thisisanunlockeddiary:crown-of-weeds:penroseparticle:crown-of-weeds:penroseparticle:Kurt, your issue
thisisanunlockeddiary:crown-of-weeds:penroseparticle:crown-of-weeds:penroseparticle:Kurt, your issues with every letter but G are showing again.At least this time the viewing audience knows he’s wrong and the characters in show call him on it and he’s proven wrong, so this won’t be BIOTA the second. Hopefully. Oh who am I kidding I bet I’ll see someone calling Glee transphobic because Kurt is an idiot sometimesSee, where I’m from…..Wyatt (right name?) and Unique would both be a whole hell of a lot safer than Kurt.Which makes this discussion in the show a lot more interesting to me.Wade, I think. and idk how much of this was issues, really. I’m saying that as shorthand (And because that’s how everyone is going to take it, I’m sure), but I think they were arguing for passing, which… is a complicated issue in the least, but it was an argument rooted in safety. Idk how I feel about it yet.But the whole Unique subplot was great (And her number? flawless)I think it sounded like I was disagreeing when I wasn’t?They were definitely advocating for passing. The irony, for me, is that doing drag where I am from, or making a sextape with another girl, keeps you physically safer than wanting marriage equality. And it’s for fucked-up reasons, but it adds another layer or dimension to the plot, for me.I’m all for giving Kurt flaws. The trouble is: if Kurt is sort of The Voice of queer-related issues on this show, I’d kind of rather he just be unrealistically really knowledable about and understanding of everything. And I know that’s ridiculous. I’m just afraid that, for the casual Glee viewer (aka the person who isn’t probably isn’t engaged in fandom/activism/queer theory who this show has the most potential to do really important cultural work on), whatever Kurt says will come off as the gay/queer/even maybe the right way to look at gay/queer issues. So when he comes across as biphobic, that looks like the (correct/right, rather than yes-actually-this-prejudice-does-exist-but-it-shouldn’t) gay/queer stance on bisexuality. And when he comes across as transphobic (or just like—not at all aware of trans* issues, intersectionality, etc. etc.), it comes across to the casual viewer as like…the right viewpoint.Does that make sense? Tbh, I’ve never been a casual viewer of Glee. And my the beginning of my engagement with queerness/queer depictions/sexuality issues/trans and gender issues began basically with the beginning of my engagement with Glee. So I have trouble trying to see what cultural work it’s doing for those outside fandom, especially non-queer people. Idk. After watching Boys Don’t Cry (followed by Hedwig and the Angry Inch) in Queer Film Studies these past two weeks, I was/am just really really ready for some positive trans* representation, and I’m feeling fairly good about this, but I still feel like it doesn’t quite…define itself. You know? The line between crossdressing/performance and actual gender identity isn’t clear here. And the line between what is correct/sensitive/true about gender and what Kurt thinks/what the gay community sometimes thinks isn’t clear either.And I’m not saying that these are strict lines anyway (I mean, certainly gender identity gets tied up in gender expression, and there probably isn’t One Right Way to present a trans* person). I’m just saying that…as a television show with a huge broad audience, and as a television show that has proven itself to be interested in gay/queer issues (even made them quite central), Glee has (in my mind) an obligation to approach these issues sensitively and clearly. And it has an obligation to be good to the trans* community. So I don’t know exactly what to make of Wade and Unique. (Or is it just Unique? Do we have two identities here or one? Or is one a subset of the other, a mask for performance purposes? Etc.) And I don’t know what to make of zir/her and Kurt’s interaction. Thoughts?I’m incredibly uncomfortable with that line of reasoning, but I also think it’s irrelevant, as Kurt was shown pretty clearly to be wrong, and Unique was amazing. So. -- source link
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