Glee-fully Stupid

So my wife was watching "Glee" last night, and since I like hanging out with my wife, I ended up watching Glee also. That's how much I love my wife. Nothing against Glee - I love the music. But since I teach high school, I just don't feel the need to watch an over-dramatic version of high school in the evening.

Anyway, so last night's episode was all about Madonna, how powerful Madonna was even though she was a woman, and how the female characters in the movie were trying to empower themselves. At one point in the episode there are three different female characters that all decide they need to have sex with their partner in order to empower themselves in the relationship. One girl even states that the way to get control over a guy is to take his virginity.

I was livid. This is exactly the sort of glamorized garbage that leads to all of the problems that girls have with relationships. Having sex with a guy does not give you power over a guy. The guy WANTS to have sex!!! How does giving someone what they want give you power?

I would like to point out that all of the writers and the director of the episode are men.

I have two daughters - ages 3 and (almost) 2. They are constantly trying to empower themselves in our relationship. They are super cute, and I love them to death, and they try to use this to their advantage to get things that they shouldn't have. The other night they wanted to lay in our bed to go to sleep instead of their beds. They were just cute enough (and I was just tired enough) that I was tempted to let them. But I had to consider the ramifications of giving them what they wanted. If I let them go to sleep in my bed, their demands would be met for one night only. Having set the precedent, they would undoubtably make the same demand in the future - and with more force and conviction because they would have a greater expectation of getting what they wanted. Not only that, but if I refused them later, their protests would be much more vehement - screaming, crying, kicking - because their higher expectations would lead to greater disappointment. I knew that if I gave in that night, it would only get harder to not give in, and I would end up with two little girls squeezed in between my wife and I every night for the next several years.

My daughters, Bethany (in red) and Claira (purple) reading books in their pj's.

It was obvious to me that if I gave them what they wanted, it would empower them - not me. I also want to point out that I wanted to give them what they wanted. I love to cuddle them, and I was really tired, so letting them lay down with me would let us all get to sleep earlier. But it would have been a dumb move. And I knew that as much as I wanted to give in right then, I would regret it later.

Same thing with women and sex. Giving sex to guys does not give women power in the relationship. It gives the power to the guy. And a girl saying that it's okay because she wants to have sex, too, is definately not a good enough reason to give that control away. Teenage girls are not mature enough to make that big of a decision, which is why so many of their relationships turn into tragic failures.

Women have got to wake up and quit getting their information from shows written and directed by men if they ever want to understand how to make the relationship work for them instead of the guy.