We just got back from seeing Ghostbusters. It was a lot of fun. I enjoyed all four women, and it was a good, exciting, summer adventure movie, with women kicking ass all over the place.
Of course, it was impossible to resist comparing it to the original Ghostbusters, and it just doesn’t hold up. Some questions:
Why wasn’t there a romance? There were two in the original movie, and they brought depth and conflict. They couldn’t just kill Zool because someone they loved would be harmed, too. That’s a genuine ethical conflict, and this movie lacked one of those.
What were the career paths of the three scientists? What were they researching at the beginning of the movie? What was Melissa McCarthy’s scientific background? I’m not saying the original Ghostbusters was deep, but the characters were three-dimensional. These were not.
Why was everyone else in the movie, except the Mayor’s assistant, male? Seriously, why?
Rick Moranis? Anyone?
Actually, I think those are all of my problems. As I said, I mostly enjoyed it, but it just doesn’t have the heft that the original movie did, and therefore it could have been much shorter without losing anything. Even so, it’s really funny, and I had fun dancing to the theme song, and cheering at the exciting bits, even if I was with a boring NJ audience who wouldn’t join in with either.
I can’t find a video of the original scene, though, for some reason. Anyway, it’s the Blaine/Karofsky break up scene from Season 6. The episode is called “Transitioning.”
The scene goes something like this. Karofsky notes that Blaine has been acting strangely for a few days, and asks if anything happened at Rachel’s party. Blaine explains that he sang a duet with Kurt, and he kept it from Karofsky, but he’s not sure why. When Karofsky asks why he’d be jealous about a duet, Blaine gives him a meaningful look, and Karofskly figures out that they kissed, and that it was Blaine who kissed Kurt, and then he very gracefully bows out of their relationship, saying that he knew he couldn’t compete with Kurt and Blaine’s true love but he’s glad he had a few months with Blaine. And then he destroys all of our fondest hopes by asking Blaine to please say how he feels with words, not a song. Because evidently he hates the whole premise of Glee (but I digress.)
Now I get the message here. Ryan Murphy evidently believes in True Love, and that you can never really break up with your True Love no matter how hard you try. (Really upsetting news if you happen to be, say Lea Michele.) And so that’s the point he puts in David’s mouth: Kurt is your True Love, you two were Meant to Be, and there is no way I could ever compete with that, so I’ll go find my True Love and let you be with yours.
But I thought it would be more interesting if Glee actually built on the history that exists among these three characters. It’s a complex and interesting history, and if they had fleshed it out just a tiny bit, Season 6 would have been so much more believable and the relationship between Blaine and David would have been so much less creepy. And maybe I could look at this photo without my stomach turning:
Aaaah! Season 6 PTSD! Also, they’re at the Playboy Mansion, in their pajamas. I thought all of these guys were feminists.
Okay, so maybe my dedicated feminist stomach would still turn. Anyway, here’s how I would have written the scene:
David: Are you okay? You’ve been acting strangely for days. Did something happen at Rachel’s party last night?
Blaine: [sigh] I sang a duet with Kurt. I don’t know why I didn’t tell you about it.
David: Why would I be jealous of a song? Are you jealous of my football friends? You guys are constantly singing something or other.
Blaine: [meaningful look]
David: Oh.
Blaine: I’m really sorry. It’s just–
David: No, I get it. I mean, it’s Kurt.
Blaine: What does that mean?
David: If he had come for me, I don’t think I would have lasted as long.
Blaine: What?
David: Oh, come on, Blaine. You’re a great guy, you’re hot as Hell, and I love you, but since when are you into bears?
Blaine: Well, I’ve seen your ex-boyfriends. Since when are you into–[gestures at himself]
David: Insanely hot guys who are charming and smart and also rich and kind and romantic?
Blaine: I’m…short.
David: I wasn’t about to complain while you wanted to stay with me, but face facts: the only thing we have in common is the one thing we’ve always had in common: Kurt.
Blaine: You mean because he helped you out after your suicide attempt?
David: Didn’t he tell you about the time I spent a whole week being his secret admirer?
Blaine: I mean, yeah, but you were confused. You were still in the closet, mostly. How many out guys did you know? Kurt was nice to you, and…
David: Is that why you fell in love with Kurt? I told myself that I hated him because he walked around acting like being gay was just fine. I mean, the guy embraces all the things that people hate us for: he’s got the high voice, the performing, the fashion, all his friends are girls, he sings Beyonce and Madonna, and he walked around that high school like everyone should just love him for it. And somehow, he just charms the hell out of you while he’s doing it.
Blaine: Yeah…
David: I know he thinks I “hate-kissed” him. And I’m not saying what I did was okay. I was terrorizing him and that kiss was a huge violation, I get it. And I’ll always be ashamed of the way I treated him. But for me that kiss was the only honest moment of that whole year. I shoved him because it was the only way I could touch him and I wanted to touch him so damned badly because he’s just so…well…you get it.
Blaine: So damned Kurt.
David: Yeah. What I’m saying is, I know what it’s like to be in love with Kurt Hummel. And you got to be loved back, because you were so much braver than I was. He came back to Lima for you. You’re not angry anymore, and you don’t know how much longer he’ll wait. Go.
Blaine: I–
David: Go tell him. I mean it. And this time, don’t give up so easily. Trust me, there’s nobody else like him. I’ve checked.
Blaine: Thank you. Are you going to be okay?
David: I’m going to be fine. Go find the love of your life.
Then Blaine runs to the choir room where Kurt is getting ready for a date on a Saturday night because teachers live at school, and Walter isn’t there yet, so Blaine makes one of his awesome, impassioned, romantic comedy speeches about how he doesn’t know what he was doing with David because he’s always loved Kurt and he’ll always love Kurt and singing with him made him realize that (and it includes the sentence, “Anyway, since when am I into bears?”), and then Walter walks in and says, “Kurt, are you ready to go?” and either Kurt says, “I have a date,” and the episode ends the way it did and then the next episode makes sense, because Kurt knows that Blaine and David broke up and he just needed a minute to think, or Walter doesn’t see Blaine and the episode ends with Kurt looking back and forth between them, and then the next episode could start with one of the following:
Be all suspenseful like in “I do” and just show them together at the wedding. It doesn’t have to be like this scene, in fact it wouldn’t be at all like this scene, but I’m including this clip to cleanse your palate of the pic I posted above:
Open the episode with Kurt and Blaine waking up together, to the full-throated cheering of all of America.
Open the episode the way they did, but then make Kurt’s speech a little better and again, have it make sense because he knows Blaine is available.
Why didn’t you call me, Ryan Murphy? I could have fixed everything.
On Saturday we went to the Star Trek exhibit that’s currently showing in New York at the Intrepid Museum.
It’s called Star Trek: The Starfleet Academy Experience, and it’s awesome. When you enter the exhibit, you’re given a wrist band that you use to check in at all the different stations in the exhibit. If you’re my Kid, you share yours with your favorite action figure.
Odo models the Kid’s wristband.
You can do all the things you’ve always wanted to:
Use a medical tricorder
Land a ship on a planet
Beam yourself up
And lots of things you never knew you wanted to, like making an image of yourself as an alien and taking academy tests to find out your ideal career in Starfleet. (I’m unsurprisingly, sorted into Communications.) At the end, you can sit on the bridge and take the Kobayashi Maru. That chair is made of some NICE leather. (Replicated, I’m sure.)
Odo is thinking about joining Starfleet.
I’m in Wil Wheaton’s seat, bitches! No, YOU’RE on the wrong ship.
We had such a great time! The Kid got really interested in seeing the Intrepid, too, but it was way too hot on Saturday to be walking around on the deck of a battleship, so we’ll go back again another time.
If you’re in the New York area, the exhibit is up through October. Then I think it will tour, so keep an eye out if you live elsewhere.
Instead of all the stupid talking with Rachel and Kurt, you go straight from this:
to Kurt singing this:
while he’s returning to Lima, ending up at the bar with Blaine. And when he’s done singing, Blaine says, “I’m seeing someone.” Do the rest of that scene as written. THEN you have Kurt go to Rachel’s house and they’re both devastated together and come up with the plan to save the glee club.
SO much better. It’s more powerful, saves time, uses music to make feelings clear (like Glee is supposed to do) and we get the Kurt solo that should’ve happened in season 6. How was there no Kurt solo in season 6? And no Klaine love song?
Here’s the solution for that: they should have sung “Teenage Dream” at their wedding. How cute would that have been? Instead, we get The Troubletones. I haven’t done a poll of Troubletones fans vs. Klaine fans, but I’m pretty sure I’m not the only person who was looking forward to the Klaine wedding primarily for the expected duet that never happened.
You owe me a duet, Glee. A proper love song.
Update: Spotify just played me The Monkees version of “I’ll Spend My Life With You” followed by the Glee version of “Daydream Believer.” It was like a special Klaine-y present, just for me.
On Saturday, we went to a really exciting event. A friend of mine worked really hard to rally her neighborhood and work with the complex political system in New York City to make a new dog park.
We went to the ribbon cutting, and had a great time visiting with our friends and their dog, and meeting some of their dog-friends and dog-people-friends. My friend got to make a speech and everything!
The Kid was a great sport about the whole thing, partly because she loves these friends and their dog, partly because she knew she was on her way to the Star Trek exhibit that’s in town (and yes, that’s obviously going to be another post) and partly because dogs + cookies + Riverside Park in the morning = fun for everyone.
But they kept naming the neighborhood in the speeches, saying things like, “This dog park will benefit all the residents of Hamilton Heights.” And suddenly she said,
“We’re in Hamilton Heights?! You took me to a neighborhood called Hamilton Heights?!”
And for once, we were actually in Alexander Hamilton’s neighborhood. It’s not like all the other Hamilton things in this country, just named for him because he was one of the Founders, or because he influenced someone with money in the area, or something something banks whatever. (Or lately, Lin-Manuel Miranda.) Hamilton Heights, New York is so named because it’s where Alexander Hamilton’s house (I believe the only one he ever actually owned, but I’m not positive. Certainly it’s the one he was living in when he died) is located. In fact, the Dog Run at 142 is about 5 blocks from the Hamilton Memorial.
[sigh] At least she still likes Glee. She watched “Old Dog, New Tricks” with me on Sunday.
I realize I’m nuts. Honestly, this obsession with Glee is ridiculous. It’s just my way of stopping myself from obsessing about other things, like the election or mass shootings or the other parts of this world that are really, really scary right now. But it does have a purpose. It’s a tiny purpose, but it’s there.
As I’ve mentioned, I’m a Ravenclaw. I’m totally stuck in my own head most of the time. And when something catches in there, it spins around until my brain solves it.
When I watched Season 6 of Glee, I was furious. I love the last episode of Season 5. It’s one of my favorites, and it ties up so many stories so nicely, I really don’t understand why they didn’t just leave well enough alone and call that the end. With my particular love of Klaine, it was lovely to see the two of them come to understand what marriage is all about: choosing to love one person, understanding that they will make mistakes, and staying together through it all. Jumping together into the unknown, trusting that you’ll fly, to work Kurt’s metaphor.
Knowing that Blaine still had to date Karofsky, and that Kurt and Blaine would end up married, I had trouble sleeping after I saw the end of Season 5. I couldn’t imagine a way in which Kurt and Blaine would break up convincingly and then get back together convincingly in thirteen episodes. And when I saw Season 6, I was mostly more upset. I liked the wedding okay, and I found the finale satisfying, but what was up with that breakup? It made no sense.
And that’s the thing that’s been spinning, spinning in my head since then. How did they get so far off track with these characters? What could ever cause Blaine and Kurt, who always storm off in the middle of arguments, to ever have a three hour argument about anything, least of all towels? Why would Blaine pick a fight, when we know he’s conflict-avoidant? And Karofsky? Really? And then they get back together all of a sudden and the same episode they get married.
Well, I’ve figured it out.
I’m not going to pretend the explanation is pretty. I still don’t know why the writers chose to do it in the first place. As I’ve already said, the season would have been much better if they’d stayed together. HOWEVER, I came up with something, and now my brain can rest. In case you need it too, here it is:
It comes down to Finn.
Kurt never really grieved for Finn. He was busy with school, he’d just gotten engaged, and most importantly, he was living with Rachel and needed to take care of her. As Rachel moved through her grief, Kurt took his cues from her, mostly avoiding the topic so as not to push her over the edge. Then Blaine moved in and that was distracting, and then all the drama with Rachel’s opening distracted everyone from honoring the one year anniversary of Finn’s death, too. (As best I can figure, Finn probably died in April or possibly May of 2013. Season 5 ends, I think, in May-June of 2014. Season 6 is the 2014-2015 school year.)
Then Rachel leaves to go to LA just as the school year ends, and Kurt finally has time to deal with his feelings. Blaine was a friend and teammate to Finn, but never had as complex a relationship with him as Kurt. And Blaine had more opportunities to deal with his grief with the Glee club and Mr. Schuester. He sang a tribute to Finn at Nationals (and presumably spent time with Finn’s mom, too, since he was engaged to Kurt but living in Lima.) So Blaine has worked through is feelings, and he’s having a great career moment and just moved back in with Kurt, and he’s ready to plan a Labor Day wedding. He goes into full wedding-planning mode.
This drives Kurt nuts, but he doesn’t really understand why. He wouldn’t tie it to feelings about Finn since it had been so long since he died. But he hates that Blaine is so happy and planning a major joyful life event that Finn won’t be attending. So Kurt starts picking fights with Blaine and generally making life miserable for himself. The day they break up, he’s dying to pick a fight, first about Blaine being late, and then about the wedding. When he says “maybe” they should break up*, he thinks he’s just being cranky, but Blaine takes it as a dumping and it’s over.
At least Kurt has some time to deal with his feelings. He wallows for a couple of months, and by the time he is through his grief and ready to come up for air, Blaine is gone, having somehow been thrown out of school in the middle of summer. Kurt realizes what he’s done and heads to Lima to get Blaine back.
But Blaine has taken wallowing to championship levels. His “moving on” from Kurt takes the form of working in the building where they met and fell in love, coaching boys who look just like they did. His office is the room where they first kissed. Presumably he’s living with his parents, sleeping in the bed where they lost their virginities to one another. And he’s dating the only guy he knows who ever asked Kurt to be his valentine.
Blaine and Karofsky have absolutely nothing in common except for Kurt. They even say that Kurt was all they talked about at first. Karofsky has no self-esteem and it’s unclear whether he’s in school or working or what. And when Blaine breaks up with him, he isn’t even surprised. My theory is that Karofsky is still in love with Kurt too, and they’re just using each other to get as close to Kurt as either of them can get at the moment. And Blaine probably also gets a charge out of how much it hurts Kurt that he’s dating Karofsky, of all people.
After Blaine kisses Kurt, Kurt realizes (after a few days) that he’s got a wedge and he should use it to break up Blaine and David. As it turns out, he doesn’t have to. But if the only problem they had in the first place was Kurt’s grief, then Kurt can say, “It was bad before but it’s okay now.” And they might as well get married, since they were going to get married months earlier anyway and would have if Kurt hadn’t melted down.
I still hate that Kurt and Blaine don’t get one love song in Season 6. I still hate that after they’re married, they barely kiss or even talk to each other. It seems the writers have a bunch of weird ideas about love and marriage that are very Hollywood and very disappointing. But I think now I can watch Season 6 and maybe even move on from this obsession. For a while. I mean, Glee is always going to be comfort food, but maybe I won’t have to eat it every day.
*Update: I’m about half way through Season 6, and I was wrong about the “maybe.” Kurt did, clearly, break up with Blaine. But my overall reasoning still works, and makes watching Season 6 much more enjoyable. With this new perspective, you can watch Blaine watching Kurt the entire time to see how serious he is about having changed. Blaine’s uncomfortable about this, because he’s a decent guy and he wants his relationship with David to be real, but he’s doing it. And Kurt is watching Blaine, too, partly because he’s the kind of guy who writes romances in his head (see: Finn, Season 1; Blaine, Season 2; Adam, Season 4) and partly because he knows that Blaine’s into frat boys, not bears, and he’s wondering why Blaine would be dating David of all people.
Also, with this in mind, Kurt running to Blaine’s apartment makes a tiny bit more sense. If I’ve got the timeline right (and it’s not very clear) Rachel’s party is on Friday, Blaine breaks up with David after David’s football game the next day, and it’s possible Kurt goes to Blaine’s apartment on Sunday morning. So Kurt spends all day Saturday thinking about that kiss, meets up with Rachel, Sam and Walter at school on Saturday night (why? And why does Blaine look for him there?) knows exactly why Blaine is there, but decides not to push it because of the scene he’ll create, and then breaks up with Walter at Sunday brunch and runs to Blaine’s apartment, where he’s not the least bit surprised to find Blaine packing to move out. It’s still poorly written, but if they’ve just been testing each other the whole time Kurt’s been in Lima, then it works, barely. And thanks to some champion acting by Chris Colfer and Darren Criss, there’s enough subtext throughout the season to believe it.
You can be a madonna, a whore, or Sue Sylvester. Rachel and Tina get to have reasonably healthy sexual debuts, but then Rachel dates a gigolo and completely swears off men once Finn dies, and Tina goes crazy and vapo-rapes Blaine and proposes to Mike because reasons.
If you’re a Madonna and you have sex, you’ll get pregnant. Whores never get pregnant, no matter what they do.
2. If you choose to drink, you will become either giggly, dramatic, a stripper, or too needy. There are no other options. Guys can take advantage of these states, avoid them, or just dance and get sloppy, but girls MUST fall into one of these four categories. Probably you should never drink, ever.
3. If you enjoy sports, you’re probably really a guy. I don’t want to take away from the power of having a character transition genders on television, but did it have to be the one woman who played football? Couldn’t we just have a woman who played football? I liked that she was tough but still wanted to be loved by a strong man, even if she did pick a jerky one.
4. Makeup is very important. You should spend a lot of time on it, no matter what kind of girl you are.
5. The only way things work out is if a guy is in charge. Sue can’t run the school. Biest can’t stay a woman and run the football team. Rachel can’t run the glee club by herself. Or star in a Broadway show. Or a TV show. Women writers are weird. Women teachers are crazy. The only person who deserves to be prom queen is Kurt.
6. Being on the receptive end of sex is a wee bit shameful. At least, I think that’s what “that sign” means.
I’m assuming it was supposed to say “Blaine is the bottom” but the censors wouldn’t allow it. And Blaine is really embarrassed, not because a teacher is making a big deal out of his (nonexistent, at the moment) sex life, but because it’s not true. (Not really.)
But what’s wrong with being a bottom? Presumably, even if he’s a top, he’s in love with a bottom, so why so shameful?
One of the things that’s so nice about Kurt and Blaine’s relationship, once they finish growing up, is that they have a lovely balance of the stereotypically male and female. Blaine cooks and likes his towels clean. Kurt is into fashion. Blaine loves to protect Kurt. Kurt is taller, and leads when they’re dancing. Both are strong. Both are vulnerable. Both have been bullied and beaten. Both came out young, and fight to be who they are. Blaine loves sports and “guy talk,” but Kurt is the one who is strong enough to face the bullies. Why did Glee have to go to the misogynist place where being a bottom is shameful?
7. Romance is more important than anything. The thing that burns me the most is something that never actually got made. Ryan Murphy has said many times that he always knew what the last scene and line of Glee would be. Rachel would walk into the choir room, Finn would be teaching there, and Rachel would say, “I’m home.”
That means that Finn’s death might have been the best thing to ever happen to Rachel Berry.
Honestly, how do you write a character who only wants to be a star of stage and screen, and then have her end up married to a teacher in Ohio? Finn could have moved to New York to be a teacher at a performing arts high school or to help Rachel’s bio mom with her Broadway Daycare business or to be an actor, but they wrote him as a person who could never be happy in New York. When one person in a couple wants to live in a huge city and the other person wants to live in the country, they have to break up. There’s no compromise there. And the thought that Rachel Berry of all people would give up her career for some guy she dated in high school is ridiculous, antifeminist bullpoop.
Glee did a lot of good for a lot of people, and they did try to deal with sexism and inequality in relationships a few ways. There was the conversation in the Madonna episode about treating girls like human beings. There was the great discussion between Mr. Schuester and Miss Pillsbury about why she didn’t want to go to Washington with him. (Although that turned out to be a wedding-ruiner, didn’t it?) There was Sue Sylvester. And Santana Lopez. About a gazillion episodes against body-shaming, slut-shaming, and conforming. But underlying it all was a subtle misogyny that can’t be denied. The shameful messages are still there, drumming away.
I realize that in blogging about Glee, and blogging about Glee, and blogging about Glee, I’ve left out one important aspect of the whole obsession.
The parenting piece.
Oh yeah, this blog is supposed to be about Geek parenting, not just being a geek.
As it happens, I’ve been parenting the heck out of the whole Glee experience. Mostly in small ways.
With questions: (Season 3, “I Kissed a Girl”) Why do you think Rachel stuffed the ballot box? What should happen to her? Do you think the punishment was fair?
With answers: Why do they have to have 12 people in Glee club? They have to follow the rules. It’s just like a swim race. If you break the rules, you’re disqualified.
With life advice: This is why you’re going to apply to more than one college.
But the number one topic that Glee has opened up for us is sex. I will NOT reproduce any of the Kid’s comments or any details of our conversations here, because that’s private. But I can write a sort of handbook for parents who want to use Glee to talk about sex with their pre-teen kids.
I have to say, I really like the overall approach to sex on the show. Why they’re generally vague about details (which is my preference, actually) there’s a pretty good range of sexual practice, from Mercedes, who is apparently still a virgin at the end of the show, to Santana and Puck, who engage in frequent casual sex with a variety of partners beginning before their sophomore year of high school. There’s a general preference for monogamy, and no evidence of any kind of honest open relationship, but there’s very little slut shaming. And of course, the show is well known for treating gay relationships with the same directness as heterosexual relationships, which is great. And there was no sexual violence in the show. Cheating, breakups, a gay bashing, and lots of angry words, but the closest they came to sexual violence was the infamous “Vapo-rape,” where Tina opened Blaine’s shirt while he was sleeping and rubbed vapo-rub on his chest. I confess that the scene made me uncomfortable, but the fact that it was later condemned universally by her friends made me feel better about it. (Not the act itself, but the representation of it. I don’t mind representations of inappropriate behavior when it’s represented as inappropriate.)
As the parent of a girl, I liked having a variety of partners to use as examples in teaching her about dating. I could point out when Puck or Jake or Santana was being too pushy in expecting sex. I advised the Kid to find someone who looks at her the way Blaine looks at Kurt.
But then we get down to the nitty-gritty. Glee has a basic conflict at its heart when it comes to sex. They want to be realistic in depicting teens having sex, but they don’t want to actually depict sex or talk about it with any specificity. And while I’m happy to not know what anyone is doing in bed, in this case, it leads to an all-or-nothing idea of what sex is. So you end up with situations like this:
Now, I LOVE this conversation, as a parent. Kurt and Blaine are discussing how they want their sex life to change. They’re discussing it with their clothes on, when nothing sexual is going on, so they can discuss it with clear heads. And Blaine’s completely calm insistence that he can handle his own sexual needs and his relationship priority is to know that Kurt feels safe is pretty much exactly what I want the Kid to look for in a partner. Or BE in a partner.
But the underlying assumption that there is nothing between keeping your pants on and “losing your virginity” (whatever that means) is problematic. It’s especially problematic as a model for gay teens. After all, what does it mean for a gay boy to lose his virginity? Brittany refers frequently to the act of scissoring as though it’s the only sex act lesbians engage in, but there is never a specific reference made to Kurt and Blaine’s sex practices (except Sue’s sign that says “Blaine is on the bottom,” which maybe means she’s saying Blaine is a bottom, which he is embarrassed by and says isn’t true, really).* The implication, I guess, is that they dive straight from making out to anal sex, which is dangerous and foolish and not a recipe for a fun time. Also, they never discuss safer sex until Season 5 when Kurt mentions Blaine’s single hookup as a reason to get tested (but never mentions his relationship with Adam) and Blaine says Artie should use condoms because he could get someone pregnant. True, but still not good modeling for gay teens.
In general, the safer sex information on the show is a bit sketchy, but at least it’s there. The notion that Puck only got one girl pregnant while never using condoms is a bit far-fetched, and while Quinn’s choice to have her baby was perfectly in character, it would have been interesting to see a different reaction to teen pregnancy. Artie got an STI in Season 5, so they didn’t ignore it completely. Both Finn and Rachel brought condoms the first time they planned to have sex. The only mention of birth control pills is when Unique is taking them in an effort to make her breasts grow. (And no mention is made of why it’s not a good idea to use prescription medications off-label without a doctor’s guidance, or what Trans teens should do if they are unhappy with their bodies.) And there’s no mention of Long-Acting Reversible Contraception methods, which is the preferred method of birth control for sexually active teens.
So there’s good and bad, but plenty of fodder for conversations with the Kid. And if you really don’t know how to get started talking about sex with your kid, or you just can’t, Glee filmed what is quite possibly the best father-son sex talk ever written. It’s Burt and Kurt, so there’s reference made to gay relationships, but the advice applies to everyone.
*I’m going to write another post on sexism soon, and the problems in this episode will be discussed then.
The new season of Liv & Maddie is out on Netflix and it’s delightfully meta. The Kid has been insisting on watching about 6 episodes per night, which means we’re charging through this season, and will be back to having nothing to watch by tomorrow.
Though watching Season 4 of Glee has reminded me that the Kid hasn’t seen Footloose yet.
And yes, this post is only here so that I can go back to writing about Glee without my whole blog being about my Glee obsession.
I will say, though, that watching Disney Channel shows is a bit odd, especially after watching more realistic portrayals of teens like Glee and even Buffy. Obviously neither of those shows is particularly realistic in general, but the way they portray teen relationships is much more real than anything on Disney Channel.
Somewhere along the way, Disney decided that any touching between opposite-gender teens is sexual. So when teens dramatically declare their love for one another, they hug or hold hands. Maddie dated Diggie for two seasons and they never kissed. On Liv’s first date with Holden, they literally cannot hold hands because both of her hands are encased in plaster. He does feed her pizza, though. Is that dirty?
I’m not sure exactly what Disney thinks they’re playing at. As Ryan Murphy and everyone else associated with Glee has said many times, people know that teens are having sex. The secret is out. I’d rather have choices and decisions modeled for my kid than have her think that nobody will ever pressure her for sex, that she’ll never want it, and that decisions about sex won’t be something she’ll have to navigate once she starts dating. At least in the olden days, kissing was an issue for the Saved by the Bell and Boy Meets World kids. And once in college, after they had been dating for six years, Corey and Topanga discussed having sex. They decided to wait until they got married, but they discussed it. And then they got married, and they really liked having sex. So at least it was a part of their life.
Nowadays, no Disney Channel show lasts more than four seasons, so I guess no couple will ever get to that point. But a peck on the lips once in a while might be appropriate.
The Kid finished writing her paper on The Giver, so we let her watch the movie. Why do they have to ruin every book when they make the movie? Right from the beginning. In the book, Jonas is apprehensive about turning twelve. A big deal is made of him choosing that word to describe what he’s feeling. In the movie, they use a different word. Why? Apprehensive is a great word.
Why isn’t Jonas number nineteen? What possible benefit to the bottom line could there be from changing his number? Even if you feel the need to dramatically increase the size of the Community (why?) he could still be nineteen.
Why make them unable to know the difference between an elephant and a hippo? Isn’t it enough that they’ve never seen a real elephant or hippo? Why change from a pill to an injection? Why make the injection stop dreaming, when talking about dreams is such a big deal in the book? (Though the line about dreams being “a combination of reality, fantasy, emotions and what you had for dinner” is pretty awesome, so I might forgive that one.) I’m going to stop before I spoil something important, but I kind of understand, from a Hollywood perspective, why they changed the important things. I still get frustrated, but I understand they feel the need to ramp up the drama. But why change all the little things too?
I get so frustrated with Hollywood sometimes.
On the plus side, we had a great conversation about the book and the movie, and also about why it’s so important to Chris Colfer that his books be made into movies by the right people, and that he retains creative control. The Kid is excited that there will be a Land of Stories movie someday, and she’s crazy proud of Chris Colfer for insisting that it be done right.
So, keep up the good parenting, nerds. Even when things make you bitchy, there’s a lesson in it. I figure as long as my Kid knows the book is always better, I’m doing something right.