In September 2009, the cast of Glee sang their way into the hearts of the viewing audience. Quinn and Finn’s unplanned pregnancy… Rachel’s unrequited love for Finn… Emma’s forbidden love for Will… Terri’s desperation to have a baby… The list of melodramatic events goes on and on.
Unfortunately, while thinking about Glee during its hiatus from television, questions spring to mind about the characters in the show, namely the female characters. The show was created and written by three men: Ian Brennan, Brad Falchuk and Ryan Murphy. Is it any surprise that the female characters can all be labeled while the male characters are multi-dimensional? Perhaps it is time to introduce a female writer into the mix to give the female characters some more dimension. Otherwise, they are going to be trapped in their labels and become more of a charicature than a character.
Let’s take a closer look at four of the leading ladies of Glee:
SUE SYLVESTER - The Bitch
Jane Lynch masterfully portrays the super-competitive high school cheerleading coach, out to sabotage Glee Club for the re-allocation of her squad’s funds. She is bitter, angry, vengeful, cold, and delivers her deadpan lines with skill. One thing turned this nasty, angry bitch into a soft and wonderful woman (even if only for a moment) - love. Yes, Sue found herself in love with anchorman Rod Remington, and her tune changed entirely. She was sweet, fun, and even happy. That is, until she found out that Rod was carrying on a relationship with another woman. Then, the true Sue Sylvester came back with a vengeance, determined to blow Will and Glee Club out of the water. While it was a fun episode (as all Glee episodes are), it is a shame that the writers relied on a stereotypical reaction to make Sue show a different side. Even when the audience discovered that Sue has a sister with Downs Syndrome, her personality didn’t change.
QUINN FABRAY - The Cheerleader
Quinn Fabray is the epitome of a high school stereotype: the head cheerleader dating the varsity football captain who cheats with his best friend and gets pregnant. The irony of the whole situation is that Quinn was president of the Chastity Club at school. Unfortunately, Quinn seems to only have two speeds: nasty and nice. Of course, since she is the head cheerleader that girls want to be and guys want to be with, she is more nasty than nice. Diana Agron does a great job with the two-dimensional character that she portrays, sometimes allowing a bit more dimension come into the character with looks and gestures. Her lines, however, are constantly whiny, fake or just plain nasty.
RACHEL BERRY - The Wannabe
Every high school had a Rachel Berry: The girl that tried so hard to fit in, she involved herself in absolutely everything and rubbed people the wrong way because of how hard she tried and/or how much she excelled. Rachel Berry is an over-achiever, who admittedly joins clubs just to get herself in the photo for the yearbook. She has a real talent, and she knows it. She lets everyone else know it, too, which makes them like her even less. She tries so hard to get Finn’s attention, even though he got Quinn pregnant (or so everyone thought). She puts herself before everyone, and makes everyone feel inferior by bossing them around. Rachel has complete disregard for the feelings of others, as she exhibited when she told Finn that Puck was really the father of Quinn’s baby right before the Regional Glee Club competition. Lea Michele, who essentially dropped out of the sky to play this leading lady, has Jewish Rachel’s personality down pat. Unfortunately, none of Rachel’s lines are very deep– Lea Michele takes advantage of the songs she sings to express Rachel’s inner feelings, especially using her expressive eyes and vocal intonations.
TERRI SCHUESTER - The Manipulator
Terri Schuester will do anything to hold on to her husband, even fake a pregnancy and plan to pass off someone else’s baby as her own. Actress Jessalyn Gilsig is no stranger to dimensional characters, but just isn’t given much to work with when it comes to nasty, stupid, desperate Terri. Terri just doesn’t seem to have any redeeming qualities, so the audience cheers when Will finally discovers that she isn’t pregnant. They cheer even more when he decides to leave her. Terri is so self-absorbed and nasty, the audience wonders why Will married her in the first place. No amount of tears (as seen in the last two episodes of the first season) can make a difference in the way the audience views her. Perhaps if there was more of a story to her background, or about why Will and Terri were together in the first place, the audience would care a little more about her and what happens to their marriage.
Glee is by far a female-driven show, with more of the characters being female than male. Why is it, then, that the male characters have a bit more depth to them than the two-dimensional women do? Perhaps it is time of the writing boys’ club of Glee to allow a woman to join their ranks and flesh out these characters a bit more. Maybe then will we get well-rounded characters, rather than the charicatures with amazing voices.
Hope Solo (born 30 July 1981, in Richland, Washington) is an American Football goalkeeper presently playing for Saint Louis Athletica of Women’s Specialist Soccer and is actually a member with the United States women’s national Soccer team.
Football career
Hope Solo played Soccer with the Three-River’s Soccer Club in the Tri-Cities. She played forward until the finish of high school, when she switched to goalkeeper. Solo played for various U.S. junior national Football teams before joining the full U.S. national team in 2000. She was called a member with the Olympic team in 2004, making the 2004 Olympics in Athens as an alternate. Hope Solo became the team’s beginning netkeeper in 2005. She has recorded various clean sheets and as soon as went 1,054 minutes without having permitting a aim (a streak that ended in a 4-1 victory against France inside the Algarve Cup).
As a forward in high school, Hope Solo scored 109 goals, leading her team to three consecutive league titles from 1996-1998 as well as a state championship in her senior year.[1] She was twice named a Parade All American.
At the University of Washington, Solo switched towards the goalie position and was the team’s all-time leader in clean-sheets, saves, and goals-against average (GAA). She was a 4-time All-Pac-ten pick as well as a three-time NSCAA All-American.
Following her college career, Hope Solo was outlined for the now defunct WUSA team Philadelphia Charge in 2003. She also played for Kopparbergs/Göteborg FC of Göteborg, Sweden in the Swedish Premier Division in 2004 and for Olympique Lyonnais inside the French ?nitial Division in 2005.
On September 16, 2008, Hope Solo was one with the three players outlined for Saint Louis Athletica inside the WPS allocation of national team members, using the new league (a revival with the WUSA) beginning play in April 2009. Solo let in 6 objectives within the very first 4 games as Athletica got off to an extremely slow 0-2-2 start off in their first season, but she (plus the rest with the team) stepped up soon after that, with Solo only letting in eight goals in her next thirteen games, finishing the season with eight shutouts.
In 2009 was called the WPS goalie with the Year.
2007 FIFA Women’s World Cup
Hope Solo was the starting goalkeeper for the United States in the 2007 FIFA Women’s Globe Cup, giving up two goals in four games which includes consecutive shutouts of Sweden, Nigeria and England. Heading into the semifinal match against Brazil, U.S. coach Greg Ryan benched Solo in favor of 36-year-old veteran U.S. keeper Briana Scurry, who had a powerful history of efficiency against the Brazilians but had not played a total game in three months.[2][3] The U.S. lost to Brazil 4-0, ending a 51-game (regulation time) undefeated streak, when playing considerably of the match with ten players following midfielder Shannon Boxx received a second yellow card in the finish with the first half.
Post-2007 Globe Cup fallout
In an impromptu interview following the match, a clearly upset[4] Hope Solo criticized Ryan’s conclusion. “It was the bad decision, and I think anybody that knows anything regarding the game knows that. There is no doubt in my mind I would have produced those saves. And also the reality of the matter is it is not 2004 any longer. It’s not 2004. And it’s 2007, and I feel you must live in the present. And you cannot live by large names. You can’t live previously. It does not matter what somebody did in an Olympic gold medal game inside the Olympics 3 years ago. Now is what matters, and that is what I feel.”[5][6] A lot of viewed her comments as getting vital of Scurry’s efficiency, while Hope Solo released an apologetic statement the following day saying that was not her intent.[7] On September 29, 2007, coach Greg Ryan declared that Hope Solo would not be using the team and would not play in the third-place match against Norway the following day.[8][9] Team captain Kristine Lilly stated that the decision on Solo was created by the team as a group.[10] The U.S. went on to win against Norway 4-1.
Hope Solo was called towards the U.S. women’s national Soccer team roster for the post World Cup tour, but she did not attend the initial workout ahead of the initial game against Mexico. The players’ contract using the federation stipulated that any individual on the Globe Cup roster had the right to play inside the tour. Greg Ryan stated, “We’re initiating a process of reconciliation, and in doing that you simply cannot mandate reconciliation. This is not a produced for Hollywood passion story, this is a real story, and we’re all working at that.”[11] She was present for, but did not play in any of, the 3 games against Mexico, becoming replaced by Briana Scurry for the initial and third matches, and Nicole Barnhart for the second. The third match against Mexico, on October 20, 2007, marked the finish of the U.S. women’s national team’s 2007 season. The team reorganized in January 2008 to begin preparations for the 2008 Summer Olympics.[12] Ryan left the team immediately after his contract was not renewed in December 2007 [13]
Beijing Olympics 2008
On June 23, 2008, it was announced Hope Solo could be the starting netkeeper for the U.S. team in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. In a reversal of roles from the 2004 Olympics, Brianna Scurry did not make the team (even though she was an alternate). On August 21, the U.S. women’s team won the gold medal by defeating Brazil 1-0 in extra time in no small measure on account of Solo’s outstanding performance as she stopped an energetic Brazil attack, generating save immediately after save.[14]
Personal life
Hope Solo’s parents divorced when she was 6; though she lived with her mother, she continued close to her father, a sometimes-homeless veteran who remained a major influence in her life till his sudden death in June 2007.[15] [16] She attended Richland High School plus the University of Washington.
