Category Archives: TV Shows
Reads of the Week: Diversity, Poverty, Idiots and TV Quizzes
Take a look at this week’s Reads of the Week: Great articles about the LGBTQ community, feminism, women and anything else worth reading.
“But everyone benefits from outstanding television. To state something so obvious it is difficult to believe it must be stated: you don’t have to be black to like Empire, you don’t have to be Latino to like Jane the Virgin, you don’t have to be Asian to like FOTB. Good shows are good shows are good shows. And for the love of a country that grows more diverse by the day, “ethnic casting” is not a ‘trend.'” – ThinkProgress on Deadline’s ridiculous diversity article
- “Poverty is a chaos that screams in the present tense, and the anxiety of having no money forces poorer families to direct their attention to immediate concerns. As a result, the poor spend relatively more on what will keep them alive, because they must. And the rich spend more on what will keep them rich, because they can.” – The Atlantic
- “And for Wenner, a rich, powerful 69-year-old man, to place culpability for his magazine’s lapse on a twentysomething pseudonymous woman, well, that tells you everything you need to know, doesn’t it?” – Gawker on Rolling Stone‘s Jann Wenner
- Take Vulture’s TV personality quiz! (Figured a little light-heartedness was needed this week.)
Reads of the Week: Shonda Rhimes, LGBT Women & ‘Glee’ Women
Take a look at this week’s Reads of the Week: Great articles about the LGBTQ community, feminism, women and anything else worth reading.
-
Photo: @shondarhimes
“I am making TV look like the world looks. Women, people of color, LGBTQ people equal WAY more than 50% of the population. Which means it ain’t out of the ordinary. I am making the world of television look NORMAL. You should get to turn on the TV and see your tribe. And your tribe can be any kind of person, anyone you identify with, anyone who feels like you, who feels like home, who feels like truth. You should get to turn on the TV and see your tribe, see your people, someone like you out there, existing. So that you know on your darkest day that when you run (metaphorically or physically RUN), there is somewhere, someone, to run TO. Your tribe is waiting for you. You are not alone. The goal is that everyone should get to turn on the TV and see someone who looks like them and loves like them. And just as important, everyone should turn on the TV and see someone who doesn’t look like them and love like them. Because, perhaps then, they will learn from them.” – Shonda Rhimes, “You Are Not Alone.”
- “We know — intuitively, from stories, from our own lives — that queer women face unique and devastating economic challenges and are at higher risk for poverty than even straight women and LGBT men. Now, we have clear, comprehensive data that solidifies the seriousness of the problem and provides a new resource for battling it.” – “New Report Finally Gives Crucial Numbers on Economic Disparities Hurting LGBT Women”
- “Glee, another show that started out focusing on a female character whose career dreams kept her going, is now one of the most anti-female shows airing. The show consistently belittles the role of women, using them as little more than emotional leaning posts for their boyfriends, boyfriends who are always heroic and decent. When Finn outed Santana it was treated as a good thing, Finn helping her come to terms with her sexuality by serenading her with a cover of Girls Just Want to Have Fun. After all, lesbianism is just girls having fun, right? Weeks later when Dave Karofsky suffers similarly by being outed it is shown through an emotionally overwrought montage and makes way for a story about teen suicide.” – “Where Have All the Good Women Gone?”
Why I’m Not Watching Brittana
Photo: cartermatt
I’ve seen all the pictures and gifs, read a lot of the recaps and many of the editorial posts. Brittana are married. This is amazing, especially when Glee often seemed more determined to walk all over queer women instead of celebrate them. But I haven’t watched an episode, not even the Brittana cuts, and I won’t, at least not for awhile.
Brittana were the couple that completely changed my life, professional and personally, in ways I could not have anticipated as an adult. They were the first time I had seen two women kiss in public (granted, it was on TV and they are fictional characters), and the first story that reached into my soul and into my past and healed wounds I had forgotten about.
But beyond maybe season 3, Glee’s behavior towards queer women–their meta commentary, dismissal of fans by the creators, often offensive storytelling, encouragement of fans more interested in competition than actual people, and a laundry list of other unpleasant ripple effects–has been a complete turn off.
I am so happy for Brittana. I’m also a little sad this could have been their story over so many seasons instead of saved for the end. But most of all, I’m unwilling to open back up (for now) to a show that has been too careless with people’s feelings and lives.
Reads of the Week: Rose McGowan for the Win
Take a look at this week’s Reads of the Week: Great articles about the LGBTQ community, feminism, women and anything else worth reading. This one’s a little old, but still worth the mention!
“Where does it say that because of a man’s sexual orientation, I don’t get to point out a character defect that some of them may have? When equal pay for women was voted down by every male Republican, there was no LGBT outcry. I wondered why that was. After all, lesbians are women — this affects them too, right?” – Rose McGowan, Advocate
‘Glee’s’ LGBTQ Thunder Dome
Glee has this habit of pitting LGBTQ characters against each other, as well as their shippers and fans. While the resulting social media commotion may be an effective way of creating some sort of social capital for a show that should have sunk years ago, it’s at the expense of the very same LGBTQ community Glee likes to congratulate itself for celebrating.
In the latest episode, which contains the much appreciated Brittana proposal and the most sensitive treatment of Brittana since season 2, it also features Santana viciously going after Kurt about why Blaine broke up with him. The result is pretty brutal and unnecessary, even for a character whose razor sharp edge is sometimes a complex, nuanced part of her personality. Really, it was uncalled for, even if Kurt interrupted Santana’s moment.
Beyond the fact that Blaine is the toxic character in the Klaine pairing and constantly escapes any sort of real criticism or challenge, it’s disheartening that Glee doesn’t seem to have room for two hugely important LGBTQ characters to exist in the same space and support each other at the same time.
Book: ‘fic: Why Fanfiction is Taking Over the World’
Literary professor and fanfiction aficionado, Anne Jamison has taken on the wide world of fanfiction in her comprehensive volume, fic: Why Fanfiction is Taking Over the World. Covering topics such as its history, publishing and the current (2013) scope of fanficition, this collection is fairly accessible and easy to read–largely absent of pretentious academic jargon. In other words, at the end, fanfiction still sounds like community-based pleasurable reading and writing activity it is, thanks to Jamison’s obvious appreciation for and participation in fan culture.
The largest strength of this volume, aside from the positive and intelligent light Jamison sheds on the fanficition community, is the inclusion of essays from fanfic writers themselves across multiple fandoms. This includes Big Name Fans and Authors and others from Harry Potter, Twilight, Sherlock, Supernatural, Star Trek, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and more. The voices of women–the large majority of fanficition writers–are well represented and respected. These are people in the fandom trenches telling it like it is.
Debunking the Debunking of Klaine’s Popularity
Photo: glee.wikia.com – The Crack Society
Welcome back to the Klainer merry-go-round!
A friendly, helpful Klainer hoping to debunk the previous Debunking of Klaine’s popularity (going in circles, it’s a thing) provided a lot of helpful information via comments demonstrating Klainers have a lot of time on their hands to spend on the internet. Oops, I meant that Klaine are the most popular Glee couple. Spoiler alert: Still not really true. Also, there’s room for everybody, especially ALL the LGBTQ ships and characters. Hashtag, representation. Am I right, Klainers?
