By Billy Finnegan, Columnist
“Glee” is a one hour musical “dramedy” about a group of high school kids in a show choir that has turned into a cultural phenomenon.
Sue Sylvester is a character on Glee who is an evil and contrary cheerleading coach, “the greatest Broadway-musical villain to ever co-star in a TV series,” according to Entertainment Weekly’s Ken Tucker. She is also the television character that has displayed a more comprehensive, accurate understanding of life and how to do live it than any other television character in the past fifteen years.
That’s right. Sue Sylvester, the offensive, diabolical, cruel, vain, and overly-competitive cheerleading coach of the fictitious William McKinley High School’s cheerleading squad, “The Cheerios,” knows how to live better than any other fictional character currently on TV, and most people I’ve met.
Sue may be outright evil and willing to go to the extreme for small gains, but she understands perfectly a concept that is shockingly difficult for most people to grasp: our lives depend upon our actions, and for things to change, we need to express ourselves, and no one—really, no one—can express him or herself like Sue Sylvester can.
Coach Sylvester doe something that most people today are incapable of: she says what she’s thinking, unfiltered and without remorse. Some of her opinions are insane, but she says more than a series of condescending insults—she’s just saying an exaggerated version of what most of us are thinking. Society may not condone caning in schools, even if Sylvester does, but consider why she would support such a thing: children these days are out of control and need more discipline.
Likewise, when Sylvester expresses her support for the right for people to marry dogs—that’s not just an absurdist comment, it’s a validation of the right for people to marry whoever they want. Everything she says, at its core, is nothing more than common sense; it’s a cry to fix what is wrong within our society. By being so free in her speech, Sylvester is unafraid to speak out against what’s wrong today. She’s insensitive. That’s what all of us need more of: insensitivity. Instead of hiding beyond this deceitful mask of political correctness, we need to express ourselves more freely and not hide our opinions for fear of upsetting someone, and likewise, we have to be less easily hurt. We have forgotten our freedom of speech, and sacrificed the desire for improving the world for the desire of being liked.
Sue’s monologue at the end of the episode “Preggers” best embodies her spirit. As she says: “Sue Sylvester’s not afraid to shake things up. You know I’m tired of hearing people complain, ‘I’m riddled with this disease’ or ‘I was in that tsunami.’ To them I say, ‘Shake it up a bit, get out of your box, even if that box happens to be where you’re living.'” Though it’s a harsh opinion to state, life does not magically get better for most people. Yes, there are circumstances beyond our individual control, but for life to get better, we, as individuals, must strive to improve it. We have to make the choice to improve it; otherwise, it will not improve.
This is the problem with so many people today: we’re all too focused on whining about our problems, most of them more trivial than not, instead of actually fixing them. We need to speak our minds. So, like Sue Sylvester, I say, “Shake it up.” Speak your mind and start improving your own life, take action, and be true to yourself. Only by breaking out of this mold of hiding from our opinions and ourselves can we truly change the world and try to make it a better place.