GLeeK

Andee Ondina
WST 3015
3/17/2010
Professor Nina Perez

Vixen in the Kitchen - Angel in the Attic

   
    Glee is a great show with many different positive influences and comedic attributes. However, it does perpetuate and challenge several different gender roles about motherhood or wife-hood. There are 3 different women in the show that I think of having motherly or maternal positions. Those characters are Quinn Fabray: a high-school teen who finds herself impregnated by her boyfriends best friend, Terri Schuester: Mr. Schuester's (the Glee Clubs teacher advisor) wife, who pretends to be pregnant in hopes to save their downward spiraling marriage, and Emma Pillsbury: the guidance counselor who feels the need to protect and help Mr. Schuester and the kids at Mckinely High School. These women perpetuate and challenge their gender roles typically by not obeying or being dishonest towards their husbands, fiances or boyfriends. This defies the typical gender role because marriage is "a patriarchal system that looks to ownership, property, and dominance of men over women..." (Ettelbrick 317).
     Only 1 out of 3 of these women is actually a mother. Quinn Fabray is the only (soon to be) mother in the show. Although teen pregnancy is common she appears to be the only one in school who is. She faces criticism from everyone in the high school who apparently were taught and follow the rule that "women are told to finish school, finish a job, acquire skills, develop seniority, get tenure, make partner, and put children off until the last minute" (Crittenden 342). Terri Schuester is disobeying her husband by leading him to believe she is pregnant in hopes to save their marriage. She has arranged with Quinn to adopt her baby so Mr. Schuester will never find out. Emma Pillsbury is not actually a mother but she has apparent maternal instincts when it comes to taking care of her secret love, Mr. Schuester and caring for the children of McKinely High. She is engaged to Kurt Hummel, McKinely's P.E teacher and disobeys him by misleading him to believe she cares although she secretly cares about Mr. Shuester.
     All 3 of the women fit perfectly into stereotypical appearance of mother figures. Quinn, although young, is beautiful and aesthetically innocent, Terri Schuester fits the "trophy wife" stereotype perfectly. She is beautiful, and works part time at a retail store while she expects Mr. Scheuster to make most of the money and complains when they can not afford her "dream house". Emma Pillsbury fits the mother role perfectly because she is innocently beautiful, soft spoken and has a natural ability to care for those around her. The roles of the men in the show: Mr. Schuester, Kurt Hummel and Finn Hudson (Quinns boyfriend) seem to be more of the victims than the women in the show do. The women appear to be taking advantage of the men which completely challenges the traditional gender roles about motherhood or wifehood.

      Works Cited
Kirk, Gwyn and Okazawa-Rey, Margo. "The Mommy Tax." Women's Lives Multicultural Perspectives. 5th Ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010. 337-345.

Kirk, Gwyn and Okazawa-Rey, Margo. "Since When is Marriage a Path to Liberation?" Women's Lives Multicultural Perspectives. 5th Ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010. 317-320.