Well written with a fantastic wit and an exemplary vocabulary, the girl was the picture of feminism and intelligence, leading her mediocre glee club to champion ships, joining any and every club in the high school, winning dance and voice competitions since the age of three months, and generally begin an amazing human being. Although she was driven to the point where some saw her as purely selfish, she was not, just unaccepted by her peers and the punching bag of the entire school.
However, this all began to change the moment that the writers created a love interest for her, in the form of one Finn Hudson.
Finn is a good guy, was your typical high school footballer who discovered that he had mediocre musical talent, joined glee club and like many a soprano before her, Rachel decided that they were to be the new "glee club item" the moment their voices joined in off pitch harmony. The issue was, Finn was dating Quinn, the horrible captain of the football team, and in two episodes time, he would eventually find out that she was pregnant, although not with his baby. The problem was, it wasn't until episode 13 that he found out that the baby wasn't his. Is this a huge problem? No, if only Finn hadn't actively pursued Rachel throughout all of it. In thirteen episodes time, Rachel had gone from being a kind and secure girl to a girl pining for someone else's boyfriend, who was seemingly fine with cheating. Although this was also negated by what she had said to Finn, that her dreams were bigger than him, and she wasn't going to be used for his personal enjoyment, proved when she focused solely on the upcoming Sectionals competition for the club and single-handedly pulled of a last minute win.
Of course, the writers just couldn't have a strong, independent female character without being dragged down by a lame boy, could they? My problem with Finn is not that he isn't a likeable person, he's cute enough, but that he has no idea what he's doing with his life and randomly does whatever pops in his mind and appeals to him, with little regard to what Rachel feels. Following Sectionals, after Finn had found out about the baby's paternity, he began dating Rachel, and immediately felt smothered. Rather than talking to her about it, he decided to "embrace his inner rock star" and date both Santana and Brittany, champion cheerleaders and mortal enemies to his girlfriend. All without telling her, and only letting her know that he wanted a bit of space.
Ironically, Brittany and Santana became written as a couple in Season 2, which many fans found as a humorous slap in the face to Finn. Throughout season 1 and 2, Finn and Rachel became a couple and broke up no less than three times, each time the obvious misogyny shown by Finn clearer and clearer. Finn didn't like how she dressed, and chose football over their relationship. Finn slept with Santana, failed to tell Rachel, and accused her of being insane when she expressed anger over that lie. Forgetting that Rachel is Jewish and vegan, he fed her meat, lied when asked, and later bought her an African sow pig for slaughter for Christmas.
Of course, the writers wrote Finn as some sort of romantic hero, and Rachel became his biggest support. Support, in that she essentially became a supporting character with no talk of her Broadway dreams, no friends aside from Finn and his brother, and spending all her days propping up Finn when he needs help, which seemingly, is every second. The one moment she wanted to do something for herself--run for school president--he immediately shot her down and walked away.Last episode was when it seriously got bad. Finn, after learning that his father was not the war hero he had always thought he was, began to listlessly plod through the week, thinking that he had nothing good in his life. By season 3, Finn was still the same confused boy in the Pilot episode, no college plans, no career plans, nothing special in his life. Although this time, he had an idea. He decided that he wanted to attach himself to "his big gold star's" coattails.
CUE. SCREAMING.A proposal should never be about the fact that you have nothing in your life worth admiring, and you want Rachel because she's shiny and pretty. That is essentially owning her as a trophy, something I had thought we, as a culture, had moved past. This was singlehandedly the most misogynistic scene I had ever seen on Glee, and the internet agrees. There are tons of people threatening to stop watching if Rachel says yes, at the age of 17, and if the writers want the show to continue, they'd be smart to end this nonsense.
Actually, as I was watching this episde, and subsequently thinking about the message this was sending to young girls, I thought back to the story of Nabakov and his wife, Vera. In a way, Finn and Rachel are similar to the Nabakovs, in the way that Rachel is giving her all to support Finn the way that Vera did for her husband.
However, the difference is this. Nabakov was an extremely talented writer, and Vera fully believed that he would achieve his goals. While she did not know if they would ever succeed, and they did in fact, live in squalor much of their lives, she still supported him without doubt. However, they differ from Rachel and Finn (thus forth known as Finchel) in that Nabakov had a very set mind on what to do. Finn does not. He doesn't know where he'll be in six months time, after high school graduation. At one point, he had wanted to play football for Ohio State University. Then, when that had failed, he had thought about taking over his stepfather's mechanic shop. Most recently, he wanted to join the army, to honor his dad, but now has his qualms about that as well. Nabakov knew what he wanted in life, although he did not know how to get there. Finn had no idea what he wants in life, and knows even less on how to get there.
Glee, please stop doing this. Give us back the strong female lead we all fell in love with at the beginning, and send her off to a top New York college with pride.
