I'm a Gleek

10/31/2010

Yes, I'm a Gleek. I admit it. I love to watch Glee. I love that a lot of the songs they sing are from my age, the 80's --Journey, REO, etc. Those were all classics! I love Brittney's dry, stupid comments. I love the gym teacher's scathing remarks. I love the way they push things right to the edge with their stories. The actors and actresses are great. The story lines very creative. The song and dance routines presented very well.

I just watched on Hulu the latest episode where the class puts on Rocky Horror Picture Show (one of my favs). I wondered how they would do that, it's kind of too risque in parts. They did change the words to some of the songs and they did not do the whole show from beginning to end, just did some of the songs. But still there were some moments, when the counselor sang Creature of the Night (Toucha, Toucha, Touch Me) to the Glee Class Teacher, she tore his shirt off and threw everything off the desk and stretched out on it very provocatively.

This promted a conversation between my daughter and me. What kind of audience is this show aimed at? A lot of people are angry because some of the Glee cast members posed for sexy photos that were published in GQ. They say that this is not the right image for their children. Well, first of all the cast members are all over 21 years of age and no children should be looking at GQ anyway.

Plus, is this show aimed at kids? When I think of kid shows, I think of Hannah Montana, Sabrina the Teen Age Witch etc.

Glee is not kid themed. For example, two girls laying in bed kissing and talking about lady love; the virgins of the class singing like a virgin while they're losing their virginity (or attempting to); a pregnant teen who tells her boy friend she got pregnant because he ejaculated into the hot tub (they had never had sex); the football player praying that Jesus will let him get to second base with his girl friend; the girl friend later taking his hand and putting it on her breast;, etc. There are lots of other examples. I'm not complaining, I enjoy this kind of humor and story lines but is it appropriate for children?

My daughter says she thinks that she'd let a 9 or 10 year old watch the show. She thinks it's probably more aimed to a tween, teen audience that the younger kids just wouldn't get it. It got me thinking just because my tween now understands things more, do I want her to see and possibly immitate this kind of behavior? I never thought of this when my own daughter was a tween. I was so bad (and she tells me now) we watched a lot of movies like Birdcage, Lethal Weapon, etc., because I've never thought of movies and television shows as real, they were always fantasy. I remember being shocked to find out both those movies were rated R. But now I'm just wondering, should tweens watch shows like this? There is nothing explicit but it sure does push things pretty far.

I'm thinking kids now a days know every thing anyway. My daughter knew about gay relationships in nursery school because she had a friend with two mommies. She knew about sex very young, I had to tell her about it because one of the Spice Girls got pregnant and she wanted to know how she did it because she wasn't married. She also knew about oral sex thanks to President Clinton and the oral sex story on all the news shows. Anyway, I'm getting off track. Since kids do know it all nowadays, preventing them from watching a show like Glee isn't going to protect them or keep them from forming their own opinions. I think the best thing might be to use these types of shows and entertainment as the beginning of a conversation with your tween or teen. Be open and honest about it all. Kids can never have too much input from their parents.

What do you think?