Gender Dynamics in Glee by Activist Mason Strand

Gender Dynamics in Glee

I am constantly absolutely shocked by the TV show Glee. I know people have a love-fest with this show, but is anyone actually paying attention to ANY of the messages the show is putting out there? I'll use just the episode that was on tonight to point out a few things that are ongoing in the show.

Firstly, almost every single female character in the show is painted in a negative light; most of the time as scheming and manipulative (although, they are always, inevitably, outsmarted by the men). The one exception to this is Emma, the germophobic school counselor, who is painted as pure, a fact that was highlighted tonight when we found out she's a virgin. Anvil, meet head. She also further proved her purity in her willingness to step aside and put Will's happiness in front of her own, a good, womanly quality that his bitchy wife consistently failed to show.

Contrast this with Sue, possibly one of the most complex and interesting women on the show. Yes, she is the villain, but I feel fairly confident in saying that everyone who watches the show loves her. She's offensive and outlandish and masculine to boot. She is painted as comical, and I would suspect that, given the writer (and his history of writing awful female characters), she was not meant to be likable, but she comes off as a strong and somewhat relatable female character nonetheless. In fact, I might even say that I'm beginning to hate Mr. Shue as much as she does. This doesn't make her perfect - the rape joke with the principal was decidedly unfunny (because rape jokes are always unfunny and people really need to stop making them), as was the comment she made to the boy with the ponytail which I'm not going to dignify by repeating, but her standing up to the men in the show, even though we know she can't win because the men ALWAYS win, morally and physically, on this show, is still fun and somewhat inspiring to watch

Moving on to one of the men, tonight Finn was dealing with some of the fallout from his breakup with Quinn, and was feeling rather low. Luckily, Mr. Shue was able to come to the rescue, and continue his ongoing father-figure mentorship of showing Finn how to be a man. Tonight, this included helping him to find his "inner rockstar" (which, I'm sorry but that boy is the furthest thing from Mick Jaggar I've ever seen) and, as his ensuing Rolling Stones song showed, realize that all of the girls at the school are sexually available to him, if he would just open his eyes to that fact. His masculinity thus restored, Finn felt back to his old self, and ready to dump dorky Rachael and date two cheerleaders at once. Of course, this didn't go quite as planned - this being Glee, the girls turn out to be bitchy and backstabbing toward Rachael, a fact that poor sweet Finn can't tolerate (even though he just dumped her), and has to reprimand them for. Point being, obviously women are catty to one another all the time, and can't actually be friends with one another, whereas men are cool headed, and must inform these emotional creatures of the proper way to act.

Meanwhile, Rachael had moved on to another boy, the lead singer of rival glee club, Vocal Adrenaline. This boy appreciates her talent and geekiness in a way that Finn never did, and, despite the fact that he actually introduced himself by insulting her before following it with a compliment, she seems utterly happy. Of course, when he finds out about the relationship, Finn automatically assumes that the new guy is using Rachael (a fact that she is obviously too stupid to realize herself) and tells her as much. When she refuses to break up with him regardless of Finn's opinions, he heads out to tell the entire glee club, and turn them against her. He doesn't want Rachael for himself, but neither is she allowed to have any kind of sexual autonomy. Her loyalty must be to him, regardless of the fact that he treats her like shit and doesn't have any real desire for her (his "I want to be with you, I guess" scene later in the episode is just so romantic *eyeroll*). This is a classic patriarchal move in which woman cannot be "too needy" toward their man, but are painted as a traitor if they are able to have their needs met elsewhere.

The other members of the glee club threaten to all quit if Rachael doesn't break up with her new boyfriend (in what is, I might add, their only speaking scene in the entire episode - yay diversity!). Never mind that this makes absolutely no sense, and seems to simply be persecution for persecution's sake, since all of them quitting would make them lose sectionals much more certainly than if Rachael continued to date the boy from the rival team. Thus made a social pariah, Rachael must hide her relationship, and we are left to await her eventual shaming for her indiscretions in a future episode. Meanwhile, Mr. Shue is allowed to make out with the coach of Vocal Adrenaline, thereby cheating on his new girlfriend and committing the same sin as Rachael, and still come off as the nice guy, facing absolutely no repercussions for his actions (Emma breaking up with him doesn't count, since she does this to give him room to "heal" from his ending marriage, and to "fix her crazy").

Of course, toward the end of the show we did find out that the boy from Vocal Adrenaline IS in fact playing Rachael and that, of course, his female coach is behind the plot. And therein lies the essence of the show: the women scheme or decieve, the men feel tricked, the men reprimand and one-up the women who either feel shame or slink off into the shadows, the day is saved, and everything is right with the world. I should add that by men, I primarily mean the white, straight, able bodied men, since Finn and Mr. Shue are really the only characters that are given any kind of emotional depth or heroic status on the show. And by "emotional depth" I mean that they are allowed to be sympathetic, and be redeemed from their emasculation in a way that none of the other men are.

So, yes, the show is fun, and I enjoy the singing, and the amazing guest stars, and the good-looking actors, and Jane Lynch, and the campy nature of the show (although I think the tone is pretty uneven, but that's a complaint for another time), but I think that it should be acknowledged that this show is one of the most blatantly misogynist on television, and that this is, quite simply, a really shitty message to be sending out on a show that is watched primarily by women and gay men.