Glee-Cap! Top Bitches

Glee-Cap up at AllThingsFangirl.com, I have yet to become whole-hog Gleek nor have I fallen into a slushee-filled despair. We shall see.

Glee-Cap! Sacrilicious- Season 2, Episode 3

Check it out over at All Things Fangirl.

Also, if you're trying to find "Low Art and Fan Culture" It'll be up again in a few days, pending some exciting and secretive goings on.

Glee-Cap: Glee Live! with Evangelia

Glee does a lot for its fans, it's pretty smart about reaching out to them. There are young adult fan novels in the works coming out in August, various ways to watch the show online, an iPhone karaoke app and yes, even concerts. In May, the actors of Glee took the stage in four cities to the delight and endless squeeings of Gleeks everywhere.

I did not get to go to the show myself, but! luckily for me, my friend, fangirl extraordinare, and 7-year-old of mystery, Evangelia, did get to go, and was kind enough to let me interview her about it. 

 

What was the live show like?

They sang songs and it was more like a concert than a show. Every 5 songs there would be a snippet on the big screen where Sue would mock Mr. Shue and the Glee Club.

She even had a group of evil cheerios (actually the cast members of Vocal Adrenalin –Evangelia’s Dad) where they passed out Barf Bags ‘cause Sue said the audience would need them.

What was your favorite part of the show?

When the characters walked down the rows singing because it gave everybody a opportunity to see them more.

How did it feel when Quinn touched your hand and thanked you for coming?

It was like…. So amazing, just when they walked down the rows and got close to everyone it was so cool. Quinn’s my favorite character.

What else happened at the Live show?

The actors came outside to meet people in line and sign autographs.

 

What was your favorite song?

Hello

Well Fangirls and Fanboys, that's it for this season's Glee-caps, while the show has its problems, it does seem like it's trying, and regardless, it's enjoyable and inspires this kind of fangirl excitment:

The Mystery of Girls' Media's Glee-Caps are syndicated at All Things Fangirl, 

Go there, Love them.

Glee-Cap: Sincertity is the New Irony

 

"Who cares about what happens at the end when the getting there is so much fun?

So, Tuesday was the Season Finale of Glee– Journey– yes it was two days ago and yes I'm just now getting to this, but it took me so long because not only will I be Glee-capping the Season 1 Finale, I'm glee-capping with special guest Fangirl, Evangelia, who is 7 and a true Gleek.

So Evangelia What Happened on the Finale?

They tried to go to regionals but they didn’t win. Sue actually voted for them to win but nobody would accept that ‘cause she’s one of the main villains.

Why is she a villain?

Because she never really got along with the teacher of the glee club. 

Why?

Because they would take away from her cheer squad and they

might become more popular than the cheerios.

So, the club had to prove itself at Regionals or be dissolved. Sue became a judge because "she's a celebrity", ensuring that the glee club would lose. To parallel the story of the teachers squabbling over the future of the club, Quinn and motherhood were a storyline, also, Mr. Shue and Ms. Pillsbury had a thing.

But the real core of the finale was confidence. The show was written more confidently than many of the other episodes this season and all the characters acted with more certainty and confidence towards their goals than at any other point in the first season. That proved to be a great thing for some characters, a questionable one for others.

"Being part of something special made me special" 

                            -Tina

The beginning of the episode, the Glee club is down because of Sue's evil machinations, but they buck up quickly because their trials and tribulations together have given them the strength to persevere and overcome obstacles to do what they love. 

But what do they love? It manifests in different ways, Finn tells Rachel he loves her and they are clearly getting back together. Finn has the confidence to do what he loves and be with who he loves despite the opinions of others.

Suddenly, Quinn's Mom pops up having left Quinn's philandering father (not because of his treatment of Quinn mind you) and wants Quinn back in her life, even offering to turn a room into a nursery for her baby. Quinn is so startled she promptly goes into labor. 

Evangelia, who is your favorite character?

Quinn Fabaray– because she was one of the top bad guys 

at the beginning but because she’s changed. 

Before she was really mean and on Sue’s side and now 

she’s nice and on Glee’s side.  She’s nice even though 

she was angry about not being in cheerleading anymore.

Labor, oh the childbirth scene. Having given labor, I can say mine didn't go that quickly, and of course Quinn looked much more quaffed than many delivering mothers. I forgive you Glee for you portrayal of childbirth because 1) that scene going for 16 hours would be lame, 2) even though no hospital would allow that many people in the delivery room it's the best Mercedes-Quinn we're going to get in this episode since it's only an hour and 3) Bohemian Rhapsody is a great song.

Pictured: Not Beth

But, the most telling sign of confidence is that, while Quinn clearly adores the baby, she has the confidence and self-possession to be startled by her mother's appearance and to stick to her guns later in the episode and put Beth up for adoption, she is confident in her decision. She is clear in her thinking, aware of her situation and making hard choices. 

So let's take it back to Evangelia:

Who do you think is the best singer?

Rachel- because she sings SO MUCH and practices so much.

She set herself a target and aimed for it the whole time.

She’s sort of like… she sometimes got so focused that she was mean to people.

Rachel confronts Ms. Cocoran who once again refuses to become the mom Rachel really wants. Ms. Cocoran does hear about Quinn's baby and by the end of the episode is adopting Beth. This has already caused a flurry of controversy online among fans, does Ms. Cocoran deserve Beth? 

For my two cents, yes, because she will give that baby a good home and will devote herself to that baby. The fact that she was not there for Rachel is tragic, but doesn't preclude her being a good mother in a different situation. Giving Ms. Cocoran the baby makes an important point, the idea that someone should be prevented from giving a child a stable, loving home if they want to is... missing the point of adoption. That is something Ms. Cocoran has the inclination and ability to do, even if she can't be emotionally available to the daughter she gave birth to and relinquished parenting of to a stable home years earlier. 

But I digress, the point is, even if Ms. Cocoran is an imperfect mother, she's an interesting and complex character and for a character who is decidedly secondary to the main storyline, that's some impressive stuff. Point to you, Glee.

On the heels of that point, Glee, let's talk about Ms. Pillsbury:

 

Pictured: Owl Face

Do you remember how she pretended to be in love with someone to marry them for security only to jilt them at the alter (which admittedly, the fiance saw coming) to hook up with Mr. Shue and destroy his marriage only to then decide that it was too soon and also that she was terrified of her sexuality?

Yeah, neither do I. She got into a screaming match with the principal 

and once again won Mr. Shue's love. 

That and he was jealous that she was seeing someone else.

I feel like just listing that storyline does my work for me. Let's try a little harder with her next season, shall we Glee? She disappeared for seriously, half-a-season, and now she's empowered, are you saying that, once empowered, women cease to be interesting???? like a said Glee, work harder.

 

Pictured: Love!...?...!

But for all my studied hatin' I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed the episode, even my husband, hiding in another room as only a man avoiding something his wife enjoys can noted that "that's a really nice version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow." I really felt like the story was pushing itself to fit as much as it could into a one-hour season finale and it did a good a job of tying those strings together as it possibly could, and even more important, it made me excited for the next season. 

So Evangelia, What do you hope that there’s more of in the second season?


I hope that there’s a stronger friendship with Mercedes and Quinn

Me too, they're great together, Anything else?


I hope there’s more Santana, she and her tricks are so cool, 

and Brittney ‘cause she is so funny.

This season of Glee is over, but tune in next week for another Glee-Cap with Evangelia 
this time about Glee Live! 
which Evangelia was lucky enough to see at Rockefeller Center

 The Mystery of Girls' Media's Glee-Caps are syndicated at All Things Fangirl, 

Go there, Love them.

Glee-Cap: Are you funking kidding me?

 "Tell me if this is too suggestive..."

 It's not, I'm pretty bored.

Ok, from here on in, Will Schuester, is going to be called Mary Sue, because let's be honest, that's what he is. Increasingly, every time he's onscreen I open up a big old bag of not giving a shit. If you're not familiar with the term Mary Sue: here educate yourself. 

A Mary Sue (sometimes just Sue), in literary criticism and particularly in fanfiction, is a fictional character with overly idealized and hackneyed mannerisms, lacking noteworthy flaws, and primarily functioning as a wish-fulfillment fantasy for the author or reader. Perhaps the single underlying feature of all characters described as "Mary Sues" is that they are too ostentatious for the audience's taste, or that the author seems to favor the character too highly. The author may seem to push how exceptional and wonderful the "Mary Sue" character is on his or her audience, sometimes leading the audience to dislike or even resent the character fairly quickly; such a character could be described as an "author's pet".

But the major take away on the concept is that the character is so beloved by the writer/producer/whatever that they are just painfully, annoyingly PRECIOUS.

"Even your breath stinks of mediocrity"...

 
Also, in a storyline that literally had no utility except to provide Puck with an opportunity to sing Loser. Which I fully support. Because that was fun. The boys, Finn and Puck slashed tires of the Vocal Adrenalin's Range Rovers, in order to "Defend the honor of New Directions" after their choir room was T.P.ed. Now, this charming turn of events does give some commentary on the misguided chivalry expected of young men in this modern era, and the escalation of school prankery into astronomically difficult levels.

"Their School Statue is a Great White Shark eating a seal pup, it weighs three tons."

Even more frustrating than Mary Sue's storyline- that can I say managed to totally neutralize Sue's character which is not funny, literally, not funny in humor or being okay- we saw the return of Mrs. Sue (like what I did there?)

Quinn! Pregnantly singing with a chorus of unwed pregnant teen mothers. I'm going to call this the weekly interlude in WTF? because yeah, last week it was Artie's Safety Dance, and seriously, WTF? I've been pregnant, bouncing around like that it SUCH a fantasy. ... and group hug and back to our regularly scheduled show.

But not quite! we'll be taking a strange reprise later on in the episode, Mercedes and Quinn are moving in together based on a series of scenes that feel a little like Tyra Banks crying 'cause she had to wear a fat suit. That would be, your realization that you've been horrible means that not only are you destroyed by your own crushed vanity, but the people you've been horrid to have to comfort you as well.

I like Quinn and Mercedes as a pair, they can learn from one another, they're less crass than TyTy, but lets also be fair, if the writers are phoning this in it can go all sorts of wrong and very quickly. I applaud Mercedes ability to love thy former enemy, but also, unless you're planning to do more exploration of this storyline, and please, do more exploration of this storyline, it will be angering.

Ok Glee, lets be serious for a moment about pacing, five 30 second conversations do not BFFs make.  Also, I'm confused here, how is moving out of Puck's house the answer to all Quinn's problems? Puck wanted to step up to the plate more, and by Quinn's own words, it's ok there except that Puck's mom won't let her eat bacon. Where did I miss the squalor? Where did I miss the deep shared connection? was that pregnant chick ballet and discussion of how hard it is to be called fat the thing that brought them together?  This seems wholly precipitous and if you screw this up for me I will hunt you down and punch you in your face, show.

You did so well for me with Lady Gaga last week, lets not forget how well you did with that and see that you bring it next week at Regionals!!!

Glee-Cap: Lacy Demon Clothes

LADY GAGA!!! is there anything you can't do?  no. no there isn't.  For all my hating and fears, invoking Gaga (current avatar of creativity on the world celebrity stage) seriously sent some chills up my spine last night. Thanks to you, who I've written about before, the often fractured narrative of Glee managed to tell story that included something about everyone in the Glee club, and turn in some fantastically fun and poignant musical numbers.

ENSEMBLE CAST POWERS ACTIVATE!!!!!

Twilight Fever causes all sorts of kerfuffle this week as Tina is banned from wearing Goth clothes. Finn's Mom gets her longest set of lines yet as she and Kurt and Kurt's Dad all surprise Finn and move in together. And Quinn continues to point out to Puck that as long as he acts like the cock of the walk and makes a joke of their unborn child, she's not interested in his participation in the process... THEATRICALITY rears its head on Glee this week.

"My mom says she thinks Kristen Stewart looks like a bitch," and therefore Tina can't watch Twilight.

This, much like other things you might not expect from the whole endeavor is the name of the game with theatricality. Adornment, Spectacle and Theatricality are all fantastic tools in the arsenal of artistic expression, both describing, masking and clarifying visually everything that is hidden beneath.



"And Ladies, I don't want to hear about chafing just because you're wearing metal underwear, not my problem"



 "You see the world with the same fierce theatricality that I do, even the way we're sitting right now is so dramatic that I'm almost uncomfortable with it"

Ok Rachel, you win. I felt concerned that your story might be clumped into 2 episodes and I would feel cheated and you would be less a character for it. I was wrong, you are lumped into 2 episodes with your mother, but you two WORKED. Listen to the song readers, onscreen it was magic. They put so much into this interaction with one another it was beautiful.

What this episode really drove home is that it would be SO WEIRD to meet your mother/daughter at 16. It wouldn't necessarily be a loving huge joyous moment, it might feel wrong, and weird, and truly, unflinchingly real. Neither woman got what they expected, but they can appreciate one another from afar, and bring it.

Thank you, Glee, for not making it into a soap opera cliché... or at least doing something interesting with this.

"We're supposed to have some sort of slow motion run into one another's arms, 

this is all wrong."

On another front:
"I always feel like we're always doing whatever the girls want to do."

Really Finn, Really? I recognize that you're always doing what Kurt wants this week and that's caused a lot of friction, but let's table the "we're always doing what the girls want to do" discussion for another week. It's there next to the disappearing Mrs. Schuster who you may be banging next week.

"What is your problem, Finn?  It's just a moist towelette!!!?!"

"We're not Gaga for Gaga" 

"It's the same thing you do when you go to school in 

                   your football uniform, you're expressing yourself"

Maybe I love this episode because it speaks my language, got my degree in production design (costume specialty):

“I have great respect for Lady Gaga,” (Costumer, Lou Eyrich) told (InStyle). “This episode is a tribute to her genius. The costumes are not replicas; we wanted it look like the kids made them.‘”
 So that’s exactly what they did: “Rachel (Lea Michele) wears two outfits. The first inspired by Gaga’s Kermit the Frog dress: She goes through her stuffed animals at home and staples all of them to her dress. The second is like the dress Gaga wore with the big silver mirrored triangle.” Tina (Jenna Ushkowitz) was hand-picked by creator Ryan Murphy to wear the famous bubble dress. “It was really heavy,” Eyrich reported, “and it made a lot of noise. We turned it into a vest so that it would be easier to take on and off, because there was no sitting down in it.” from InStyle

For me, seeing all these lovingly crafted details onscreen really made the whole of these characters stories pop out tonight. The same way, the explosive fights and big situations really served the emotional subtleties that were more grounded than they have been in earlier episodes.

Also, Check out Mike Chang, the mysteriously dialogue-less “Other Asian” on Glee, dialogless no more!

The actor Harry Shum Jr is interviewed over on Vulture and is adorable in the best possible way.

From Vulture: 


... Harry, we are beside ourselves with joy that you have a line this week!
Aw, thank you. And yeah, it’s happenin’! Usually we get the script like a week before and you just take a look at it, but then you look at it and say, “Hey, I get to talk today! Or … this week!” It’s happening slowly and surely a little more for me, so it’s very exciting to be a little more involved.

So why is this week the special week?
Um, I think it just felt right for the writers to involve me and Dijon [Talton].

Whoa, so he talks too?!
Yeah, I’m givin’ away stuff! It’ll be sort of boys versus girls as far as costuming and music go, this week. We’ll be in Kiss getups: the crazy costumes, the makeup, and the really, really, almost-too-tight pants. But it looked okay on us, so it’s cool. And the boots are nuts! They’re so heavy, I don’t know how they wore them all those years. We did a lot more dancing than Kiss would have.

Glee-Cap: On Absent Mothers...

A lot happened in last night's Glee, Dream On,


There was Neil Patrick Harris as a School-Board, Budget-Cutting, Show-Choir-Anonymous Used-Hummer Salesman. He had some great monologues.

It had Artie (who is in the wheelchair)  got 2 songs, one of which is big dance number.

But the biggest deal in Dream On is the introduction of an actual honest to goodness more than one episode story arc.

I was so shocked I had to slushie myself to snap out of it.

It's shocking, almost more shocking and entertaining that Sue Sylvester and Bryan Ryan's educational-value-off and follow-up anger sex... almost.

The Choir director of Vocal Adrenaline got Jesse St. James to infiltrate the Glee club in order to get to Rachel. I know, GASP!, no one saw that coming at all.

But why would she do this? not because she's just evil and conniving. Shelby Cocoran, The vocal coach of Vocal Adrenaline, the glee club of Carmel High School in Carmel, Ohio, is actually Rachel's MOTHER.

 Super Gasp!

I have to say, this episode made me care a bit more about Rachel, in no small part because Shelby cares about her so much. After watching so much damaged female behavior about pregnancy in the first half of the season seeing a mother who is legitimately trying to reach out to their child is touching and highly affecting.

Also, the emotional resonance really hits in the duet of "the saddest song ever" from Les Miserables, I Dreamed a Dream:



I can't wait to see what happens when they have two female characters with an actually meaty story to work with.

While the subject of motherhood deserves much more page-space than I'm going to give it in this post and I must admit that like the mothers in Glee the subject has been absent at The Mystery of Girls Media because taking on the media's portrayal of motherhood is a daunting task.

Let's cover it in Glee though, I can at least talk about that tonight. There are three mothers who have spoken at all on Glee.

Quinn –yes I'm counting Quinn even though the baby hasn't been born, who is giving up everything else that was important to her.

Mr. Schuster's sister-in-law– who was constantly egging on her sister into bigger lies and horrid behavior.

and Finn's Mom– who until Kurt set up with his dad had selflessly supported Finn single-handedly for over a decade, fighting depression and apparently, not asking anything for herself. I do not count Mrs. Schuster's hysterical pregnancy.

Other mom's have been mentioned, mostly in conjunction with nagging or not letting Quinn eat bacon (Puck's Mom). Kurt's mom, who is dead, has felt pretty tangible in his conversations with his father.  But ultimately, this is the first time a mother has gotten real screen-time, and she has been absent from her child's life for 16 years.

A lot of stories feature absent mothers, or don't feature them, or.... whatever, the point is the mother is just not there. why is that? Is there a perception or anticipation that all the world's problems are solved if the mother is present? That puts a lot of stress on moms when they're just people like everyone else, and motherhood is hard. While I don't disagree that the mom's on the show are generally doing the right thing by their kids I do fear that because they're in the background, they might get forgotten and become caricatures rather than characters as has befallen so many maternal characters before them.

And I don't want them too disappear, you've set up some pins, Glee, knock them down.

To hear me rant about things that aren't Glee, follow me on Twitter: Caitlin_Burns and check in next week when Ra Ra Ruh hah haaaa! LADY GAGA! You can bet money on the fact I'll be talking about adornment, I know, you can't wait.

Later Gleeks.

Glee-Cap: Rachel, it's not you, it's me, except that it's also you.

Hey there blog!

I could not be more excited, because these Glee-Caps are now syndicating on All Things Fangirl, which I think takes my geek cred up a notch or two, I mean, I think I already had some but you can never have too much. You may remember EruditeChick's interview with me and Jeff Gomez  here (and also here). But while me rambing about myself into the aether is probably not why you're here... wait, it's exactly why you're here.

Here's what you missed on the Glee-caps:

----Cue the Music----

Glee-is-a-show-on-Fox-where-a-bunch-of-high-school-kids-join-glee-club. They-spontaneously-burst-into-song-and-dance-numbers. It's-really-entertaining-and-even-when-it-makes-me-angry...

I-HAVE-to-watch-it, I-mean-HAVE-TO-total-fangirl-compulsion. 

So, even-though-the-guys-are-kinda-Mary-Sues-and-the-girls-ride-a-little-close-to-high-school-show-stereotypes-I-like-them-and-feel-like-its-worth-watching. 

But-sometimes-they-do-make-me-angry-or-concerned-so-I-use-the- 

AWESOME POWER OF THE INTERNET 

-to-yell-at-the-show, and-you-know-this-hugely-successful-TV-show-is-listening

-so-now-that-there-are-TWO BLOGS-where-I'm-taking-it-to-task, 

you-know-the-show-is-going-to-be-super-awesome-and-not-make-me-think-I'm-on-crazy-pills-while-I'm-watching-it. 

And that's what you missed last time on the Glee-Cap!

On this week's episode, Laryngitis...

 Rachel Berry, it's not you, it's me, except that it's also you.

For the record I think Lea Michelle is great, and also, I get that weird theatre kid thrill up my spine when she is singing. But, I seriously can barely stand the character of Rachel when she's not singing.
And to be fair, that's part of the point of her character:

"What if he says I'll never sing again?
What will become of me? Without my voice I'm just another spoiled annoying only child..."
"I'm sure he won't say you'll never sing again."

She's entirely and completely about her goals, becoming a famous singer is her unquestioned destiny and to get there she is willing to uncover any obstacle. She is talented, completely single-minded, and even uses MySpace– obsession if I've ever seen it, but yeah, in the first episode it said she updated with video weekly, WHERE ARE THE VIDEOS, FOX???? lame, but I digress. She has many positive traits, including knowing without a shadow of a doubt that she is annoying and single-minded.

"I am like Tinkerbell, Finn, I need applause to live."

This episode only served to highlight these aspects of her character. And, like Tracey Flick in Election, Rachel proves that despite horrible personality flaws, sincere commitment to one's goals can pay off if you have an innate talent for that goal. Also, what she learned in this episode, "that you can be more than one thing" that there's more to Rachel than being a singer.

True, she's also bossy. She's really unpleasant to people around her, all the time. Seriously. She orders people around, puts them down, is really a jerk. Kudos that you know you're a jerk, Rachel, but you're still a jerk.  And being a jerk is just, no way to go through life.

A big part of why I don't like you, Rachel, is because I'm out of high school, I've been out in the world a while, and I'm certain you would appeal to me if I were younger. You're aspirational and cool, and can belt a bit and clearly have a heart...

but yeah, you're also a jerk. Remember last week, when you used three guys to try and seem cool, two of which actually like you and now no one seems to remember that and the two guys still seem to be really into you? You lie, you are so self-absorbed you are usually the last person to realize a piece of juicy gossip, but how many times have you run into the glee club room to share that gossip as soon as you find it out? at least 5.

Generally, I think a character who lies, gossips, etc... is interesting, but is only really interesting when there are consequences for their actions. So far, Rachel's karmic calendar has a huge event coming up, like, Eyjafjallajökull level. Losing your voice and having the cute guy you like take you to the doctor and sing a song about you while your boyfriend is in San Diego does not cut it, Glee. 

Also this week:

Quinn rocked it, talking to Mercedes about Puck, let's talk about that because that was great. She was totally honest and if someone was keeping me from bacon, I too would not be able to handle conversations about "How Super-Mario Changed Civilization."

Also, I want to call you out, Glee, for framing Mercedes' story almost completely around a guy. At least you kinda gave Rachel some agency this week, but yeah, work on that. 

Honorable mention also has to go to Puck for being amazingly, hilariously desperate for attention throughout the episode. To the point of seriously borderline humor, a charming Sammy Davis Jr. homage, and to Mercedes for shutting him down because she's obviously above all that.

"I'm like a sex shark, if I stop moving, I die"

And so, because I ramble, I'm stopping here. Step it up with the consequences, Glee, you've set up the pins, now knock them down.

Catch up with the older Glee-Caps Here: F U For Making Me Tear Up, The Madonna Episode, Am I Taking Crazy Pills?

Tune in next week for NPH. OMG OMG OMG. Excellent.

And follow me on twitter, Caitlin_Burns 

Glee-Cap: F U, Glee, for making me tear up

Sorry I didn't get this week's Gleecap together terribly quickly, the show did cast focus on a couple of its female characters this week dealing with the harsh concepts of humiliation and reputation. While it had its share of laughs and ARGHS there were two really strong scenes that shed some light on my two favorite characters and even dealt with consequences.
First, Quinn,
While her big scene came at the end of the episode, it once again called attention to Quinn's depth as a character.

Mr. Schuster confronts Quinn privately about a list of Glee Club Members organized by their sluttiness, which had caused the major conflicts in the episode. The scene reveals Quinn's remorse, but also, the complexities of her social situation. She wrote the list in a hope to be seen again, having lost her popularity, social power, her position on the cheerleading squad, her boyfriend, her lover and control over her body to pregnancy. At the time, she thought having a bad reputation would be preferable to being invisible.

"People would part like the red sea when I walked down the hallway..."
"You're going to give that baby to a family that loves it, that really wants it and you're going to go on to do incredible things"
"You really think I can get it all back one day?"

"No, I think you can get something even better, I mean Come on, You're Quinn Febree, those people didn't move down the halls... you moved them."

"Thanks Mr. Shu', you're a really good teacher, even if everyone is calling you a manwhore"

This scene took me by surprise, especially after:


When Rachel decides to use all they guys she's ever tried to have any romantic relationship with in order to make herself seem desirable, or bad. Possibly real teenage behavior, sure, consequences, sure I suppose, but her response still seems... uncomprehending? There is a real distasteful element to using the guys like that, and I hope that there is some note of how using three girls in a video and playing with them like that would be similarly inappropriate, I can't think of a bit that Glee has done previously that did that... just don't break my heart with a double standard, Glee. I compel you, Glee, with the AWESOME POWER OF THE INTERNET, don't break my heart.

Ms. Pillsbury slut-shamed Mr. Schuster– and while slut-shaming of any gender is lame– he did make out with another woman and she's learning to stand up for herself. The funniest thing about Ms. Pillsbury to me is that she's really learning a lot from the cruel criticisms of Sue Sylvester.

Ah Sue, It's time I talked about you.

Sue is a fantastic villain, she has real skills and is an incredible ability to turn a situation to her advantage. Like in this episode, when she faces humiliation for the first time when an embarrassing video of her is posted to YouTube. She skyrockets to Internet infamy and draws the attention of Olivia Newton-John with whom she makes a response video and earns a boatload of cash.

While Sue's methods are ruthless and often involve blackmail, manipulation, cruelty and other terrible means to her ends, one has to love a good villain. The Glee Club learns more from fighting her than they would otherwise, grow in response and become stronger because of it. Her attempts to take them down to save her insanely large cheerleading budget only help turn them into more refined performers.

Sue is aspirational, she speaks her mind (even when her opinions are repulsive) and she IS the holder of national championships with the Cheerios Squad that bring positive attention and funding to the High School. She gets the best lines and she doesn't hide her opinion of people from them, she's brash and honest (even if her opinion of truth is skewed) and she is fearless.
The true magic of Sue's character though, is that the show gives the audience insight into Sue that no one else sees. Sue has a disabled sister who she cares for, dotes on, confides in and adores.
Throughout this and other episodes, we see scenes where she has sincere, sweet moments caring for her sister. While Sue is often comedic, the sincerity she shows with her sister, and in respecting the disabled as people, adds superb depth to her character and to the show.

In another episode, Sue put a disabled girl on the Cheerios Squad and had to face criticism that she was expecting too much of the girl, which bore out as implying that by expecting her to do the same things she expected of other cheerleaders she was somehow being cruel. Her methods proved to be ultimately brilliant, the girl proved to others and to herself she was capable of the same rigor Sue expected of anyone else. That character is still on the Cheerios Squad and is clearly accepted by her peers.

Sue's interactions with her sister do not seem tacked on, though it could easily have seemed that way, but for the magnificent acting of Jane Lynch. Who really loves the character and brings both the comedy and quiet drama out of a character who could easily have become a caricature.

From an interview:

Q. As awful as Sue can be, one of her great moments this year came when she showed tough love for a Down syndrome cheerleader. Was that one of the highlights of the season for you?

Yes. That was the "Wheels" episode. Sue Sylvester's sister, we find out, has Down syndrome and is in a home. It's a more touching episode, and we get to see a softer side of Sue. I think there's a decency to Sue. There were three or four different moments where you saw a kind of a decency and rationality.

Q. But then, in the blink of an eye, she can turn nasty again.

Absolutely. Good Sue is very short-lived. She just really enjoys being an awful person. She really gets great glee, if you will, out of being a terrible person. I think she just really enjoys shocking people.

I love laughing at and with Sue and I love that the same character regularly brings a tear to my eye.

Previous Glee-Caps: The Madonna Episode, Am I Taking Crazy Pills?

Glee-Cap: Madonna & "What it feels like for a Girl"

So, Glee this week took on the female perspective, for a summary of the episode check out this one, I'm not going into detail, but it may help if you haven't seen the episode.

The Episode is entertaining, but if I were in Junior High or High School I would be all over this.

"They Sing Like a Virgin... Then for one commercial break you're left to consider the possibility that in the "female empowerment" episode we'll actually see a high school girl make the decision that she's ready for sex, then do so without getting pregnant (there isn't room for two pregnant teens) or dying a bloody death in the next scene. "

Okay Glee, you threw me a bone after my last post and made the girls and women have feelings and some of them be honest about their feelings and make decisions and some of those had consequences, or at least will in subsequent episodes... I hope. The most honest characters however, are still the strait-up-evil Cheerleaders who seem to be either sadists or stupid sadists. Stay tuned dear readers, because I will still be watching and I expect more female-centered storylines Glee, or I will mention it on a BLOG!!!! (I know, so damning.)

What I will comment on today is that Wow, Madonna is a powerful Zeitgeist Deity. More so than even the performer herself, the IDEA of Madonna pervaded this episode of Glee.

"[Madonna is] the most powerful woman ever to walk the face of the earth."

"As Madonna once said, I'm tough, I'm ambitious and if that makes me a bitch, that's what I am. Pretty sure she stole that line from Sue Sylvester. No, really. I said it first."

"You don't deserve the power of Madonna. you have none of her self confidence, her power over her body or her sexual magnetism. Simply put, you have all the sensuality of those pandas down at the zoo who refuse to mate. "

Now invoking Madonna as a Goddess is hardly without precedent. Frankly, Madonna did it herself, The Madonna, The Virgin Mary, she took these archetypal strong images of female power and ran with it for fun and profit. She's a fantastic example of how taking an established theme and archetype that resonates with your personality and the personal narrative you wish to embody in fiction or non-fiction.

With 30 years of music and pop culture supremacy under her belt, invoking Madonna has a potency that internationally speaks to feminine power, and if she's not a full fledged Saint of the Zeitgeist yet, she's certainly beatified.

Glee?

Glee began it's second installment of it's first season last week, and I feel the desire to weigh in on this show a bit. There's plenty of controversy about the show, if you haven't watched it or heard the music or been in a flash mob:

A high-school Spanish teacher becomes the director of the school's Glee club, hoping to restore it to its former glory. It's all a seemingly happy-go-lucky melange of high school stereotypes acting and interacting and singing songs that get your feet tapping and hearts melting,

but there's more...

Sue Silvester-
The evil cheerleading coach tries to undermine the glee club at every turn with blackmail and constant evil scheming;

Mrs. Scheuster-
the glee club sponsor's wife becomes hysterically pregnant and then spends the entire first season lying and manipulating the poor teacher to avoid telling him the truth, egged on by her sister;

Miss. Pillsbury-
the sweet obsessive compulsive guidance counsellor is in love with the glee club sponsor but instead of telling him, she accepts the gym coach's offer of marriage and lies to him about her feelings for the glee club sponsor for many episodes until she jilts him;

Quinn-
the head cheerleader (and president of the celibacy club) cheats on her boyfriend, the glee club's lead tenor and the football team's quarterback, with the ne'er-do-well rogue and becomes pregnant, and instead of owning up tells the quarterback that it must have happened when they were making out in a hot tub... then concocts a plan with the glee club sponsor's wife to have her secretly adopt the cheerleader's baby and lie to both the quarterback and glee club sponsor;

Tina-
the Asian girl fakes a stutter for her entire life and then admits it to her disabled friend in a wheelchair assuming that he'd understand because he's disable why she's lied about herself for attention;

Rachel-
the annoying drama queen nerd lead soprano is in love with the quarterback/lead tenor but doesn't say anything about it, instead, choosing a campaign of white lies and makeovers that keep either person from realizing that the other actually likes them;

Mercedes-
and oh, the African-American Diva shoplifts under the watchful eyes of an aging glee club star (April) who comes in to help coach the club for an episode, and instead of telling the quarterback when she finds out that the cheerleader's baby isn't his, tells everyone but him;

Now, I enjoy this show, it's really entertaining and has one of the sweetest portrayals of a young homosexual man and his father on TV. I've seen every episode, but... why is every woman in it portrayed as a liar?

The only one who takes responsibility for her behavior is the Quinn who decides to raise the baby herself, after all other options fall apart because of the web of lies. Though that seems at the moment to mostly means she's constantly chasing women away from the ne'er-do-well baby-daddy.

I want the rest of the season to show consequences but I'm not terribly optimistic about it based on how mendacity is an innate quality of women in Glee so far... and so far the Rachel and Ms. Pillsbury got the guys (temporarily) there were no visible consequences of Tina's or Mercedes' plots, and Mrs. Schuester is trying to lie and manipulate Mr Schuester's life through Ms. Pillsbury.

The male characters are pretty scrupulously honest and tend to come off as victims most of the time, despite their involvement in schemes.

Sue is even rewarded for her lying and scheming, actually, at least twice per episode up to this point, but I suspect that's because she's honest with herself about being a liar.

Am I the only one who has noticed this? I feel like I'm taking crazy pills.