Wednesday, April 21, 2010

No More "Glee" For Me

I think I'm about to stop watching one of my favorite shows.

I've been watching "Glee" every time it's been on, since it debuted last year. I find the show vastly entertaining and I think the characters are very believable. But that all changed in the past two weeks.

Last week, it was an obnoxious quip about Rachel, one of the lead characters. Rachel is a neurotic, Jewish girl. Of course, in Hollywood, what other kind of Jew is there? Anyway, because of her burning desire to be a star, not to mention her nerdiness (we can't have a "cool" Jew, now can we? And don't say Puck - he's only half-Jewish), she is pretty unpopular. This week, when of the "cool" cheerleaders called her "Pipi Longstocking," one of the other cheerleaders mocked her by saying, "yeah, an Israeli Pipi Longstocking."

Now what was the point here? And no, Rachel is not Israeli - not on the show, not in real life. The only reason for someone to make that distinction is to insult them, or at least to attempt to do so. It would be as if one of the black characters were called the "African Pipi Longstocking." No one would excuse that.

In last week's episode took it one step farther. Again regarding Rachel, one of the cheerleaders told her to "go back to Israel." And again I ask you, what would have been the outcry if they told the black girl to "go back to Africa?" Or the Asian girl to "go back to China?"

See my point?

Look, I recognize that these things are said in real high schools across America. But if a television show is going to put this in the dialogue, then they should use it to show how wrong and unacceptable this type of language is.

But I suppose that wouldn't fit the agenda of Glee's writers. After all, tonight's episode glorified Madonna as if she were a modern day saint - even going so far to simulate sex scenes between the supposedly underage cast. Granted, two of the three couples who were losing their virginity ended up backing out. Not out of any moral epiphany, mind you, but simply because one partner was too scared. The was nary a word spoken about the idea of abstaining, nor was anything said about the damage pre-marital sex (between two people who do not love and respect each other) does to one's self-esteem.

Look, I'm certainly no angel and I'm no prude, either. Sex is a wonderful thing, if shared between two loving people. But when not done in that situation, it can be ugly, abusive and in the case of being the first time, deeply regretful. Why couldn't the writers of a show geared towards the youngest, most vulnerable among us, show some responsibility and tell it like it is. Instead of making it appear to be "no big deal."

Hell, they allowed one young girl to become pregnant. Couldn't they have had her at least warn her friends of the perils? No, instead they made some fly-by comment that if you blinked, you missed it.

Of course, Glee is the show where last year, when this girl became pregnant and told her father, he was portrayed as a mean, intolerant ass who watches Glenn Beck (as if that were a bad thing). Tonight, the anti-conservative crack was about the students not having anyone to look up to. One of the teachers whined that all they had was "Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears and Ann Coulter."

Last I checked, Ann Coulter wasn't shaving her head, losing her children and running away from rehab. But I digress. Last week, it was a stupid quip from resident evil woman Sue Sylvester, saying that she can't believe how dumb her Cheerios (the cheerleading squad) were, by saying, "and I taught a young beauty queen from Wasilla, Alaska." Any guesses who that might be?

But I know Hollywood is grossly liberal and I do have a thick skin. But that doesn't mean I can accept Antisemitism to go unchallenged, either.

It's just a shame because I felt this show had so much promise.

And there was another liberal lie mentioned on tonight's show, as well. Quinn, the pregnant teenager, commented that "The fact is that women still earn 70 cents for every dollar for doing the same job. It starts in high school."

1 comment:

Dana said...

You should write to them or at least send them the blog entry about why you are done with the show.