ;)

will you be at:

albacon
NEFE
or philcon?

[neuromancerzss]

I LOVE Lafayette. He comes in as on over the top stereotype, but then completely throws that out the window. I absolutely love that he's tougher than Jason and when Jason screws up he's more likely to shove his friend against the wall and intimidate him rather than make a catty remark.

[lyricaldiscord]

Thank you. I can't watch Glee for pretty much all of these reasons. I tried, I did, since my flist seems to love it, but I was literally quivering with rage through the whole thing.

Especially the silent Asian character (not even going to go into THAT) who is probably a lesbian. So, at best, she's a toofer; we get two minorities in one, but let's not give her any lines. As someone who lives with an Asian actor, I know I'm probably more attuned to the white-washing of primetime television and the sins of omission in casting than most people are, but that just made me livid. What they're doing on Glee is no different than when Hollywood cast a bunch of white kids for the heroes of Avatar, and only auditioned Asians for non-speaking crowd scenes

[mariaklob]

I don't think it's beyond the pale to have an Asian girl who speaks and a black girl who is more than just 'sassy.'

Funny you should mention that. Since "going beyond the pale" originally referred to being a Jew trying to live beyond Russia's dedicated Jew territory, it is going beyond the pale to portray people as people instead of Minority Stereotypes.

Otherwise, I agree with this post. Double-plus to the bit about how gay men aren't synonymous with creepy pedophiles.

[rosinavs]

Funny, when I visited Ireland a tour guide said "beyond the pale" meant going beyond the borders of British-controlled Dublin when the Brits were trying to take over.

[mariaklob]

Further Wikipedia crawling (clearly the most reliable historical source) indicates that this was not an entirely uncommon phenomenon. The British one may be the earliest example.

It's still 'X guy leaving X guy's assigned territory,' which leaves it as a perfect comparison for making a character who breaks stereotypes.

[etherial]

It does literally mean "stepping outside the fence[d enclosure]."

[tinylegacies]

Tonight's episode actually addressed several of your points.

Tina (the Asian girl) had a focal point in one of the storylines.

Kurt also had a strong storyline that addressed his sexuality in what I felt were positive ways. I don't want to leave spoilers here.

As for Sandy being a pedophile, it was strongly insinuated in the pilot that Rachel made that up to get him fired for whatever reason. At least that's what I got out of it.

And, yes, there are a lot of stereotypes played into on Glee (the cheerleaders being bitchy, the football players being dumb, etc etc) but that's part of its charm IMHO. Because let's face it. Those things are stereotypes for a reason. Glee reminds me a lot of my own high school days. Yes, there are exceptions to every rule, but I feel like it's realistic.