TW: Molestation and Glee

Last night Glee did an episode where one of boys revealed he was molested when he was 11 by his 17 yr old, female babysitter. He told his trusted glee club mates and in return the older boys (seniors getting ready to graduate and go to college or the workforce) mocked him. They said he should have been glad to get the attention, that any boy would have been and something is wrong with him. They listed 80s movies where this was the goal. They were completely insensitive to his victimization and patriarchal in their socialization of this kid.  It was disgusting, but not unrealistic since we know that’s how men are socialized to respond to the idea of unwanted sexual attention from a “hot” girl to a male in a patriarchal society such as ours… they are taught to think they should always want it and to respond favorably or something is wrong with them.

What was horrifying was the total lack of correction. There was no real admonition of their behavior. There was no resolution involving the young men who mocked him. There was no clear “these young men are wrong for saying these things and need to change their ways of thinking because sexual abuse is real regardless of gender and no, boys, you are not expected to like when someone touches you inappropriately or without your permission. Men can be victims of sexual abuse and often are. Your feelings are valid. Your victimhood is real. It doesn’t make you weak. It’s not funny. And if you’re struggling with dealing with it, there are resources”. (In fact, immediately after the rebuff from his friends and older models of maleness, the character was compelled to retract any acknowledged feelings of victimhood or displeasure with being molested by a young woman and pretend like he was just being ridiculous. They actually made him high five the seniors and say “I was lucky”.)

Instead, we were treated with another student (female) telling him in private that she too was molested, then subsequently bullied into silence. Then they all sang together. All of them. Including the young men who mocked him.  That was it. They never apologized. They never realized their egregious error and dearth of compassion and/or tact. They just moved on and led some fun songs and we’ll never hear about it again… and we’ve just further normalized their reaction. We haven’t shown why it was wrong. We haven’t taken a stand against it.

And you’re telling me nobody in control over at Glee had the sense to say “this is wrong; we can’t send this message out to kids”? 

Even in the little “if you’re being molested, you’re not alone. call this hotline” PSA at the end, the only two people involved were the two who played the molested characters. They didn’t even take that opportunity to bring in the two guys who played the laughing/mocking/dehumanizing older friends to say “this is not a laughing matter. this isn’t a joke. young boys are sexually abused at the rate of ____. It is very real and no you are not expected to like it. you are not wrong for feeling icky about it”. They never acknowledged that it was wrong to respond the way these young men did. They never allowed young men who had not been victimized to empathize with and support boys who had.

I would like to say I’m shocked at Glee, but I’m not…unfortunately. Glee has had about as much finesse as an SVU writer “not” writing about Chris Brown when it comes to social matters. They’re horrid and that’s nothing new. But I am shocked at the media’s reluctance or complete unwillingness to discuss the level of irresponsibility and general lack of foresight over there.

Adding to the list of what I am not here for:

People or networks who think every lesbian couple portrayed on television should include some “hot” blonde or think it’s perfectly okay to ignore brown/black/asian lgbt or think it’s cool to exclude fat people or think it’s the responsibility of a lesbian to look your definition of fuckable should you ever decide to fantasize about her. Fuck. You.

If a show is written well, I’m not watching it just for a specific character or couple.

So it doesn’t bother me if they don’t have a lot of lines that episode or aren’t even in it, because the show is done well enough that I’m entertained regardless. I only do the whole “let me know when ___ is on because I don’t feel like watching otherwise” if the show is terrible besides that character or actor or this is the only place i can see the actor. That speaks volumes about the quality of the show….

Examples… I LOVE Grey’s Anatomy.  There are so many characters I enjoy watching that it doesn’t bother me if Cristina is missing for a couple of episodes or Calzona isn’t really focused on for a little while or Bailey or Callie are in the background or the Twisted Sisters aren’t interacting and I don’t have any new material for Japril or Jackson in general and Mark is gone.. as long as ALL of this isn’t happening simultaneously. The show is done well.

I LOVE Once Upon A Time… the only episode that had me a little like …. please get these women off of my screen… was the most recent episode and that was because the wolfpack was actually terrible at acting.  Other than that, they’ve done a marvelous job at picking the right people for the roles. Charming/David is a little annoying and the kid is getting on my nerves at times (he needs to turn evil soon or something… or just stop being all Lexie Grey with the pestering so i’ll care when things happen to him) but everyone else is doing a bangarang job. So i’m fine when it isn’t all about Regina or Snow or Emma or Rumple but just uses them to move the story along at times.

Scandal is the one i’m starting to worry about because they’re pulling a Glee on me. I’m interested in several characters but they seem to be getting pushed to the background a little too often. I’m noticing a lot of focus on Quinn, Abbey, and the prosecutor. I’m not here for it. I want Olivia, Cyrus, the wife, Fitz, Huck, and Columbus Short aka the Season 1 focal points.

I hate Glee. Glee was an ensemble show and then it became about Rachel Berry and Blaine Anderson. That would be ok if the show was written well and I cared about these characters. But neither is true. Because the craftsmaship of the writing/producing/lighting/editing/song-choice is so terrible, I had to rely on who gave me the best performances… who could sing and make me believe it? Who could dance and make me feel it?  Answers: Mercedes, Santana, Mike, and Brittany.  So I was watching strictly for Mercedes, Santana, Mike, Brittany… and what eventually became the Trouble Tones, Brittana, and Samcedes (this is basically different combinations of these people or their relationships). Guess who’s not really there anymore?… Mercedes, Santana, and Mike. But even before now, they completely shifted the focus in season 2… that’s when it became Rachel Berry and Destiny’s prom dumpster babies… with the lack of Beyonce-level talent.

I watch Private Practice for one character/couple now that Naomi and Dell are gone… that character is Charlotte King. I tolerate Cooper when he’s in “being a great man for Charlotte and dad for Mason” mode. Sheldon and Amelia are also awesome when they wrestle screen from Addison. Other than that, not really here for this show anymore. It was written well and then it wasn’t. too much whiny women - Addison and Violet - taking the attention away from the ensemble and not even making me interested in them.

Bottom line… if the ensemble is written well and doesn’t become the equivalent of doo-wop for one whiny chick, I’ll most likely continue to love it and won’t be on some immature “THERE WAS NO ____ IN THIS EPISODE. I’M SO DONE!” blah blah blah foolishness because I probably stopped watching the night of a while ago anyway if it got to that point.

this exchange though

bleetroll:

sirenscomecalling:

bleetroll:

franklyb:

sirenscomecalling:

Nothing says ‘true love’ like lowering one of the characters’ I.Q. to make them fit

#someone wasn’t paying attention when sam said he was dyslexic…

Pardon me for not associating dyslexia to idiocy. I am very well aware that he has a learning disorder. In fact, I’ve often commented on it and the lack of coverage the show has for Sam and his issues. 

lol still don’t understand at what point did i associate dyslexia to idiocy

oh well

maybe i didn’t read this entire post correctly. I am confused. she said they were lowering his IQ. then you said “someone wasn’t paying attention when sam said he was dyslexic” as if that explained why he’s suddenly an idiot. then you say you never did that. Is this Glee’s version of Romnesia?

thehartsanopenbook:

theotherchristel:

There are two types of people on my dash - those who watched Glee and those who didn’t. guess who’s happy?

I watched the first 10 minutes, Saw Chris Colfer’s name come up first then realized that I’m not watching anymore.  And from what I am hearing from other folks that did watch Fox better start looking for a mid-season replacement

we knew people would be upset though. I’m just wondering how upset people really are… like complain upset or eff this, i’m just not watching anymore. i don’t need this headache upset… because, to be completely honest, the only one they care about is the second one if enough people get fed up. all the moaning does nothing. they’ve been ignoring it for 3 years.

The 5 Most Bafflingly Racist Shows on TV Right Now:

gleecritic:

#4. Glee:

In researching this article, I hadn’t thought to include Glee at first. In fact, on the surface, Glee looks like a damn musical U.N. of shit I’d never watch. But it also looks like they have someone from almost every ethnic background available on the show and dammit, they’re all so full of song. But then it was pointed out to me that every non-white character is such a non-white character that it’s like the producers had actually just come here from an albino world and were so taken with the novelty of people who weren’t white that they had no time to look into or care about their cultures at all. Hence the two Asian characters on the show have the same last name. The Jew’s last name is Ben Israel and he’s as sexually deranged as Gladstone. The Latina cheerleader is actually named Santana Lopez, possibly because they had to cut Conchita Luisa Mexicasa out of the script. There’s even actually an Irish exchange student who is immediately believed to be a leprechaun.

The reason you don’t want to think of Glee right off is the reason half of you rolled your eyes at that last sentence. Oh come on, no one believes the Irish kid is a leprechaun, that’s a joke. Of course it is. Just like the awkward Jew with the afro, the black girl who always sings the big gospel notes, the gay kid with the great fashion sense, the overachieving Asian, the fiery, underprivileged Latina, the cheerleader who is so dumb that she has a negative GPA and so many others. Everyone is a something on this show.

One episode revolved around a Jewish girl wanting a nose job to look like one of the white characters and actually, sincerely included a duet of the two girls singing “Unpretty”/”I Feel Pretty.” Now I’m not one for subtext, but I think the genuine sentiment here from the show was that you can be pretty, even as a Jew. That wasn’t what they meant, but it’s exactly what they said. Hey Jew, don’t feel bad you look so Jewish, you’re beautiful. We’re all beautiful just the way we are, even if we’re not normal. Hell, the episode this happened in was called “Born This Way.”

Another episode entitled “Asian F” is about one of the Asian characters getting an A-, which is so terrible that his father demands daily drug testing for him. And that’s such a great example of why Glee continues to skirt under the radar, because they made that ridiculous stereotype the focus of an entire episode like that somehow ameliorated the stupidity of it existing. As though Glee’s producers think that by shoving their parade of characters and their intense stereotypes in your face, rather than having them be subtle, it’s cool, because they’re acknowledged. But that shit’s kind of wack, yo. [X]

somebody else recognized it and called them out. I’m about to cry

I guess this will be my last post about glee on this account unless they issue an apology for that.

RIB, y’all some bitches. some scorned bitches. I won’t be watching this season.

bana05:

That they made Brittany say that line says an awful lot about what RIB+ think of Mercedes. I’d thought, and I’d even been willing, to give it a “pass” if Wade had been Unique; but Wade is Wade, Wade is a boy, and they have Brittany - a character who has consistently and canonically liked and respected Mercedes, basically confuse a very feminine woman for an obvious male. And that’s just some bullshit, because how many times are black women considered unfeminine? And even more so because it took Mercedes three seasons to even get a love interest, and she ends her tenure on the show in an ambiguous relationship (at best) and with every indication that she’ll be forever alone whenever she deigns to show up on the show. Furthermore, back when Glee actresses did that horror movie photoshoot, notable how Amber and Jenna weren’t involved even though those two had been regulars even before Heather and Naya. It’s just so fucking offensive all around. I hope that line doesn’t make it to the final.

filed under more reasons to hate glee.