Casey Coulter's 3rd Article Review

Casey Coulter

WGST 202

T/Th 11-12:15

Professor Currans

Blog Topic: Sexuality in Film

Article Review #3

Article Review 3

Meyer, Michaela D E; Wood, Megan M. “Sexuality and Teen Television: Emerging Adults Respond to Representations of Queer Identity on Glee” Sexuality & Culture 17.3 (2013): 434-448

            “Sexuality and Teen Television: Emerging Adults Respond to Representations of Queer Identity on Glee” by Michaela D E Meyer and Megan M Wood is essentially a study of young adult Glee fans and their thoughts and reactions about queer representations about the show. The introduction outlines Glee’s success as a show, gives background of the LGBT characters, and then they introduced the premise of the study, which included interviews with 97 young adult Glee viewers. The question that sparked the study was, “How do audiences make sense of Glee’s representations of queer sexuality and how do these representations impact their own sexual Identity” (436). The article describes what teen television is and how it can impact people who are coming to terms with their own Identities and sexualities (437-438). The article also gives examples of how the viewers of other shows responded to the representation of those shows (439). The article then describes the methods used during the study and then delivers to the readers what it shows (440-444). The authors then summarize the findings and concisely conclude the article (444-446). Overall, the findings conclude that Glee is definitely progressive in terms of queer representation, but is just the latest in a long line of shows that deal with discovering identity (446).

            Most of the participants involved in the study agreed that the show is “progressive” in regards to sexuality and identity representation, while also saying that the show deals with real relatable problems that a lot of teens deal with (441). While not only dealing with these issues, viewers noted that the show offers many differing viewpoints of these issues through the diverse cast of characters, which can create discussions between fans about the issues (442). An important issue that most of the participants were quick to note was visibility, particularly relating to sexual identity (441). Participants seemed to agree that this visibility is important because just as in the show, you’re going to run into people with different sexual and gender identities (442). Because they’re so involved in discussion on these “progressive” issues, Glee fans feel a sense of community around the show.

            One of the most interesting results of the study was the difference between reactions of male and female fans. Female participants on the whole were more enthusiastic about stating their affiliation with the show, not being afraid to call themselves “Gleeks” (A word mash-up of Glee and geek). They would often post about watching the show with friends on social media and were open and honest about their affinity for the show (442). Male participants, however, were more reluctant about expressing their fondness for the show; only under the confidential interview atmosphere were they comfortable with sharing that they enjoy it (443).  There was a stigma identified by the participants that because of the musical aspect of the show, it was deemed more feminine, which made it “more gay” (444). The combination of queer characters coupled with the musical aspect created a perception among viewers that male viewers would most likely be gay, although most of the male participants made a point to mention that they were heterosexual (444). In conclusion, male participants identified a threat to their heterosexuality because they watched the show, and were more reluctant to admit they do so, whereas the female viewers were able to be open about liking the show without worries of a social stigma.

            While Glee isn’t a film, television is a very similar form of media. This can relate to my topic of sexuality in film firstly because of how alike film and television are, and because the article describes how Glee includes queer characters and how the viewers of the show react to it. We haven’t really talked in class about sexuality in film (or television), but we have talked about other performances, such as Nicki Minaj’s “Anaconda” video, which raised issues about female sexuality and whether the video was empowering or not. It seems completely unrelated to my article, yet it is. The article discusses how the show Glee provides teens with knowledge about sexuality (436). The characters in the show deal with issues with sexuality very similar to the issue surrounding “Anaconda”. For example in season 2 episode 2 Will Schuester, director of the glee club in the show, refused to let the students perform Brittany Spears music because it was too provocative, much to the students’ dismay. In my previous article review of “’Potential Lesbians at Two O’clock’: The Heterosexualization of Lesbianism in the Recent Teen Film” by Tricia Jenkins, I mention how Jenkins discusses that while lesbianism is becoming more present in teen oriented films, it’s often watered down by being objectified by male characters. This article describes how Glee does exactly the opposite; Queer characters are both visible and un-objectified, and actual sex rarely even comes into the picture. For example, the characters Santana Lopez and Britney S. Pierce partake in sexual relations with each other, and while in season 1 their relationship was merely a funny joke, it evolved as the show went on and became one of the main focused points in a couple of the episodes. I personally found this article much more entertaining and easy to read compared to the other two that I had read. Being a Gleek myself, I’m very familiar with the show and found the results of the study discussed in the article very interesting, yet not surprising. It makes me sad that guys can’t like the show simply because people will think they’re gay. There’s a stereotype that enjoying musicals is “gay”, and I think is really unfortunate, but at the same time I fit the stereotype so I really can’t talk. All in all, it was a great article, interesting and relatable, I would definitely recommend it!