Last Tuesday night (on Glee): Bad on sex and booze, good on bullying

So I'm watching Glee last night for a dose of high school drama and musical theater, and to my horror I discover that the feel good musical number–it was a bad day at the glee club–is Katy Perry's "Last Friday Night," a catchy pop tune with about the worst lyrics you can imagine, unless you want high school students singing about (much less behaving this way) getting bombed, blacking out, getting thrown out of bars, and having group sex–then posting it on Facebook and doing it all again next Friday night. (Really, Katy?) In addition to the fact that it had nothing to do with the plot of the show and everything to do with promoting Perry's current album. If anything deserves a #FAIL, it's last night's Glee–which is really too bad since Glee has at times managed to pull off a good show on the complex topic of teen sexuality.

But then Glee redeems itself with its often stellar anti-bullying message: When the quarterback Finn calls Brittany an idiot, she dresses him down for bullying in no uncertain terms. (Of course it helps that she's a popular cheerleader, but still.)

But the bullying thing got me thinking: A Catholic high school student who listened up occasionally at Mass would probably get the idea that Katy Perry's Friday nights don't measure up to a Catholic good time. But would she know that the church is against bullying, too? The Equally Blessed coalition, made up for four organizations that work for greater inclusion of gay and lesbian Catholics in the church, preparing a petition to ask the U.S. bishops to make the Catholic stand on bullying crystal clear, especially as it related to gay and lesbian youth.

In which case they would be better than Glee and sex, and at least as good as Glee on bullying. And the least we can do for LGBT youth.

 

 

About the author

Bryan Cones

Bryan Cones is a writer living in Chicago.