I know I whine a lot about underserved characters in my favored fandoms, but I can’t help it . . .
So I’ve gotten myself into Glee.
And of all the underserved characters, whom do I feel the most cranky about?
Let me give you a hint: I’m a homeschool graduate. I’m Christian, by Millennial standards pretty devoutly so. I’m trying to convince my mother to let me get micro-dreadlocks, or microlocs (although I am also black, so locs are a little more stereotypically "for me.”).
You guessed it. Joe Hart.
He seems (from the tiny bit of positive screentime that he does get) to be a mild-mannered, easygoing kid, with a real regard for other people. But most of his screentime (which is quite limited) is usually spent being the butt of the other kid’s (the show’s) sheltered-Christian-homeschooler jokes and dreadlock jokes.
Side note: Door-to-door Bible salesman? Really? That exists? Door-to-door evangelist and/or street preacher, I can believe. Christian bookstore owner, sure. But door-to-door Bible salesman? Do the Glee writers have any idea how hard it is to sell anything door-to-door, let alone Bibles when most Americans are proudly renouncing anything and everything remotely Christian?
If Joe’s father is indeed a door-to-door Bible salesman, he’s got to have some other source of income that actually supports the family. Either that or Joe’s mother is the main breadwinner, likely through some online or home-based business. Or both.
Back to the main point: Joe never gets so much as one real solo. Ever. Even when he gets introduced to New Directions, Will Schuester basically says “Here’s our new member Joe!” and along comes a joke about his hair. Heck, Rory Flanagan, who actually appears in less numbers than Joe does, gets all of four solos!
Joe doesn’t get a storyline either. I mean, there’s the fling with Quinn, the Men of McKinley Calendar comment, and all the digs Kitty throws at him, and what else really? Sue Sylvester was right on when she accused Will of neglecting him, among others. The jokes they made of his constant unexplained absences didn’t really make me any less grumpy either. I know Samuel Larsen isn’t a series regular or anything, but reeeally . . .
Reality check here: Any set of parents that allow their teenage son to grow dreadlocks down his back (these are white folks), get nose rings and tattoos of any sort (tattoos and body piercing under 18 require parental consent in the US), go about in old clothes without shoes if he likes, and let him switch to public school “to make new friends” are not repressive parents.
But y’know, maybe other people found the sheltered-Christian-homeschooler jokes, hair jokes, and barefoot jokes funny; maybe the only one who found them tiresome was me. But I somehow don’t think it was.
