This scene is literally one of the worst messages Glee has ever put out. Why? Because it’s disguised as being a “good message.” The world never stopped loving you. Oh, really, Kurt? Is that why she was shamed by her peers and treated like she was worthless by her family because she didn’t turn out to be the person they wanted her to be? (A pain you never had to deal with because your father is a great dad.) Who the fuck is he to tell her that she hasn’t struggled or felt pain because she got into a good university? Is he confusing Yale with a magic wand? It doesn’t erase the past.
Let’s recap the things Kurt is writing off so easily:
- Quinn was full of so much self-loathing she had cosmetic surgery at 14 to correct it.
- Quinn had an eating disorder (how she lost the weight + kept it off on the Cheerios thanks to Sue’s sadistic as fuck “shakes.”)
- Quinn became pregnant the first time she had sex.
- Quinn was disowned by her father, rendering her homeless for half of the first season.
- Quinn went into labor in the middle of a show choir competition.
- Quinn gave her baby up for adoption to the mother of the girl she “hates.” (In quotes because her relationship with Rachel at the end of Season 1 is kind of ambiguous.)
- Quinn’s parents got divorced and her mother is never around to support her daughter. Have we seen her at Glee shows? Did she ever appear at football games to support Quinn cheerleading? (Answer: no)
- Quinn had to watch the mother of her baby, see her everyday, talk to her, interact with her…
- Quinn’s senior year she had a mental break where she tried to steal a baby.
- The person who was supposed to give Beth a good home slept with a student… that student being no one else but Puck, who had gotten Quinn pregnant while she was inebriated
Was Quinn wrong to judge and shame Karofsky? Absolutely. Should he had told her to knock it off? Fuck yeah, but not this way. The “this dumb woman needs a man to teach her a lesson” aspect aside, you cannot compare pain. Kurt doesn’t know if Quinn is being so irrationally harsh about this because she once wanted to kill herself? Or if someone in her family did? He has no idea what she’s been through and trivializing her struggles because she’s (canonically) straight is so fucked up. He doesn’t think Quinn hated herself? SHE GOT A RYAN SEACREST TATTOO, WHAT MORE PROOF DO YOU NEED, MAN? Throwing Quinn under the bus to make another character look better by comparison is one of the only examples of consistency on the show (Finn, Rachel, Kurt, Puck etc etc.) Quinn is not a character, she’s a prop.
Last emphasis is mine. I couldn’t agree more.
I also added the last point to the list, because Shelby sleeping with Puck must have been extremely traumatizing for Quinn. Not only is it very much illegal to sleep with your student, but due to the relationship Puck, Quinn and Shelby shared that was more than just inappropriate. It was violent towards Quinn.
