I’m an admitted big Gleek. Last night’s show featuring the music of Madonna was by far the best episode of the series yet. I thought it was brilliant how they used Madonna and her place in the culture as a female leader and icon to talk about everyday sexist issues that high school kids (and the rest of us) deal with.
The guys didn’t want to perform songs by Madonna cause you know, she’s a chick, but Mr. Schuester tried to make them see the bigger picture about the messages behind Madonna’s music — power and the ability to love and trust yourself. And the ending with all the Glee club guys singing What it Feels Like for a Girl. Brilliant. The whole episode kind of felt like a feminist fantasy.
I know that no high school kid would do this but how great would it be for guys to ask themselves, “Do you know what it feels like in this world for a girl?”
Puck: I am not down with this. I like being a dude.
Finn: That’s because it is easy to be a dude.
Yes, guys it is so easy to be a dude. It’s great to occasionally have a show that can say it so well and not you feel like you are beating someone over the head with a stick.
Jane Lynch was so spectacular as the Madonna worshiper that if she doesn’t win an Emmy I will personally let out a gigantic wail that will be heard across Brooklyn.
The girls and women are dealing with boy trouble, virginity and sexuality as well as their power in the world.
Here are some choice lines that I had to share:
From Quinn to Mr. Schuester:
Women still make 70 cents to every dollar that a man does for doing the same job. That attitude starts in high school.
It sure does. What a line and to top it off it was actually uttered on equal pay day. Ryan Murphy if you knew that I am so beyond impressed that I will actually forgive you for Nip/Tuck.
Sue Sylvester to Mercedes and Kurt (when talking about her hair):
I grew up with a handi-capable sister. My parents were famous Nazi hunters so they weren’t around a lot. I had to bring her up on my own. I didn’t have a lot of time or money to keep up with all the latest looks but on my 6th birthday True Blue was released an album that would later sell over 30 million copies and my sister and I took it upon ourselves to bleach my hair with whatever chemicals we could find around the house ammonia, napalm. My hair has been so damaged I’ve been forced to wear it short ever since. It’s been a daily ongoing pain.
I also think that Santana and Brittany are getting some of the funniest lines on the show. The writing consistently blows me away. I am still smiling.
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I had tears in my eyes when the guys were singing “What It Feels Like For a Girl”. A brilliant song within itself, but hearing it sung by the guys in the context of this episode was really amazing and empowering.
Another awesome line from the show said by Brittany, “When I pulled my hamstring, I went to a misogynist.”
This show deserves so many Emmys. Tina actually used the word “feminist” in her rant to Arttie in a positive way. Imagine that. Feminism mentioned in a positive way in pop culture! Awesome!!!
I agree that Glee hit some really high notes (sorry) in this episode. You don’t see much, if any, conversation about feminism, sexism and equal pay on regular TV these days. And the misogyny line had me laughing out loud.
On the other hand, I think they really fell short in the sexuality department. While I loved the editing of the “Like A Virgin” sextet (sorry), in the end we were left with the same old stereotypes about men and women and sex.
Spoiler Alert here:
The three women were neatly sorted into the virgin, whore and prude categories. The three guys were just three guys – regardless of their sexual experiences or situations.
The guy had sex (although, props for his thoughtful post-sex disappointment) and that’s that. But the two women didn’t, and the show really telegraphed that it would have been such a big deal if they did. So now the drama of their sexual status can be dragged on for however many more episodes.
I was so disappointed to find out Rachel was lying when she said she had done it and it wasn’t a big deal. That would have rung so much truer for me than what really happened.
But maybe that’s just because of my own painful crush on Jonathan Groff. Although I made it through high school a virgin, I wouldn’t have if I had been dating him.
***There will be spoilers here***
The show actually seems very schizophrenic to me – on the one hand re-enforcing the stereotypes that are out there, and at the same time, self-conscious about them.
What makes Madonna powerful is that she basically acted the whore, but without the self-consciousness of it. And then with a name like Madonna she was fusing the two identities together, showing a whole woman. But the show, like Therese said, kept the virgin and whore dichotomy neatly in place; separate and unequal.
It would have been a great step to have at least one woman appear to not choose sex for her own healthy reasons. In fact, why not have one woman choose to and one woman choose not to, but both have confidence in their decision. Rachel spoke of the team more than her desire not to have it, which she tacked on at the end. Either she was more interested in the team, which depicts the usual say communities take with women about their sexuality in a way they don’t with men, or she was just too nervous to really own the fact that she didn’t want to.
And I am hoping I missed some context here from previous episodes, but to describe the teacher’s virginity as a problem? If the empowered speech is a power only to have sex, then is that really power? And sure, she says no, but then she runs out? Without her shoes? I thought Will seemed much more empowered, and I could see the hesitancy with the students, why couldn’t Terri speak to her students in an educated and informative way, even if she was a virgin?
This episode seemed far more focus on the men and their feelings and issues surrounding sex than any owning on the women’s part. All the guys (save maybe Puck) seemed to have real epiphanies in the way they behaved, not the gals.
What was especially grating was how they shot the pre-sex scenes. Was it necessary to have two of the scenes take place in bedrooms with normal lighting, yet the one with Finn took place in a motel with the sign lit in a garish red that filtered directly into the room?
And I also thought it was interesting that in the three scenes, it was the latina who was the sexually aggressive one. While the two cheerleaders confessed to being promiscuous, it was Santana who took it to a higher level by offering sex.
And that is the problem with the show for me in general, because if it’s a great show in terms of gender, but problematic in terms of diversity (portrayals, not just representation), then I still can’t fully support the thing. I thought it was really interesting that when Mercedes and Kurt explained that they are repeatedly turned down for leads, Will’s response was “why didn’t you at least give me a heads up?” It’s like he knew he was wrong, and yet still felt the need to keep the status quo. And it’s odd to see the episode talk so strongly about equality, when it seems so lopsided in that way.
Actually the most empowering moment was when Sue embraced her short hair – that was cool!
Great dance numbers though. And I grew up in the 80′s, so I can always appreciate a good Madonna number. :) And I agree, this is the best episode out of the ones I’ve seen.
True Blue was released when she was six??? Is that a joke? Because it would make Jane Lynch’s character 30 years old.
d – Really perceptive points all around. The fact that Santana is Latina just makes the whole thing more problematic.
I personally think it’s cool that there’s an older virgin on the show, and a healthy representation of someone who’s never had sex is a good thing. But here, she’s being played for laughs, like all the other stereotypes Glee trots out.
D, Emma’s “problem” is her raging obsessive-compulsive disorder, not her virginity.
Eileen, Sue Sylvester is 29–and don’t you forget that!!!
(and yes, that is a running joke on the show)
I watch “Glee” because I bought (for an hour a week) into their universe of interactions between characters who embody stereotypes, and yet have enough nuances to be transcend the stereotypes. What makes it work–so far–is that the main figures stay true to their character. So to me, what Rachel, Emma, and Finn did in their respective “Virgin” scenes are believable, because I could understand how these individuals would arrive there. I think Rachel still doesn’t know what she wants, Emma can’t just overcome her OCD, and Finn discovers that it was just a lot of hype.
The Madonna episode is remarkable because it’s a happy confluence of a real-life celebrity inspiration with a large and popular song catalog. Yes, please do more episodes like this one. However, my biggest complaint against this show is the awful, awful camera work. I want to halfway enjoy the song and dance, please don’t make me get motions sick. Even the cheer-stilt number got butchered on this episode because of the crappy way it was filmed.
Thanks Therese! If it wasn’t played for laughs, I would have been right there with you – I thought an adult virgin would have been cool.
And thanks for the clarification Anne! That makes me feel a little better, although I am wondering how OCD fits into sex, but that does make it interesting, depending on how it shades in the future.
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