Monday, April 15, 2013

"Glee" Episodes: Post 10- Reflection


REFLECTION:Write about your personal connections to this text.  What does it make you think about?  How does it relate to you? Be sure to draw directly from the text so that the author’s themes and issues are clear.











These Glee episodes covered so much of the material that we have had the opportunity to learn over the spring semester. Homophobia, masculinity, femininity, bullying, stereotypes, gender roles, and identity issues can be seen in all three of these Glee episodes. I can relate to "Kurt" "Never Been Kissed" when he was getting bullied on by a Jock who secretly had a crush on him and I could definitely relate all of the emotional issues that he had faced. It does put fear and worry into your mind, yes I was once a high school student I had to deal with bullying as a "teenager" I would get followed home everyday and called names from these girls that lived right down the street from me. They would threaten me and call me ugly constantly, I never reacted in those instances but yes it did cause some emotional strife. Rachel in the first episode I watched "Pilot", when she was being cyber bullied online, when the cheerleading squad had wrote nasty messages on her video of her singing "Please get sterilized" and If I were your parents I would sell you back". I got all of that and in certain instances I still have to deal with some forms of bullying at the age of 24. These instances reminded me of you "stereotypical mean girls" that everyone encounters in high school, it seemed as if instead of getting to know you, and who you are as a person, but they would rather feed off of the disliking you without even knowing you. 



I could relate to the "teenage roles" "high school stereotypes" that were brought up throughout all three episodes. For example, acne factories, jocks, cheerleaders, nerds, choir students, popular, and the unpopular stereotypes. Its so funny to think that this is all a societal construct that dominant ideologies shaped and configured the teenager and I actually fell victim to these roles. I did like the fact that they represented a range of people instead of just your typical heterosexual fit, "ideal" beauties, perfect able-bodied actors and actresses. For example, in "FURT" they represented older aged women, Noah helping Artie move around school in his wheel chair. It shows that all people all shapes, colors, and sizes should be represented and goes against the dominant representation we normally see on mainstream TV. 





4 comments:

  1. Hi Angela! I really like your reflection about Glee. Bullying is a major theme of all three episodes (in some way, shape, or form) and definitely still an issue in schools (and in life) right now. The show does, indeed, present a wide variety of characters, which is nice to see in mainstream media. I like the way you tie the episodes to our class discussions of dominant ideologies. Well done! :)

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  2. I agree with you that these episodes showcased some form of bullying but at the same time no one did anything to stop it. At least not anyone that could, like the professors or the principal, and I don't think this message is the right one to be sending out to those teens being bullies. Is like saying yea we know your getting bullied but just deal with it and it'll get better. I think that's bullshit.

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  3. i agree with what you said. being bullied for who you are is horrible but i feel like the reason why bullies bully is because sometimes they have insecurities.

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  4. I'm really sorry to hear that that happened to you, Ang. I had a similar experience when CK and I started dating. We'd have these little girls yell at us as we were walking home from our bus stop, call us dykes, fat, and ugly. It really hurt both of us for a long time. I definitely feel you.

    And while I agree that I think the creators of the show captured many different types of experiences that some teens have, it feels more like Glee exascerbates the stereotypes of teenagers and of these cliques. I also think that this in turn recreates this stereotyped image of teen experiences that everyone buys into.

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