So I've never watched Glee before and it was interesting. I'm not sure if I liked it or not, but I am curious about it because watching just three episodes leave a lot of holes in the plot of the whole story. How are all the popular kids now in Glee Club, when Coach Sue said that glee was the lowest of the low place to be in high school? But I'm going talk more about what Celine wrote in her blog.
While watching the "Pilot" I saw right away the typical separated cliques that people say teens create. Finn in the typical jock who dates the head cheerleader and blah blah. But also right away you see how Kurt is treated. As Celine said it's almost as he was trash, because they threw him into the dumpster. Is this really the message you want to send teens today? It made me think of Christensen because we learn (secretly or obviously) from what we watch on TV. Why was that something that the producers or writers needed to show? And I don't think it's an acceptable message to be shown to kids and teens today.
I also found, like Celine, that the first episode had a lots of connections to Hine's article. When he talks about how teenagers don't really have a place and that the environment that they have is high school and this is where the social class comes from. They're just trying to find there place in the world. I even think Rachel mentions this when she is talking about Glee club in this episode.
In "Never Been Kissed" I completely agree with Celine when it comes to the bullying of gay students. It was shocking when the cheerleader that was in New Directions made the comment of all the gay jokes that popped into her head. Why would you say this when you know Kurt is bullied and so on for being gay, why are you adding to the bullying? I think that it was crazy for a school not to have a zero tolerance rule, but unlike Celine, I don't remember having a rule like that in my high school. Kurt is pretty defense less in this episode and you can see how it effects him. The bullying in this and the next episode really made me think of the Kimmel article about masculinity and how boys need to show masculinity in order to prove themselves to their peers.
In the last episode "Furt," I felt like it moved so fast. The parents were married in the blink of an eye. But there were some major issues in this episode as well. Like Celine, it drove me crazy that Finn wouldn't stand up for his soon to be step brother, just because he didn't want to ruin the chances that the football team had of winning. It seems like Kurt wasn't the only person afraid of Krofsky. It was great when the other guys on the football team defended Kurt, and even better when Kurt's called Finn out on not helping. But my biggest issue with this episode was how even though Krofsky was expelled for threatening Kurt's life, the school board allowed him to come back because there wasn't enough proof of the situation. How can any school allow for this to happen? Why would it be okay for any teen to go to school and be in fear the whole day that something awful was going to happen to them because of another student? This isn't right at all. By allowing him to come back it makes it seem like bullying is an acceptable thing to do in high school, and this isn't the best message to be sending to teens and kids, or even anyone who watches the show.
I would also like to know what messages Glee sends now about bullying and LGBTQ issues in its current episodes?
Hi Jessica! Great job on your post! I used to be an avid fan of Glee, so I'm relatively familiar with the plot until this most recent season. Although they do resolve the plot holes you mentioned in episodes that fell outside of our sample (I believe), there are still plenty of them in the show. I think what Glee was attempting in their portrayal of bullying was to critique how little schools do in real life to protect their students (at least that's how I viewed Mr. Shue's complete and total uselessness); they don't intend for the viewers to see it as a positive thing (or, at least, I would hope not). I really like your connections to the texts, and the way you use Celine's post as a basis. Nice job!
ReplyDeleteThis is a very good post Jessica. I can relate to you that I've never watched Glee before. To be honest with you I don't like it at all. I don't find it to be my to go show. I also can not seem to understand why the school board allowed Krofsky to return to school after threatening Kurt? I do agree with you that the school system now a days don't take bullying to be a serious matter, which I find to be absurd. I think that school need to change their criterias to address LGBT BULLYING on school grounds. Great post.
ReplyDeleteOh btw I wrote about your post. I hope that's okay.
ReplyDeleteI agree the whole episode seemed like it wanted to end on a happy note where it was ok for bad things to have happened because poof a silver lining can come so fast.... bs
ReplyDeletea big issue that i saw in these three episodes was the LGBTQ bashing and un-normalization. im glad that Nescarly brought that up in her comment above.. these shows were a good representation of high school, and teens - however i do feel like that it was a little exaggeratory on Kurts character, as for the others characters. each played their own stereotype which was shown vividly.
ReplyDeleteits just weird because i know my high school was not like this? or that i could tell was not like this..
makes you think how true to high school life this is-
I agree I don't know why they let him back in school. But it is also true tht schools don't pay to much attetion on the topic of bullying. They think of it more as kids being kids. Until someone really gets hurt
ReplyDelete