November 10, 2011 by b. binaohan
So, this episode might be what finally kills my ability to watch Glee. It isn’t a secret that I’ve got a giant crush on Blaine. I liked Blaine because he is half-Filipin@ and totally dreamy. He is dapper, (usually) well mannered, handsome, and just generally really nice. I did, of course, have issues with the way (like all the other racial minorities on the show) he wasn’t really a 3D character.
Unfortunately, they writers also decided to make him a douche in order to make their puritanical, anti-sex point. Yup, they have Blaine getting drunk and trying to pressure Kurt into sex. Blaine kisses and gropes Kurt after Kurt has clearly, and quite obviously said no. Kurt then, rightly, accuses Blaine of either not noticing or not caring that he hasn’t received consent to kiss or touch Kurt. I’m somewhat inclined to be a little forgiving, given that Blaine is young, inexperienced, and was likely confused from the other stuff happening in the episode. However, I’m forced to agree with my Chum and say that this behaviour is just inexcusable. You must always obtain enthusiastic consent before attempting to have sexual contact with another human being. End of story.
However, I do have some real issues with how all this went down.
First, this is the second time that Kurt has been sexually assaulted on the show (but never has it actually been labelled as such). The fact that this assault keeps disappearing under a guise of bullshit excuses doesn’t change the facts. Why do the writers keep showing Kurt getting sexually assaulted? Why are they unwilling to label it as such? All this does is contribute to rape culture by normalizing sexual assault.
Second, by having Blaine become predatory and awful in this episode they now have been entirely unable to have even one gay man on this show *not* be predatory. There is Sandy Ryerson. There is Kurt and his harassment of Finn. There is Karofsky sexually assaulting Kurt. And now there is Blaine also assaulting Kurt. All of these instances show that Glee, rather than having positive portrayals of queers, is actually instantiating one of the most damaging gay stereotypes: the predatory gay man. This is a big problem.
Third, how this goes against the character they’ve built for Blaine as another PoC whose only role in the show is to support and comfort Kurt (or insert some other white character here). Yet again, Glee shows how little racial awareness it has. Depicting PoC as only existing to comfort or menace white people is as old as colonialism itself.
I’m sad that Mike’s Stern Asian Dad remains unyielding, changing what was an interesting exploration of this issue into boring stereotypes. Most Asian parents that I’ve met would not disown their child for wanting to dance. Heck, most parents of any kind wouldn’t disown their child for wanting to dance.
Last, I have to say that I’m entirely puzzled by this show’s anti-sex message. This, with some other factors, is making me suspicious that Glee, far from being progressive, is actually very conservative in sneaky and damaging ways. They make it clear that you should only lose your virginity in a loving sexual encounter. That this is the only meaningful way to do so. They continue the hype around the whole virginity thing and continue to re-enforce this very hetero-normative conception of sex. It entirely disregards that there are legitimate reasons for having sex other than love. For reasons like being horny, because you are bored, because it is fun, because you just want to, because you planned on it, because you want to celebrate, because you are lonely, because you are being paid, etc. All good reasons.