Glee cast gets an award they don’t really deserve
… and I bitch about it, like any good arrogant feminist would. This article was originally written for BitchBuzz – which would should read, because Cate Sevilla is awesome, and so are the site’s other contributors.
I watch Glee. I like Glee – in spite of the mediocrity of the plot. It’s a concept for a television show that hasn’t been utilized in a long time. I wrote a review of it awhile ago, and a lot of the concerns I had then are valid now. The plot is boring and predictable, and some of the characters are a little ridiculous.
One thing the show does sort of well is put forward a diverse and somewhat realistic cast. Sort of.
They got an award for it, but there’s still a lot of work to do.
From BitchBuzz:
Glee will be honored on November 22nd at The Diversity Awards. The ensemble cast was a big favorite, and it earned the cast an award for their diversity.
The Diversity Awards executive committee issued a statement that read: “”The bunch are determined to overcome the odds and make it to the big time both in high school and the world beyond.”
The show features a boy using a wheelchair, a “geeky girl” (words of Reuters), a gay student, an Asian, and an “overweight African-American girl” (again, the words of Reuters).
Before I begin, I’ll say this: Glee is doing something very different by casting these roles on a prime time show with this amount of popularity. It’s great that they’re winning this award and being recognized for it. That said, onto my critique.
Representation alone isn’t enough. The only characters we receive any background information on, or any substantial plot line, are white and presented as objects worth idolizing.
We know next to nothing about the home life, background, or other aspirations of Artie, Mercedes, and Tina. While Kurt, Quinn, Finn, Rachel, and Puck have all had episodes devoted to their story lines. Quinn’s back up cheerleader, Santana, and the other non-white Glee members, receive very little attention in the grand scheme of the show.
Kurt, a gay male, had an entire episode devoted to his interaction with his father, which ended positively. This is nothing new, there have been lesbian and gay characters portrayed in deep and meaningful ways on prime time television for years. Surely, there aren’t enough – but they’re there.
Mercedes has an episode where she trashes Kurt’s car, living up to the stereotype of the Angry Black Woman. There has been a lot of work done with African American characters on television since the Cosby Show in the 1980s, but how often do they carry a leading role without a majority black supporting cast?
Artie is mocked constantly from all angles because he uses a wheelchair. We know nothing about him – and he’s referred to by name so infrequently that I struggled to remember it. His participation in New Directions as a club, and as a performer on stage, is very important. He is a constant reminder of the able bodies of the other characters, we know nothing about him except that he uses a wheelchair.
Tina, the Asian girl, received a little bit of screen time after Rachel temporarily removed herself from New Directions, but we have learned nothing positive about her. She stutters when she’s nervous, and has very little confidence in herself.
We have only seen a few episodes of Glee, so some of this critique may be pointless. If there’s an episode about Artie, Tina, or Mercedes that casts them in a positive light, I will gladly eat my words. Very gladly.
What is there to look up to about these characters? Representation is only one step towards a truly diverse television show. You have to go beyond color and able-bodied conscious casting and create deeper stories for these characters.
Congratulations to the Glee cast for winning this award, and here’s hoping you can generate some good material for the characters that helped you to win this diversity award.
Image from Fox.
I do not know of this Glee, but this is my girl. Giving her criticisms and voicing her rightly opinion. xoxo
I watch Glee because my 9yo and 11 yo like it. At first I strongly disliked it, I felt the diversity angle was pushy and disingenuous, but in the end the soap opera plot dripping out in tiny doses sucked me in.
I agree with all your sentiment – do you also find it annoying that although none of the characters are much likeable, the women characters get the really rough end of the stick? They’re either crazy, cruel, selfish or manipulative liars out to trap their man through sex and/or pregnancy (most of them are a combination of these traits). There isn’t a sane one amongsth them.
Except Mercedes, who ‘tells it like it is’ with one hand on her hip and the other one waving a finger left and right. Which of itself is, as you say, is the Angry Black Woman thing going on again.
But, unfortunately, I am now hooked. I just can’t wait till these babies get born! Is someone going to put Finn out of his misery? Will the wife ever come clean with Shuester? What about the soft side of Sue?
(I’m in Australia, were’re probably behind in the series though.)