Glee is a show on FOX that follows a high school “glee club” called New Directions. This club performs short musical numbers that involve dancing and singing. The members of this club are supposedly normal high school students dealing with the everyday struggles of going through high school and just being teenagers. This show gives a flawed view of reality on several accounts. First of all, it’s on FOX; I mean come on, really? Second, this is supposed to be a regular high school, so I don’t think there would be very many super-talented students who can all dance and sing at a level that would be impressive on Broadway. I mean, sure, Ames High has its share of talented singers and dancers, but finding a combination of both dancing and singing put together in the same person is extremely rare. It would be impressive to have even one of these future Michael Jacksons hiding at a school the size of Ames High without having enough of them to start their own club of ragtag demi-gods! This unrealistic view of the talent contained in the average high-schooler gives teens a false sense of reality and encourages them to live in a fantastical and fake world that has little or no bearing on reality. Third, this show has all the components of the stereotypical soap operas that are frequently mocked in our society. It seems that these over-dramatizations of supposedly everyday events are criticized until they are part of a show other than E.R. or The Young and the Restless, and then they are tolerated and even praised. The classic person in the hospital making a miraculous recovery, the seemingly evil group who competes with the main characters constantly, the formal rival who eventually sees the light and joins the main characters in their struggle, and “Who’s dating who? Really? Oh no she di’nt!” gets tiring after a while of dealing with the harsh double standard of popular opinion. Also, people are getting way too caught up in this show. They are treating it as part of their real lives and forgetting that this is a T.V. show. On the official Glee web page that is put out by FOX, there is an area where fans, endearingly called “Gleeks” (really?), can post their feelings about the show. “[I’m] so happy that Rachel and Finn didn’t get back together… she deserved better”, said one viewer on the message board. “[Finn] needs to spend time with himself to find out what’s going on with him not get back into another relationship when he’s been hurt by two girls in a row”, posted another “Gleek”. “I cried throughout this episode, and at the end– seeing Brittany’s faith come to life, seeing Artie walk for the first time, seeing Sue understand the meaning of selflessness and joy, seeing the teachers give offerings for the Glee club, and seeing all the Glee Club members visit Schue in his time of need,” said another. All of this hype has gone too far, and it needs to stop before someone gets hurt. People are forgetting what glee clubs even are. Upon further research, i found that an actual “glee club” is a society of singers (traditionally men, but women’s groups also exist) that sing short songs that are called “glees”. In this context, “glee” does not refer to the mood of the music or singers, but rather the genre of the music that is being sung. The first glee club was founded in London in 1787. The first American group was founded at Harvard in 1858. Since then glee clubs have generally died out and all but disappeared around the middle of the 20th century (just F.Y.I., we’re in the 21st century now). So, not only is Glee a false view of reality, it has also disrupted the view of the otherwise respectable glee clubs everywhere and turned into the classic, terrible soap opera that everyone is way too bent out of shape over. Seriously, get a life.