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Glee "Choke"
Summary of Things That Were Good
1) Half the episode was all about Puck, a character who has been severely neglected since the middle of Season Two.
2) More than a quarter of it involved a plot that was all about every girl on the show except Rachel or Quinn.
3) A bit of Puck’s plot actually subtly tied into the women’s plot.
4) It made at least somewhat of an effort to address complaints that the show is misogynist.
5) It also addressed complaints that the show solves its problems too easily. Coach’s problem wasn’t, couldn’t be, resolved in one episode by a bunch of earnest teenagers singing at her.
I can’t believe I’m saying this but this episode worked out well. At least half of it was about women and domestic violence, and it sent an interesting, unexpected message.
Because that has always been a major problem with tv writers. A lot of them are men- and if they’re women, they’re often more interested in keeping their jobs than really thinking about what feminism really means. A lot of “strong female characters” on tv are based in an extremely shallow and facile concept of “feminism”. Which comes in two forms: 1) women always being better than men at everything, or 2) women acting the way creepy, horrible men act.
Roseanne had this problem with the original writers of her sitcom. The head writer was a bit of a misogynist (and an all around regular jerk who also tried to grab credit for work done by Tim Allen on “Home Improvement”) and they had a ton of knock down drag out verbal sparring matches until he was finally fired. But she mentions that in an episode about feminism, this man wrote a scene in which Roseanne treats her husband like dirt. And Roseanne had to fight with him about it, because feminism is not about women dominating men (unless that’s your kink). She said “my character would never do that to the man she loves”.
Feminism is about women being seen as real people with their own functioning intellects and moral centers, it’s not about being able to beat up men. There are lots of ways to be intelligent and strong, and every woman has the right to be who she really is, not some specific concept of what makes a "real, strong woman".
So I'm glad they went there tonight. First, with the teenage girls choosing "He Had It Coming" as their "empowering" song- a song about women who are in prison for murdering men for ridiculous reasons. The teachers justifiably are horrified at the way they misunderstood the assignment. Coach Bieste walks out of the performance, breaking down and confessing to Sue and Roz that her husband hit her.
They understandably point out that she's like a Mac truck and is a weight lifter and coaches a boy's high school football team, why didn't she fight back?
"I'm not a violent person," Beiste replies. But then she admits that she's terrified no one else will love her. And that's the thing facile, generic feminism often misses out on. Lots of women accquire confidence and self esteem from getting physically active, learning self defense, playing a sport. But outward physical confidence won't protect you if you don't, deep down, see yourself as worthy of not being hit. When I was little, I read a magazine story about an American Gladiator wrestler who was physically abused by her husband, and I was shocked, because, who would've thought it?
Sue is tall and athletic, but she's not built like Coach and yet, Sue would have left him for good the first time he hit her. And then, of course, wreaked a terrifying revenge. Sue has that inner confidence...possibly an overwhelming amount.
And toward the end of the ep I knew Beiste was going back to him, because they always go back at least one more time.
The boys singing a song from "My Fair Lady" was a nice tie in, because it's all about a man trying to make a woman into his perfect fantasy. And what Puck's dad did to him was selfish and manipulative, you can just tell his dad is the kind of guy who screws over everyone then begs for "another chance" and always gets it.
To the statement that you never know who’s going to end up an abuser, I have to respond, no, though. There are always warning signs. Other people may not see them or want to see them but the person being abused has usually been given warning signs. Even if they weren’t trained to recognize them, which they usually aren’t. Women simply may not be taught about the signs, while men are told that it’s the sort of thing that isn’t going to happen to them anyway. Unfortunately for viewers, we never saw enough of Cooter to get those warning signs because I suspect they decided on this subplot without considering whether they’d properly set it up, because Glee wanted to do a domestic violence storyline without making any of their star male protagonists the abuser even though Will actually does treat his wife like dirt whenever his own self esteem is threatened.
It’s interesting, also, the girls who were targeted for this week’s lesson by the adult female teachers. Rachel and Quinn are not there.
Rachel, of course, is actually engaged to a dude with a high opinion of himself who is constantly treated as if his self esteem needs propping up, expects to get things he never worked for, who frequently ignores her needs, tries to guilt trip her into giving up her dream because he doesn’t believe he can follow it too, and is often referred to as the character most like a young Will Shuster. He is my odds on favorite for “male character most likely to throw a violent, Entitled Straight White Male Tantrum, the minute he’s not treated like the center of the universe”.
Quinn was raised in highly Complementarian form of Christianity. I don’t know if the writers or actors know of the concept in those specific words, but it’s pretty clear from what we saw of her home life and the choices her character sometimes feels she’s supposed to make, that this was Quinn’s world until she got pregnant. I would bet she was inundated with a “Beautiful Girlhood” type childhood, where little conservative Christian girls are treated like pampered princesses and given every advantage that will make them into the perfect, beautiful, successful young ladies…provided they understand and accept the trade off. The tradeoff being, of course, that they’re not allowed to be anything else. As a woman, you are beautiful and special and should be treated that way, because a good woman deserves a reward for keeping a lovely, comfortable home, propping up her husband’s spiritual journey, raising clean, well behaved Christian children, and never embarrassing her family or community. Everything goes perfectly as long as you don’t challenge it in any way. If you fail, your husband (or the rest of your community) has the right to scold you, shun you or otherwise place restrictions on you. Quinn’s dad obviously spoiled her rotten, but when Quinn’s father was storming out of a room and ordered his wife to follow him, she went.
But then, we might also assume Quinn has already learned these lessons about misogyny because of her family and doesn’t need to be there to hear it again.
Santana is gay, and although there is definitely such a thing as lesbian domestic abuse, if anyone in a relationship is likely to be the abuser, it’d be her. She’s verbally cruel, explosively emotional and yes, occasionally violent. I mean, I don’t think she’d *really* do that, because her worst behavior happened before she came out and became comfortable with herself. Since then, her bark has been worse than her bite, but so far, we haven’t seen Britney do anything to trigger Santana’s temper.
1) Half the episode was all about Puck, a character who has been severely neglected since the middle of Season Two.
2) More than a quarter of it involved a plot that was all about every girl on the show except Rachel or Quinn.
3) A bit of Puck’s plot actually subtly tied into the women’s plot.
4) It made at least somewhat of an effort to address complaints that the show is misogynist.
5) It also addressed complaints that the show solves its problems too easily. Coach’s problem wasn’t, couldn’t be, resolved in one episode by a bunch of earnest teenagers singing at her.
I can’t believe I’m saying this but this episode worked out well. At least half of it was about women and domestic violence, and it sent an interesting, unexpected message.
Because that has always been a major problem with tv writers. A lot of them are men- and if they’re women, they’re often more interested in keeping their jobs than really thinking about what feminism really means. A lot of “strong female characters” on tv are based in an extremely shallow and facile concept of “feminism”. Which comes in two forms: 1) women always being better than men at everything, or 2) women acting the way creepy, horrible men act.
Roseanne had this problem with the original writers of her sitcom. The head writer was a bit of a misogynist (and an all around regular jerk who also tried to grab credit for work done by Tim Allen on “Home Improvement”) and they had a ton of knock down drag out verbal sparring matches until he was finally fired. But she mentions that in an episode about feminism, this man wrote a scene in which Roseanne treats her husband like dirt. And Roseanne had to fight with him about it, because feminism is not about women dominating men (unless that’s your kink). She said “my character would never do that to the man she loves”.
Feminism is about women being seen as real people with their own functioning intellects and moral centers, it’s not about being able to beat up men. There are lots of ways to be intelligent and strong, and every woman has the right to be who she really is, not some specific concept of what makes a "real, strong woman".
So I'm glad they went there tonight. First, with the teenage girls choosing "He Had It Coming" as their "empowering" song- a song about women who are in prison for murdering men for ridiculous reasons. The teachers justifiably are horrified at the way they misunderstood the assignment. Coach Bieste walks out of the performance, breaking down and confessing to Sue and Roz that her husband hit her.
They understandably point out that she's like a Mac truck and is a weight lifter and coaches a boy's high school football team, why didn't she fight back?
"I'm not a violent person," Beiste replies. But then she admits that she's terrified no one else will love her. And that's the thing facile, generic feminism often misses out on. Lots of women accquire confidence and self esteem from getting physically active, learning self defense, playing a sport. But outward physical confidence won't protect you if you don't, deep down, see yourself as worthy of not being hit. When I was little, I read a magazine story about an American Gladiator wrestler who was physically abused by her husband, and I was shocked, because, who would've thought it?
Sue is tall and athletic, but she's not built like Coach and yet, Sue would have left him for good the first time he hit her. And then, of course, wreaked a terrifying revenge. Sue has that inner confidence...possibly an overwhelming amount.
And toward the end of the ep I knew Beiste was going back to him, because they always go back at least one more time.
The boys singing a song from "My Fair Lady" was a nice tie in, because it's all about a man trying to make a woman into his perfect fantasy. And what Puck's dad did to him was selfish and manipulative, you can just tell his dad is the kind of guy who screws over everyone then begs for "another chance" and always gets it.
To the statement that you never know who’s going to end up an abuser, I have to respond, no, though. There are always warning signs. Other people may not see them or want to see them but the person being abused has usually been given warning signs. Even if they weren’t trained to recognize them, which they usually aren’t. Women simply may not be taught about the signs, while men are told that it’s the sort of thing that isn’t going to happen to them anyway. Unfortunately for viewers, we never saw enough of Cooter to get those warning signs because I suspect they decided on this subplot without considering whether they’d properly set it up, because Glee wanted to do a domestic violence storyline without making any of their star male protagonists the abuser even though Will actually does treat his wife like dirt whenever his own self esteem is threatened.
It’s interesting, also, the girls who were targeted for this week’s lesson by the adult female teachers. Rachel and Quinn are not there.
Rachel, of course, is actually engaged to a dude with a high opinion of himself who is constantly treated as if his self esteem needs propping up, expects to get things he never worked for, who frequently ignores her needs, tries to guilt trip her into giving up her dream because he doesn’t believe he can follow it too, and is often referred to as the character most like a young Will Shuster. He is my odds on favorite for “male character most likely to throw a violent, Entitled Straight White Male Tantrum, the minute he’s not treated like the center of the universe”.
Quinn was raised in highly Complementarian form of Christianity. I don’t know if the writers or actors know of the concept in those specific words, but it’s pretty clear from what we saw of her home life and the choices her character sometimes feels she’s supposed to make, that this was Quinn’s world until she got pregnant. I would bet she was inundated with a “Beautiful Girlhood” type childhood, where little conservative Christian girls are treated like pampered princesses and given every advantage that will make them into the perfect, beautiful, successful young ladies…provided they understand and accept the trade off. The tradeoff being, of course, that they’re not allowed to be anything else. As a woman, you are beautiful and special and should be treated that way, because a good woman deserves a reward for keeping a lovely, comfortable home, propping up her husband’s spiritual journey, raising clean, well behaved Christian children, and never embarrassing her family or community. Everything goes perfectly as long as you don’t challenge it in any way. If you fail, your husband (or the rest of your community) has the right to scold you, shun you or otherwise place restrictions on you. Quinn’s dad obviously spoiled her rotten, but when Quinn’s father was storming out of a room and ordered his wife to follow him, she went.
But then, we might also assume Quinn has already learned these lessons about misogyny because of her family and doesn’t need to be there to hear it again.
Santana is gay, and although there is definitely such a thing as lesbian domestic abuse, if anyone in a relationship is likely to be the abuser, it’d be her. She’s verbally cruel, explosively emotional and yes, occasionally violent. I mean, I don’t think she’d *really* do that, because her worst behavior happened before she came out and became comfortable with herself. Since then, her bark has been worse than her bite, but so far, we haven’t seen Britney do anything to trigger Santana’s temper.