To be honest, I don't understand why Glee is getting criticism for its disability episode. I felt Glee did a great job with incorporating a disabled person into the show. The clip we watched in class showed unity within the characters. I don't watch Glee, but I'm going to side with them on this one. Why is crip drag such a horrible thing? Forrest Gump, I Am Sam, Rain Man, and the Elephant Man (to my knowledge anyway) are some of the best portrayals of disability in modern film and they are ALL crip drag portrayals. All of those films were nominated for academy awards and a few actually won. I fell no matter what the media does, someone will always have something negative to say regardless of the issue. It's the media; whether you take it seriously is your decision. So maybe Glee's portrayal doesn't quite live up to the standards of Forrest Gump. It never intended to. Tv shows as popular as Glee understand that they have a diverse audience group, and when writing their scripts they wish to relate with as many groups as possible. So the fact that Glee even attempted to portray a disabled person shows that the media is starting to care more and more about the issues of disability.
If you're going to argue about crip drag, then you have to include into your argument the actors who portray an ethnicity different then their own, a sexual orientation different then their own, an age different then their own, and even a gender different then their own. Acting is simply the actor's portrayal of how they interpreted the story. It is an art form. You wouldn't criticize a painting for not correctly portraying a certain ethnic background. Why do it with acting?
I think this will be the first and last time I ever defend Glee for anything. lol.
You bring up a great point that I never thought about....a few things come to mind, such as actors in Will and Grace who are not gay, actors who are supposed to be high schoolers but are actually in their 20's and even black face.
ReplyDeleteAnd then I was thinking about Jennifer Beals and I looked her up and to my surprise, she is actually half African American! I thought this whole time she was portraying an ethnicity different than her own.
And Forrest Gump might be one of the best films of all time! I always wondered how Gary Sinise played a man who had amputated legs