Like they say, the issue is not with the depiction of something that actually happens in the real world. The issue is with what surrounds the depiction. Glee has this tendency to present hate speech and stereotypes without any commentary, usually in a positive light, and then it acts like it is doing something superprogressive by doing so. Ryan Murphy seems to have missed the memo that it is possible to depict oppression in a way that adds to the body of criticism surrounding that oppression, as opposed to just casually reinforcing it.
Trigger warning for discussion of TV show violence.
I don’t watch Glee, but I did watch Ryan Murphy’s Nip/Tuck, which was known for its frank depictions of various things (violence, plastic surgery, drug use) It was the first show I remember where characters regularly used “shit” unbleeped. It was “progressive” in the sense that it did a lot of things most primetime shows on cable didn’t get away with at the time. (In the first show I saw, Dr. MacNamara’s teenage son tried to circumcise himself). But it just presented them without real commentary. I didn’t watch Nip/Tuck because I liked the characters (everyone’s a jerk, a clueless doofus, or some combination) or because it had anything interesting to say. I watched it to see what shocking, bizarre thing they’d come up with next. (The shock value wore off for me, and I quit watching it
Of course creators can make art in different styles or that tackles different themes or can mature as artists. (Mike Judge’s Beavis and Butthead and King of the Hill are very different, for instance). But from what I’ve read (take this with a grain of salt), it sounds like Glee is just a more family/FCC-friendly version of Nip/Tuck. And that’s…not progressive at all. At least, not in an engaging, meaningful way.
(Source: se-smith)
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terajk reblogged this from se-smith and added:
Trigger warning for discussion of TV show violence. I don’t watch Glee, but I did watch Ryan Murphy’s Nip/Tuck, which...
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bulletinaweave reblogged this from notemily and added:
I can agree with this particular quote, but I don’t agree with the point of this article, which is basically that Blame...
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