I have always been an avid fan of Glee. During the first airing of season one, I waited with bated breath each week for the Australian airing. At times, it was not enough to just sit and watch; I would spoil myself by consulting that ever-flowing font of knowledge, Wikipedia. My need became even greater in season two, and I took to watching each episode almost as soon as it aired in the US. This trend continues into season three, though now I have someone to turn my confused, disbelieving stare upon and see it reflected back at me. For while I have remained steadfast in my commitment, Glee has not. Initially charmed though I was by the bright, hopeful smiles of the characters, the possibility of novel arrangements of all sorts of songs, and Lea Michele’s legs, I quickly began to spy cracks. I was not disheartened, Glee was supposed to be an attempt at a new way of telling a story on television; new things always take time to settle in. The creators were feeling their way into the genre, they would get the hang of it soon enough.
Lo, but that day did not come. Very few moments have reached the heights that Glee has the potential to attain. Generally, the writing lacks finesse and is often painfully ham-fisted, many of the storylines have the distinct tone of ‘filling time’ and do not serve the greater narrative arc, and the singing is habitually auto-tuned to within an inch of its life. Thankfully, Lea Michele’s legs have remained as stunning as they ever were.
These points are particularly relevant to discussion of the latest episode, “I Kissed A Girl,” which sends us soaring to a few dizzying heights, while by and large leaving a distinctly foul taste in our mouths. Here’s what you missed:
To stop Santana getting suspended, Finn pretends that her bitch-slap was a stage-slap and then says he thinks she’s awesome and has an idea for the New Directions and the Troubletones to sing songs by ladies to show how much they appreciate her. Meanwhile, Kurt looks set to lose the Class President election to Brittany and tells Rachel that he’s considering stuffing the ballot boxes so he can win and get into NYADA. He wins the election by too many votes and is accused of cheating, but it was really Rachel who did it. She confessed and got suspended for a week, meaning she can’t compete at Sectionals. In the other election, Sue asks Cooter Menkins out to appeal to voters, leaving Coach Bieste heartbroken; he doesn’t take her back, even after Burt Hummel wins the election. Puck and Shelby sleep together, but Shelby tells Puck it was a mistake. Quinn is getting suspicious of Puck and tries to seduce him by saying they can have another child together. Puck refuses and realises that Quinn is having real problems, and comforts her. Santana comes out to her parents, who are fine, and her abuela, who tells her she never wants to see her again.
This discussion will be skating over a great many things in lieu of focussing on some of the serious issues presented us in this episode.
I often find myself watching Glee and asking, “Why?” Why is Puck growing his mohawk? Is it a visual representation of his overall character growth? That in itself is wholly shocking, that there has been significant character growth (as opposed to character development). Is it an outward sign of his desire to be taken seriously as a responsible adult? It makes him look older, but also makes him look tired. It makes him look like a 29 year old Mark Salling, instead of an 18 year old Noah Puckerman.
Why, Glee? Why must you insist on auto-tuning voices that do not need to be auto-tuned? Remember what happens when you let your actors actually sing? A few weeks ago, I was incredibly moved by the seamless melding of Lea Michele’s and Naya Rivera’s voices in their rendition of “Tonight” (episode 5, The First Time). There are times these days where I cannot appreciate the performance, nor how this particular song ties into the greater story because I am so profoundly distracted by the auto-tune. This episode’s “Constant Craving” was overshadowed by my profound offence on behalf of Idina Menzel at having been auto-tuned.
My last ‘why’ is more of a ‘WHYFORTHELOVEOFCONSISTENCYWHY?’ my ire being too great to be contained in the lower case. Passing over the school’s inability to determine what sort of behaviour requires punishment (calculated humiliation v. heat-of-the-moment slap), let’s skip straight to the moment I lost all hope for this episode. Finn, ever the knight in shining white armour, having just saved Santana from suspension, proceeds to lecture her on why coming out is a good thing. He was just trying to help her, after all. Look how great things are for Kurt! Finn totally doesn’t need to apologise for doing something so great for Santana.
Vast swathes of the internet (and even some real-life people I know) were hoping that finally, finally, Finn would get his comeuppance. He outed someone. Not just anyone either, a Latina lesbian from Lima Heights Adjacent. Had Finn been a caring, sensitive soul, he might have realised that women face greater challenges in the world and being queer only adds to those challenges. He might have realised that, being Latina, Santana’s family might have been strict, or religious, or both, and may not have taken her coming out very well. While his step-brother was welcomed by his father with open arms and had generous support from friends and family, Santana might not have been so lucky. She might have found herself without a home, on the streets of Lima Heights Adjacent, which, as much as we the viewers can put together, does not sound like the friendliest of neighbourhoods. At the end of it all, we expected that Finn would have to face his actions, through the school invoking their long-forgotten season two anti-bullying stance, or at least a harsh talking-to from Kurt. We expected that, once Finn realised the reprehensible nature of his actions, there would be a heartfelt apology to Santana and Cory Monteith attempting convey more than two emotions with his face.
Alas, we were misled. Worse, we were misled through song!
Not only was Finn completely absolved of his douchebaggery, he did so by underlining ‘condescending’ in his character description. His explanation for outing her?
"I kinda feel bad for you. Look, I know we've been at each other a lot over these past couple of years, but the truth is I think you're awesome. And when you hide who you are, I feel like you hide part of that awesomeness with it. And that's why you act out, because you hurt inside every day."
Fuck off.
Let’s dissect this paragraph of shame.
“I kinda feel bad for you.”
Only kinda? The word Finn is looking for here is ‘pity’. He pities Santana. Pity is not a particularly good emotion to have aimed at you. It speaks to a level of privilege that will perhaps never disappear. The one who pities is openly acknowledging that they have privilege and stating that they believe their lot in life is better than another’s.
“Look, I know we've been at each other a lot over these past couple of years, but the truth is I think you're awesome.”
See Glee, season 1-3 for evidence to the contrary.
“And when you hide who you are, I feel like you hide part of that awesomeness with it.”
Yes, but it’s not for you to dictate when she shows her awesomeness, Finn. Santana is allowed to be awesome on her own terms, not yours. See earlier mention of privilege. Finn is further expounding on his privilege. He is allowed to be himself, whenever he wants to be, and wishes everyone could do the same. While this is an admirable sentiment, it ignores the realities Santana has to face. This exposes just about every other privilege Finn has. His assumption is that everyone is like him, which is characteristic of an unfortunate number of straight, white, cis-gendered men (other people do show this, but I’ve put in the most visible group, which Finn is representative of). We cannot all be like Finn because we are not all Finn. In forgetting that, Finn stomped all over Santana’s individuality.
“And that's why you act out, because you hurt inside every day."
That may be, but again, it’s not for you to decide when Santana has to stop hurting, Finn. It’s also not for you to decide the manner in which she stops hurting. It’s impertinent that you feel you are the moral arbiter in this case. Partly because you are the direct cause of this mess and mostly because you, as the aforementioned straight, white, cis-gendered man, can have no concept of what it is like to be a Latina lesbian. Also, since when has Finn been so astute as to unpack another person’s behaviour with such acuity? Why are these characters so inconsistent?
That Finn was allowed to sweep his epic douchebaggey under the mystical rug is insulting. That he then got to be in charge of Santana’s coming out is utterly disgraceful. The worst is yet to come, as, for an episode all about Santana’s coming out, Santana herself was not the focus of the episode. Finn was. From the first scene, it was Finn’s show. He saved Santana from suspension, he lectured Santana on why coming out is great, he took over both glee clubs to continue his privileged crusade for queer people’s right to come out on straight people’s terms, he has infected this very review. So, for just a moment, I would like to talk about Santana.
In my humble opinion, Santana is a fucking brilliant character. Similarly, Naya Rivera is a fucking brilliant actor. I had it suggested to me that she has transcended the character and the shitty writing and merely exists to snark at everyone. I would not mind if this were true. Not one jot. Her attitude to Finn’s crappy glee club assignment is particularly illuminating:
"So wait, I don't even get a say in this? Not cool."
That she changes her tune by episode’s end is unfortunate. That her coming out to her parents was afforded one throwaway line at the end of a song is abysmal. If we think back to season one, Kurt’s coming out was handled with a reverence and care that queer characters could only dream of. It was a multi-episode arc, with many an emotional conversation with his father, who provided what has remained to be the best smack-down of Finn to date.
Santana did get one emotional coming-out-to-family-member scene, with her abuela. This scene, whilst utterly perfect in every other way, fell short of achieving its full potential by leaving out one key detail: we had no idea who her abuela was. The gravitas felt when Kurt came out to his father was heightened by the fact that we knew Burt. We were all holding our breath along with Kurt and hoping his father accepted him. While we could see the outcome of Santana’s coming out to her abuela from a mile away, the scene did not resonate as much as it could have. Only those who have their own ‘Santana’s abuela’ equivalent could understand what it meant to have one of the most important people in their life reject them in such a harsh manner. Had we, as an audience, known Santana’s abuela for longer than the thirty seconds before Santana came out, we may have appreciated so much more of this scene.
Above all throughout this episode, I felt cheated. Cheated out of Finn’s apology, cheated out of a sincere and heart-felt rallying of the glee clubers around Santana, and cheated out of a good story.
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