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Glee: Defying the Mainstream The herd will take care of it” (Glee). This is not a reference to cattle but rather a reference to high school students; this quote was said by a teacher on the show Glee, indicating that students enforce the status quo. Ironically, this show does the opposite. The episode “Pilot” from the show Glee by Ryan Murphy is unique for television shows because it reverses the stereotypical views of society, and this essay will analyze it by summarizing the show, applying the Rhetorical Method and the Gender & Sexuality Method, discussing an outside source to further explain the creators motives regarding the show, and evaluating the text as a whole.
The pilot episode of Glee takes place at William Mckinley High School during an average school day and is set during modern times. The show has modern instruments, clothing, and automobiles. The main characters are Finn Hudson, Rachel Berry, and Will Schuester. The initiating event is Kurt Hummel, a homosexual boy, being thrown into the dumpster by the football players. The next event shows the previous instructor for Glee Club touching a students’ chest, this results in him getting fired. Therefore, there was no one to run Glee Club. As a response Will Schuester gets permission to run the club and the audience meets the characters while they audition. The next event was the first practice where Rachel ran out and demonstrated her need to have a male lead and to be special. Consequently, Schuester decided to ask the football team to join the club. He noticed Finn singing in the shower and decided to claim that Finn had marijuana in his locker. As a resolution, Finn joins the Glee Club to avoid punishment, and in response Finn’s teammates shoot him with paint ball...
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...s the idea that these characters are more than the stereotype associated with them, as the audience learns more about them as the episode and show continues. The text challenges our society’s ideas about gender norms because the heterosexual main male character challenges these roles by joining Glee Club. He does this regardless of the social consequences that followed. This episode should stand as a guide for future television shows to better society and break down our harmful ideologies causing barriers between sexualities and individuals. Finally, do not let the “herd take care of it” (Glee).
Work Cited
Itzkoff, Dave. "Ryan Murphy Brings a Bullying Story to 'Glee'" ArtsBeat Ryan Murphy Brings a Bullying Story to Glee Comments. The New York Times, 9 Nov. 2010. Web. 13 Apr. 2014.
"Pilot Episode 01." Murphy, Ryan. Glee. FOX. 19 May 2009. Television.
The story A Television Drama, by Jane Rule is an exciting story about an unusual event, which the main character, Carolee Mitchell, experiences the end of. The story is about her quiet street becoming unusually busy with police officers, and how the man who is being chased by these officers ends up being outside her front door. Through the point of view of the story, the characterization and character change of Carolee Mitchell, and the setting of the story, A Television Drama is an exciting read. The story conveys how important it is to be aware of ones surroundings, and what is happening around oneself through these elements.
The film presents the stereotypical behavior of gay men that is evident in our society. Many of the costumes are designed to highlight the characters and the way they live. For example, Bernadette wears long flowing clothes usually white or an off cream. ‘She’ is an older ‘women’ and dresses to look like one with flowing skirts and tops with her hair done up simply.
In conclusion, this show focuses on many aspects, particularly gender roles and sexism. Although this show could have more diverse characters, it focuses on male and female stereotypes very well. I appreciate that there are several strong female characters who aren’t afraid to stand up for themselves and perform typically masculine
Within this film the sociological concept based around sex & gender is hit quite a few times. Missy, a new comer to her current school, tries out for the cheering team. She is put under lots of scrutiny from some of the members of the cheer squad. She is underestimated due to her appearance and she proves herself to the team. They already had a candidate in mind, but the captain lets the other two team members know that Missy will be on the team. Hearing this noise infuriated them and they called Missy an “uber dyke” which is a sex and gender stereotype. Missy was treated this way all based on the way she prefered to
It is a widely accepted notion that social context and setting is very dependent upon gender. However, the converse is what appears to be true. Sex is biological and static, however gender is a social construct that is almost entirely dependent upon the social context in which it is placed. Contrary to what is often believed, gender is an idea that society constructs and students learn at a very early age. Once gender roles are learned, it can be incredibly damaging to act out of these roles because peer criticism as well as sheer belittlement will likely ensue. In Learning Silence by Peggy Orenstein, and Pascoe’s Dude, You’re a Fag: Masculinity and Sexuality in High School, this reality that gender is dependent upon social context is discussed. More specifically, male masculinity and its dependency on femininity, or in any case, a lack of masculinity.
“Mean Girls” begins as Cady Heron moves back to the United States from Africa where her parents were animal experts. She has an awkward first week of school where she begins to crush on a boy named Aaron Samuels, meets Janice and Damian who show her around campus because no one really wanted to get to know her on a personal level. Janice and Ian begin to spill the dirty secrets of the school including “The Plastics” who are a superficial infamous group who put everyone down. “The Plastics” infiltrate an operation to make Cady one of them, but little do they know that it is all an act to show how fake they are, thanks to Janice Ian. Because Janice and Ian told Cady of all the bad that “The Plastics” hold, she had a schema that Regina George who is the leader of “The Plastics” and her crew, were bad people and that high school was all about popularity. The reason why Janice placed this schema was because she and Regina George used to be friends back in the day. Schemas can be bad or good, but in this case, it was quite bad. It was an act of vengeance. Although the schema may have made Janice and Damian despise “The Plastics,” it made Cady Heron want to be like them. Prejudice is found within “The Plastics” because they don’t just let anyone join their group, the gi...
In Judith Halberstam’s piece “Female Masculinity,” she offers the audience a few potential definitions of the term ‘masculinity’ and how the term applies to “feminine masculinity.” She states that “although we seem to have a difficult time defining masculinity, as a society, we have little trouble recognizing it” (935). Halberstam suggests that female masculinity is often blatantly ignored in culture and studies due to the indifferent feeling often associated with the topic. Halberstam uses her essay to explain a variety of aspects associated with female femininity like tomboys, queer methodologies, and the bathroom problem. Halberstam’s description of the term ‘Tomboys’ is reminiscent of the character Emily Fields from the Pretty Little Liars book series by Sara Shepard. Progressing through middle school with a group of ‘girly’ friends, Emily is easily labeled with the term ‘tomboy’ due to her sporty exterior. Her overly conservative Christian family and classmates see no ‘threat’ or meaning behind Emily’s tomboy appearance because they believe it is just a stage in her life. As soon as Emily enter tenth grade and starts hanging out with a homosexual female, her family and classmates grow concerned about Emily’s masculine looks and behaviors. In the book titled Prettty Little Liars, one of the liars, Emily’s evident masculine ways raises concern to her thesis-go back and fix it .
...ation of men and women to the reader; we accept the cliché’s and gender-roles as the collective standard.
Since television came into existence, it has evolved into a useful tool to spread ideas, both social and political, and has had a great effect on the generations growing up with these heavily influential shows. To these younger generations, television has taken the role of a teacher, with the task of creating a social construction by which many of us base our personal beliefs and judgments on. This power allows television shows take the opportunity to address problems in a manner that many audiences can take to heart. Many television shows present controversial topics in a comical matter, in some ways to soften the blow of hard-hitting reality at the same time bringing attention to the issue being addressed. In the television show, Everybody Hates Chris, season one, episode four entitled “Everybody Hates Sausage”, the stereotypes that continue to fuel racism are examined in a satirical motif, and class is presented in a comical way, but carries serious undertones which present a somewhat realistic view of the different social strata within the United States.
Consequently, they must then take on parties, dates, auctions, beach days, and fashion shows, all while concealing their true male identities. While doing this, the movie portrays extreme stereotypes of gender roles and expectations. Although the portrayal of female expectations and characteristics is exaggerated for comedic effect, the underlying points and issues still remain. The way the brothers dress, speak, act, and understand their new social life as females, all contributes to the obvious contrast in gender specific qualities. The consistent sexualization of women and over pompous attitudes of men throughout the film provides exceptional evidence that society has established acceptable norms for both genders. These established roles of femininity and masculinity conflict within the undercover agents as they struggle to act poise, arrogant, non-confrontational, and sexy like their fellow female friends are, yet this is completely out of the norm for them as they are truly males. However, when they slip-up and allow their defensive masculine traits to show through it allows for not only a comedic break, but an exceptional
From high school girls desperately trying to be one of cool kids in school to corporate warriors rubbing elbows for that next promotion, nearly everyone has fantasized about being a part of the “in crowd”. What is it that makes the bonds and barriers of “in crowd” so unbreakable? Through sharing stories and reaching conclusions through discussion of those stories, members of small groups develop a common bond that shapes their social reality. An example of this bond is prominent in the CW’s hit show, Gossip Girl, which focuses on the world of high society elite at a private high school on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, New York. Circumstances in Gossip Girl show how concepts in symbolic convergence describe the formation of group bonds and their effect on the group’s and individual group member’s interaction with the outside world. Before analyzing this, one must be knowledgeable about the basic components of symbolic convergence and have a general understanding of the show’s premise and plot line.
The 1990s saw surge of gay characters in both television and movies. From Ellen Degeneres and her character Ellen Morgan coming out under much scrutiny on the TV show ‘Ellen,’ to Julia Roberts and Rupert Everett comedically playing off each other in the motion picture ‘My Best Friend’s Wedding.’ Sure, gays and lesbians have been around forever, especially in Hollywood. But never has there been a time to be more out. With the popularity of shows like Will and Grace, which feature leading gay characters, as well as Dawson’s Creek and it’s supporting character of teenager Jack McPhee, we are slowly seeing gay and lesbian characters creeping into the mainstream media.
In order to complete an analysis of a television show through six basic theoretical approaches, I chose to use the pilot episode of Gossip Girl due to its strong representation of class differences. In this episode, the interesting characters of the Upper East Side are introduced and viewers begin to get a sense of the lifestyles that they live. From the elite, to the middle class, issues and attitudes are established. All of the main characters attend an established private high school and seem to backstab each other as a form of entertainment. The main issues of this first episode are Serena sleeping with her best friend’s boyfriend, Lower class Dan’s infatuation with the upper class Serena, and Chuck being an overall bad person and predator
‘Like it or not … one cannot be gender-neutral in this culture ' (Bordo 2003: 242). With reference to your own examples, discuss the construction of gendered identities and differences in popular culture.
The social construction of gender leads to the creation and sustainment of sex roles that we have been taught to adhere to since birth that results to social doings through the creation of gender – who we talk, how we dress and who we associate with. Men are taught to masculine qualities like not crying and women are taught to do feminine characteristics like playing with dolls and wearing dresses. A prime example of this is in the article written my Diane Reay, that analyzes the construction female behavior, where those who identified as “girlies” care about their appearance and we regarded to as stupid by their classmates. Those who challenged the feminine norms, where referred to as “spice girls” and labeled as bitches or little cows by their teachers because they where thought to be negative influences to the rest of the class. Reay states that, “boys maintain the hierarchy of social superiority of masculinity by devaluing the female world,” (Reay, 2014, pg. 257) by esteeming males over females, it creates gendered expressions that depict once gender more promising that the other in society, where self-declared tomboy Jodie stated that, “Girls can be good, bad or- best of all – they can be boys,” (Reay, 2014, pg. 257) which solidifies the social norm of males being better than