Sigh

[yendi]

Having only recently gotten into Community (now that it's nigh-cancelled), and having watching about thirty episodes in about two weeks, I had a rant brewing about how "Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas" essentially erased the Jewish and Muslim identities of two of the characters and made the cast majority Christian (although I've generally loved the second season aside from that episode).

And then I watched last night's Glee, where it appears that both Puck and Rachel secretly converted to Christianity ages ago.

I don't think I have enough patience to rage about how they handled those characters (especially with Rachel also conventionality channelling some traditional Jewish female stereotypes, for a nice double whammy). But I'm a lot less pissy about Community, at least.

Comments

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

Anyone who thinks Glee bears any resemblance to reality and not much more to very creative caricaturing...has my pity. Sadly.

[yendi]

True (as Elayna noted about the show-within-the-show, "if it's live, how did they do all those quick camera cuts?"). But I'm willing to suspend disbelief on some levels (the ease of putting together performances, the millions of dollars the school seems to have, the spare band students wandering everywhere) more easily than I am on character levels.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

In his defense, Abed doesn't really *have* a Muslim identity. He's technically Muslim, but mostly because he's a chameleon who absorbs and adopts the culture of everything around him, and he grew up in a Muslim family. It's really not surprising that he'd pick a happy Santa-themed mental breakdown to have in claymation.

(Community is still the best show on TV.)

[yendi]

But he was adamant when Shirley tried to celebrate Christmas during the first season, which is why it bothers me so. If it just scanned as a love of the pop culture that usually drives him, that would be one thing, but the reveal that he was actually half Muslim, and had a Christmas ritual with his mother rings false this late in the series (and yes, I know it's Danny inserting his own background into the show, just like Alison with the story about sex in the closet, but it's still disruptive to the character).

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Yes, but Shirley was a *jerk* and the other people around him *didn't agree with her*. So Abed agreed with them, as he does.

(It's still not Glee, wherein it is revealed that all atheists really just hate God, and know The Truth all along and are just rebellious, and can be converted to The Truth through hymns and they will feel bad for having been deliberately wrong for so long. Because Glee is fucking stupid offensive shit.)

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

PS: "oopy doop a boop boop SEX." Which you will not get until S3, and yet it's still not a real spoiler.

[marlowe1.livejournal.com]

Abed's Muslim identity always seemed tenuous at best. He's in a long line of mostly assimilated characters who only mention their religious backgrounds when it's convenient to the plot.

On the other hand, there are a lot of American Muslims and Jews who are mostly secular and don't celebrate Christmas as a religious holiday, but rather enjoy the whole spectacle and appreciate it for the secular holiday that it really is.

Hell, even I find myself enjoying Xmas music and trees and lights and all that mess. What's worse is that I enjoy it much more now that I've converted to Judaism (Orthodox of course) than I did when I was a Christian.

[marlowe1.livejournal.com]

Livejournal erased my response but basically I was going to say that Abed is an assimilated Muslim who loves pop culture, particularly American pop culture which includes Xmas. On one hand, that's the problem of Hollywood that doesn't know how to treat any religion seriously and is still scared of Islam. The sad part is the fact that Abed as an assimilated Muslim is actually better than what Hollywood usually does with Muslims which is to either make their terrorists or examples of high morality who won't shut the fuck up about how Islam is a religion of peace (that Don Cheadle movie really irked me).

On the other hand, there IS precedence for having a character who is not Christian enjoying Christmas. Many assimilated Jews and Muslims enjoy Christmas as a secular spectacle.

Hell, I even enjoy Xmas more now that I'm an Orthodox Jew. It's so much more fun than when I was a Christian and had to believe in all that Jesus shit.

[spookykat.livejournal.com]

Just because they put up with Rory's telling of the Christmas Story doesn't make them no longer Jewish. Rachel tried to insist that Rory tell the Frosty story, but it was a no-go...and at least Rachel wasn't singing 'O Holy Night' or something uber-religious. Neither was Puck. Both were celebrating Christmas from a secular point of view, which most Jews I know do, and both characters were fine with going along with it last Christmas, so...I didn't see that as an issue with the ep.

Rory's telling of the Christmas Story was jarring and out-of-place and the one moment of the special that felt off, but it was a homage to It's a Charlie Brown Christmas and so while it might've felt uncomfortable, I do get why they went there.

[yendi]

It's the complete lack of any sense of their Jewishness at all that bothered me. No comments about celebrating Hannukah, no mention of any discomfort or attempt to ask for some recognition of their holiday, nothing at all. As someone who was Jewish at a largely Christian school (with a church attached) it rang completely false. Having Rachel repeatedly talk about "all I want for Christmas" really rankled, in particular.

Rory's telling of the story was fine, and didn't bother me.

[marlowe1.livejournal.com]

I usually find it more jarring when they remind us that a character is Jewish - like Ross in Friends.

[radiumhead.livejournal.com]

that show's still on?

[dangerdean.livejournal.com]

Abed, like Danny Pudi, is half-Polish, which has played into plotlines more than a few times.