A letter from Tumblr, RE: 3x14
To the creators, producers and censurers of Glee - basically to everybody who though it was okay to put episode 3x14 (On My Way) on television last night without a warning.
Welcome to the world of Tumblr, which is usually referred to as a scary place with lots of fangirls, but in actuality is far more than what you see. Yes, groups of us congregate here after episodes to talk about it, to gossip about our favorite celebrities and group en masse to scare such lovely people such as Chris Colfer by crying when we see his face (apparently). But there’s something about Tumblr that a lot of people on the outside don’t understand.
For us, Tumblr is just like Glee club. It’s where the underdogs go, the ones who just want to find people who have similar passions and loves, people who won’t scorn them or think they’re strange. It’s the place for people who have been hurt by the ‘real world’ and can’t find their place out there. It’s for the ones who just want somewhere to call home.
We accept everybody, no matter where in the world they’re from, what their life is like outside Tumblr and what they think. Because here is a place where we don’t judge, where we love freely and equally because we know what it’s like when we don’t. It doesn’t matter what fandom you come from or what you ship - ship wars happen but in the end, we love one another anyway.
The Glee fandom, in my experiences here, is even more intense about this and you know why?
Gleeks are so obsessed with Glee because they can relate so strongly to it in their own lives.
We don’t just watch a TV show - we watch our lives play out on the screen. Whoever it might be that we relate to, everybody has a character that they watch and wonder who exactly got into their brain and wrote it on a script for an actor to play. Glee has covered so many topics, after all, that it’s hard to not find something to relate to. We relate to Glee and then we can come here and relate to each other and this is how the fandom community is born. And in my opinion, it’s one of the strongest communities online.
But Glee is a TV show and TV shows have a little thing called warnings.
Episode Five of Season Three contained allusions to sexual activity, containing no nudity, no intimate touching below or above clothing and, if you didn’t know the title and missed a few of the insinuations, you’d think the two couples just spent the night together fully clothed. This was rated TV-14.
Episode Fourteen of Season Three contained a vivid scene in which a teenage boy, having had the word FAG sprayed on his locker, was seen in his room crying, fixated on the shards of a CD case, holding a belt in his hands and up to his neck, looking up at the beam in his closet and then finally stepping up onto his chair. The next scene made it perfectly clear that this was a suicide attempt. He was later seen unconscious with his father trying to revive him. Finally, in the last few moments of the episode, a vivid car crash was shown. This episode had no higher rating than any other general episode of Glee and no warning was given about what was potentially to be shown.
This is seriously wrong.
In these communities, just like any others, there is a large group of people who struggle with self harm and suicidal thoughts. These people watched the aforementioned episode of Glee with no idea that just ten minutes in they would be faced with one of their darkest thoughts, played out in front of them to near completion. Unless they realized in time what was going to happen, they had no way to stop from watching until it was too late. I know I was not the only person affected as many of us on Tumblr have spoken to one another about how the episode did get to us, shook us up and also triggered quite a few of us to feel unsafe. There is also the fact that anybody who has been in or lost someone who has been in a serious car crash would most likely be adversely affected by the final scene as well.
Don’t get me wrong: I have no complaints about the actual content. I feel that both issues were addressed very well, showing that they are real but treating them with the respect and delicacy that they needed. It was a very powerful episode. The issue that I, along with many others, have is that there was not a single warning to say what was coming up, to say that it was going to be this powerful and that some people may be affected by it.
Quite simply, the way I see it is that if it may offend the sensibilities of conservative parents and religious groups, it gets a warning; but if it has the power to potentially cause people to feel unsafe and be at risk of harming themselves, it gets none. And I do not think this is okay.
All I am asking for is a small box to appear before the show starts that gives it an accurate warning. It’s not much for you, but for me and many others it might mean a better chance of going to sleep that night without being afraid of what I may do to myself.
(Source: relationsonadewymeadowoflilac, via princeblainers)
