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Common Interest
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Cynthiab
Created:
Aug 09, 2009
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Is Glee Perpetuating Stereotypes or Helping Bust Them?
Have you seen Glee on Fox? The show is about a high school teacher who runs a show choir which is filled with the school's biggest misfits. There's a nerdy boy in a wheelchair, an effeminate gay boy with a love for fashion, and a diva Africian American girl.
The show also has the typical nasty cheerleaders, dumb jocks and butch female PE teacher who will stop at nothing when it comes to winning.
If you've never seen the show you can learn all about it in a short trailer on YouTube. (Whch includes a scene of the football jocks throwing the gay student into the trash).
The show is a huge hit, it's funny, it's full of music but is it doing our kids a disservice by perpetuating these high school sterotypes? Or is Glee using the stereotypes in order to point out how rediculous these roles we're assigned in school really are?
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7 Comments
Well, I've only seen the show twice (the other two episodes are waiting patiently in my DVR to be watched), but from what I've seen, the show has a lot about how you can overcome the stereotypes. The second episode had a story line about the gay boy and the diva. They were becoming good friends, but she thought it was a romance (despite her friends trying to explain things to her). After a huge spat where she broke one of his car windows, it ended up with her telling him that he needed to embrace who he was. So I think there's a lot there about learning to respect yourself despite the boxes other people might want to stick you in. It reminds me a bit of "The Breakfast Club" in that respect. It's a show I'd definitely be okay with having my child watch if she was old enough.
Patti
SAHM in SoCal and administrator of the Sleep Forum group, http://www.mothersclick.com/group/sleep-forum and Tri-Counties Moms, http://www.mothersclick.com/moms-club/tri-counties-moms-sb-ventura-slo-c...
I think they do a decent job of addressing stereotypes. What I don't care for too much is their casual approach to sex (two different girls have pressured the hunky quarterback/glee club star to have sex with them, to no avail, and now one is pregnant with someone else's kid and telling him it's his). I also think everyone on the show is so uber-competitve. It might be sending a slightly skewed message there. I do like the mousy little teacher who's in love with the glee club teacher, though. She's sort of the Jiminy Cricket -- everyone's conscience!
I am a fan of this show. I think by exaggerating these stereotypes it is showing how ridiculous it is to stereotype people in the first place. If they only did this for a couple characters, I might have a problem with it. But, the writer's have so far exagerated almost every character (except for maybe Mr. Schuester), so it becomes a parody of the stereotypes so many people can not let go of. People might watch this and realize how ridiculous it is, but because of it, those that they know won't seem as sterotypically *enter stereotype here* as they once did. But then again, the people that hold prejudices against specific stereotypes probably aren't watching the show to learn the lesson anyway.
i think the show has gotten past a lot of the typical stereotypes and is now blowing them up. i think that was the point. set up the obvious and then blow it up. particularly the last couple episodes where we're learning new things about head of cheerios etc. love this show. in fact it's become my only must watch show
Wasn't that a heart-breaker with Sue and her sister? Never saw that coming. I also enjoyed the idea of making the kids try wheelchairs for a week. Wish I could have seen the first rehearsal when they had to film that wheelchair number! Amazing.
I've never even heard of this show, which just shows how out of it I am
I thought of 'The Breakfast Club" also (like Patti) it sounds like a modern version of it. The jock, nerd, diva, etc.
I can see how it's helpful to younf kids, but I can't imagine watching it myself. Those kinds of shows tend to annoy me because they are so stereotypical
Give me a show about all preppy valley girls, super-human characters or a bunch of stranded people over this kind of show any day.
Ah, but Glee is hard to explain for those who haven't seen it. It has this very odd sense of humor and it makes me laugh out loud one minute then cry the next. It's incredibly poignant.
There was a scene recently where a teen confessed to his mechanic father that he's gay and you expect the dad to crack but he looked at the boy and said I don't get it, but I love you, so I'll do my best. Wow.
Then we see the head cheerleader with her "perfect" family at dinner and her boyfriend spills the beans that she's pregnant. Her loving dad throws her out of the house. Yikes!
So on one hand, it is about stereotypes, but then they shatter those illusions and show you that there are so many variations on life that there is no such thing as a stereotype.
Amazing show.