Posted on 08/14/2012 12:09:07 PM PDT by SmithL
Capitalizing on the success of Glee, the Oxygen Channel has come up with The Glee Project, a reality TV talent competition in which contestants vie for a coveted spot on the shows namesake. Currently about to conclude its second season, The Glee Projectin keeping with the high school-era outcasts that inhabit Gleeput out a call for the awkward, the overweight, the disabled, the curiously little, the racially ambiguous, the sexually confused, the openly gay, the transitioning transgenders, and, of course, some plain old cute guys, no doubt to corner the teenage girl market.
Notable among this seasons contestants is 19-year-old Aylin (pronounced Eileen) Bayramoglu from Chicago. Shes a confident, vibrant, flirtatious young woman with what I consider to be the contests best voice. She also happens to be a Muslim. She describes her background as Turkish Muslim and yet shows no inclination to inhabit the traditional female role associated with her culture. She doesnt wear a head scarf, shes sassy, outgoing, and judging by her familiarity with the Top 40 songs assigned to her by the judges, thoroughly steeped in pop culture. In other words, shes just like any other young American woman.
If anything, Aylinwho, early in the show, has a puppy love relationship with fellow contestant Charlie that includes a good deal of smooching, not to mention later episodes in which she makes out with various female contestants in pursuit of winning the sometimes creepily exploitative competitionscould dial the overt sexuality back a peg or two. But freedom is freedom.
Most importantly, Aylin is brave. Its hard to imagine that the conservative Muslim family she refers to on occasionnervously joking that they still think shes never kissed a boywill approve of her behavior once they see the episodes on TV. In a portrayal of this very scenario during last weeks episode, Aylinacting in a short film assigned by the judgesplayed a Muslim girl who gets pregnant by her non-Muslim boyfriend and then, after tearfully donning her head scarf, is taken away by a fictional version of her own family. The role clearly hit home for the irrepressibly cheerful Aylin showed real sadness during the filming.
In reality, female rebellion in the Muslim world can have dangerous consequences and mere disapproval is the least of them. During the second-to-last episode (the finale airs tonight), the writers from Glee, including creator Ryan Murphy, discussed the possibility of choosing Aylin as the winner, noting carefully that the show hasnt yet explored Muslim culture. One wonders if thisby the way, very gaygroup of writers has any idea what they might be getting into. Unlike the shows believing Christian and Jewish characters, all of whom are either caricatures or toned down secular fantasies, a Muslim character would challenge Glees writers to tackle something truly cutting-edge. Its a far cry from getting slushied in high school for being gay or promiscuous to being hung, stoned to death, or honor murdered. Theres also the small matter of death threats, which tend to gravitate towards those who challenge Islams orthodoxies.
My hope is that should the judges choose Aylin to star in Glee, they wont fall prey to the usual liberal preoccupation with presenting her as a victim of American culture, but, rather, as a triumph over the stereotypes, as she often describes them, imposed by her own culture. As Aylin herself put it in an interview with Wetpaint.com:
I would want my character to be a little controversial because I do want being Muslim to be represented. And I just kind of want to be super flirtatious and cause trouble and stir things up.
Sounds good to me.
Will be interesting for the show next year....the kids are singing and she runs in and “pow” everyone gone and the show is cancelled.
She'd better be careful, lest she suffer the fate of these girls
She's not too bright. She's allowing the powers that be on the show to manipulate her... and, of course, she is participating.
Think beheading is the punishment for the lesbian behavior.
She sure doesn't look like a muzzie.
And once again the tone deaf are the minority which the media feels must be silenced.
The real agenda for Glee is the marketing of deviance. Notice how they slide all the categories under one banner. Sexual perverts, same-sex child molestors, fat people, blacks really fall under the same umbrella. Sick and sicker is what holywood has come to. Anyone who thinks that engaging in homosexual behavior as a member of a sexually dimorphic species (ie humans) is normal has clearly bought the marketing of the “gay” agenda. Having worked in the CA Dept of Public Health for many years, most people have no idea what these deviants do in the privacy of filthy public restrooms—acts of rimming and felching involve fecal consumption—it is not the hollywood portrayal where writers fantasize about gays as sensitive, intelligent, and all about love. This sickness grows more bold in demanding that others, not just accept, but exalt said behavior as normal.
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