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Glee Made Me Mad
Dec. 17th, 2011 06:18 pmI watched the Christmas episode of Glee this morning before gaming, and its ending didn't just shock me: it made me mad. That's because the last two minutes of the show are practically an infomercial for the Salvation Army. Sam and Rory are the selfless Glee members who have been ringing bells while everyone else was feeding their own egos, then Finn and Rachel show up, and having returned all their Christmas presents, make a big donation to the Salvation Army.
We'll set aside for a moment how unrealistically saccharine that scene is--in the middle of an episode that pushed the envelope of unreality, with artificial looking posing and smiling that would have been more apt on the Stepford Wives.
What made me mad was how Glee, a show that's always pretended to be very GBLT-friendly could be so tone deaf.
Maybe the Glee producers don't know that the Salvation Army is a radical protestant organization that teaches a creed of hatred and bigotry toward homosexuals.
Maybe they don't know that the Salvation Army actively accepts the fact that being gay is genetic, not a choice, but nonetheless preaches that gays should remain celibate.
Maybe they don't know that the Salvation Army has gone beyond that to actively try to deny their GBLT employees (who one presumes were only *accidentally* hired) their civil rights as equal members of this country.
Maybe, and most damningly, they don't know that the Salvation Army actively tries to force their hatred and bigotry on others by lobbying for that intolerance to be written into law. They've tried to criminalize consensual sex between gay men (Australia, 1986), to prevent public funds from being given to communities that didn't discriminate against GBLT people (US, 2001), and to use their charitable works as a lever to maintain discrimination by threatening to take those works away (New York, 2004).
Maybe the producers of Glee didn't know that the Salvation Army is a borderline evil organization whose physical acts of charity are offset by their mental and social drive to make gay people hide themselves and hate themselves, and to make everyone else hate them too.
But if the producers of Glee didn't know all of that, I don't see how all of the supposedly gay-friendly content on Glee can be more than a facade--an olive branch extended to a group that they have no actual interest in.
After a frantic and annoyed morning, I did have good gaming today: a few games of Wizards' Ashardalon, both of which we won by a hair. Good times and a good end to Saturday gaming for the year.
But, as I rode home, I discovered I was still peeved by Glee's bigotry enabling, and so I have ranted.
I'm also shocked that Glee producer Ryan Murphy hasn't issued any type of apology or mea culpa. Making a mistake like that says tons about what Glee is (as opposed to what they pretend to be), but not even apologizing for it ... wow!
We'll set aside for a moment how unrealistically saccharine that scene is--in the middle of an episode that pushed the envelope of unreality, with artificial looking posing and smiling that would have been more apt on the Stepford Wives.
What made me mad was how Glee, a show that's always pretended to be very GBLT-friendly could be so tone deaf.
Maybe the Glee producers don't know that the Salvation Army is a radical protestant organization that teaches a creed of hatred and bigotry toward homosexuals.
Maybe they don't know that the Salvation Army actively accepts the fact that being gay is genetic, not a choice, but nonetheless preaches that gays should remain celibate.
Maybe they don't know that the Salvation Army has gone beyond that to actively try to deny their GBLT employees (who one presumes were only *accidentally* hired) their civil rights as equal members of this country.
Maybe, and most damningly, they don't know that the Salvation Army actively tries to force their hatred and bigotry on others by lobbying for that intolerance to be written into law. They've tried to criminalize consensual sex between gay men (Australia, 1986), to prevent public funds from being given to communities that didn't discriminate against GBLT people (US, 2001), and to use their charitable works as a lever to maintain discrimination by threatening to take those works away (New York, 2004).
Maybe the producers of Glee didn't know that the Salvation Army is a borderline evil organization whose physical acts of charity are offset by their mental and social drive to make gay people hide themselves and hate themselves, and to make everyone else hate them too.
But if the producers of Glee didn't know all of that, I don't see how all of the supposedly gay-friendly content on Glee can be more than a facade--an olive branch extended to a group that they have no actual interest in.
After a frantic and annoyed morning, I did have good gaming today: a few games of Wizards' Ashardalon, both of which we won by a hair. Good times and a good end to Saturday gaming for the year.
But, as I rode home, I discovered I was still peeved by Glee's bigotry enabling, and so I have ranted.
I'm also shocked that Glee producer Ryan Murphy hasn't issued any type of apology or mea culpa. Making a mistake like that says tons about what Glee is (as opposed to what they pretend to be), but not even apologizing for it ... wow!