Glee, which is often criticized for inconsistent writing, arguably has a similar fandom culture for similar reasons: it presents a compelling world full of archetypal characters along with a whole lot of structural problems to solve. And lately, one of those biggest problems to solve seems to be Blaine Anderson. Specifically, what is going on with him and sex? And I don’t mean Kurt.
Blaine is not appropriate about sex and sexuality, except when he’s too appropriate about it. And neither of those things would be notable or even of any particular interest if his words and deeds around sex since he first appeared on the show weren’t so incredibly all over over the map.
read the rest: Glee: sex, contradictions, and Blaine Anderson’s backstory « Letters from Titan.
I want/don’t want this. Because I don’t want more reality in my tv, but also because I do want a bit of reality in my tv. I know a lot of people who’ve been sexually abused at some point in their lives. It’s not actually uncommon. But as Racheline points out, it is “uncommonly told”. As a lot of people in my adopted country have learned, there’s a lot in the telling of these stories, just as much as there was too mch in the not telling.
Episode stuff later. “When I was 17, I did what people told me.”
Deconstructing Glee 
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I think in this case Racheline Maltese is over-thinking. Blaine is quite deliberate in what he says, which adds to the viciousness of the insult to Sam when Blaine is actually frustrated with Finn. The wording is a little awkward, but it is a pretty cruel and judgemental jibe by the rich boy against the kid who stripped to pay for siblings’ shoes. It’s also inconsistent, given Blaine’s memorable ‘sexification’ in both the Gap attack and that phallicly over-symbolised Animal foam party. Even my 73-year old Mum recognised a porno money shot when she saw it being fired into the writhing throng of Warblers and swoony Crawford County Day girls. Glee has a hard enough time keeping track of what Blaine has done in canon, let alone ‘head canon.’
Prior to reading Titan’s post (and its comments!), it hadn’t occurred to me that Blaine might have been abused, but that’s definitely a possibility. I agree that his talk with Burt in “Sexy” was memorably strange. We also don’t know much about his family, and hasn’t he alluded to problems with his father? Yikes. His erratic behavior around sex reminds me, in some ways, of how I acted as an abused teenager. Then again, teenagers receive tons of mixed messages about sexuality and could be hot-and-cold for all sorts of reasons. Do we know anything about Blaine and religion?
As far as the “I’m not for sale!” comment goes, I assumed that Rachel told Kurt about Sam’s stripping, and Kurt told Blaine. The comment was bizarre and potentially revealing, but perhaps less random than it seemed.
As important as this story could be, I’m not sure I want Glee to go there, and not just because they might screw it up. I’m still hoping for follow-up on Brittany’s “invasion” reference. For a character who was elected class president and started a new relationship this season, we haven’t gotten much time with her–and, of course, I’d be upset if they never mentioned it again. Britt can be dead serious and poignant sometimes; each pseudo-storyline of hers doesn’t have to be silly.
I am really disappointed about Brittany’s throw away line and I hope it does come back, because as I had to remind a bunch of people last night, sometimes Glee plays the long game, and it works out. So you don’t know yet. Last season, people went fucking bonkers about Quinn’s “dropped” adoption storyline. Season 3, we haven’t stopped hearing about Quinn’s baby.
Back to Blaine though, I think even knowing what Sam had been doing (which I’d assumed was the case), his reaction is like 800% too much. I feel like I missed at least 5 minutes of dialogue between them for it to hit the level of anger it did. And yet, no, Blaine just went ballistic. Very curious to see where they take us with this.
This is part of a post I made in a discussion forum about Blaine, and I hope it is okay to bring it here because RM’s wonderfully argued theory was the basis for my musings. While I could believe her interpretation, that is just not what I take from the scene with Blaine and Sam.
Even when Blaine bought into Sue’s misdirection last season and thought the Warblers needed to be “sexier” for Regionals, they still didn’t go into crass body rolls. It has been awhile since I watched “Animal,” but I remember being bothered because Kurt seemed to be stretching into trying to be “sexy” while Blaine and the others were trying to project sex appeal. Big difference.
There is Sam’s kind of sex–in-your-face, lots of skin–and then there is Blaine’s idea of sex appeal–teasing, flirting. In this regard, I think Blaine is closer to Kurt’s ideas of romance and the touch of a hand. It makes sense that Blaine would consider stripper moves to be “cheap” and “selling out.” He is not the kind of person to act that way.
I do think Blaine’s remarks were too on-target to be accidental; he knew what Sam had been doing. At that point the scene changes for me into overtones of what is acceptable sexual behavior for a heterosexual male vs a homosexual male.(And now I am moving way out of my comfort zone/experience) Sam isn’t going to get beaten up leaving that strip club, and many men, while they wouldn’t want to be strippers, would acknowledge that making his living that way only affirms his manliness. Blaine and Kurt could have been attacked leaving Scandals. And the notion of a gay man selling his sexuality goes into all kinds of dark places. I have read speculation that this might be part of Blaine’s bullying history (approached by jocks to perform sexual acts), and I agree. I got the feeling that he had been pressured in that way, perhaps even by a coach or someone who could “pay” him with a position within a team or something.
Does an assault always need to become a focal point for a storyline or character?
I know that’s how it’s usually done, but I’m kind of appreciating that not necessarily being the case with this show. (Blaine being the obvious arguable exception.)
I agree with a lot of what you’re saying. It’s interesting to note that the last time Blaine reacted this aggressively was when Karofsky called him a buck boy. A lot of the bullying that goes on with gay male teenagers employs sexual shaming, that they’re just desperate for some dick. Glee wouldn’t go there, but I find it an entirely believable premise that he’d be approached by jocks who thought they could have some fun with him because obviously he was gay and wanted it, didn’t he?
At the very least, I do think his taunting involved a lot of sexual connotations that played on gender – I think Blaine is very comfortable accepting that he’s gay, but it’s all tied up with his issues about being seen as weak and less of a ‘man’. His dad trying to straighten him out by working on a car, his dismissiveness over being beaten up and the immediate need to assert that it was just a sore spot, the self-loathing over having run away. He’s got some stuff to work out there, and it seems to make him defensive.
There was a marked difference between this and what the Warblers did with Animal. That was sexy in an innocent Disney channel-esque way – winks and shuffling and googly-eyed school girls. It also put Blaine and the Warblers firmly in the position of power, it was coy but not cheap.
The show has employed some blocking in the past to make Blaine seem less short, so I did find it interesting that they used shots in that boxing scene that emphasized just how much smaller he was than Finn.