Op-Ed: Why 'Glee' Matters
Full disclosure: I'm a Gleek.
Have been since the Glee pilot aired over two years ago, actually. Maybe it's my performing arts background, which includes parts in some of the musicals the show has sampled. Maybe the dark-to-dry humor resonates with my suppressed cynicism. Maybe Rachel Berry's manic relationship with Finn Hudson reminds me of the daily dramedy staged by my high school sweetheart and I, two characters as passionate and confused as anyone conjured in the mind of Ryan Murphy.
Or maybe it's because underneath all of the farce and major fifths is a chorusing call for reality, buttressed by a double shot of difference.
Already, critics of the series are rolling their eyes, mentally hurling barbs toward my computer's hard drive. The scripts are repetitive, they say. Recent episodes have been preachier than pentecostal pulpits. Story arcs evince a clear disdain for middle America. And the theme shows, oh the theme shows that leave haters screaming, "Make the music stop!"
Contrary to the critics, I think the choir director needs to pump up the volume. Here's why: The sermon sung each week is that variety is the spice of society. And yes, gleeful writers deliver that message repeatedly because—perish the thought—it's a truth we need to be told again and again.
Why? Because we're warned, again and again, that social order requires normalization of bodies, beings, and identities. Muslim? Suspected terrorist, go straight to Guantanamo. Hispanic? Suspected illegal immigrant, go straight to jail. Gay? Suspected sexual predator, go straight to church. Broadway lover? Suspected alien, report straight to Roswell.
Conservative media pundit? Recite all of the above to stoke stupefying, outdated culture wars. Consider the opinion of former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, who said, during a discussion on the liberal bias ofSesame Street hosted by Sean Hannity earlier this month, "Just this year, a high school in Virginia named a guy who was openly gay as prom queen. So, sometimes, you know, fiction does inform reality and...there's a direct assault on this country's moral foundation. That's a problem."
Tonight's edition of The Sean Hannity Show is brought to you by the letter 'B', for "bigotry."
Ironically, Glee's fictional setting, McKinley High School, is located in Blackwell's home state, and that's exactly the point. For every state that advances equality and civil rights, a la New York's recognition of same-sex marriage, two more are undermining progress, whether it's legalizing criminal profiling in Arizona or banning the use of the word "gay" in Tennessee's public schools. Spotlighting the inhumanity of these efforts through primetime narratives not only spreads, but personalizes awareness, as audience members connect with the trials of compelling characters.
Yet, to be meaningful, cultivating awareness must culminate in action. Therein lies the production's greatest strength; it emphasizes taking action at the everyday level. All of the much maligned theme shows, for instance, have invoked a bit of gender bending. In "The Power of Madonna," the men of New Directions belt out the pop diva's single "What it Feels Like for a Girl." In "Britney/Brittany," Artie Abrams belts out Britney Spears' smash hit "Stronger." Then, in "The Rocky Horror Glee Show," Mercedes Jones blows the cover off of "Sweet Transvestite,"—a song saturated in gender bending lyrics, yes, but one that's traditionally voiced by a man. A white man, no less.
Listening between the lyrics, we hear that being someone isn't just about being different. It's about creating difference and believing in that which we create. Difference as an engaged verb, rather than a passive noun. In other words, the moral of the showtune is that making a difference is both as simple and challenging as believing in the difference that is constantly unfolding within us, no matter what anyone says about the form it takes at any given moment.
Make the music stop? No way. I'm going to keep on dancing. Hopefully, for many seasons to come.
Oh, Glee Live performances! I'm a total gLeek too! At first I thought the show stereotyped people, but now I think it makes a salient statement about tolerance, acceptance, and the relationship of one to the other. And I think YOU make a good point about the show celebrating difference and not saying, "I love you because deep down inside, we're just the same." Instead, it says you should accept people for who THEY are. I never even thought about difference being a verb and the link to creativity! Good job! Reposting!
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Sean Hannity is a flaming idiot if he thinks Sesame Street is trying to push kids in any one political direction. Oh wait, it teaches kids to read, which might make them less likely to watch Fox News. I guess he has to protect his ratings.
But Glee obviously and unabashedly promotes tolerance, thank goodness. How many states have laws banning same-sex partnerships? Like 20 at least? I think the college student who had his sexual relations broadcast to his campus last year is the tipping point, or should be, when it comes to the detrimental impact of intolerance, prejudice, and exploitation of anyone's sexuality. Even misunderstanding, if that misunderstanding is willful and left to fester.
We need a better breed of ethics that, like you say, celebrates difference, instead of trying to cast people within the same net and hurting them if they try to escape.
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Buddy, you should be ON 'Glee' the way you sing and act. And can dance a little something too, if I recall from your Danceforce days! And can write a tidy script? Yeah, you should be doing something for that show, or at least something in performing arts. When is your E.P. coming out, by the way?
But as for your post, I couldn't agree more. Unity is mythical, and when conservatives speak of "one nation under God," I can't help thinking that they're speaking of the nation as an essential, timeless object, with no beginning or end. Ties into discussions of American hegemony I think, in that hegemony is predicated upon a universal American identity - namely, one that acts European, is capitalistic in the corporatist sense, is Christian, etc. Acknowledging pluralism at home, much less encouraging it, fragments efforts to subsume the 'Other' under one roof abroad.
If the 'Other' is a reflection of the self, or if we have to see our 'self' in the 'Other' in order to recognize him or her, then denying difference is little more than a desperate attempt to slake anxiety about one's own sense of wholeness, whether its in relation to race, sexuality, gender, or whatever else. When it gets to the legal sense - i.e., banning the nonexistent threat of sharia law or outlawing same-sex relations - that to me is shows that anxieties are at their tipping point. I mean, isn't it interesting that all of these laws are being passed at a time when polls supporting their reversal are at an all-time high?
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@Marisol - Thank you for the kind words. E.P. release is set for January 1, 2012. It's tentatively titled "Oblivious," though I may go with a doomsday tie-in instead, since the inevitable web searches would be free viral advertising.
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Do you ever sleep? How do you keep your energy up? You know intellectualizing this show only counts if you include it in your book right? At the very least, dedicate one of your conference talks to it.
And change your sidebar picture Blondie. You may not have the bowl, but the color is definitely gravitating toward Bieberliciousness, even if you Facebook dislike his music.
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I was worried that Glee was drifting toward stereotyping in the beginning, especially with Kurt's character. He was effeminate to the point of it being a caricature, and a lot of gay people I know were simultaneously mesmerized and offended. Blaine provides a nice balance to that, but after reading your post I think I was wrong from the get-go.
It shouldn't matter what Kurt or any of the other characters are like because uncomfortability with how they're portrayed is likely a projection of one's own insecurities. And it should be okay to be effeminate. In fact, the word effeminate shouldn't be used to describe Kurt's behavior, as if people's mannerisms are inherently gendered along male/female, masculine/feminine, strong/weak, presence/absence binaries.
I really like that you wrote this post. First off, it's nice that you bring high theory down to the level of an editorial that most people can comprehend. More importantly, it's cool that you're discussing how a mainstream show can have a positive discursive impact, when we so often hear the contrary. You make sure to grasp the complexity of the issues in play too, so that it's not simply a pro-Gay/anti-conservative debate. Like you say, it's much more about celebrating the process of differentiation that transpires continually within all people, whomever they may be on the inside or out.
And a big "WTF?!?!" at Hannity's show attacking Sesame Street! Now I want Lea Michele and Chris Colfer to go on Sesame Street, sing some songs about, I don't know, learning how to count or speaking Spanish, and REALLY mess with Hannity and Co.'s minds!
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At the same time, 'Glee' is definitely part of the spectacle that distracts people from involvement. It's a commercial product, geared toward profit that, as I'm sure everyone on this thread knows, airs on FOX, the same company that runs Hannity, Beck, O'Reilly, and other notorious gay bashers. Maybe FOX feels that it airing 'Family Guy' and 'Glee' balances the rhetoric from their political pundits, but it must be noted that the bigger the 'Glee' phenomenon becomes, the more money is made for the show's parent company.
Glee-as-spectacle is also reinforced by the highly sexualized photo shoots that some of the stars have done. Look, a lot of Disney-age kids watch 'Glee' and some of the spreads Lea has done (I'm specifically thinking of the GQ shoot) cross into soft-core porn in my view, with her wearing, well, hardly anything, while straddling a bench and sucking on a lollipop. I think that compromise's the show's message - how can I be free to express my individuality, my difference, when sex appeal is all that matters? I'm not saying that someone like Rachel Berry can't be sexy - obviously she can, and the show says so. But the GQ, which were taken in a school setting, distort the character by reducing her to marketable flesh, as if her skin is more important than her voice.
So I don't think Glee fully escapes the spectacle it critiques, the one that instantiates everyone's being, dehistoricizing personal struggles and emancipatory projects that rupture monetary flows for the guys upstairs. 'Glee' is a big moneymaker, but would FOX feel compelled to air the show's message if it wasn't driving ratings? Just my thoughts. I know. I'm going to get ripped to shreds now.
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I don't think 'Glee' needs to escape the social spectacle to be important. In my view, it's turning the spectacle on itself. We're used to thinking of the spectacle in terms of distraction, gentrification, usurpation of identity construction and individuality, but 'Glee' is saying just the opposite AND doing well in the ratings, showing that, no, you don't have to be what any given institution says you SHOULD be in order to be successful.
What's more, I think Kris is right about fans identifying with the message through the character, as much as, if not more than, the characters themselves. I love the character of Quinn Fabray; I think she's one of the most complex characters on the show, and therefore one of the most compelling. But I identify with the complexity of the struggle, which is revealed in her relations to other characters. So I'm identifying with the theme developed through her character, vicariously experiencing a shift in my own affect, mood, and emotional state.
If that can be harnessed to shift the affect, mood, and emotional state of prejudiced people, those who would dictate what others should be, doesn't that open a space for new identities to emerge, for people to literally re-create themselves in the image of who they are, based on their own processes of individuation? Isn't that exactly how 'Glee' seeks to overcome bigotry?
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Mylene from the Four Seasons
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