Let's talk about GLEE (political-ee)

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

The most absurd gay stereotypes in film history are found in 1965-1980 movies. Real minstrel stuff.

This was because it was an era of unprecedented expansion of gay tolerance.

The MPAA production code forbade any hint of "perversion" (their term) in any Hollywood movie from the early 1930s to the early 1960s.

Other bad-sorts could be shown as counter-examples as long as they ended up dying in a fiery car crash in the final reel. But homosexuality of any sort could not exist in a movie's universe.

That literal prohibition didn't stop movies from having gay characters, of course. I remember one movie where Elizabeth Taylor cannot get her long-time platonic boyfriend to marry her because he's a "momma's boy." Sal Mineo in REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE has a picture of Gary Cooper in his locker to remind him how to comb his hair... yeah, that's the ticket. SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER got pretty damn weird as they tried to do the story without teh gay, but they tried. And so on.

When things loosened up it was considered edgy and progressive to have gay characters, albeit outlandish comic-relief queens (or sometimes tragic doomed queens in the most progressive works)

Similarly, some of the outlandish comic black characters in films were progress. Some southern states didn't want films exhibited with any black characters whatsoever, even as servants. Black audiences loved some charcaters that make us wince today because it was nice to see a black person at all. To exist.

So, back to GLEE.

I love the show but am always aware of how faux-edgy it is. There are atheists, but their stance is tragically over-strong. There is a gay kid who is, mysteriously, the only gay male in his school and thus super-lonely. (A high school drama department or glee club with only one gay male???) There are disabled characters who you can laugh both with and at... in a nice way, but who are right out of a 1980s After-School special.

But you know what... it's a very progressive show. Surprisingly so. And pretty damn wild for a "family hour" show. (8PM-9PM)

Not everything is handled exactly how I would chose but at least an effort is made. It is out there.

Not perfection, but progress.

[GodlessBiker]

1. That should be "politiGlee."

[Ozymanithrax]

2. I've watched it from the beginning and still find it one of the strangest shows on TV...

One of the few shows I watch regularly, So You Think you can Dance, Eureka, and Warehouse 13 being the others.

[Codeine]

3. I must be out of touch,

because that show is tremendously popular but I find it stomach-churningly, nausea-inducingly, head-explodingly awful. Seriously, not a single redeeming quality.

[DURHAM D]

4. I'm a proud GLEEK. nt

[kenny blankenship]

5. I would make that kind of apology for La Dolce Vita (1960)

where gay characters serve as a shorthand for moral decay - an equation made explicit by the bottle blond cabaret boy at the end. They're highly stereotypical minor characters, presented to be laughed at for their vapidity and to signal the milieu of decadence into which Marcello declines. But at least they're there, I would argue, and at least they appear to be "honestly" cast as far as you can tell about such a thing. IOW: straight people aren't being put in gayface and told to "go over the top queeny". And in a funny twist, Piero and the two cabaret boys are actually some of the least objectionable characters in the film. Piero is an integral part of the gossip column world Marcello inhabits; he's present at the beginning and end of the story; but nothing he does or says (admittedly not much) in the film ever seems to be motivated by malice or connivance. There's also a brief moment in the orgy scene that's easy to miss, but the judgment passed on Marcello's crowd by the cabaret boys is the closest thing to a direct comment by the "author": these people are boring and thoughtless and there isn't one real man among them.

For cultural artifacts appearing now, fully half a century later, I'm not sure I would make that kind of apology.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

6. Good post

[TBF]

7. It's the only show I watch on tv besides sports -

it's deliberately faux-edgy and very well-written

[BoWanZi]

8. I love the show but it is as far from realistic as you can get. But very entertaining and fun!

However I also like how they show the darker side of high school issues as well.

[thelordofhell]

9. Wait for tonights "Rocky Horror" themed show

If the pre-released soundtrack is any foreshadowing, expect a horribly watered down version (replaced the words "transexual" with "sensual" etc.).

[GodlessBiker]

10. Indeed. Very watered down. And a woman sings "Sweet Transvestite." A shame, ...

unless she is dressed like a man, I guess. I suppose they just couldn't deal with a male recreating Tim Curry's role.

[thelordofhell]

11. If you believe the interviews about this, John Stamos wanted to do it

but he was "denied". :-(