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santa just wanted to be skinny for christmas
Last night’s Christmas Glee was sweeter than a box of candy canes (except for so many Jewish peeps who were slightly annoyed that there was no mention of Hanukkah, but we’ll ignore that for a sec), and left us with the same sinking feeling that comes from eating the entire box.
Brittany’s (Heather Morris) idealistic belief in Santa Claus was heartbreaking, especially when she confessed that her Christmas wish was to have Artie (Kevin McHale) walk again. That prompted (at the Glee club’s behest) Coach Bieste (Dot Jones) to dress up like Kris Kringle and tell Brittany that Santa can’t make her dreams come true.
Santa Bieste told a story about a girl who wished to be smaller her entire life. That never happened, and instead she used her stature to her advantage. This story was mostly lost on Brittany, but we all knew where “Santa” was coming from.
So at the end of the episode, when Artie was presented with robotic legs (called a ReWalk, and yes they exist) that allowed him to walk (provided secretly by Coach Bieste — although where did she get the money?!) we wondered where the lesson went.
| getting robotic legs may not be cheating — but what Rachel did to Finn certainly was. |
Was it hypocritical of Coach Bieste to talk about body acceptance and then offer a electronic solution to Artie’s problem? Or was she merely trying to make his life better? We’re still torn, so we want to know your opinion.
Shout out your thoughts in the comments section below.
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Would You Rather?
Would You Rather?
I thought that the story that Coach Bieste tells Brittnay, about how sometimes 'Santa' can't give you what you ask for, but will instead give you something better, patience. Coach Bieste says that she wished she was small and like the girls you see in the magazines, but after realizing that she couldn't get upset that Santa didn't change who she was, she was able to live up to her full potential. Coach Bieste realizes that Brittnay doesn't get what she is saying and that the concept of patience wasn't going to be there, she spent her money, and as a football coach she makes more then the standard teacher (remember that Sue was mad that money was taken out of her budget to hire Coach Bieste). This ties into the true idea of what the episode was about, doing things for others so that they can feel good about themselves, instead of being selfish during the holidays. This is seen from the time Artie realizes that Brittnay still believes in Santa Clause and glee club does everything they can to keep her spirits high, Brittnay asks Santa for Artie to be able to walk, the entire club tries to raise money for the needy, and even Sue makes sure Shuester doesn't spend Christmas alone. So the episode has nothing to do with self-image, but rather selflessness.
I think it was about Brittany and her genuine faith in Santa more than anything. I don't think the episode was about body image at all, and more about faith in things bigger than us. At least it was to me. Beiste's story of the little girl had more to do with the fact that she lost her faith in Santa because she wasn't given the gift she asked for. Beiste knew how painful it was to lose your faith in something, and found that it was in her power to keep Brittany from losing her faith in Santa. I think that's where the lesson lies.
I'm pretty sure that it was Sue that got the ReWalk.
Artie getting the ReWalk didn't really have anything to do with body image. He wasn't the one who asked Santa to be able to walk, and aside from that one episode in Season One, Artie seems to be entirely comfortable with his life on wheels. I also don't see trying to regain the ability to walk as analogous to wanting to be less husky or tall. When Coach Bieste told her story to Brittany, she wasn't drawing a parallel between herself and Artie. Yes, they both have physical features that make them stand out, but Bieste was trying to connect her story with Brittany, not Artie. Her point was not about body image, but about the fact that Santa works in mysterious ways.
for me it didn't felt that way – and i think i'm pretty sensetive with all the body stuff. arty being able to walk and coach biests body issues don't seem to be comparable at all to me – they were totally lame when "santa bieste" told the story to britanny … so i didn't draw a line here.
i thought it was more a really nice and sweet belief in the magic of chrismas that brought the coach to buying the robo-legs. (and by the way: they don't really make arty walk, they are like symbolic for doing something totally crazy like buying them from your small teacher's fee
)
I was watching this episode like an hour ago and that is not the reason that I saw for the coach doing this at all. She saw Brittany's belief in Santa diminish when she realized that Santa wasn't as magical as she had thought in the past. The coach simply wanted to restore some of that faith in someone because her Christmas wish couldn't come true when she was little, so she wanted to make sure that someone elses could have. She is still okay with her body image, and the reason for the walking wasn't a superficial reason, Brittany just wanted Artie to experience life the way that she thought he should, even though he enjoys his life just as much as he would when walking. That's what I got from the episode, I don't know about anyone else