Vinny-o Killed the Radio Star

Why Glee is Anti-Women

Don’t get me wrong, I love the show. But there’s something wrong with their portrayal of women that rubs me off as slightly misogynist. If you take a look at all the female characters, they’re always built up to be damaged and/or selfish and/or manipulative. And I think that’s horrible.

Here’s the evidence:

Rachel - extremely self-centered, egotistic, and annoying in her attempt to be a star
Quinn - manipulative girlfriend who sleeps around with his boyfriend’s best friend and expects him to raise their baby
Terri - manipulative wife who uses her pregnancy to blackmail her husband to do her bidding
Sue - selfish, bull-headed career woman who is out to destroy the glee club
Emma - obsessive-compulsive tragic character who can’t be with the love of her life because he’s married
Mercedes - black misfit who’s so desperate that she falls for a gay dude
Tina - stuttering Asian with an ambiguous sexuality, and she can’t get the spotlight because she’s not good enough
April Rhodes - washed-out has-been who can’t get her life on track because of her substance abuse

See what I mean? There is no single fully likable female character in the show. Compare that to the male characters. Sure, a lot of them still have their tragic flaws, but I think the distribution is imbalanced. You have characters like Will and Finn who are portrayed as innocent victims of a largely female cast of villains, and you have no similar counterparts for the opposite sex.

If the show is supposed to be a satire of the modern American high school, I think they’ve got to recalibrate the way they develop their characters. Because as much as you have Plastics in high school, you also have men who make high school life miserable for everyone.

Spent last night channelling my inner geek playing the BSG boardgame. It is frakkin’ awesome. Played with a couple of vets so I was still feeling my way through the game (thanks to Liz who really became Caprica 6 for the night!) but I managed to get it by the end of the night/morning.