I checked CNN.com this morning, as I usually do, and saw a link for a video entitled, “‘Glee’ sex scene ‘goes all the way’.” I watch Glee only occasionally, usually on a long flight on my iPad. I like the show, but I’m certainly not a Glee fanatic. I’m particularly appreciative of the way the show has handled the character of Kurt, and I do tend to follow some of the news stories that have emerged around his story lines.
I had read that there was some controversy about the upcoming sex scenes on the show, as they would feature Kurt and his boyfriend Blaine handing in their “Guardian of the V” buttons. Of course, this did not surprise me, as people love to whip up a storm about any affection displayed between gay people, and then if that affection is between gay teenagers, it means that we’re teaching everyone how to be gay at the age of 12.
Side note: I watched plenty of episodes of All My Children, Dallas, and Three’s Company as a kid, and none of the straight sex scenes on those shows taught me how to be straight. I’m still the way that I am. And very happy about it, thank you, Sally Moral Majority Pants.
So nothing surprised me about the views represented on the HLN report (embedded below), but what did surprise me was the footage that the report used to highlight the controversy. First off, Kurt and Blaine are mentioned, but the footage of Rachel and Finn is played repeatedly throughout the report. These two characters also had sex in the episode. We don’t see any excerpts of the scene between Kurt and Blaine until 2:45 into a report clip that runs 3:16 on the internet. And the excerpt runs for 15 seconds. Additionally, the scene clips between Rachel and Finn are very gentle, feature some audible dialogue, and appear quite romanticized. The scene clips between Kurt and Blaine show the two shoving each other and rolling around in the back seat of a car. While the later scene might be a more accurate representation of a teenage first encounter, I can’t help but wonder about the juxtaposition of these two moments within this news report.
Granted, I have not watched this episode of Glee, so these representations may accurately represent what happened between these two couples on the show. However, I do find it curious that HLN used these clips in this way, without providing more context. Why is the straight couple represented by the romantic clips and the gay couple represented by clips that I would initially view as somewhat aggressive and lacking tenderness. We are not given the chance to hear the dialogue between Kurt and Blaine, so we’re not sure what they’re saying. It’s a subtle and subliminal way of commenting about a sexual encounter between two young men. Maybe Glee‘s creative team needs to be taken to task here, but even so, HLN should do some thinking as well.