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I have new faith in pop culture as a vector of enlightenment now that the TV show Glee has given us Wheels, a thoroughly contemporary After School Special about people with disabilities. I am not used to thoughtful dramatic portrayals of people with special needs, so I had to keep pinching myself as Glee's writers nimbly folded teaching moments into plot twists, using empathy and humor, yet with minimal self-congratulatory over-explanation. I loved it. And I hope its three clear, critical messages percolate deeply into TV watchers' brains:
1) The term "retarded" is no longer acceptable.
2) To support someone with special needs, talk with them, not for or about them.
3) Loving someone with special needs does not make you a saint.
With these points in mind, see if you can count the number of times they're reinforced in the following special needs plotlines (which are not the episode's only story threads; as io9's Charlie Jane Anders pointed out, "[Glee packs] so much into one episode, and none of it feels forced."):
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The Glee club needs a bus to travel to a competition, but can't afford one with a wheelchair lift -- meaning that Artie, who is paraplegic, has to find his own transportation. Glee director Will Schuester asks his students to hold a bake sale to fund the bus, but they decline -- one girl, Mercedes, even asserts that "Artie doesn't mind, his dad drives him everywhere," spurring Artie to let them know, "actually, I do mind. "
Will lets the matter slide at first. But after arguing with both the principal and bombastic cheer coach Sue Sylvester about the need for more than one wheelchair ramp at the school, and then spying Artie doing some cool moves in his chair, Will changes his mind. He tells the glee club that not only is the bake sale on, but they will all spend three hours each day in a wheelchair so they can better understand what it's like to be Artie -- and they will also be doing a wheelchair routine for sectionals.
The students take to their wheelchairs and grudgingly set up the bake sale. When cheerleader Brittany approaches the bake sale table accompanied by Becky, who has Down syndrome, Quinn, the self-absorbed, pregnant, and as a result dethroned head cheerleader, callously demands what Brittany is "doing with HER." Another student tells Quinn that the girls are friends, and that Brittany "cheats off [Becky's] math tests." Becky and Brittany buy cupcakes, and Becky tells one of the cheer/glee girls that she thinks cheerleaders are cool.
The principal, "inspired" by Will's inclusive actions, commands Sue to hold open auditions to replace Quinn, with Will attending to ensure fairness. Sue, with characteristic abruptness, shoots down every candidate, until Becky auditions -- and is informed by Sue that she's made the team. Will is skeptical since Sue is calculating and evil, and chides Sue about her bullying of Becky during a subsequent practice, saying that Sue's behavior is unfair because Becky is different. Sue says she bullies everyone, and that "I want you to listen to what you just said. You're telling me I have to treat her differently because she has a disability, when it seems to me she just wants to be treated like everyone else."
The bake sale is a huge success for non-special needs but entertaining reasons that I will not reveal here. Will hands the bake sale profits to Artie, telling him to give it to the principal himself. Artie says that actually, he'd rather forgo the one-time bus, and instead pay for more wheelchair ramps since he's not the only kid at school in a wheelchair. It is then revealed that Artie's proposal is unnecessary, because Sue Sylvester already paid for the new ramps. The principal and Will are baffled by Sue's actions, as are we -- until we see Sue visit a nursing home to dote on her adored older sister, who has Down syndrome.
Meanwhile Artie has been crushing on and spending time with Tina, and reminds her that she knew what it was like to be different before her wheelchair assignment, due to her stutter. Tina gets out of her chair and kisses Artie, and tells him that she's been faking her stutter since sixth grade, because she's shy and wanted to push people away. Artie backs away from her in disgust, saying that he would never push people away, that the chair already does that, and that "I'm sorry that you get to be
