The Women of Glee

In September 2009, the cast of Glee sang their way into the hearts of the viewing audience. Quinn and Finn's unplanned pregnancy... Rachel's unrequited love for Finn... Emma's forbidden love for Will... Terri's desperation to have a baby... The list of melodramatic events goes on and on.

Unfortunately, while thinking about Glee during its hiatus from television, questions spring to mind about the characters in the show, namely the female characters. The show was created and written by three men: Ian Brennan, Brad Falchuk and Ryan Murphy. Is it any surprise that the female characters can all be labeled while the male characters are multi-dimensional? Perhaps it is time to introduce a female writer into the mix to give the female characters some more dimension. Otherwise, they are going to be trapped in their labels and become more of a charicature than a character.

Let's take a closer look at four of the leading ladies of Glee:

SUE SYLVESTER - The Bitch
Jane Lynch masterfully portrays the super-competitive high school cheerleading coach, out to sabotage Glee Club for the re-allocation of her squad's funds. She is bitter, angry, vengeful, cold, and delivers her deadpan lines with skill. One thing turned this nasty, angry bitch into a soft and wonderful woman (even if only for a moment) - love. Yes, Sue found herself in love with anchorman Rod Remington, and her tune changed entirely. She was sweet, fun, and even happy. That is, until she found out that Rod was carrying on a relationship with another woman. Then, the true Sue Sylvester came back with a vengeance, determined to blow Will and Glee Club out of the water. While it was a fun episode (as all Glee episodes are), it is a shame that the writers relied on a stereotypical reaction to make Sue show a different side. Even when the audience discovered that Sue has a sister with Downs Syndrome, her personality didn't change.

QUINN FABRAY - The Cheerleader
Quinn Fabray is the epitome of a high school stereotype: the head cheerleader dating the varsity football captain who cheats with his best friend and gets pregnant. The irony of the whole situation is that Quinn was president of the Chastity Club at school. Unfortunately, Quinn seems to only have two speeds: nasty and nice. Of course, since she is the head cheerleader that girls want to be and guys want to be with, she is more nasty than nice. Diana Agron does a great job with the two-dimensional character that she portrays, sometimes allowing a bit more dimension come into the character with looks and gestures. Her lines, however, are constantly whiny, fake or just plain nasty.

RACHEL BERRY - The Wannabe
Every high school had a Rachel Berry: The girl that tried so hard to fit in, she involved herself in absolutely everything and rubbed people the wrong way because of how hard she tried and/or how much she excelled. Rachel Berry is an over-achiever, who admittedly joins clubs just to get herself in the photo for the yearbook. She has a real talent, and she knows it. She lets everyone else know it, too, which makes them like her even less. She tries so hard to get Finn's attention, even though he got Quinn pregnant (or so everyone thought). She puts herself before everyone, and makes everyone feel inferior by bossing them around. Rachel has complete disregard for the feelings of others, as she exhibited when she told Finn that Puck was really the father of Quinn's baby right before the Regional Glee Club competition. Lea Michele, who essentially dropped out of the sky to play this leading lady, has Jewish Rachel's personality down pat. Unfortunately, none of Rachel's lines are very deep-- Lea Michele takes advantage of the songs she sings to express Rachel's inner feelings, especially using her expressive eyes and vocal intonations.

TERRI SCHUESTER - The Manipulator
Terri Schuester will do anything to hold on to her husband, even fake a pregnancy and plan to pass off someone else's baby as her own. Actress Jessalyn Gilsig is no stranger to dimensional characters, but just isn't given much to work with when it comes to nasty, stupid, desperate Terri. Terri just doesn't seem to have any redeeming qualities, so the audience cheers when Will finally discovers that she isn't pregnant. They cheer even more when he decides to leave her. Terri is so self-absorbed and nasty, the audience wonders why Will married her in the first place. No amount of tears (as seen in the last two episodes of the first season) can make a difference in the way the audience views her. Perhaps if there was more of a story to her background, or about why Will and Terri were together in the first place, the audience would care a little more about her and what happens to their marriage.

Glee is by far a female-driven show, with more of the characters being female than male. Why is it, then, that the male characters have a bit more depth to them than the two-dimensional women do? Perhaps it is time of the writing boys' club of Glee to allow a woman to join their ranks and flesh out these characters a bit more. Maybe then will we get well-rounded characters, rather than the charicatures with amazing voices.