Does anyone watch Glee? Want to discuss the portrayal of adoption? - Page 2

[Delilah83]

Well the writing on Glee is really uneven and unrealistic, there's plenty of plotholes so I was bracing myself for the adoption storyline to be really bad. Part of the problem with the show is they have a huge cast, lots of storylines and they don't have the time to devote to every detail. And they have to fit in all the musical numbers too. Still I agree it was rather bizarre that we never see Quinn making an adoption plan of any sort. You have to wonder if she was still holding out on Teri or something of that nature. (and don't get me started on the Terin story line and how obnoxious and entitled she was towards Quinn as if Quinn was just a baby factory to her)

I really hated how Shelby Corcoan's character was portrayed how she wanted to have a relationship with Rachel, went to extreme, soap opera levels of subterfuge (get her star choir kid to switch schools, seduce Rachel, convince her to start searching for her birth mother) just to try and contact her and then once they meet she realizes she doesn't want to have a relationship with her teenage daughter, she wants to be a mother to a baby.

My guess is they needed to get rid of the Shelby character since Idina Menzel is a successful Broadway actress with other obligations besides the Glee and the cast is huge anyway. But I thought the whole execution of the storyline was awful.

[Whistler]

Glee fan here. And adoptive Mom too. I guess since the rest of Glee is amazingly unrealistic I did not have any standards for the adoption storyline.

Yes, the details were all wrong, but, it could work out. Here's how I imagined it all shook down...

Mrs Corcoran (Rachel's mom) has been a grieving birth mom for years. She hears Quinn is having her baby and goes to talk to her, maybe to tell her how hard it was for her. They get talking and Quinn says she wants to place the baby and would Mrs. Corcoran like to adopt? (Yes, you can do that, a private adoption where the bmom chooses the amom.) Puck agrees and Mrs. C talks to the appropriate people: SW and lawyer. A few days later Quinn is discharged and Baby goes with amom.

Not ideal, but it ties up loose ends in a 42-minute show.

It's not like they handle disability any more realistically or sensitively! But hey, it's Glee, lol

[stik]

I allow Glee a lot of leeway in re. reality, but the adoption story line has bothered me. While Quinn was keeping her pregnancy secret, I can understand how she would be easily manipulated. But, Mr. Schuster knew, and he should have told Emma, who is, after all, the guidance counselor. Surely, Emma had a pamphlet somewhere with some phone numbers in it. Quinn really shouldn't have had to worry so much about doctor bills and finding a place to stay. If she flipped through a copy of Rolling Stone or read the classifieds in her local paper she probably could have found some ads offering help. Her doctor should have identified the situation and provided some information about support and services as soon as she decided not to seek an abortion.

It only bothers me because IMO, too many teenagers use what they see on TV to make decisions about their own lives, and I wish it was more clear that teen pregnancy does not mean that crazy people are going to manipulate and exploit you, and you will be powerless in their clutches. As a character, Quinn has a pretty substantial backbone. It really surprised me that she caved to Terri rather than running a google search.

ETA: I really thought the adoption storyline was over when Quinn's mom showed up and asked her to come home. I can see how having the baby around does not necessarily make for great TV, but I thought for sure that the writers would have Quinn keep her baby at that point. I think it says a lot about her character and her feelings towards her family that she chose to proceed with her adoption plan. I also assumed that the legal process took place off-screen. Having been through the process as a birth mom herself, I hope Ms. C will be more compassionate to Quinn than Rachel's dads were to her.

[sbrinton]

To be fair, Glee does take an interesting, if not realistic, look at everyone involved in the adoption triad.

Remember, Rachel was adopted by dads and throughout this season has been struggling with wanting to meet her birth mom? And then the birth mom reaches out to Rachel through the fake boyfriend? Both seem to struggle with this new relationship? Then the birth mom goes on to adopt Quinn's baby?

I don't know that this is a realistic or positive portrayal of adoption, but it is interesting to see the character of Rachel struggling as a teenager with not knowing her birth mom.

[grumpybear]

As much as I love Glee and am thoroughly entertained by the show, I think it is hardly the venue to show the nitty gritty of adoption or any semblance of reality, for that matter.
It is a show where they spontaneously break out in song and we have characters like Sue Sylvester or Brittany.
Were you seriously expecting an indepth portrayal of adoption? Really???

[Delilah83]

Originally Posted by sbrinton

To be fair, Glee does take an interesting, if not realistic, look at everyone involved in the adoption triad.

Remember, Rachel was adopted by dads and throughout this season has been struggling with wanting to meet her birth mom? And then the birth mom reaches out to Rachel through the fake boyfriend? Both seem to struggle with this new relationship? Then the birth mom goes on to adopt Quinn's baby?

I don't know that this is a realistic or positive portrayal of adoption, but it is interesting to see the character of Rachel struggling as a teenager with not knowing her birth mom.

Actually Rachel wasn't adopted per se. I think the deal with her birth mother is that her fathers paid Shelby to be both egg donor/surrogate and then they both gave sperm samples (this was a joke in the first episode because Rachel didn't know which parent was her biological father except that one was black and the other was white) So in that situation Shelby would have one father on the birth certificate and the other would have adopted Rachel after shelby gave up parenting rights.