Thoughts on Glee: "Duets" and a Prominent Theme Within

Well here I am, almost a week after I started. Yeah I'm probably not going to predict when I update this blog, as the life of a grad student has ways of throwing your schedule out the window.

Ok, thoughts on tonight's Glee episode, "Duets". LOVED it. Since the start of the season I haven't really felt Glee was living up to itself, save for a good moment here. To be honest I thought "Brittany/Britney" was terrible. While the songs were good, there was pretty much zero plot. "Audition", the season premier, I can't blame too much for being off, they needed to set some of the season's storyline in process, and I thought it was similar to "Hell-o" when Glee came back on after a four month hiatus in April. Last week's "Grilled Cheesus" I had very mixed feelings about. While the storyline was good, they tried to cram in too much. For instance Puck's "Only the Good Die Young" was not at all needed, and I don't think Rachel's "Papa Can You Hear Me" was really needed either. Some of this time should have been given to making "One of Us" longer, as in the single version Kurt sings an important verse that would have fit well into the story. Back to the story, I felt like they were almost back to the emotional heft that Glee can bring, and I was overall pleased with the episode, even if I don't get chills thinking about it like I do with "Wheels" or "Dream On" from season one.

Back to tonight's episode. I finally feel like Glee has it its stride again. Everything felt so natural, well at least it felt like Glee, the show I fell in love with after the pilot in May 2009. Actually the one thing that wasn't at all natural was Artie losing his virginity to Brittany (though I loved that she carried him to the bed). Artie's character doesn't seem like one that would lose his virginity just like that. While I kind of bought his explanation to Brittany about why it mattered, I kind of feel like if it did matter that much to him he wouldn't have let it go so easily. Still, I don't think we've seen the last of Brittany and Artie together. And I'm not ready for Artie and Tina to get back together yet, they're being mean to each other.

Things I did love about tonight: everything else. I loved that Rachel is growing and is trying to help her team, that Finn is finding his own values and trying to help the people he cares about. SO happy they revisited the Kurt/Finn/Faggot storyline from last season. I'm not sure I feel like its resolved yet, but the way they touched on it was very clever and done well. More on that in a minute. Love that Mike Freakin' Chang finally had lines and a storyline! I'm fairly sure, and not at all kidding, that prior to this episode he had a total of five lines in the series combined. Yes Harry Shum (actor who plays Mike Chang, and is awesome in the Legion of Extraordinary Dancers) is a great dancer, but this is a singing show and therefore he should sing. Also, more Tina is needed, all the time. I think I have a small crush on her that seems to grow everytime she speaks. Mercedes and Santana should sing together all the time. "The Boy is Mine" was fantastic but "River Deep Mountain High" was even better for completely different reasons. "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" was too cutsey in a bad way, but I still sort of enjoyed it I guess. It will probably be one of those songs I skip over in my iTunes though. Another pairing who should always sing together: Kurt and Rachel. "Defying Gravity" was great but we didn't really get to hear them sing together, here we did and it was all sorts of awesome, even if Lea Michelle did overact her facial and body movements while singing it.

Now, thoughts on that prominent theme in the blog title. You know the one, the oh-so-timely acceptance of gay students in public schools. Funny how this episode was written before all the news about the suicides and bullying came out. Anyway, I have been struggling with how I wanted to approach this topic on this blog, which is kind of why it took a week to write this. For those of you who were wondering no I am not gay. Though I have questioned it in the past, after some soul searching I believe I know who I am now. However, I strongly believe in gay rights and honestly feel that this is the civil rights battle of our generation. My parents never said to me one way or another anything specific about people who are gay growing up, only to accept everyone. They kind of live under the "everyone is equal, doesn't matter what color, creed, etc, you are" umbrella, which isn't at all a bad way of thinking for people who grew up on a farm in rural Wisconsin, but it isn't the greatest way to look at the world. Still, I am thankful for the values they did teach me, and that I have the opportunity now to further explore the meaning of equality that they did instill in me. I do not understand the people who are against gay rights, who defend their views with so-called "protection of the traditional family values" argument. I mean honestly, my mom and dad divorced when I was three, both remarried other people when I was before I was 10, and mom divorced again when I left for college. How's that for traditional? (Disclaimer, I do not harbor any ill feelings about these decisions, I dealt with them at the time and while I was growing up and now have made peace with it and everyone involved is stronger and happier for it). That was a tangent, sorry, but anyway I do not feel that anger or violence is the answer to these people. I honestly believe that these people need more education on these issues. I know I do, and I know that there is no easy or simple fix to this problem. I'm not sure there should be.

Ok, back on topic now. The way Glee handled Kurt's attraction (possibly?) to Sam was, at least I think, really well done. They didn't try to make it simple, or even right, or chicken out of it and cover it up with happy endings and rainbows (well they kind of did with Sam and Quinn at Breadsticks, but the storyline with the issue didn't). Finn was very blunt, and kind of brave after his previous issues with Kurt, in saying that people in high school are not accepting of gay men, and are actually pretty homophobic about the whole idea of it. Just the pure thought of Sam dueting with Kurt, no matter the subject of the song, would make people assume that Sam is gay and therefore make his life a living hell. Kurt's dad Burt who is normally very supportive of Kurt (wow that rhymed too much) didn't shy away from the reality that they were in, and didn't trying to sugarcoat the pain that Kurt felt from the subject. This is a very real problem and a way a lot of high school students think. It is not cool or ok to be gay in high school. I do think it is getting better, and my high school was probably better than a lot of schools, but there is no straying from the fact that openly gay students live in constant fear of emotional and physical violence day in and day out. And this is not ok.

Schools are going to have come up with policies that specifically deal the harassment and overall presence of students who are gay. I have a bad feeling that as the debate over gay rights intensifies things are going to get much worse for students and the queer community in general before they get better. I believe in my heart that within the next 10 to 20 years much progress will be made for gay rights, but the road getting there is not going to be pretty. Just look at how much Black students were put through during the de-segregation of schools. Many of those issues are still prevalent today. Our modern schools are going to need to enter the moral debate over gender and sexuality issues in order to protect the students who are so fragile during that period of their life. I recently read a statistic, though I can't remember where, that only 18% of public schools nationwide have policies set in place that specifically deal with these issues. This cannot stand. Our young people need to be protected or I fear we continue losing students who could have been such amazing members of society. Hate and violence come from fear of change and things which we do not know. We must also broaden our knowledge and educate ourselves on the issue of the rights of those are in the Queer community. I know I do. I've probably said things in this blog that are not PC, and I apologize if I have. Change is coming, and we must prepare ourselves for it, and help those who do not know how.

I know this post was really long and not very focused, but these are some thoughts that have been swirling in my head that I needed to get out, thus the creation of this blog. I welcome your thoughts, and your constructive criticism. At least then we are talking about the issues that I have discussed. Thanks for reading and until next time, Carpe Diem.