Glee...

I'm sure it is not surprising to anyone who knows about me that I LOVE Glee. Not to the point of obsession (or itunes downloads), but it has neatly filled the hole left by Nip/Tuck. One of the things I like about Glee is it's attempt (even if unsuccessful) to be diverse.

While it is becoming more commonplace to see average sized and heavier people on TV, the show also has three recurring characters with disabilities, two of whom are played by real life PWD. Artie and his wheelchair are a sort of mixed issue, because Kevin McHale, the actor playing Artie is not paraplegic. However, I am not sure if there has been a recurring paraplegic character since Mitch Longley on Las Vegas, never mind one who gets weekly exposure and his own story lines. (The show Brothers, which started this year, features Chill Mitchell, a paraplegic actor.)

I participate in the weekly Glee micro analysis on Jezebel. This week, the Rocky episode, drew an interesting mix of Glee fans, RHPS fans, random readers who have not seen either, and people who are vehemently opposed to one, the other or both. So, some thoughts (italics are new from the original comment):

I like Glee, I give it a lot of latitude.

1. I actually liked that Artie pulled the Of course I get to play the guy in the wheelchair. The show relies cheaply on his disability.

2. I like Sue's reason for disliking RHPS (the movie goers were so insulted by her disabled sister's presence that they threw toast at her) because it highlighted how defensive and over protective the family members of people with DD can be.

This one brought out a one of those people from the 3rd category who was offended by what she may have taken as a jab at the supportive family of PWD. I can see how it could be taken the wrong way by someone who may not know that people yell obscene things and hurl stuff at the screen during the midnight shows, so, I clarified: Sue, in that instance, was looking for people to be insulting to her sister (because Sue had seen people be cruel to her all her life), and because she assumed they would be, she misinterpreted a cultural action (throwing toast at the screen) as an assault on her sister.

3. Becky's line, "Give me some chocolate, or I'll cut you." Although, I think Becky would know that Mr. Shue was not supposed to see that video.

4. Back to Artie. I don't like the underlying chauvinistic tones he has been giving. He always called Tina "woman," his little rant about women and porn. I think that unless the writers are going to go somewhere with this part of the character development, it is not positive depth.

Najmah, another commenter pointed out:

"I think with Artie they're trying to subvert the, 'sweet, disabled person' stereotype. They're showing him as subject to the same stupid ideas a plenty of able-bodied people. Especially since his disability means he hasn't always been able to participate in traditional 'masculine' activities (like football). Additionally, guys with low social standing aren't usually viewed as masculine by their peers. I think as he takes part in glee club, he's gaining the confidence to assert his masculinity more, and because that's relatively new to him he sometimes goes in the wrong direction...One of the things I like about Glee is that the characters have genuine flaws. Plenty of shows give their characters 'fake' flaws in order to keep them sympathetic- they can be amusingly neurotic, sexily moody and troubled, become studs to deal with their attachment issues, etc. But Glee's characters all have genuine, un-sexy personality flaws. And they're still sympathetic.
I mean, look at Will in this episode- we still know he cares about the kids and makes a difference in their lives, but damn he can be a creep."

This was something I hadn't really thought about, because I get a bit caught up in the representation of disability and forget to look at these things through the lens of reality and character development.

5. I like the shows that are not Rachel Barry centric. Now if we could have an option other than Rachel is Rachel, Shue is creepy, Cry your eyes out, that would be great.



Photo from Fox.
The Jezebel comment thread: http://jezebel.com/comment/31493272/#ixzz13lPxRKkZ