Artie has prepared a gameshow-style wheel with everyone’s names on it to determine who will sing a duet with whom at the upcoming basement party. Sam doesn’t want to play because he doesn’t want to chance not getting to sing with Rachel, so that’s that. Mercedes spins Roderick, who just about pees his pants for the chance to perform with her. Kurt spins Artie, but gives the wheel a liiiiiitle nudge so it looks like he really spun Blaine. He’s like, “Oh. Huh. Okay, I guess. What a completely innocent surprise that required no cheating and contains no larger meaning.”
What’s an egg’s least favorite day of the week?
Fry-day, duh.
Blaine: [Walks down the hallway smiling and shaking his head]
Kurt: [Gallops up beside him like a pony]
Blaine: What are the odds that wheel would land on me and not Artie, right?
Kurt: Math-wise, I’d say one in ten times I land on you. Fate-wise, I’d say ten billion out of ten billion times I land on you.
Blaine: Just don’t tell Dave, if you see him. He thinks there’s still something going on between us.
Kurt: Oh, come on. He can’t get mad about us just singing together.
Blaine: Yeah. “Just” singing together. ‘Cause singing with you is definitely not a more intimate experience than half the sex I’ve had in my life.
Kurt: Right, me neither. It’s not like we’ve (homo)sexualized the entire canon of Christmas music.
Blaine: For sure. And we’ll sing something up tempo, anyway. Or slow tempo. Either way. We won’t gaze into each other’s eyes with longing and silent promises of eternal affection, whichever tempo we choose. I’m going to awkwardly hug you now and run to my car to cry.
Kurt: Okay cool bye.
GAH! These two still get me every time! It’s very fashionable in fandom circles to trash talk Kurt and Blaine, but I’ll tell you, I got a little drunk at brunch the other day and carried on about them for like an hour. I can love these guys and Brittany and Santana, too, you know. There’s enough room in my heart for them both!
VALIDATE ME!
At Vocal Adrenaline practice, Mr. Schue gets into a brawl with Clint Many-Accents about how he can’t just go around bullying people. Winning isn’t the most important thing in life, he says. Will finally kicks Clint off the team. Clint yells about how he is the team and storms off the stage in his leather jacket to go ride his motorcycle down to the docks to smoke cigarettes and feel misunderstood, while Will goes home to repair a baby stroller and whine to Emma about how having a bunch of money makes him feel like a man but not having constant affirmation from teenagers makes him not feel like a man. It’s an existential puzzle! Emma tells him to quit his job and they’ll live off the earnings of her Pamphlet of the Month club, but Will says they can’t feed themselves and a growing baby with only three dollars per month.
Who wants to make out with me later as I rebound from Sam?
THIS GIRL!
Basement party! “Blame it on the Alcohol” throwback! Mercedes and Roderick sing “All About That Bass” and Amber Riley slays as usual. During the first song, Sam and Rachel sneak upstairs to stare at the wall of photos that she can’t bring herself to pack up. It’s just that it used to be her and photos of Barbara Streisand and Bernadette Peters alone in this room, and then she found this group of stray, golden-hearted friends to be in pictures with her, and she’s scared that taking down this wall is symbolic of losing those relationships. Sam tells her to remember exactly where all the photos go on the wall because one day her room will be recreated in a Broadway museum, and then they full-on do it on Rachel’s childhood bed. My goodness!
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I am really disappointed, Autostraddle. I was really looking forward to coming here and reading the critique of the treatment of Beiste vs. the treatment of Unique. But no, there’s nothing but the praising of the transgender choir that was brought out for Beiste.
Don’t get me wrong — the transgender choir is amazing, the support for Beiste is amazing. But why didn’t Unique get this treatment? Why didn’t Unique get the unwavering support from Schue WHEN HE WAS HER TEACHER? Why didn’t Unique get the transgender choir to come support her? Why was Unique brought back as a supporting detail to Beiste’s story – she was literally used as a step for Beiste to stand on and shine.
One article said that Beiste’s story is a “storyline that will make a difference.” What’s wrong with Unique’s storyline? Why is it the white trans man that gets the choir and the label of a “making a difference storyline” and not the black trans woman?
Why are the voices of trans women of color continually ignored? And why isn’t Autostraddle commenting on this?
They have: http://develop.autostraddle.com/a-tale-of-two-trans-characters-glees-trans-representation-problem-273108/
I agree with all your criticisms about the show, but it’s not accurate to say that AS hasn’t commented on these problems in it.
http://develop.autostraddle.com/a-tale-of-two-trans-characters-glees-trans-representation-problem-273108/
Hey, Jenn. Our trans editor Mey wrote a whole article about the difference between the way the show has treated Unique and the way the show is treating Bieste.
I am never going to be one to give Glee the benefit of the doubt, and I have called this show out repeatedly for its transphobia — every time that I have seen it happening, in fact, over these zillion seasons — but I do think in this episode Unique was portrayed as the ultimate hero. As a triumphant, confident trans woman who has overcome every bit of bigotry and ignorance and violence that has been leveled at her. I think having her talk Bieste through his loneliness (instead of Will or some other cis white dude on the show) and having her lead the choir of trans people with a show-stopping musical number was a huge step for Glee. Unique as the voice of wisdom. Unique as the voice of strength. I think the literal voice of a trans woman of color was being showcased here as heroic.
I agree that there’s an enormous problem in our society with silencing trans women of color, especially black trans women. And I loathe to my very core the way the show treated Unique. LOATHE it. But, like I said, I feel like this season is an apology tour in a lot of ways. I feel like they’re taking at least some of the very valid criticism to heart and trying to find a way to send off their queer characters triumphantly. And I think this was that for Unique. It doesn’t make up for what came before, obviously, but I felt really moved to see Unique as the hero here. I felt really moved to see trans people speaking to trans experience.
What do you think? Obviously I’m a cis white lesbian woman, and so my my feelings are colored through the lens of my own very limited experience. I’d love to hear your thoughts.
I have… very mixed feelings on this. On one hand, I did love seeing a bunch of real trans people have the opportunity to be on TV, including some I recognized (Cherno Biko!) and it was… nice? to see glee specifically mention the word transmisogyny and to point out that the t-word is terrible. And I was really happy that Unique wasn’t bullied this episode.
On the other hand, it did make me mad that they used a trans man to teach that that word is terrible. The vast majority of the time it’s used against trans women and it’s roots are in transmisogyny specifically. Also, glee has used it before as part of a joke! (in the rocky horror episode that they even bring up in this episode!) And the show has continued to make transmisogynistic jokes about Unique as recently as several episodes this season. So it’s kind of hard to forgive and forget when Sue and Rachel keep calling Unique “crossdressing Mercedes” and a “transvestite.”
So I was definitely angry for a lot of this episode. But I also don’t see any other show on network tv having multiple trans characters, using the word “transmisogyny” or inviting hundreds of real trans people on the show.
I agree with everything you said here, Mey. Absolutely 100 percent everything. And praying for the day when we don’t have to be thankful for crumbs.
I also really liked the re-framing of Unique in this episode and do feel they’re trying to learn from their mistakes. And I also feel like the whole thing would’ve felt 500 times more awesome if any character at all — but ideally Sue or Will — had said, “we messed up with Unique, treated her like shit, refused to use female pronouns, made her a jokey port-a-potty, let her be bullied, and we’re not going to make that mistake again.” If I’d been in that writers room I think that’s what I would’ve suggested — don’t just do better, acknowledge that you’ve done poorly in the past. Make it apparent. As it stands, we’re forced to draw that conclusion on our own, and not everybody will, they’ll just see a black trans woman treated poorly and a white trans man treated well and think it’s all part of the same set of ethics. When Sue said the word “trans misogyny” out loud I was like OMG! But I also would’ve liked her to acknowledge that trans misogyny isn’t about trans men, it’s about trans women?
Yes! I think this hits it right on the head. I would have looooooooved some sort of apology to Unique. or at least some sort of acknowledgement that they had treated her poorly.
And I pretty much had the same reaction, at first when she said “transmisogyny” I was like, “yay!” and then a second later I was like, “hmmm…” because, like you said, they made it seem like it somehow applied to coach beiste.
“we messed up with Unique, treated her like shit, refused to use female pronouns, made her a jokey port-a-potty, let her be bullied, and we’re not going to make that mistake again.”
yes.
Totally agree, Riese. That’s a really good point. They could have addressed that in-show so effortlessly, unlike so much of the meta commentary this season.
Yeah, definitely. I was like, look at you, saying words and things. How nice. But the writers seem to not actually understand what transmisogyny is…so…ok. Or they do understand and the joke is on Sue, but NO ONE GETS THAT JOKE except people who already know what transmisogyny is. And I agree with Mey that I can’t forget that as recently as this season, Sue has dismissively called Unique a “transvestite” and “cross-dressing Mercedes.” So it’s hard to take Sue fawning all over Coach Beist seriously.
Also, I wanted to throw something at the TV when Will was all like, “I’ve been working all week helping assemble this trans choir.” SHUT UP, WILL. GO AWAY.
Oh, also also, why so much emphasis on Coach Beist’s first name? It was such a struggle to get anyone to call Unique by her name, but here, for a character who doesn’t even go by his first name on the show, it is important to say it multiple times? To what…drive home the point?
I was moved by the all trans choir with Unique at the front. I set the bar real low in my head so I could make it through the episode. It was not as bad as it could have been, but I wasn’t thrilled. Definitely felt like “being thankful for crumbs” as Heather wrote.
“On the other hand, it did make me mad that they used a trans man to teach that that word is terrible.”
yes.
For the record, I’ve read that article written by Mey, I just think the Unique/Beiste discussion could have used another mention in this recap.
Sometimes it feels like the entire Brittana fandom hates
Klaine, but it’s great to see that Heather Hogan herself ships both too :)
There’s no cap on my heartspace when it comes to love!
” He tells Emma he wants to figure out how to have all the money and power and get treated like a hero for his insufferable and mostly offensive lessons on morality.”
i LOL’ed
“VALIDATE ME!”
It took me a second to realize it was a typo, but for a glorious second I was hoping “All About that Base” was a Meghan Trainor/Ace of Base mashup.
Oh man! What a dream world!
Could there be a spinoff series about Unique? I would watch. I just desperately want her back on the show. Maybe just Santana and Brittany and Unique and Jane and everyone else goes away. That is my ideal Glee situation.
I would for sure watch a spinoff about Unique! (As long as the producers of Glee were not connected to it, in any possible way ever.)
I’ve never understood why it’s fashionable in the Brittana fandom to hate on Klaine. I’ve been shipping them both since the beginning. With all the Klaine and Brittana this season, I’ve been a very very happy camper. Great recap! Tumblr really will break with the next episode!
I think the dislike of Klaine has more to do with some loud Klaine shippers and the vitriol that gets hurled at queer women (read: Brittana fans) online. Many Klainers (many of whom identify as straight women) will be all about LGBT representation and the epic love of Klaine but then turn around to shout down and erase Brittana and their fans as “stupid dykes” who are just “gal pals” when Brittana gets any focus at all. While obviously both Klaine and Brittana have ample space to exist in the same world (it shouldn’t ever be a competition), it’s hard to sometimes wrap my head around this–and by extension get behind Klaine–when so many fans of the gay male couple are all too happy to erase the value of queer women on the screen and in real life.
I’m so sorry you’ve had bad experiences with the Klaine fandom. I’ve been active there (and in the Brittana fandom) for years, and once you weed out the very loud straight girls, you’ll find that many Klaine shippers are queer and feminist too. The obnoxious straight girls that fetishize their precious gay boys…. they are just the loudest.
I cried like a baby when the trans choir was revealed. It was so beautiful!!!
Dot Jones has done an excellent job with this storyline. She’s always done a great job with this role. I agree that, Glee did good this week.
Random comment: If folks can, please support my lesbian-geek-comic-book movie: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1335851532/geek-loves-punk-comedy-about-a-lesbian-geek-and-he
Glee managed to not be offensive shitheads towards trans people for an episode?? Oh my god, maybe Faberry CAN happen after all!!
Per usual, now that I’ve read the recap, I will watch this episode. Still supremely disappointed that the transmisogyny towards Unique was not acknowledged or repaired, but impressed that Glee seems to be learning -some- lesson about trans characters.
That choir blew me away. So powerful. Glee has been so good this season! I don’t think I’ve gone through so many of their shows in a row without getting pissed off. You can tell that they are doing this for the fans. If only Glee was this good in the previous seasons.
Also I cannot deal with how cute Kurt & Blaine are. It’s ridiculous. They should have their own movie, or TV series or something.
Shout out to my friend Puppett’s hair making a cameo in the Coach Beiste picture.
THAT CHOIR MADE ME CRY. WOW, SO BEAUTIFUL! #allcapsbecauseimintense
PS Loved the egg jokes *evilgrin*