![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
It seems to me that there are four basic categories viewers tend to fall into when it comes to Karofsky's storyline on Glee. First and foremost, you have the apologists: Karofsky is a big, misunderstood teddy bear who deserves love. These people are confusing Max Adler, a perfectly charming and kind person as best as I can tell, with Dave Karofsky, a lifelong bully who torments not only Kurt but the entire glee club--and who sexually assaulted Kurt Hummel in the boys' locker room. Then there are the indifferents--those who really don't care one way or another; their focus is on other characters, other storylines, or they simply don't think about the implications of his storyline. Then there are those who violently hate the character--who want his story resolved as soon as possible so he can be written off the show, who wish it had never been done to begin with, who judge anyone who falls into the fourth category by lumping them in with the apologists.
If you are in the third category, then this post is aimed at you. Because I fall in the fourth category and I'm tired of it.
The fourth and final category is a middle ground. It's the group who believes Karofsky is a bully who should be punished (re: not "cruel and excessive punishment" but an appropriate level) for what he's done, but also acknowledges that he is, whether the third group wants to think about it or not: a human being who is going through something extremely difficult and made a slew of piss-poor decisions about how to handle it.
Let me tell you something, fellow Glee watchers. I have been bullied my entire life. I was bullied so badly in the sixth grade that my mother put me on temporary home school and transferred me to another district for seventh. My grandmother drove me to school every day for six years because I couldn't ride the bus due to the other student's behavior toward me. I was also raped at age eight by my older step brother. So while I can not speak for every person who has been bullied or sexually assaulted, I do speak for myself, and with experience. So if there is anyone on this planet more predisposed to hate Karofsky, to wish him dead or off the show or whatever your personal choice for his exit might be, it's me.
But I don't, and the entire point of this post is for me to share with you why. Because while I am absolutely not a Karofsky apologist, I also know how incredibly important it is to not only show bullying of teen gays and show us how Kurt rises above it, but to show us the story of internalized homophobia.
( Cut for length. )
If you are in the third category, then this post is aimed at you. Because I fall in the fourth category and I'm tired of it.
The fourth and final category is a middle ground. It's the group who believes Karofsky is a bully who should be punished (re: not "cruel and excessive punishment" but an appropriate level) for what he's done, but also acknowledges that he is, whether the third group wants to think about it or not: a human being who is going through something extremely difficult and made a slew of piss-poor decisions about how to handle it.
Let me tell you something, fellow Glee watchers. I have been bullied my entire life. I was bullied so badly in the sixth grade that my mother put me on temporary home school and transferred me to another district for seventh. My grandmother drove me to school every day for six years because I couldn't ride the bus due to the other student's behavior toward me. I was also raped at age eight by my older step brother. So while I can not speak for every person who has been bullied or sexually assaulted, I do speak for myself, and with experience. So if there is anyone on this planet more predisposed to hate Karofsky, to wish him dead or off the show or whatever your personal choice for his exit might be, it's me.
But I don't, and the entire point of this post is for me to share with you why. Because while I am absolutely not a Karofsky apologist, I also know how incredibly important it is to not only show bullying of teen gays and show us how Kurt rises above it, but to show us the story of internalized homophobia.
( Cut for length. )
