16 May

Gay Friendly Glee

Posted by melberry

Hello…my name is Mel.  I watch..G-g-g-lee.  I watch Glee.  Sometimes I feel like I’m admitting to a disturbing addiction or telling people I have a terminal illness.  Peers shake their heads, ‘Oh no, not you as well.’  Yes, I watch Glee and I love it.

It all started one hung-over Sunday when I bowed to temptation.  For weeks I’d sworn I wouldnt watch this mainstream, cheesy production, but like so many of you, curiosity (and a hangover) have transformed me into a Gleek.

Love it or hate it, Glee has become a hit.  I believe this is for many reasons.  Firstly, everyone loves watching something that makes them happy, and believe me, Glee will have you dancing around your living room.  Secondly, because Sue Sylvester’s self-serving one liners are classic “You know, for me trophies are like herpes. You can try to get rid of them but they just keep coming.  Sue Sylvester has hourly flair ups of burning itchy highly contagious talent” (even if you don’t watch Glee for the music, watch it purely for this).  Thirdly, because it tackles issues other programmes don’t with wit and confidence.  It doesn’t skirt around issues, it faces them head on.

Glee has been a great platform for anti-homophobia campaigning, with the program often being referred to as ‘gay friendly.’  It currently has a few gay storylines currently in tow.  The first, Kurt and Blaine, who’s recent kiss in episode ‘Original Song’ caused a bit of a stir in the US with devout christian Victoria Jackson (American comedian/politician, famous for Saturday Night Live) labelling the kiss “Sickening;” adding: “And, besides shoving the gay thing down our throats, they made a mockery of Christians – again! I wonder what their agenda is?”  My response to this echoes political US representative Steve Simon’s famous saying “How many gays must God create before we accept that God wants them around?”  Glee isnt against christianity, indeed its ‘Religion’ episode could have been far more risque and was somewhat heartfelt in parts, focusing on Kurt’s father being unwell and Sue attempting to build a relationship with God through her sister.

Similarly to Victoria Jackson, a Houston Fox affiliate also aired an outrageously homophobic segment titled “Is TV Too Gay?” in response to last week’s ‘Born This Way’ episode.  In the segment, noted conservative nutter Bryan Fischer said:

“I’m deeply concerned about this because what these television programs are doing is glamorising homosexual behaviour, glamorising homosexual conduct. This is conduct that carries enormous psychological and physical risks to those who engage in it. It’s just not a lifestyle, it’s not behaviour that ought to be glamorised or presented in a way that makes it idealistic.”

Despite this, the camp comedy is also currently exploring sexuality through Santana and Brittany, who’s flirtation has been well received by critics.  The producers have approached this one slightly differently to the male gay storyline in that Brittany is with Artie and therefore cant explore what she has with Santana.   Furthermore, Kurt and Blaine know who they are throughout, whereas both Santana and Brittany are in the midst of finding themselves.  The future between them is uncertain yet intriguing; depicting the normal feelings of confusion and embarrassment when exiting the closet.

Lets not forget Chris; the firmly and deeply in the closet macho bully, who has a crush on Kurt and therefore bullies him out of fear of his own sexuality.

So there we have it, a plethora of gay perspectives and situations.

In short, you may not like Glee but you must respect its sentiments.  According to a study in 2009 by Stonewall, teachers reported anti-gay incidents to be even more prevalent than racist ones, with 41% of gay children having been beaten up.  In addition, over 90% of teachers have witnessed gay taunts. 

These days, the media plays such a big part of children’s lives it is necessary to have a program like this which will directly tackle the prejudices many people face.  Quite frankly, schools arnt doing enough to tackle homophobia; whether its due to a lack of funds or training or possibly both, I dont know.  However, what I do know is that programs like this do more then people realise to open the minds of children and challenge homophobia by bringing it directly into their living rooms. 

So, even if you dont like Glee, dont give it a hard time.  Well, not to my face anyway. 

Catch Glee tonight at 9 o’clock on e4.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 16th, 2011 at 8:11 am and is filed under Community, Film, Gay, Lesbian. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.