heaveniminheaven:

The “Duets” episode is central to this. 

Before season two began, we were told Chord Overstreet’s “Sam” character would be the blond, pouty-lipped, football-playing rival to Finn who eventually becomes Kurt’s boyfriend. Hooray.

Now, Kurt exhibits certain stereotypical behaviors from time to time. This is perfectly acceptable because there are plenty of gay men who do. However, the gay male community has been frayed by having only one type of gay male represented in the media. This leads wider society to assume that we all fit into a certain stereotypical mold. Even Kurt, while exhibiting some stereotypical behaviors, does not adhere to all the stereotypes made about gay men.

If the situation were reversed and a non-stereotypical gay male were portrayed, it would be similarly damaging. Often, if the subject is a “macho” or overtly masculine gay character, the assumption is that homosexuality is acceptable as long as one lives into the rigid gender role prescribed by one’s biological sex. 

My assessment is that the gay male personalities in television and in film should be as vast as they are in real life.

So good. Sam enters the picture and Glee’s audience concludes that gay men come in all shapes and sizes. Except not. Because in “Duets,” we receive a startling message. That message is: the cute football player can’t possibly be gay! He belongs with the beautiful (female) cheerleader, not the starry-eyed gay student. The idea that Sam should sing “with someone the world deems more appropriate” won out. And what was the moral of the story for Kurt in “Duets?” He should learn to be lonely. The heartbroken Kurt we saw in that episode was one I hope I never have to see again.

Enter: Blaine. Kurt learns that his chronic bullying problem courtesy of Karofsky was triggered by a massive case of self-loathing. And maybe Sam is gay, maybe he isn’t. But if he is—he’s certainly got some self-consciousness problems as well since he’s dating a girl. So here comes the first openly gay guy Kurt meets. And it is here that the problems grow exponentially worse.

Fangirls everywhere started squeeing the minute Kurt and Blaine met, despite insistence by RIB that Blaine was meant to be a mentor, not a boyfriend. This is the kind of straight girl who drives me nuts. This is the kind of straight girl who praises herself as an ally to gay people even though she treats us like we’re baby kittens there for her enjoyment. This is the kind of straight girl who insists she set you up with her gay friend without any thought to your compatibility other than that you both like boys. This is the kind of straight girl who wants two gays to get together because you’re there.

Forever starting intriguing story lines and then holding matches to them, RIB decides to let the fangirls overturn their own (better) story line. Kurt falls for Blaine because he’s there. It can’t be because of his personality, because we’ve seen very little of it—if any—and from what we have seen, Blaine is nothing like the jock type Kurt traditionally goes for (as evidenced by crushes on Finn and Sam and inChris Colfer’s own vision of what Kurt’s boyfriend would be like). Prime example: we witness a Breadstix exchange between Kurt and Blaine and Mercedes only to discover that Blaine is just another a 2-dimensional stereotype (“gay gay gay gay gay gay gay”). Beyond that, he silences Kurt throughout his time in the Warblers and stifles Kurt’s unique persona while hypocritically taking solos in every song they perform. And then Blaine professes his love to someone who is not Kurt. And then Blaine has a crisis of sexuality (which undermines his purpose as Kurt’s mentor in the first place), preferring to date Rachel Berry above Kurt. And Kurt should be so happy that he was Blaine’s third choice. If we weren’t convinced of Blaine’s utter lack of humanity before, mechanical lines such as “I’m not even wearing my uniform” are  suddenly meant to convince us he is a human being. I’m sorry—but if I learned a Cylon was hiding amongst my circle of friends, the person consistently pointing out how “normal” he was being would be the first one I’d suspect. And I’m sorry, kids. But that guy who sings that Disney songs, wears headbands and makes Harry Potter jokes? That’s Darren Criss. That’s not Blaine.

But no. I’m totally wrong. I’m a homophobe for not shipping Klaine. It doesn’t matter that I shipped Kum. I apparently thought one half of that ship was a girl the entire time. It doesn’t matter that I’ve been fighting toward the inclusion of LGBTQ persons in the Church for the last four years. What defines my homophobia is that I don’t ship my favorite character on Glee with someone who not only is not right for him, but also sends a damaging and damning message to gay people watching the show:If you don’t want to be alone, you’d better settle for the first one who comes along.