Comments on: Glee: Kurt and the Casting Couch http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2011/10/19/glee-kurt-and-the-casting-couch/ Responses to Media and Culture Fri, 12 Feb 2016 19:35:04 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.7.5 By: Taylor Cole Miller http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2011/10/19/glee-kurt-and-the-casting-couch/comment-page-1/#comment-133288 Thu, 17 Nov 2011 16:38:00 +0000 http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/?p=11078#comment-133288 Thanks for this piece! I actually wrote a reception studies article on GLEE last summer for FLOW that is in many ways contrary to your findings here. In my survey, I found that while Kurt is largely the fan favorite of the show’s female audience – on the whole, gay men do not like his character. Although my survey is by no means exhaustive, and was a convenience sample at best, I think this is a fascinating phenomenon to continue interrogating, particularly because, judging by commenter’s names, it seems as though most of Kurt’s loyal defenders are in fact women.

http://flowtv.org/2011/07/performing-glee/

]]> By: Kelsi Nielsen, composer « Feminist Music Geek http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2011/10/19/glee-kurt-and-the-casting-couch/comment-page-1/#comment-129042 Thu, 03 Nov 2011 21:26:54 +0000 http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/?p=11078#comment-129042 […] very much tries to provide the archetypes it pilfers from High School Musical with depth and grit (Kurt Hummel is basically, in some ways, an out Ryan Evans). I also don’t know what to do with […]

]]> By: Kate http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2011/10/19/glee-kurt-and-the-casting-couch/comment-page-1/#comment-126956 Sat, 29 Oct 2011 16:54:55 +0000 http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/?p=11078#comment-126956 Possibly because he challenges ideas about sexuality in everyone. I’m a lesbian and I find him attractive.

]]> By: Kate http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2011/10/19/glee-kurt-and-the-casting-couch/comment-page-1/#comment-126952 Sat, 29 Oct 2011 16:53:01 +0000 http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/?p=11078#comment-126952 I think though that more girls/women are going to be attracted to Darren as he is more conventionally attractive. However, Kurt the chracter is more naive than Kurt the performer who is very sexy. They get away with a lot when he is performing that is a little confusing when you try to match up the performance with the character.

]]> By: Kate http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2011/10/19/glee-kurt-and-the-casting-couch/comment-page-1/#comment-126942 Sat, 29 Oct 2011 16:50:14 +0000 http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/?p=11078#comment-126942 I agree with you actually. I would say that definition is right and what I would term genderqueer. Very interesting article.

]]> By: Allison McCracken http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2011/10/19/glee-kurt-and-the-casting-couch/comment-page-1/#comment-126682 Fri, 28 Oct 2011 23:53:19 +0000 http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/?p=11078#comment-126682 I do want to comment on this because I think Lily brings up and important point. I believe the show’s producers have been very consciously bringing attention to and fighting homophobia with Kurt’s storyline, particularly the bullying storyline from Season 2. My previous writing on the show has underlined how much I believe the show has been groundbreaking in this regard and Glee’s producers deserve enormous credit for the risks they have taken. My concern here, as Dean suggests, is about “I am Unicorn” upholding rather than interrogating gender hierarchies in the larger culture. Instead of presenting Kurt as a victim of a masculinist and homophobic culture intent on preserving dominant gender/sexual norms, it erases the masculine power structure of American culture (and Hollywood) by suggesting that the desires of women and girls are actually directing Hollywood’s choices of male leading men. Contrary to Brittany’s assertion in this episode, however, girls do not run the world. If they did, I am arguing, there would be a lot more feminine men in leading roles, since Kurt fans clearly do view him as an erotic object and their desires are shared by millions of others worldwide. I believe that Glee missed an opportunity to make this point, but I agree with Jon that Glee is often unpredictable and hopefully we can look forward to a more nuanced view of this subject in a later episode.

]]> By: Allison McCracken http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2011/10/19/glee-kurt-and-the-casting-couch/comment-page-1/#comment-126666 Fri, 28 Oct 2011 23:15:22 +0000 http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/?p=11078#comment-126666 The “Original Song” episode of Glee in which the two young men first kissed aired on March 15, 2011 and garnered 11.15 million U.S. viewers, consistent with its season 2 average of over 10 million viewers. The next episode, however, plunged in the ratings, losing the show over a million viewers and dipping below the 10 million viewer mark for the first time in the show’s history (9.8 million). The show never recovered its previously consistent 10 million+ ratings, and remained below 10 million mark (much closer to 8-9 million) for the rest of the season; the season finale was the only second season show post-kiss to receive more than 10 million viewers (11.80). The show’s debut in its third season garnered 9.21 million. These numbers can be found at various websites, including http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glee_%28season_2%29. I give the show’s producers immense credit for taking this risk, and it did cost them.

]]> By: Angie http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2011/10/19/glee-kurt-and-the-casting-couch/comment-page-1/#comment-125553 Wed, 26 Oct 2011 04:45:49 +0000 http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/?p=11078#comment-125553 I am a little bit puzzled that you find your attraction to Chris’ weird, given that you are a straight girl and he is a man, regardless of his sexual orientation.

]]> By: Lily http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2011/10/19/glee-kurt-and-the-casting-couch/comment-page-1/#comment-125480 Tue, 25 Oct 2011 22:01:04 +0000 http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/?p=11078#comment-125480 I agree with Jon that Kurt’s storyline is made for drama and conflict. They really put him down first before they lift him up again… one day…. I hope…However..

At first I did not like Kurt’s storyline in the first 3 episodes of Season 3, until I read about the recent suicide of this Canadian 15 year old gay teenager who was also depressed and blogged a lot about his sad feelings.

All of a sudden I recognized Kurt’s story in this teenager real life story… The feeling of being a loser all the time, despite all his efforts at school… even in the sexual appeal section… The Canadian teen even wondered why even gay men did not find him attractive.. Sounds familiar ?

So this may be a reason why Kurt is made “unappealing” in Glee even though in real life, the actor Chris Colfer has a lot of sex-appeal… because it reflects “real life” of other people ?

]]> By: Dean http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2011/10/19/glee-kurt-and-the-casting-couch/comment-page-1/#comment-124175 Sat, 22 Oct 2011 05:41:08 +0000 http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/?p=11078#comment-124175 I think your comment is concentrating too much on just the I Am Unicorn issue, rather than what the whole article is actually saying. The issue of the West Side Story Casting as shocking to say the least and we all hope that it will be revisited and resolved in a way that is satisfactory, but the main issue of this article is how ‘Kurt’ and Chris Colfer are being perceived by the fans compared to how they are being portrayed by the media and the Glee writers and producers. The article is certainly not over-analysing anything. It is raising an extremely good point and a point that should have been raised a long time ago. Chris Colfer certainly has a great deal of erotic appeal to both genders and also to all sexual orientations and it needs to be recognised and accepted, rather than attempting to subdue, hide or ignore it.

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