AUSTIN, Texas — A few weeks ago, Erin Findley of Austin watched the buzzed-about Fox show "Glee" — and she wasn't so gleeful.
"Some of the content of the show, specifically related to discrimination, got me pretty fired up," Findley wrote to me. She included her review of the show in an e-mail attachment. "I'm really interested in what others might have thought about the premiere," she concluded. "The blatant blows at disadvantaged groups are too big to ignore!"
Here's the Reader's Digest version of her comments on the show, which features a group of misfits and outcasts who come together to form a show choir:
Findley felt that Fox squandered the chance to celebrate diversity in favor of verbal slams. She cited one scene in which ruthless cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester claimed "Gay parents encourage rebellion; there's studies on this." Later in the episode, while viewing a princess-themed bedroom in a prospective home, the Glee Club teacher's wife perpetuates stereotypes when she tells her husband, "This is where our daughter or gay son will sleep."
(Besides what she perceived as "Glee's" anti-gay bias, Findley also took exception with humor on the show at the expense of a character who uses a wheelchair.)
Findley bemoaned "what might otherwise be an opportunity to celebrate diversity quickly becomes a breeding ground for discrimination and stereotyping of traditionally disadvantaged people — and for what, a laugh?"
Did she have a valid point about "Glee's" treatment of homosexuality, or was she overreacting? After all, a Google search will show you how completely the gay and lesbian community has embraced the show. If it doesn't bother them, should it bother straight people?
My take on "Glee" was that the offensive comments were so over the top, and delivered by characters with such a ridiculous level of vitriol, that it must be social commentary in reverse — you know, the same way Archie Bunker made the point against bigotry on "All in the Family" by being such a cartoonish bigot. Besides, series creator Ryan Murphy ("Nip/Tuck") and Jane Lynch, who portrays Sylvester, are gay.
But that doesn't necessarily mean the show is "enlightened," says Lisa Rogers, director of programming at Out Youth (www.outyouth.org), an Austin-based nonprofit whose mission is to support and provide services to gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth ages 12 to 19 in Central Texas.
Rogers loves that the show is upbeat and musical and she appreciates its positive message — "don't stop believing" in spite of what others might think of you. But her enthusiasm is qualified. "Since I do work with queer youth, I am painfully aware of the fact that two 11-year-olds hanged themselves this year after being tormented and gay-bullied to death."
Rogers is referring to Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover of Massachusetts and Jaheem Herrera, a Georgia boy. Both committed suicide within 10 days of each other after enduring relentless homophobic taunting at school, according to The New York Times.
Rogers is especially bothered by a running joke on the show: The jocks routinely throw gay character Kurt (Chris Colfer) in the Dumpster, and Rogers says it's treated as "boys will be boys" behavior.
"We all need to have a sense of humor about ourselves, but it's painful because I see it every day," Rogers says. She says it's significant that Kurt (parts of whose character arc Murphy has said are directly lifted from his own childhood) is portrayed as lonely and self-loathing. "The character on the show doesn't go home and tell his dad he's thrown in the Dumpster every day because kids think he's a faggot."
She also wishes that Kurt had been able to admit his crush on fellow male Glee Club member Finn, which he stopped just short of in one episode.
Like Findley, Rogers thinks there is an opportunity for "Glee" to educate, enlighten and foster acceptance. She would like to see more gay characters on the show and a future gay romance. "I wish they would have a character in there who was a fierce queer," she says, "you know, who fought back or said, 'Fine, you can throw me in the Dumpster all you want. I'm still a flaming faggot. Go ahead.' And who was OK with it, instead of ashamed."
If it seems contrary that Rogers comfortably tosses around terms that might be considered derogatory, she points out that "queer" is more inclusive even than LGBT or LGBTQQIA (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queer Questioning Intersex and Allies) and allows for people who feel a part of that community who might not fit neatly into one or more of those letters.
"To those who are concerned that 'queer' is offensive, I submit that the word 'gay' is used to bash as often as 'queer,'" she says (she pointed me to usqueers.com, which aims to "steal the word away from those who use or have used it as a slur" and calls it "a warrior's word against those who see being queer as an automatic negative to be overcome.")
The show seems to be evolving. Wednesday's episode, which aired a few days after my interview with Rogers and weeks after I received Findley's review, focused on Kurt coming out to his father, joining the football team and kicking the winning point in a big game. It was a little too TV-perfect as plot lines go, but it's a step in the direction Findley and Rogers advocate.
Maria Boyd, a graduate student at the University of Texas whose research includes the visibility and representation of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people on television, hopes that the characters will continue to be portrayed in "interesting, multidimensional ways."
"I think the scene in Episode 3 where each of the kids stand up to the sadistic choreographer by giving 'real life' examples of people who defied the odds and became successful shows that the characters on 'Glee' are far from the cookie-cutter representations they may have appeared to be to some who just watched the pilot," she says.
That's not a slam against Findley, who re-evaluated and modified her opinion after receiving my response and input from a friend — a Stanford graduate now in a doctoral program in clinical psychology — who shared opinions similar to mine.
"When I received your e-mail, I contacted her to share your agreement with the viewpoint that the ridiculousness of the statements is intended to communicate the ridiculousness of the bias," Findley wrote. The pair then had a conversation about how the public perceives blatant discrimination when it's portrayed on television.
"It's possible some viewers may be cheering Sue on just as viewers sided with Archie Bunker's sexist, racist and homophobic comments on 'All in the Family' 30 years ago," Boyd admits. "But I think the bottom line is, so far we haven't given Murphy much of a chance to show us the inside of his characters. Perhaps one of the themes of 'Glee' is we are all much more than what you see of us on the outside."
Dale Roe writes for the Austin American-Statesman. E-mail: droe(at)statesman.com.