Kurt Hummel

Because I have a relatively attentive (if small) audience, I am going to write about something I have been thinking about. It's more of a social commentary than anything that has anything to do with my life or with my school. It's news related, sort of. Recently there has been more discussion of homophobia and hate crimes that target homosexuals. So, I'm going to write about Kurt Hummel; the gay character on Glee (one of my absolute favorite TV shows).

For those of you who don't know, Glee is a show about a high school show choir. Kurt Hummel is one of the main characters. Openly gay, Kurt wears fashionable (if extremely effeminate) outfits and is crushing on the quarterback of the football team (Finn Hudson, also in the glee club). Kurt is often referred to as "one of the ladies", and he has an alto voice that any girl would kill for. He in fact sings "Defying Gravity" in a diva-off with Rachel (the glee club's star singer, played by Spring Awakening's Lea Michele), and does astonishingly well. The song, a showstopper from Wicked, is without a doubt a female song.

The question has been asked before whether the character of Kurt is any good for the gay cause. Yes, he is an openly gay character who is lovingly accepted on a popular TV show...but still...

I am going to choose the position that Kurt is not actually good publicity for young homosexual teens. Most high school aged homosexuals are not nearly as open as Kurt, and are in fact aware that it would be dangerous to do so. So he is not a character that anyone can sympathize with. Kurt is more of a caricature than an actual person. He is too wildly "fabulous" to exist in reality.

Apart from not being a sympathetic character, Kurt also embodies many of the characteristics that make people homophobic in the first place. What I find most worrisome is Kurt's aggressive crush on Finn (the football quarterback). This is exactly the kind of thing that straight males worry about. 'What if the gay kid is crushing on me?' To have a televised character obviously pushing his affections on a boy who is unwilling and in any case unable to return the attraction is dangerous. It feeds the ignorant idea that homosexual men are trying to push their ways on straight men. This is not an idea that needs any more support than it already has.

Basically, my problem with the ideology of Kurt is that his only noticeable character trait is "gay". He doesn't offer anything else to the show. He is the gay kid. The astonishingly gay kid.

Don't get me wrong, I love Kurt Hummel to death. But that's because I am fully aware that while people like that do exist, they are not the norm. I am completely supportive of gay rights and not showing hate toward people based on who they choose to love. I just don't think Kurt is particularly good press for the issue. I like the idea of having a gay character in the Glee club, I just think there should be more to him. I think he should be an actual character, who is ALSO gay.

I think that America has come to expect that in television though, and that is why Kurt's existence in Glee has not become a topic of discussion. He is not sneaky about being gay (like, for example, Ennis and Jack in Brokeback Mountain. I might have to write another on of these things about Brokeback...SO GOOD.). Brokeback became a national issue because Ennis and Jack were gay in an area that was thought to be extremely masculine. Kurt is gay in a show choir. It's a little more expected there.

Basically, Glee, rock on. Kurt, in the future I'd like to see a little more of a character. Don't just be gay. Be a person too.


**Enjoy my idle musings :) There isn't much in the way of Brandeis updates...we are having an LGBTQ Candlelight Vigil this week to show solidarity. Even on the Brandeis campus there is still homophobia. I mean, shit. If it exists HERE in liberal utopia, then it has to be everywhere. I don't understand it. I never have. Also, wear purple on October 20 to honor victims of homophobic abuse. Save the date.

Dear Allison Weiss,

You are a wonderful Indie guitarist/singer who I am exceptionally fond of. In fact, I plan on taking one of my very best friends in the known universe to your show in early October.

Anyway, one of your songs is called "Break My Heart", and I am writing this letter to you to reveal to you exactly how far from my truth one of the lyrics is.

The line is thus: "I'm in the passenger seat, of a car that's going nowhere."

The first time I heard the song, I was like, "Oh my god, that just described my life."

Listening to it a few times over though, I realized just how untrue that is.

I definitely feel like I'm going nowhere. I'm sitting in this car, and the steering wheel is freaking locked. I'm not moving, because who moves a car with a locked steering wheel? How the hell could I have any control over where I'm going if I can't steer? Another reason for going nowhere is that I my foot is stomped onto the brake so hard I'm surprised it hasn't burst through the floor of the car. What's really crazy is that I'm standing on the accelerator just as hard. I want to be moving forward just exactly as much as I want to stay where I am. Either way, I can't let my foot off of either pedal because the steering doesn't work so I'd probably just crash anyway.

So...what's wrong with the lyric? Well, Allison, clearly I am not in the passenger seat. I'm clearly in the driver's seat. I am in the DRIVER'S seat of a car that's going nowhere. I have no one to blame for the fact that even if I decide I want to move forward and not stay in the same place forever, I'll end up in a wreck because I have no idea where I'm going or any control over how I get there.

Otherwise, it's a great song. Keep up the good work, and I'll see you at your show!
Hillary

**I realized I hadn't blogged in awhile, but I'm out of entertaining college anecdotes. This is just a peek into my (admittedly rather crazy) mental state. I like metaphors. They're more fun than straight truth.

Maine

I could live in Maine. Just saying.

So, Emily, our friend Jenn, and I took a day trip to Maine yesterday. Ogunquit, specifically. For those of you unfamiliar with Maine geography, Ogunquit is a beautiful little beach town about 90 minutes from Boston. Absolutely amazing.

On a different note, beaches always make me think of my Daddy. As soon as my feet touched the sand (and that was relatively soon after stepping off the pavement, as I kicked my shoes off), I wanted to make a sand castle. That's something he and I would always do. We would create these simple but huge mountains of sand and then decorate them with seaweed and shells and rocks and anything else we could find. It was something we did every time we went to the beach. Just he and I. I guess because Jess was too young to really help. Or maybe it was just because I was Daddy's girl. Another thing we did on the beach was fly kites. Emily h ad never flown one before, and if the beach had been less crowded I probably would have made her go buy a cheap kite so I could teach her. (PS she did end up building a sandcastle with me).

I think the reason beaches still can evoke such strong memories for me is because I don't go to them often enough. I have been to the beach WITH my Dad more times than I have been without him. I'd like to keep it that way. I always want the smell of sand and salt water to make me stop, smile, and remember the Dad who took me on special just Dad-and-Hilly beach dates. My Dad loved the water, and I loved loving it with him. And I miss him every time I am near the ocean. Lots of other times too.

But anyway, I was writing about Maine. Which is lovely. I could really and truly see myself living there. I do realize that it gets freaking cold in the winter, but I think I could handle that. I look good in sweaters :P I think I could rock it. But then again, there also aren't many people in Maine, so it is probably difficult to get a job. But it's close to Canada, so I could smuggle in pharmaceuticals if need be. Kiddinggggg.

Love to all!

Ready, Set, CLASS!!

Mom: So what are you most excited about for this year?
Me:(thinks about it for a second)Classes.

The saddest part is that I was not kidding. Or being sarcastic. I am absolutely in beautiful nerd love with the classes at Brandeis. Yesterday I had French (enchantee!) and Psych (which I dropped. Promptly.). French was basically like a high school language class, and I just really didn't care enough about Psych to put in the level of work they were asking for.

Today I just got out of my new Anthropology course: Landscapes, Places, Meaning, and Memory Across Cultures. The professor won my heart as soon as he walked into the room. I had gotten there early (because I am pathologically punctual) and everyone was just sort of sitting around waiting for class to start. Oh PS, the desks were arranged in a circular formation with a clear head but there were too many desks for the circle so some were scattered around the edges, clearly not places of authority. Everyone arranged themselves around the room according to how close they did or did not want to be seated to the professor (I might have just made a grammatical butchery of that sentence...oh well.), of course leaving the head desk empty in anticipation of his arrival.

When Professor Golden entered the room however, he sat at one of the edge desks without a word. No introduction, no 'time to start class!'. Just entered and sat in a place unusual for the teacher to sit. It put the whole class into semi-spaz mode as everyone had to decide in a split second how to orient themselves to this new positioning of the room. As he watched this, Professor Golden smiled and said, "Now see how nervous I've made you all? That's the effect that space and placement has on our culture."

OMG. He did NOT just underline the ENTIRE PURPOSE of our class.

Except that he did. In an exquisitely simple but poignant manner.

Wow. You go Professor Golden. You go.

Now I'm off to Adapting and Revising: A Collaborative Process for Prose Writers, Playwrights, and Screenwriters. Hopefully to be wowed again.

While You Were Out

Hey everyone!

I'm back!!

That's right kids, I am once again at Brandeis, this time as a SOPHOMORE. Before I dive into this year, I wanted to give you all a bit of a catch-up on what happened during my summer. Oh what a summer it was.

Basically, everything epic that could have happened, DID. Emily (from 'Deis) came to visit, there was tons of stargazing and hanging out with people who are fantastic and mean absolutely everything to me, there was some time spent with a really awesome boy who ended up being...well...just a boy (friends to the end...), and there was this super awesome play that I got to direct. That I wrote. That starred only the most incredible cast EVER. Apparently they liked me too because they gave me roses and a framed picture that they wrote nice things all over :)

So summer was great. Beautiful. Ended too soon, but doesn't it always?

I'll post more about the first few days on campus in a bit. But now I must dash. Lunch date!

Finale

"December 24, 10 p.m. Eastern Standard Time,
Can't believe a year went by so fast...
Time to see,
What we have time to see!
Turn the projector on!"

RENT of course. From the finale.

Fitting, because it is the finale of my freshman year of college.

WHERE THE HELL DID IT GO?! Didn't I just get here? Time goes SO fast. Especially because I did a fairly decent job of wishing it all away in the end part of first semester. Never, Ever wish away time. Because no matter how hard you try, you'll never get it back.

Someone told me that years go faster as you get older because each year is a smaller fraction of your life. I don't know if it's that or something else, but I can vouch for the fact that everything is so fleeting.

I'm going to be a sophomore. Wasn't it like a week ago that I was crying every night, freaking out about where I was going, how I was going to be there, what was going to happen next?

I still can't answer any of those questions. But I guess I'm not as worried about it anymore. It's hard to be worried when I just finished finals and I have three clear months ahead of me to just enjoy my friends and my home.

No, this year wasn't at ALL what I expected. But I wouldn't change anything. Even the stuff that sucked will make a good memory someday. And the stuff that was great was really really great.

So long freshman year! Summer, do your worst. I'll be back in Boston in the fall <3

Brendan

I knew a pic had to exist of this. Still thinking of you kiddo.