Friday 5 April 2013

Queerness and the Female Agency



Today we're going to discuss the treatment of queer female characters on the show 'Glee'

The "Lesbian Kiss of Death" is a device used in television to pick up ratings, the sudden forced relationship between Santana and Brittany arguably an example of this to boost ratings and create a plot twist and interesting romances. It seems written for convenience and perpetuates the image of the queer female as tokenistic - even fetishised and sexualised. 

Glee's treatment of queer woman is probably the worst representation from any mainstream show. 
Kisses between Kurt/Blaine or Brittany/Santana are kept short, almost chaste, as if in some sort of attempt to "maintain family values" which for a show like this seems ridiculous. Unlike the romance between Blaine and Kurt, the relationship between Brittany and Santana is mostly ignored/off screen and shoved out of focus so that other relationships can be focused on. As a couple they've so rarely been given scenes or dialogue just together. When kissing in the hallway they are interrupted instantly by Principal Figgins who rigidly calls them out as "TEEN LESBIANS!" in front of their peers opening them up to judgement and embarassment for simply wanting to kiss, Santana's contestation of such treatment when heterosexual couples kissing isn't called out, isn't treated seriously.

Santana's sexuality was outed by Finn. Her dialogue, the chance to express her sexuality in one of the most monumental moments an LGBTQ person has, was robbed. Santana didn't come out of the closet, she was thrown from it, and she has been feeling the impact of it ever since. A sex tape of Brittany and Santana is created thus forcing shame onto them as they are tokenised and fetishised for their sexuality. In recent episodes ('Naked') Santana shows that this still follows her around suggesting this display of her sexuality, the theft of privacy, has ruined her life. In fact we only got to see Santana coming out to her Grandmother, not her parents, and the coming out to her peers was robbed. All we see is more vilification for her sexuality, not even in a humorous way, it simply comes across as cruel. 



Brittany, when talking to Sam about the potential of them getting together, says something about how people on lesbian forums will be outraged if she dates a guy. This represents queer females as aggressive, possessive beings who have serious opinions on the relationships of others. It also suggests that lesbians too fetishise lesbians. It makes queer women seem more like a cult than anything. Nice one, Glee. Offensive 'til the end.

Brittany, as a bisexual/pansexual individual, was given more scenes with fleeting love interest Sam than she ever got with Santana, a character who had been present since the show began. This shows Glee's priorities to glorify heterosexual relationships over any other relationship. Kurt, an openly gay character, even states that he doesn't think that bisexuality exists. Facepalming so hard, you guys.

The show would evidently rather focus on Finchel and Klaine than focus on the love lives of queer women or queer female interracial relationships. Why get a couple together if you're not going to explore their relationship as equally as the others? The writers then so quickly have Brittany move on to Sam and write Santana in as the jealous ex for convenience and conflict more than anything. The relationship is broken up for ridiculous reasons, Santana looked at a random girl and had some sort of kooky woman-to-woman feeling which meant they had to break up. Really, writers? You wanted to push your Break Up episode so hard you depict lesbians as unfaithful sexual deviants more than the more conservative members of our society would have us believe? This reeks of bullshit.


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