The GAP disaster is, while daring, less an act of asking someone out than putting on a display and asking to be chosen. For lack of a better phrasing on my part, it reads to me as a fairly feminine behavior, in keeping with the boy who would ask another boy out in the face of an idea like a Sadie Hawkins dance or frame things as "I've never been someone's boyfriend before" (as opposed to "I've never had a boyfriend before"). It's another case of Blaine being able to get away with gestures that conform to his internal map of desire because they look, at a casual glance anyway, as traditionally "masculine" even when they aren't.
Mmmm. I like. Though said display can be shuffled into 'peacock behaviour', and thus more masculine(?), but-- I agree with.
*facepalm* sometimes I wonder whether we love to over-analyse this show, b/c you know, Glee! --but there's always that niggle that hey, it *is* written by professionals after all, and so forth. xD
On a slightly different note; repetitive media/interviews re straight actor playing gay love interest angle is really, really starting to aggravate(poor Darren)-- why isn't this a media gauche, and WHY is it the the double standard and hypocrisy of NEVER asking visa versa (eg J Groff acting Jesse St James) highlighted???! *headdesk* media perpetuates this attitude and I just. *key smash* ugh. Feelings.
Ooooh, this is interesting, I'm filing this away into my thinky thought to, well, think about it...
I think I read a comment you made somewhere about this before, and I find it quite intriguing. Everyone's so focussed on Kurt's gender identity that they just assume Blaine would be completely cisgender (seeing as he could probably pass for straight anyway- which I find quite heartbreaking), but I think he definitely might have some questions...
And it's interesting about his behaviours that "seem" masculine, or like peacocking, but by the same token could be taken as feminine. Hmmmmmm.
Behaviors that seem masculine at Dalton or at least acceptable for a man to engage in at Dalton are not read the same way at McKinley. The GAP, which is one of Glee's few contact moments with anything resembling the real world, places that real/non-heightened world much, much closer to the world of McKinley.
Gender at Dalton is also a different animal than at McKinley. At McKinley gender is confirmed, in part through interactions with the other gender (assuming a binary thinking of most of the people there). At Dalton, that as well as clothing choice, are absent as a means of inferring or confirming gender. Therefore, things that cause external eyes to question gender identity don't even register there -- they're all boys, at a boys school, therefore they are all boys -- regardless of how that masculinity gets performed. Kurt vaguely puts a wrench in that by being Kurt (showcased by his singing the girl's part in the Christmas duet with Blaine). So we got hit with all this stuff that has said to us "Oh hey, Blaine is all cis- and can pass as straight and manly," but there's actually no reason to make those assumptions, and the show seems to be poking at us to acknowledge that all of a sudden.
In fact, the whole thing of whether Blaine's showing off and hoping to get chosen deal is a male or female behavior is super interesting in light of Dalton and the Warblers -- in the regular world that Kurt arguably comes from, in humans that is a more feminine behavior. Kurt reminds us of that by how we react to his clothes and the way he keeps placing himself in the path of boys he likes, aggressively, but without actually demanding anything of them actively. But in the fairy-land world that is Dalton, there are no adults and peacocking is the coolest of cool and the malest of male behaviors (insert ramble about bird mascot underscoring the point here). So suddenly Kurt reads as less feminine, not just because he's in uniform, but because showing off is masculine in his new environment and suddenly he's being much more articulate, if as weirdly patient as ever, about his desires.
But what I really love about Kurt and Blaine is that at McKinley they are both viewed as feminine, and at Dalton they are both viewed as masculine. Their relationship, (despite fannish tendencies and despite, I think, the narratives going on in their own heads about desire) is profoundly homosocial in that while their gender positioning switches around a lot, it is consistent that that position is actually the same for both of them at any given moment, even if it's generally less obvious regarding one boy versus the other. We see the most tension between them in the moments that come closest to erasing that such as when Kurt shows off his kilt. The show then reverts back to their shared positioning -- Kurt may get crowned prom queer, but it's still Blaine looking up at him (thank you, Darren Criss, for being short enough to make this mess even more complicated).
What I can't figure out is why the show is doing all this and how consciously any of this is coming from the creators. Because could this be one of those random accidental Glee things? uhhuh. Could this be a really exciting to me plot point? Uhhuh. Could this be a plot point of complete offensive fail? Oh yeah.
Honestly, I can figure out the nuance of what I'm seeing and I can squee with joy about it, but none of that helps me figure out why it's there.
Clearly, I'm working up towards some sort of analysis that I can't do anything with until S3 concludes.
This has been open in my tabs for a while now because it's so interesting, yet I have nothing interesting or further to add to it.
The environmental context is interesting, as well as the fact that their most tense moments (as you mentioned) are when their gender positioning seems to be veering in different directions. Huh. I'm going to have to go think about all this, again, because now I have even more thinky thoughts...
Just out of curioisity, gave you read that "The Countertenor and The Crooner" article? It deals with some similar issues in terms of positioning and gender stereotyping, but moreso in the context of the audience, not within the show.
I always feel hideously inarticulate when I reply to your posts... XD
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Date: 2011-05-14 04:53 pm (UTC)The GAP disaster is, while daring, less an act of asking someone out than putting on a display and asking to be chosen. For lack of a better phrasing on my part, it reads to me as a fairly feminine behavior, in keeping with the boy who would ask another boy out in the face of an idea like a Sadie Hawkins dance or frame things as "I've never been someone's boyfriend before" (as opposed to "I've never had a boyfriend before"). It's another case of Blaine being able to get away with gestures that conform to his internal map of desire because they look, at a casual glance anyway, as traditionally "masculine" even when they aren't.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-15 10:07 am (UTC)*facepalm* sometimes I wonder whether we love to over-analyse this show, b/c you know, Glee! --but there's always that niggle that hey, it *is* written by professionals after all, and so forth. xD
On a slightly different note; repetitive media/interviews re straight actor playing gay love interest angle is really, really starting to aggravate(poor Darren)-- why isn't this a media gauche, and WHY is it the the double standard and hypocrisy of NEVER asking visa versa (eg J Groff acting Jesse St James) highlighted???! *headdesk* media perpetuates this attitude and I just. *key smash* ugh. Feelings.
much luff,
no subject
Date: 2011-05-18 10:20 pm (UTC)I think I read a comment you made somewhere about this before, and I find it quite intriguing. Everyone's so focussed on Kurt's gender identity that they just assume Blaine would be completely cisgender (seeing as he could probably pass for straight anyway- which I find quite heartbreaking), but I think he definitely might have some questions...
And it's interesting about his behaviours that "seem" masculine, or like peacocking, but by the same token could be taken as feminine. Hmmmmmm.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-18 10:36 pm (UTC)Behaviors that seem masculine at Dalton or at least acceptable for a man to engage in at Dalton are not read the same way at McKinley. The GAP, which is one of Glee's few contact moments with anything resembling the real world, places that real/non-heightened world much, much closer to the world of McKinley.
Gender at Dalton is also a different animal than at McKinley. At McKinley gender is confirmed, in part through interactions with the other gender (assuming a binary thinking of most of the people there). At Dalton, that as well as clothing choice, are absent as a means of inferring or confirming gender. Therefore, things that cause external eyes to question gender identity don't even register there -- they're all boys, at a boys school, therefore they are all boys -- regardless of how that masculinity gets performed. Kurt vaguely puts a wrench in that by being Kurt (showcased by his singing the girl's part in the Christmas duet with Blaine). So we got hit with all this stuff that has said to us "Oh hey, Blaine is all cis- and can pass as straight and manly," but there's actually no reason to make those assumptions, and the show seems to be poking at us to acknowledge that all of a sudden.
In fact, the whole thing of whether Blaine's showing off and hoping to get chosen deal is a male or female behavior is super interesting in light of Dalton and the Warblers -- in the regular world that Kurt arguably comes from, in humans that is a more feminine behavior. Kurt reminds us of that by how we react to his clothes and the way he keeps placing himself in the path of boys he likes, aggressively, but without actually demanding anything of them actively. But in the fairy-land world that is Dalton, there are no adults and peacocking is the coolest of cool and the malest of male behaviors (insert ramble about bird mascot underscoring the point here). So suddenly Kurt reads as less feminine, not just because he's in uniform, but because showing off is masculine in his new environment and suddenly he's being much more articulate, if as weirdly patient as ever, about his desires.
But what I really love about Kurt and Blaine is that at McKinley they are both viewed as feminine, and at Dalton they are both viewed as masculine. Their relationship, (despite fannish tendencies and despite, I think, the narratives going on in their own heads about desire) is profoundly homosocial in that while their gender positioning switches around a lot, it is consistent that that position is actually the same for both of them at any given moment, even if it's generally less obvious regarding one boy versus the other. We see the most tension between them in the moments that come closest to erasing that such as when Kurt shows off his kilt. The show then reverts back to their shared positioning -- Kurt may get crowned prom queer, but it's still Blaine looking up at him (thank you, Darren Criss, for being short enough to make this mess even more complicated).
What I can't figure out is why the show is doing all this and how consciously any of this is coming from the creators. Because could this be one of those random accidental Glee things? uhhuh. Could this be a really exciting to me plot point? Uhhuh. Could this be a plot point of complete offensive fail? Oh yeah.
Honestly, I can figure out the nuance of what I'm seeing and I can squee with joy about it, but none of that helps me figure out why it's there.
Clearly, I'm working up towards some sort of analysis that I can't do anything with until S3 concludes.
no subject
Date: 2011-06-12 12:25 am (UTC)The environmental context is interesting, as well as the fact that their most tense moments (as you mentioned) are when their gender positioning seems to be veering in different directions. Huh. I'm going to have to go think about all this, again, because now I have even more thinky thoughts...
Just out of curioisity, gave you read that "The Countertenor and The Crooner" article? It deals with some similar issues in terms of positioning and gender stereotyping, but moreso in the context of the audience, not within the show.
I always feel hideously inarticulate when I reply to your posts... XD