This shouldn't surprise me as much as it does

[thedeadparrot]

Okay, so I watched the pilot for Glee, because it looked quirky and fun. (Yay, musicals!) And it is.

BUT--



But here's the thing, the make up of the glee club looks like this:

1 Asian chick (probably straight)
1 black chick (probably straight)
1 white gay dude
1 white dude in a wheelchair (probably straight)
1 white straight chick
1 white straight dude
1 white straight dude teacher/coach

Guess which three characters get the most story time, backstory, and characterization devoted to them? Guess which two students get the solos and are the 'best' (allegedly) members of the club with leadership roles? I bet it'll come as a real surprise!

Yeah, no. I'm still trying to put my finger on exactly what pissed me off so much about this, since so much of this is not new and not shocking, but I think it's the way this show is set up. Most shows start off with the privileged people already in indispensable positions, usually over other privileged people as well. But here the whole plot revolves around how this group of 'freaks' is formed and how they need the white, straight, and able-bodied to, I don't know, be awesome and lead them to victory or else they just suck. It's just so blatant and literal. Most shows at least attempt to hide this shit.

I'm so sick of this, you guys. I shouldn't be impressed with Hustle, just because Mickey gets to be the leader of their gang, just because the show doesn't shunt him off to the side to let the white people do the important work. I shouldn't have to sit through another show about how hard life is for attractive, athletic white dudes. I shouldn't have to compare this to Star Trek TOS and say, at least we're kinda okay with gay and disabled characters these days?

As long as they prop up the white, straight, able-bodied characters by literally playing backup singers, of course.

And here I didn't even touch on the fairly-disgusting stereotyping that goes on in the name of 'humor.' FAIL, GLEE. FAIL.

Comments

[thirdblindmouse]

Ah, but there are three -- three -- female characters, two of which have Other Deviations as well. How's that for revolutionary casting! *sigh* I tried to read the Wikipedia article, but it kept having passages like Lynch states that [the head cheerleader character] is "pure evil and doesn't hide it",[23] having been created as a product of Murphy, Brennan and Falchuck's "inner mean girl" [note: all three are male]. and Gilsig has stated that things will become "sticky" as Terri ["Will's demanding wife of five years"] learns of Will's relationship with Emma, explaining: "Terri is a woman of conviction, so she's going to do whatever it takes to keep her man, even if that means finding this woman and hunting her down". and I just couldn't take it.

[thedeadparrot]

Oh, man. In the first ep, we get to see that Will's wife is a evil harpy for daring to have her own goals in life, and Emma is perfect for Will because she is willing to mindlessly follow him around when it comes to the glee club.

And this is not even touching on how lisp-y the gay dude is and how sassy the black chick is.

[thirdblindmouse]

And this is not even touching on how lisp-y the gay dude is and how sassy the black chick is.

Original Cindy says Original Cindy could take the competition with ease, except she's too busy watching Xena right now to bother.