May 4, 2012 by b. binaohan
So. There is this article by Alyssa Rosenberg saying that glee is immoral and needs to not be watched^[1]. And a response saying that for all its many fails, glee still has value for the average viewer and that its message is still positive^[2].
I definitely don’t agree that glee is immoral, mainly because I think it has the same morals as your average liberal and/or right-of-centre person. This is evident in much of the show. On this level, then, I suppose I do agree that many people who are in these camps probably find the message positive, overall.
I do want to deal with one notion that kept getting hammered on in the article defending glee: visibility and representation. The article essentially says that any visibility is good visibility. Which is certainly true. But only to a point.
I loved Unique. It was fantastic to see a trans woman of colour on the screen who wasn’t a dead prostitute or something (as would be the case in SVU, Law & Order, etc.). But it would have been better for Unique to be more than an object lesson for cis people to learn from. I want actual, fully developed characters. Not just being visible. When a recent poll by a religious institution can find that 89% of americans support trans rights and that 2/3 know what transgender means^[3], it is clear that it is time to go beyond mere visibility and token representation.
On another point, one area where glee consistently fails is race. It never explicitly deals with race, preferring to maintain the liberal lie of colorblindness, a strategy which research has shown to simply entrench implicit racial biases^[4]. This becomes a problem because those of us who are queer and/or trans people of colour don’t really have accurate representation, because to act as if either Blaine’s or Santana’s race has no impact on their experiences of queerness is to erase the experiences and narratives of QPoC. We are not simply white queers with a dash of colour. Being Latina/Asian/Black makes a clear difference and impact on how you engage your queerness, how you express it, and how you experience your identity as a queer person of colour.
I criticize glee, and not many other shows, because it (unlike many other shows) does make claims to doing something more than just entertain. This means it not only opens itself up to greater scrutiny but makes it necessary. It has never laid claims to being just entertainment. If this were the case I’d watch it like I watch Bones (which I still have a pending post about). I watch Bones and just enjoy it without thinking too much. Entertainment. (even as I do recognize that there are some serious problems with the show).
Yes, glee is entertaining… but it is disingenuous to pretend that this is all it tries to be. It is especially important to be critical of the messages it send, because so many people stop at awareness and never translate that into action (so, the case that is pointed out of the group that donated money to women’s shelters is not a part of this and definitely showcases how and why this is can be good).
Because 89% of americans support trans rights and yet we cannot get even the basic guarantees of access to public facilities. Or, in the case of CeCe McDonald^[5], some cannot even defend themselves if they are attacked. Because for all that glee can have Unique… simply having her spend a few minutes on the show won’t get CeCe out of jail and won’t give her justice, nor does it appear to bring out the many glee fans out to support her.
Glee simply says ‘be yourself’ and everything will be good. A worthy message, to be sure, but meaningless without the social support for those selves who live in the margins.

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