This weekend a friend brought over some Glee episodes for our nine-year-olds to watch. Her kid’s a big fan; mine’s never seen the show.
My husband sat with them for a while, and then came into the kitchen --where my friend and I were happily drinking wine--babbling about how he can’t believe that nine-year-olds are watching this stuff. Sex, sex, sex . . . and more sex, he said.
Now this response shocked me, mostly because it takes a lot to freak my husband out.
.
I don’t feel the same way about Glee, not because I’m super liberal about screen time or because I believe that kids should be exposed to the “real world.”
I’m fine with Glee because it swallows and burps out the “natural pecking order” narrative—the story of top girls, bitches, and queen bees that’s everything and everywhere in teen fiction. People love the show because it’s a fantasy world where bullying does not exist in any significant way within the student body. All that stuff is safely wrapped up and condensed in the person of Jane Lynch.
If you can sing and dance, you will have friends who are good to you. That’s the message.
Because, starting with Henry IV when the young Hal disses his buddy Falstaff and moves on up the social ladder, it’s just plain hard to watch people being mean to their buddies.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go bust out my version of Rihanna's "Umbrella". . .
"People love the show because it’s a fantasy world where bullying does not exist in any significant way within the student body."
ReplyDeleteI think you need to watch the show again. The kids in Glee are harassed and bullied on a daily basis. They are reminded constantly that they are on the bottom of the social pile.
What makes the show different is that the characters are discovering they have fulfilling lives being themselves and doing what they love rather than being what others want them to be. It doesn't glorify cheerleaders and jocks but puts them where they ought to be, just a part of the student body who think more of themselves than they really are.