Glee: Bashing Special Needs Kids

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I've never been a fan of Glee and I always become annoyed when my friend, a huge fan, starts idolizing the show. I read this article that suggests Glee is against Special Needs Kids.

Psychology Today

What do you guys think?

Glee (which I watch regularly) has a character on the show who makes mean jokes about special needs kids. This character is the show's overstated villain.

Whoever wrote the article only acknowledges that Sue Sylvester (the character who does the bashing) is "not the most sympathetic character". She's far more (or less) than that. She's actually the show's least sympathetic character and the one that the show openly encourages viewers to hate. So when she makes the bashing jokes, you are meant to recoil at how awful her character is.

Having the one of TV's most heinous villains make bashing jokes is rather different from Glee itself bashing special needs kids.

also she has a nice side too when it comes to her sister.

I've never watched the show, but if they were talking about race and not disability, it wouldn't be tolerated, so why tolerate this?
Saying it's funny or meant to make a character more evil is excusing it.

Sue Sylvester, the villanous character, does make jokes about race and it's tolerated. Because she's the villain. Villains are supposed to do horrible things. If they aren't, they aren't villains.

Sue Sylvester, villain, also bashes the gay character, and this is tolerated (by viewers, not the other characters) because she's the villain.

In fact Sue Sylvester bashes literally every other character in the show. She makes cruel jokes about OCD to a character who has it. She makes fat jokes to the heaviest character. She makes racial, ethnic, disability, weight, mental illness, lack of popularity jokes. Every time she opens her mouth, it's to insult whoever happens to be standing closest to her. The only two exceptions to this non-stop barrage of insults are her sister with Down Syndrome and a cheerleader, also with Down's Syndrome who she makes her minion.

Glee is rife with insults. And I think that's one of the best things about the show. Sue Sylvester is portrayed as a relentless bully and many plotlines revolve around how the characters defend themselves from her bullying and fight back against her insults.

Last edited by Janissy on 19 Mar 2011, 3:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I think "she's the villain" is both overused as an excuse and not completely accurate. The truth is she sounds all too much like a lot of people in real life who would not be characterized as villains. People also seem to love quoting her.

The thing is that good villains have a kind of edge that people enjoy watching. Villains people find despicable aren't nearly as popular. Sue's not seen as a despicable villain and the attitudes she expresses are fairly popular attitudes.

Oh, so she bashes everyone? Are the special ed jokes tolerated by the other characters? Yes, I know she's the villain, but it sounds like an excuse. She can be a villain without the jokes, by putting sugar in random gas tanks and stuff like that. The jokes aren't necessary for villainry.

i thought you'd said you'd never seen it?
how can you judge it?

She also bashes the gay kid and calls the two Asian characters "Asian" and "Other Asian" instead of their names, so saying it wouldn't be tolerated if it was race is inaccurate.

I have my problems with Sue's character and her treatment, particularly in recent episodes where she is treated more sympathetically while continuing to create a toxic environment for minority students (having a disabled relative does not magically absolve you of everything, kthnxbai), but you're missing some facts.

Sue bashes everyone. This does not actually make anything better.

oh also - if you don't have a baddie, what do the good characters have to fight against?

The jokes are not tolerated by the other characters. One of the themes of the show is how the other characters fight back against it.



She does that too- not sugar in a gas tank per se but acts of physical sabotage against the other characters.

Yeah, I understand that now I might have to tune into Glee just to see what all the drama's about.

Sounds like the writers are either trying to redeem the Sue character or create a psychodrama by implying she is conflicted over her sister's disability and being mean is how she copes.

I was going by what was said about Glee in the Psychology Today e-article. I programmed Tuesday's episode of Glee into my digital cable box, so I will watch it then

yaaay.
i really like it, it's such a feelgood programme.
singing + overcoming the bullies is a win in my book. ^.^

I don't watch the show, so I guess I don't know enough about the characters to make an accurate judgement about whether or not that specific character's comments on special needs kids is appropriate or not.

However...I think that you need to take more into consideration other than the fact that that character is a villain. For example, if that character makes those jokes or comments and it's meant to get a laugh out of the audience at the expense of special needs kids, that's not appropriate regardless of whether or not the character saying it is the "villain". And that quote from the Psychology Today article-

That sounds a lot like it was meant to be something that the viewers would get a kick out of at the expense of those who attend special education classes. Honestly, my sister (who happens to watch Glee) makes cracks like that every now and then about being in "special ed", as do many of her friends. I think that it's still pretty socially acceptable to do so, and because of that I just don't think that saying stuff like that on the show is right, even if it's the "villain" who says it.