fifty frenchmen can't be wrong (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
some_stars) wrote2011-02-15 09:12 pm
some_stars) wrote2011-02-15 09:12 pm
the most confusing 43 minutes of my life to date
so it turns out that the constant background (or foreground) hum of sexism and misogyny in a Glee episode is even more unpleasant when the rest of the episode is actually quite good. so far we have:
1. Artie expounding on "the female [something about biology]" again.
2. All girls have a magic button you can push that will instantly and effortlessly make them love you and be attracted to you, regardless of whether you're entirely insincere.
3. All girls have the same magic button. All of them. Santana, Lauren, Rachel, Tina, Quinn, Mercedes, Brittany: exact same button turns them into happy girlfriendbots.
4. All boys dislike the exact same things, namely, guys who are famous for being less traditionally masculine. Like, Puck and Mike? Equally put off by and perplexed by the appeal of Bieber. Never mind that Mike's been consistently shown to appreciate stuff like Lady Gaga and showy Broadway numbers; the joke about "all women are the same lol" just doesn't work if the boys don't put up a united front against effeminacy. (EDIT: I just read someone's episode post and went back and checked, and at the end of the song PUCK SINGS ALONG. Bemusedly, but still. The initial responses are still annoying as hell, and I am so OVER the whole freaky "homophobia and sexual violence" response to Bieber that's been the cool straight guy cultural meme for a while, but I rescind 20% of my complaint.)
5. Jokes about a guy seeming to be a girl are even funnier when literally the only change in his appearance, wardrobe, or demeanor is that he's combed his hair somewhat differently. It's not offensive if he's not actually femme in any way, right? Of course not.
5a. Jokes about a guy seeming to be a girl are just really funny in the first place.
6. Girls fight with each other and they're so catty and it's so funny!
I am 1/3 of the way through, and again--the sad and depressing part is that in terms of writing, charm, actual funniness, not hating people I'm not supposed to hate, and character consistency (for the guys and in some ways--which is better than usual--the girls), this episode is lightyears better than the last several. And it's still just...hopeless.
Alright, I just got a possible hint that the "universal make-girl-love-you button" thing might be fixed a bit. Maybe. It was just a couple facial expressions, we'll see. --WAIT, NO, spoke too soon. Never mind.
CONTINUING ANALYSIS:
1. Okay, you know, if you want me to believe that the "Santana is a homewrecker" thing is actually going to reveal or involve anything more complex than "lol slut bitch lol"? You need to give me something, ANYTHING to go on besides Naya Rivera attempting to invent motivation and characterization out of thin air. There has been absolutely zero textual hint of any reason for her to repeatedly attack other people's relationships. No scenes where we get her POV on what she's doing, on how seeing the other couples makes her feel. Nothing besides "lol slut bitch lol hates happiness lol", and it started in 2x08. We're now on 2x13. I'm 100% sure the writers just think "lol slut bitch lol" is sufficient characterization for a woman, especially since they already went to the arduous length of making her Latina. That counts as characterization, right?
2. Quinn has been given at least some actual reason for loving the Bieber thing--it's that Sam is shameless and not embarrassed to go all-out on something ridiculous. This is a completely legit reason to prefer him over Finn, to be fair.
3. this isn't analysis, this is just me going "...I DON'T KNOW HOW I FEEL ABOUT THIS." This being Rachel and Mercedes performing the baby queer girl anthem of my entire generation without actually performing any of the original context. ('queer girl' because if I tried to refer to myself as a dyke, even a baby one, even in jest, the entire not-straight female population of the universe would simultaneously convulse with laughter.) Like, I would be thrilled if straight characters performed "Take Me or Leave Me" while acting it, like they performed it as a queer song, to each other. But...they're not. BUT: the number is amazing, it sounds fantastic, they don't change the f/f aspect of the lyrics, AND by singing it they get over their Sue-induced fight and fall in friendlove again. Which is more than I could ever have dreamed, not least for the CONTINUITY of it all(girls are friends for more than one episode in a row? What show am I even watching right now). So...so I don't know. I DON'T KNOOOOOOW.
3a. Oh, fuck it, I already knew this show thinks queer women are a dirty joke and not real anyways, I choose to celebrate the "holy crap that was awesome AND FEMALE FRIENDSHIP, ALSO" part. Plus I've started work on a "hooray for Glee ladies and their friendships" vid, one-fourth celebration and three-fourths salvage operation, so I'm in that frame of mind anyway.
4. Fuuuuck, okay, Rachel's B-plot with the girls is actually kind of awesome. Namely in that it brought Brittany back from the "she's a devlelopmentally disabled eight year old in a hot sexy body and isn't that HILARIOUS, please forget how we spent every episode up to mid-season 2 characterizing her as 'slutty dumb blonde,' LOOK SHE BELIEVES IN SANTA AND IS SEXY HA HA" chasm of misogynist horror I thought she'd been consigned to permanently. She's spacy, kind of bitchy, uses more than one complete sentence in a row, and actually is kind of cunning about some things. THIS EPISODE, WHY SO CONFUSING.
4a. BUT SERIOUSLY SO CONFUSING. Lauren's number, although I wish they'd allowed her to sound good, was at least 70% awesome and non-angry-making. Santana is still in "homewrecker lol" mode but, since my favorite thing about Glee and the thing it most often neglects is the way the kids interact outside of their assigned pairings(like, Finn only says more than two words to Rachel or Quinn or sometimes Sam about Quinn; Rachel talks to Finn or Mercedes or Kurt or Sometimes Puck, Tina talks to Mike or Mercedes; etc.), seeing Santana and Sam have an actual conversation made me happy. (See also Rachel and Brittany. Now I just need a B-plot where Finn and Mercedes have an Adventure and I'll be more or less content with life.) And they're returning to Dork!Sam, who is my favorite of the eighteen different Sams we've been offered. And, and, and, I AM SO CONFUSED. I'm not used to feeling more positive than hateful about a Glee episode.
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUCK. MY LIFE IS MEANINGLESS, I seriously like 85% loved this. Aside from my major issues--Tina continues to basically not even exist, the whole Bieber-is-a-girl and all-girls-love-Bieber thing was annoying as crap, I am in mourning for the Quinn who used to have feelings and ideas that weren't about boys, and Santana needs some fucking characterization--it was seriously just awesome and fun and they didn't even ruin Sue like they've been doing. And Rachel got to be crazy but also endearing and, more importantly, right about something. Like, I was even 100% okay with Kurt not being there, and not just because it will temporarily shut up the haters ("omg how dare he get a continuing A-plot like Rachel and Finn and Will and Quinn and Puck did last season, IT IS THE KURT SHOW NOW, I QUIT"--to say nothing of the people blaming Kurt's storyline for how the other minorities don't get anything to do, because you know, that NEVER happened in season one, except for in every single episode ever, and then of course the delightfully offensive-but-how-dare-you-call-them-homophobic "Ryan Murphy identifies with him in some ways? WELL CLEARLY HE'S A SELF-INSERT and RM's just obsessed with him because Kurt's GAY so RM can live out his GAY FANTASIES" and "oh god, not ANOTHER new gay character" and "why can't Kurt be ~sassy and fierce~ anymore, what is this having a central plotline and nuanced emotions, WHERE IS MY GAY BEST FRIEND WHO STAYS ON THE SIDELINES BEING BITCHY", wow this parenthetical got really long), but also because for once, finally, any of the other characters' stories were handled with any intelligence at all. CATS AND DOGS, LIVING TOGETHER.
also fuck my life the trailer for next week looks AMAZING and makes me need so much threesome fic I can't even make my brain work. it's like everything in that trailer is precisely calculated to 1.) make the more ~intense~ parts of fandom lose their shit in a truly epic way, and 2.) MAKE ME SO HAPPY OMG.
ahahahhaa oh god, this fandom, i was so right. So, like--there are totally legit reasons to be unhappy about THE KISS OMG in the preview. Like, I'm 90% certain there won't be any same-sex kissing during that scene, and 99.5% certain neither of the queer guys will be shown kissing another guy. In the extremely rare event that it happens, it won't last nearly as long as the shot of The Kiss does. And both the gay male characters will have been shown kissing a girl before they ever get to kiss a boy(assault doesn't count). These are reasons to be pissed off, primarily at Fox and at America and also at Ryan Murphy and the writers, but they are NOT reasons to flip out and get upset about The Kiss itself, which looks like it's going to be AMAZING. I even think it's fair to be unhappy about the continuing theme of Kurt not being wanted, but holy crap, this isn't going to DESTROY HIS SOUL, it's not "cruel," it's not going to be agonizing to watch. It's going to be relationship drama, carried out in the most entertaining manner possible under the constraints of Fox being massively homophobic even by American standards. Which is pretty massive. But Kurt can't have a storyline that consists of "things go perfectly and then he is happy," and realistically it's either romantic comedy or nothing, so: STOP GETTING HYSTERICAL. And I know we all project onto Kurt, that's certainly why I even bother to watch, but....damn, people. Dial it back a little.
1. Artie expounding on "the female [something about biology]" again.
2. All girls have a magic button you can push that will instantly and effortlessly make them love you and be attracted to you, regardless of whether you're entirely insincere.
3. All girls have the same magic button. All of them. Santana, Lauren, Rachel, Tina, Quinn, Mercedes, Brittany: exact same button turns them into happy girlfriendbots.
4. All boys dislike the exact same things, namely, guys who are famous for being less traditionally masculine. Like, Puck and Mike? Equally put off by and perplexed by the appeal of Bieber. Never mind that Mike's been consistently shown to appreciate stuff like Lady Gaga and showy Broadway numbers; the joke about "all women are the same lol" just doesn't work if the boys don't put up a united front against effeminacy. (EDIT: I just read someone's episode post and went back and checked, and at the end of the song PUCK SINGS ALONG. Bemusedly, but still. The initial responses are still annoying as hell, and I am so OVER the whole freaky "homophobia and sexual violence" response to Bieber that's been the cool straight guy cultural meme for a while, but I rescind 20% of my complaint.)
5. Jokes about a guy seeming to be a girl are even funnier when literally the only change in his appearance, wardrobe, or demeanor is that he's combed his hair somewhat differently. It's not offensive if he's not actually femme in any way, right? Of course not.
5a. Jokes about a guy seeming to be a girl are just really funny in the first place.
6. Girls fight with each other and they're so catty and it's so funny!
I am 1/3 of the way through, and again--the sad and depressing part is that in terms of writing, charm, actual funniness, not hating people I'm not supposed to hate, and character consistency (for the guys and in some ways--which is better than usual--the girls), this episode is lightyears better than the last several. And it's still just...hopeless.
Alright, I just got a possible hint that the "universal make-girl-love-you button" thing might be fixed a bit. Maybe. It was just a couple facial expressions, we'll see. --WAIT, NO, spoke too soon. Never mind.
CONTINUING ANALYSIS:
1. Okay, you know, if you want me to believe that the "Santana is a homewrecker" thing is actually going to reveal or involve anything more complex than "lol slut bitch lol"? You need to give me something, ANYTHING to go on besides Naya Rivera attempting to invent motivation and characterization out of thin air. There has been absolutely zero textual hint of any reason for her to repeatedly attack other people's relationships. No scenes where we get her POV on what she's doing, on how seeing the other couples makes her feel. Nothing besides "lol slut bitch lol hates happiness lol", and it started in 2x08. We're now on 2x13. I'm 100% sure the writers just think "lol slut bitch lol" is sufficient characterization for a woman, especially since they already went to the arduous length of making her Latina. That counts as characterization, right?
2. Quinn has been given at least some actual reason for loving the Bieber thing--it's that Sam is shameless and not embarrassed to go all-out on something ridiculous. This is a completely legit reason to prefer him over Finn, to be fair.
3. this isn't analysis, this is just me going "...I DON'T KNOW HOW I FEEL ABOUT THIS." This being Rachel and Mercedes performing the baby queer girl anthem of my entire generation without actually performing any of the original context. ('queer girl' because if I tried to refer to myself as a dyke, even a baby one, even in jest, the entire not-straight female population of the universe would simultaneously convulse with laughter.) Like, I would be thrilled if straight characters performed "Take Me or Leave Me" while acting it, like they performed it as a queer song, to each other. But...they're not. BUT: the number is amazing, it sounds fantastic, they don't change the f/f aspect of the lyrics, AND by singing it they get over their Sue-induced fight and fall in friendlove again. Which is more than I could ever have dreamed, not least for the CONTINUITY of it all(girls are friends for more than one episode in a row? What show am I even watching right now). So...so I don't know. I DON'T KNOOOOOOW.
3a. Oh, fuck it, I already knew this show thinks queer women are a dirty joke and not real anyways, I choose to celebrate the "holy crap that was awesome AND FEMALE FRIENDSHIP, ALSO" part. Plus I've started work on a "hooray for Glee ladies and their friendships" vid, one-fourth celebration and three-fourths salvage operation, so I'm in that frame of mind anyway.
4. Fuuuuck, okay, Rachel's B-plot with the girls is actually kind of awesome. Namely in that it brought Brittany back from the "she's a devlelopmentally disabled eight year old in a hot sexy body and isn't that HILARIOUS, please forget how we spent every episode up to mid-season 2 characterizing her as 'slutty dumb blonde,' LOOK SHE BELIEVES IN SANTA AND IS SEXY HA HA" chasm of misogynist horror I thought she'd been consigned to permanently. She's spacy, kind of bitchy, uses more than one complete sentence in a row, and actually is kind of cunning about some things. THIS EPISODE, WHY SO CONFUSING.
4a. BUT SERIOUSLY SO CONFUSING. Lauren's number, although I wish they'd allowed her to sound good, was at least 70% awesome and non-angry-making. Santana is still in "homewrecker lol" mode but, since my favorite thing about Glee and the thing it most often neglects is the way the kids interact outside of their assigned pairings(like, Finn only says more than two words to Rachel or Quinn or sometimes Sam about Quinn; Rachel talks to Finn or Mercedes or Kurt or Sometimes Puck, Tina talks to Mike or Mercedes; etc.), seeing Santana and Sam have an actual conversation made me happy. (See also Rachel and Brittany. Now I just need a B-plot where Finn and Mercedes have an Adventure and I'll be more or less content with life.) And they're returning to Dork!Sam, who is my favorite of the eighteen different Sams we've been offered. And, and, and, I AM SO CONFUSED. I'm not used to feeling more positive than hateful about a Glee episode.
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUCK. MY LIFE IS MEANINGLESS, I seriously like 85% loved this. Aside from my major issues--Tina continues to basically not even exist, the whole Bieber-is-a-girl and all-girls-love-Bieber thing was annoying as crap, I am in mourning for the Quinn who used to have feelings and ideas that weren't about boys, and Santana needs some fucking characterization--it was seriously just awesome and fun and they didn't even ruin Sue like they've been doing. And Rachel got to be crazy but also endearing and, more importantly, right about something. Like, I was even 100% okay with Kurt not being there, and not just because it will temporarily shut up the haters ("omg how dare he get a continuing A-plot like Rachel and Finn and Will and Quinn and Puck did last season, IT IS THE KURT SHOW NOW, I QUIT"--to say nothing of the people blaming Kurt's storyline for how the other minorities don't get anything to do, because you know, that NEVER happened in season one, except for in every single episode ever, and then of course the delightfully offensive-but-how-dare-you-call-them-homophobic "Ryan Murphy identifies with him in some ways? WELL CLEARLY HE'S A SELF-INSERT and RM's just obsessed with him because Kurt's GAY so RM can live out his GAY FANTASIES" and "oh god, not ANOTHER new gay character" and "why can't Kurt be ~sassy and fierce~ anymore, what is this having a central plotline and nuanced emotions, WHERE IS MY GAY BEST FRIEND WHO STAYS ON THE SIDELINES BEING BITCHY", wow this parenthetical got really long), but also because for once, finally, any of the other characters' stories were handled with any intelligence at all. CATS AND DOGS, LIVING TOGETHER.
also fuck my life the trailer for next week looks AMAZING and makes me need so much threesome fic I can't even make my brain work. it's like everything in that trailer is precisely calculated to 1.) make the more ~intense~ parts of fandom lose their shit in a truly epic way, and 2.) MAKE ME SO HAPPY OMG.
ahahahhaa oh god, this fandom, i was so right. So, like--there are totally legit reasons to be unhappy about THE KISS OMG in the preview. Like, I'm 90% certain there won't be any same-sex kissing during that scene, and 99.5% certain neither of the queer guys will be shown kissing another guy. In the extremely rare event that it happens, it won't last nearly as long as the shot of The Kiss does. And both the gay male characters will have been shown kissing a girl before they ever get to kiss a boy(assault doesn't count). These are reasons to be pissed off, primarily at Fox and at America and also at Ryan Murphy and the writers, but they are NOT reasons to flip out and get upset about The Kiss itself, which looks like it's going to be AMAZING. I even think it's fair to be unhappy about the continuing theme of Kurt not being wanted, but holy crap, this isn't going to DESTROY HIS SOUL, it's not "cruel," it's not going to be agonizing to watch. It's going to be relationship drama, carried out in the most entertaining manner possible under the constraints of Fox being massively homophobic even by American standards. Which is pretty massive. But Kurt can't have a storyline that consists of "things go perfectly and then he is happy," and realistically it's either romantic comedy or nothing, so: STOP GETTING HYSTERICAL. And I know we all project onto Kurt, that's certainly why I even bother to watch, but....damn, people. Dial it back a little.
no subject
But then I got to this: Plus I've started work on a "hooray for Glee ladies and their friendships" vid, one-fourth celebration and three-fourths salvage operation, so I'm in that frame of mind anyway.
And I'm sorry, this is so awesome I am simply sitting here with stars in my eyes wanting to watch it. SO AWESOME.
Also, uh, sorry for sort of exploding all over your Glee posts today. Like I said, I tend to avoid Glee fandom, so when I learned you had written that awesome Puck and Mike cuddling prompt and came to look at your blog and then you had all these awesome things you were saying about Glee, criticizing the things which drove me to break up with it the first time, even, I got a little giddy.
no subject
I'm pretty excited about the vid! I've got a week off school week after next, and I hope to make a lot more progress on it--right now I'm still in the rewatching-episodes-and-taking-notes stage. (And then I have to make my "Glee: So Racist, REALLY, YOU GUYS, SO FUCKING RACIST" vid, and my "Kurt Hummel: I Can't Believe This Fucking Show Makes Me Use the Phrase 'The Gay Experience' In Total Sincerity" vid. The latter of which is more positive than it sounds.)
no subject
Haha, yes, oh, I feel this. Every time I post about Glee, I feel like apologizing A LOT to my flist. Especially because way back early in season one I so epically hated it and hated it because it could have been so good and instead it was so freaking racist and sexist and ableist and shitty and god, I was so mad. And now to not only have some good things to say but to write fic and read and rec fic, I want to preface everything with a huge I'm sorry for talking about Glee again statement. Especially since it still does make me so mad even at the same time as it makes me happy. Ugh.
I cannot wait for all three of those vids. I need them in my life, I can already tell. NEED THEM.