Nina Perez
March 17, 2010
WST 3015
Throwdown
"You’re carrying my baby and I can't expect anymore than that,” said by Mr. William Schuester to his wife, who he thinks is pregnant; complete male chauvinist or genuinely caring husband? (Glee) This can be debated. FOX’s Glee is a new hit show about a show choir as well as teen pregnancy, oppression, homophobia, martial predicaments and so on. The episode “Throwdown,” featured almost all of this and showed some very different sides of the situations we are used to seeing. The two pregnant or thought to be pregnant women in this episode, Quinn Fabray and Terry Schuester, are a very similar duo as they both challenge the gender roles, maternal attitudes ordinarily portrayed on television, while both harboring ulterior motives.In our text Women’s Lives, the concept of keeping those around us happy is very forced on us, especially women. “ Magazines features and advice columns coach us on how to catch a men or women and how to keep him or her happy once we have,” (301). Both Quinn and Terry lie to their significant others to stop them from finding out the hurtful truth. Quinn lies to her boyfriend about him being the father to keep him around, while Terry completely fakes her pregnancy to her husband in fear that she is losing him. Ironically enough both of these characters, the boyfriend and the husband, are portrayed as very caring and sincere people, who really should not be lied to. Both men strive to be there for the women, while the women continue their farces.
“You do not have an option!” Said by Quinn, as she makes it clear to her boyfriend that she will be making the decisions about the future of the baby, alone (Glee). Her and Terry both have a majority of the control in their relationships, if not all of it. This is where the gender role reversal takes place; the women have the power. Unfortunately the female characters here only have the power because of complete falsification. Nonetheless we still have women calling the shots and very much keeping their men in place.
Lastly, Quinn and Terry are the exact opposites of what we would expect from soon to be mothers. They both are pretty unpleasant, not very pleased about their situations and are definitely regretting the fact they got pregnant or lied about it. In our society, this grateful, nurturing woman is someone who gets pregnant, whereas these women are conniving and malicious.
This show illustrates many of the opposites of what we expect from the scenarios we are shown. The situation of being pregnant is shown in a very different light, offering another way women might feel about having a baby. It reveals two women who are not very maternal and who break the gender roles.
Kirk, Gwyn, and Margo Okazawa-Rey. "Making a Home, Making a Living" Women's Lives Multicultural Perspectives. New York: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages, 2003. 13. Print.
Glee. DVD. Twenty First Century Fox, 2009.
Jen, I think you've raised some really valid points here, and definitely ones I hadn't thought of when I first watched this episode. The portrayal of women and pregnancy on the show was actually one of the reasons I stopped watching Glee. To me, it seemed like Quinn and Terry were both unfairly villified to push the couples the show wanted me to support (Will and Emma, Finn and Rachel). Their pregnancies, then, real or not, weren't so much about women having power in their relationships as they were about them losing power and desperately doing anything they could to regain it. I still don't know how much I like the characterizations of Quinn and Terry and how they manipulate their pregnancies, but thanks for pointing out a positive aspect of that. They do certainly set new standards for what we expect of or associate with pregnant women -- a point I certainly overlooked before.
ReplyDeleteRachel I completely agree with the pint the have made as well. When I first watched this I thought it was sickening how desperately both Quinn and Terry wanted to keep their men. But basically I tried to find empowerment in their actions and found that because they break the typical maternal mold of being wholesome and somewhat helpless, I found them to be in control.
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