I love Glee. I mean, I have watched it straight through twice, and if I counted all the episodes I watched out of order, it would probably add up to almost a whole third viewing. But just because I really like something doesn’t mean that there aren’t issues with it. I thought I was done writing about Glee, but apparently that’s not the case. I figured I would do a top ten list sort of in the style of Watchmojo. So I’ll have a top ten with some honorable mentions before number one. I’ll also write a short paragraph for each entry detailing why each choice was selected. Most of these are storylines that seemed out of character, were not explored properly, or were just things I didn’t like. Not all of the entries have direct quotes, but those that do have the corresponding episodes listen in brackets at the end of the entry. Without further ado, let’s wrap this up!
1) Coach Beiste is a Trans Man
Remember when I said Coach Beiste gets the worst plotlines? This is why. This is not a transphobic complaint. There need to be more trans characters so that people will stop demonizing trans people. The problem is that clearly someone on the show wanted to have a trans storyline and picked Beiste as the best candidate. Unfortunately up until this point, the whole point of Shannon Beiste was that she was a straight woman who looked very masculine and who had a traditionally masculine job. She was continually looked down upon. People reviled her for not being sexy. People assumed she was gay because of the way she looked. No one ever kissed her because she looked too much like a man. She repeatedly talked about the fact that no one saw her as a girl, even though that was how she saw herself and that was how she wanted to be seen. Don’t believe me? Here are some receipts of the abuse Beiste suffers and some of her remarks about how she feels.
SUE: First of all, a female football coach, like a male nurse—sin against nature.
and
BEISTE: I know I can be a little intimidating sometimes but deep down inside, where no one can see, I’m just a girl. Am I nuts that I just want to be reminded of that sometimes?
and
ARTIE: This mashup is dedicated to you, Coach—hard and badass on one hand and soft and girlie on the other.
and
ARTIE: Have you just never found the right person?
BEISTE: Guy. I like guys. And no, I haven’t found him. All right, I’ll play. There’s this one gentleman. He’s the bee’s knees. His name’s Cooter Menkins. He’s a recruiter for Ohio State. He’s beautiful. He makes me feel like a girl but he’s not interested.
There may be more. There probably are, but I’m not going to find them since I think that is enough to get the gist. There’s nothing wrong with taking a character in a different direction than initially imagined, but there’s a lot wrong with contradicting canon in order to do so. Besides, there was already a trans character who had been sidelined with bad and/or incomplete storylines: Unique. Unique deserved more screentime and story and their gender fluidity was already established.
Because making Beiste trans just proved that all the things that people had said about her—that she was gay, that only men can coach football, that women shouldn’t look the way that she does, etc.—are true, at least in the Glee universe. And it conflates traditional masculinity with maleness. And that absolutely should not be the case.
In other words, yay for trans representation but boo for the execution.
[2×01 Audition; 2×06 Never Been Kissed; 2×06 Never Been Kissed; 3×05 The First Time]
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