Getting slushied is commonplace for the members of the Glee club, in the popular tele-series 'Glee'. Many might find it irritating how shakes and slushies are randomly thrown at on the Glee guys and girls in the first and the second seasons of the series, but it is indeed a fun way to represent the bullying stereotypes that almost all of us commonly experience in life, in some form or the other.
Bullying is, in fact, a problem all over. Schools are the breeding grounds and the practice is continued with gusto by the bullies in colleges too, and it gets diversified further, and becomes multi-pronged, multi-dimensional and even multi-participative.
I think, 'Glee' raises a fundamental issue and colors it & exaggerates with fun and banter, and packages it with all the ingredients of mass appeal, but the underlying message is never lost.
In the storyline, the Glee club is shown as the most unpopular group, for having dared to go against the grain, by embracing song & dance, and it is largely the alpha-male student population which targets the club with its extreme bullying antics. The slushying sequences, later, have become nothing short of a trademark for the show and have added spunk to its theme of celebrating one's true self by rising above petty opposition, and by winning over the brute forces through a display of sheer talent & histrionics, getting noticed, and gaining acceptance.
Here, Artie, perceived as the 'dork' in the wheelchair, gets slushied badly.......
.....and, yet, he strongly empathizes with the faith: Be Who You Are, Be Proud!
7 comments:
Cool post.
Artie Abrams, played by Kevin McHale, is an adorable character and hence despite getting repeatedly bullied (slushied) he holds his own and receives our love and admiration all the more. He has sung some of the most memorable numbers and has made nerdish, geekish, dorkish types really cool, which is a landmark 'new' for any series, I guess!
Artie sings, raps, composes poetry, plays the guitar, beat-boxes, and even plays football-in-a-wheelchair, he is a true hero! No amount of bullying can pull him down..... like, nothing can keep a true-at-heart person down.
The bullies abound - everywhere. These days, we even have the cyber-bullies and the corporate-bullies, plus the politicos who try to run us down every now & then...... for all it's the same stand that we need to take: Let's do our own thing, let's not kowtow to the bullies...... it's them who feel threatened by us, our stance, and hence they resort to bullying means, we must remember.
A nice surprise post, Ani!!!!;-)
Glee has a way of putting a tangy spin on almost everything, and the slushying stuff too, though a tad repetitive at times, becomes quirkily funny.
I feel like yelling: "Attaboy! Artie, you are a winner all the way!"
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