FOX's smash hit TV show Glee has taken off worldwide, and regularly attracts huge numbers of viewers per episode. In addition to its bouncy musical numbers and fresh-faced cast, it has become known for its out-spoken stance on gay rights and the bullying of gay youth. Despite this progressive and impressive endeavour, it is undeniable that there are problematic portrayals of other groups on the show.
Glee and Gay Rights:
Featuring two openly gay characters, Kurt (Chris Colfer) and Blaine (Darren Criss), Glee is something of a revolution in teen television. Ryan Murphy, the show's creator, is openly gay, and has based many of Kurt's character on his own high school self.
When Kurt is bullied for his sexuality, his friends stand up for him, and he is eventually transferred to another school. A more comprehensive account of this can be read here. The point is made, by teachers and by his friends, over and over, that bullying someone for their sexuality is not okay, not acceptable, and not to be done in any circumstances.
Glee's Portrayal of Women:
It doesn't take long for any casual Glee viewer to notice that almost all Glee females are hyper-sexualized, insane, or some combination of the two. Sue Sylvester is a clearly crazy villain, Emma is an OCD control-freak, Rachel is a micromanaging megalomaniac, Santana is a one-dimensional fulfilment of the bitch/slut niche, Quinn is a hypocritical serial cheater, and Brittany is a sexualized child. Terri is a lunatic, literally. Only Tina and Mercedes escape relatively unscathed.
While one can argue that no Glee character is portrayed as a totally upstanding human being, the portrayal of the female characters is truly upsetting.
Season one's portrayal of the Chastity Club showed only female members being enthusiastic about chastity. It was the male members who uniformly bemoaned their girlfriends' enthusiasm for being "all about the teasing, not the pleasing". Rachel's outburst about how girls want sex as much as boys do was essentially ignored in her relationships with Jesse and, later, Finn. All of the relationships on Glee show the male being the sexual aggressor, with the female hesitant or resistant. Whether it is Rachel saying she doesn't want to have sex until she's 25 or Quinn not wanting to have sex again after her pregnancy (no mention of contraceptive use), all of the "good" female characters show little interest in sex. Sex, Glee makes very clear, is something girls do for boys, and not something they are an active participant in.
Only Brittany and Santana show an active interest in sex, and neither are main characters or characters with many redeeming qualities. Santana, the meanest girl in Glee Club, is sexually aggressive and is frequently shown using this aggression to break up couples. Brittany, who is shown as so stupid she can hardly function, is also sexually confident. However, the combination of such sexual confidence with her bizarre childlike stupidity is alarming. When she sleeps with Artie, he attempts to slut-shame her for 'using' him, although he makes it very clear at the time that he is okay with being used. Again, Glee makes it very clear that the only girls who like sex are mean and stupid.
Santana and Brittany's relationship remains a confusing, murky backwater. Whether they are lesbians, bisexual, or just straight girls experimenting is unclear. However, it is a very charged decision to have Brittany, who was always the more ardent of the two, in a conventional relationship with Artie, and to have Santana actively pursue a popular boyfriend (usually Finn or Puck). If the two are bisexual, as seems to be the case, Glee is to be commended in portraying a tremendously unrepresented sexual identity; but it is also noteworthy that, in a show that is so supportive of gay sexuality, there is absolutely no representation of lesbian sexuality that isn't done to titillate the male gaze. While the audience has seen sexually suggestive make-out scenes between the two, there has been no equivalent for the male gay characters, indicating that Brittany and Santana's sexuality is being played for male audiences.
Glee's Constant Fat Jokes:
Amber Riley's Mercedes Jones fulfilled the full-figured female quotient for most of the series' run, but Ashley Fink has now joined the cast as Lauren, who is noticeably heavier. While Glee should be applauded for employing actors with a wide range of body types, this inclusion does not make their constant fat jokes and sizeism okay. Lauren is almost always shown eating or demanding food as payment for something.
In Valentine's-themed episode "Silly Love Songs", Puck sang Queen's Fat-Bottomed Girls to Lauren in an attempt to convince her to date him. After he had finished, she rightly told him just how offensive of a choice the song was; Glee would do well to follow her advice. While they may be employing a plus-size actor, they are reducing her character to her size and making her a completely one-dimensional stereotype.
Season two's Coach Beiste is another example of the way that the show treats those who don't conform to traditional beauty norms. The fact that the stocky female football coach's name is supposed to sound like "beast" is completely offensive.
Racism on Glee:
The racism on Glee is a little harder to pin down. Unlike the clear sexism, one can't help but wonder if the racist jokes are being made to mock racism itself, or if the writers actually think these jokes are acceptable. Pairing the two Asian kids on the show together (although it is worth saying that Mike is far kinder to Tina than Artie ever was) and calling their relationship "Asian Fusion" sounds like it might be a satire, but accusing Glee of pulling off a successful racist satire is like accusing The Hills of being a satire of vapid Valley Girls.
The non-white kids almost never have storylines that revolve around them, and merely serve as props for stories about the white main characters. As Michael Landweber on PopMatters writes, characters like Tina and Mercedes often serve as a prop in a self-realization arc for a white (Artie, Kurt) character.
The Bottom Line:
It's undeniable that Glee is a show filled with talented performers and irrepressible energy. It is outstanding and truly beneficial that they are willing to take such a firm stance on treatment of gay youth, but this does not cancel out their problematic portrayal of other groups on the show.
One can argue that most characters on Glee are purposeful caricatures - dumb jock, snotty head cheerleader etc - but the racism, sexism and sizeism present certainly goes beyond that. The argument that Glee is purposefully poking fun at racism, for instance, gives the show more intellectual credit than it deserves.
In its original inception, Glee was a darker, edgier show than its current self. It dabbled in black humour and had more of 1997's Election about it than 2005's High School Musical. However, in its desire to appeal to a wider audience, it has decided to take the 'after-school special' approach to 'special issues', which means that it has stopped treating things like gay bullying in high schools in a realistic manner. This isn't a bad thing, but if they want to create a fantasy high-school environment, then they need to apply it to all groups represented on the show.
Ultimately, Glee's portrayal of women, overweight people, and racial minorities is tremendously troubling, especially since they have such a large teen audience, and they should examine this portrayal before continuing to congratulate themselves for being so inclusive.
Sources:
Cain, Candice. "The Women of Glee - Associated Content from Yahoo! - associatedcontent.com." N.p., 25 Feb. 2010. Web. 14 Feb. 2011.
Drye, Brittny. "Is 'Glee' Racist? | The Stir." The Stir by CafeMom - Blogging About What's On Moms' Minds. N.p., 22 Sept. 2010. Web. 14 Feb. 2011.
Landweber, Michael. "Is 'Glee' a Little Bit Racist?." PopMatters. N.p., 9 Dec. 2009. Web. 14 Feb. 2011.
Caroline Garrod - Caroline is currently working on her Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in History from Queen's University in Kingston, ON. An avid reader and ...
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