Gleeful about Sex

Recently on an episode of Glee, a new comedy that satirically follows a motley teenage glee club in an Ohio high school, there was a particularly revealing focus: sex and the teenage obsession with it. The episode was about the perceived nerdy glee club’s hope to climb the social hierarchy of high school by utilizing sexualization, a path that apparently draws in all curious teens. This is a direct materialization of Gayle Rubin’s misplaced scale. In this rural, “conservative” high school, the topic of sexuality is both unusually hushed and disproportionately intriguing. Rubin says that there is a cultural assumption that sexual things are more important, and this glee club sees bringing sexuality to their school as the only way to be “cool”.