i wrote this paper about glee and now you can look at it

dearest ones,

I wrote this paper about tv's "glee" for my disability in global film class. i live tweeted the experience and people kept being like erin. oh my god. can i read your paper about glee? and i was like oh my god no! i am a terrible academic writer and i am writing this paper in conjunction with my 50 page capstone, so it is like the ugly baby sister of my capstone and is embarrassingly bad. But then I was like haha....who cares. so here is my glee paper. please enjoy my academic glee opinions. hopefully they'll get me a b (oof). i am not proud of the embarrassingly earnest way i talk about glee in this paper. be warned.

xoxo, evt.

Dream On: Artie Abrams, Kevin McHale, and Able-Bodied Performance of Disability

On May 19, 2009, the Fox network introduced Americans to the William McKinley Glee Club, a group of teenage underdogs trying to survive high school white aiming to work together to win local and national singing competitions. Glee’s six season run focused on complex storylines with a campy bite, set in a high school glee club in suburban Ohio. While some have lauded Glee for its multicultural cast and hard hitting plots, others have dug deeper to critique its portrayals of marginalized groups. This critique has happened both academically and in popular culture, in publications that vary from Buzzfeed and Teen Vogue, to Disability Studies Quarterly and Transformative Works and Cultures For better or for worse, Glee sparked a conversation about the ways in which diverse populations are portrayed on television. Although Glee’s aim seems to be diversity, many of its storylines perpetuate stereotypes about marginalized people or do not portray complicated topics sensitively. The stories range from positive representation to maudlin stories played as heartwarming to downright offensive considerations of sensitive topics. Several of the more questionable plot arcs involve Artie, a Glee club member who uses a wheelchair. 

Artie is a part of the original core cast of Glee characters. Artie is a wheelchair user; it is revealed early on in the run of the show that he has an acquired disability from a car accident that occurred when he was eight years old. Although it is not explicitly stated, viewers get the impression that Artie’s legs are paralyzed. He has many starring moments throughout the course of the show; he sings solos, he dates other main characters, and he cracks some of the funniest jokes. Paper Magazine calls him “one of the stronger characters in [Glee’s] mixed bag.” With this in mind, it makes sense that viewers often think of Artie as an example of positive disability representation in media. For example, in 2011, New Mobility Magazine named Artie their “person of the year,” saying that “a traffic accident in his mom’s car when he was 8 years old left him paralyzed from the waist down, but that has not stopped this product of Anytown, USA, from dreaming and working and living the fullest possible life of an American teenager.” However, I would argue that Artie is not shown living the “fullest possible life” of an American teenager, at least when compared to his peers on Glee. The formatting of Glee makes it next to impossible for Artie to be the star of any truly disability centered, non-ableist narratives. One reason for this is that Kevin McHale, who was cast to play Artie, is not a wheelchair user in real life. However, the issues are rooted even deeper than that, in the very formatting and premise of the show. Because of the framework of compulsory able-bodiedness that Glee operates from, Artie is tokenized and commodified in a way that distinctly perpetuates ableism and an ability-centered mentality. 

According to scholar and disabled dancer Alice Sheppard, although Glee features a variety of diverse archetypes and aims to show the experiences of marginalized groups, it “cannot move away from tokenism.” Glee stars people of color, LGBTQ+ people, and disabled people, but these characters are commodified so that their lived experiences can be used to teach lessons in a particular way. Sheppard states that “the characters' widespread appeal is rooted in their ability to recreate two common high school experiences: the sense of being existentially alone and the deep discomfort with different embodiments.” The Glee characters are misfits. Other characters call them the Gleeks; they are nerds, they don’t have a place in the school. For some of these characters, this is because of racism or homophobia. For others, it is because of classic, stereotypical high school dynamics; Rachel is made fun of for being a theater nerd, for example, or Tina for being a goth. The characters are socially isolated and uncomfortable with their difference, and through the Glee Club, they come together to form a place where they can all belong. However, in contrast to the other characters “Artie's isolation is social and physical.” Artie faced the same social isolation that the other “Gleeks” face; in the pilot episode, Artie is one of five students already in the Glee Club before the club starts recruiting new members (alongside Tina, Mercedes, Rachel, and Kurt). He is there at the stage before athletes and cheerleaders start joining; he faces the same social isolation associated with being a “Gleek.” However, he also faces a physical isolation within the Glee Club. He is the only member who has a physical impairment. Sheppard states that “unlike the others, Artie cannot dance. And because he cannot dance, he cannot participate fully in the life of the club.” 

For the purposes of this paper, I chose to focus on two Glee episodes: “Dream On” (S1E19) and “Glee, Actually" (S4E10). I chose these episodes for a few reasons. Both episodes focus on Artie’s disability and his insecurity about being disabled. In “Dream On,” Tina finds out that it is Artie’s dream to be a dancer. She encourages him to try and achieve this dream by getting him to try crutches. He struggles, leaving him feeling frustrated at her for pushing him to try. Later, Tina apologetically gives Artie a packet of research she has been doing on how he can be “healed” by new treatments, leading Artie to fantasize about being cured. He imagines a dance flash mob in a shopping mall, in which he performs a complicated boyband-like dance and sings “Safety Dance” by Men Without Hats. After Ms. Pillsbury tells Artie it is unlikely any of these treatments would work for him until years into the future, Artie encourages Tina to find a new dance partner; she eventually chooses Mike Chang. In “Glee, Actually,” Artie slips on an icy wheelchair ramp and is helped up by Finn. Artie tells Finn that he wishes that he hadn’t gotten into the accident that injured his spinal cord. He then falls asleep, and the episode enters an “It’s a Wonderful Life” themed dream sequence. Because Artie never got into his accident, the Glee Club never got off the ground. Will is an alcoholic in a terrible marriage, Kurt is bullied so consistently by jocks that he drops out of school, and Rachel works as a librarian because she never got the chance to be a star. Rory (playing the role of the angel) explains that this is because Artie was the heart and soul of the Glee club. He wakes up with a renewed understanding of his role. Both episodes involve plotlines in which Artie is miraculously able-bodied and able to walk and dance for parts of the episode. This feeds into Glee’s narratives about what is expected from members of its community. 

When considering the expectation of able-bodiedness on Glee, it is relevant to consider the role of Kevin McHale, the able-bodied actor who plays Artie. McHale is an actor, but his career pre Glee was very dancing focused; pre-Glee, he was a member of a short-lived boyband called Not Like Them (NLT). McHale himself has said, “I come from a dancing background and hip hop...which is funny because when the show started it was like, okay, you put the dancer in the wheelchair." McHale has dance skills and experience, but no experience using a wheelchair; it is interesting that he himself frames it as amusing that he would be selected for this role in which his dance skills are not being utilized. However, as we can see through these episodes, Glee takes advantage of McHale’s dance ability in episodes that feature dream sequences where Artie is miraculously able-bodied. 

When asked why McHale was chosen to play Artie, creator Brad Falchuck commented in the Florida Times-Union, “It was very hard to find people who could really sing, really act, and have that charisma you need on TV...it’s hard to say no to someone [as] talented [as McHale].” He comments that the producers and writers “brought in anyone [to audition]: white, black, Asian, in a wheelchair.” This is questionable at best; there are many equally talented performers with stage presence and charisma who are wheelchair users. However, the comment is interesting because it sheds light on the ability focused mentality of Glee. Sheppard proposes that “McHale plays Artie because the disability discourse of Hollywood cannot see movement in the language of wheeled life...Hollywood all too regularly conflates paralyzed with petrified, thereby denying the possibility, or even the permissibility of pleasurable, professional movement in a disabled body. Casting McHale continues the tradition of fear around disability in the public eye...and furthers the prejudicial systems that make it nearly impossible for a disabled person both to train as an actor and/or dancer and to get work.” Artie’s disability is just another performance on Glee. Glee isn’t concerned with portraying the lived experience of disabled people. They have bought into the narrative that there are many things wheelchair users can’t do, and it seems, into the narrative that it would be easier to hire someone able bodied. The able-bodied actor can “perform” disability without the writers and directors having to give any thought to what an actual disabled performance would or could look like, and without having to solve any access issues on their set. McHale has commented publicly, “[when] we were setting up the press tour and we had planning people asking if they needed to make preparations to make sure every place is wheelchair accessible and all that...the show producers were like, 'No, really Kevin's not really in a wheelchair.’” His emphasis on “really” highlights the fact that wheelchair use is just another piece of the performance of Artie, something to take on and take off for the character. For McHale, disability is just another aspect of acting as Artie. 

Before I dig into the concept of dance and able-bodiedness in these episodes, I want to consider the portrayal of wheelchair use through the character of Artie. Kevin McHale’s use of a wheelchair has been strongly criticized for inaccuracy. Bob Vogel from the wheelchair company Permobile analyzed McHale’s depiction of wheelchair use and found several issues and inconsistencies. He comments that it is obvious that Glee “didn’t bother to hire a consultant (a physical therapist, occupational therapist or paraplegic) to create an accurate portrayal of a paraplegic,” a fact made obvious by Artie’s “ridiculous seating and positioning.” Vogel polled a group of wheelchair users and physical therapists about Artie’s positioning and found that “most quickly noticed that his seating was poor, and was an inaccurate portrayal of the way an average paraplegic sits.” They noted that anyone sitting in such a position would be in considerable pain. Artie’s portrayal of wheelchair use is, in this crucial way, inaccurate, and it leads to him making wheelchair use look awkward and uncomfortable. Vogel does address the fact that in season three of Glee, Artie’s positioning in the chair noticeably changes and improves, perhaps because Glee hired a consultant after receiving due criticism for their previously inaccurate portrayal.

Similarly, professional dancer and wheelchair user Alice Sheppard also analyzed Artie’s depiction on Glee. She commented that “experienced wheelchair users know the chair. We know how the stroke works, when to apply force, how to use our bodies, when to lean back and coast before once more applying our hands to the wheels.” There is a rhythm and a dance to wheelchair use that users can recognize. She comments that in contrast, Artie “pushes and shoves himself around...he strikes the wheel quickly and repeatedly; he even applies some force….but [he] never rides the momentum. He never finds the sweet spot and, as a result, he never looks comfortable with or in his chair.”

McHale’s performance of wheelchair use is, whether intentionally or not, communicating something about disability. Consider the contrast between Artie’s wheelchair use and Artie’s dancing in the “Safety Dance” flashmob in “Dream On.” Sheppard comments that Artie is awkward and not confident in himself and his body. She says that “McHale traps himself in a hyperliteral interpretation of paralysis; not only can he not move his lower body, he is also unable to move with or in the technology that brings him into motion.”  When Artie is in the chair, he is awkward and uncomfortable, and the way he moves in the chair is an extension of that discomfort. Contrast this with the dance mob scene. In this scene, Artie is confident and in control. He is dynamic. Every moment his body makes is graceful and suave. He grins at the other dancers, he invites the strangers from around the mall to join him. He is the center of attention. He is everything that his character is not allowed to be as a physically impaired member of the Glee Club. 

 Another example of this dynamic is seen at the dawn of “Glee, Actually,” in which Artie slips in his wheelchair and hurts himself, which then leads to him wishing that he had never been in the accident that caused his paralysis. Once again, viewers are receiving certain messages about wheelchair users through this scene. This scene depicts wheelchair use as something that leaves a user vulnerable to injury and clumsy in their chair; consider how easy it was for Artie to slip and hurt himself on an icy day. They are also receiving a message about Artie: he is clumsy in his body, he is not confident in his disability, and he wishes this was not his reality. Being disabled makes it harder and more dangerous for Artie to do simple everyday tasks, like go to school when  it is icy. This all reinforced the narrative that Artie’s chair detracts from his life. 

Glee clearly sees Artie’s disability as his challenge. Glee is driven by issues and challenges that they students are facing. This can be as high stakes as unexpected pregnancy or an eating disorder, or as comparatively low stakes as the college admissions process. Many characters face challenges related to their marginalized identities. Tina, Mike, and Mercedes face and challenge racism, Kurt and Santana face and challenge homophobia. However, Artie’s storylines are not about him facing or challenging ableism; they are about how his disability makes his life harder, how his disability robs him of opportunities, and how he wishes he was not disabled. The disability itself is his “challenge,” not societal discrimination he faces because of it. For example, in “Dream On,” if the episode were focused on ableism as Artie’s challenge, perhaps someone would provide Artie with information about wheelchair dance or other available community resources for wheelchair users. However, as it is, disability is the problem and the challenge. The “fix” for the problem of disability is not Artie finding ways to do what he wants to do; the fix is Artie coming to terms with the fact that he cannot do them because he is disabled. 

 The exception to this could perhaps be the season one episode “Wheels,” in which Glee Club sponsor Will Shuester asks the Glee Club students to confront their ableist bias by using wheelchairs at school for a week. However, even this storyline does not fully escape the ableist mentality of Glee. Firstly, Artie is barely even centered in the story; it is Will who confronts the other students about their indifference towards Artie’s challenges finding transportation to the Glee Club competitions. Beyond that, the general message of the episode seems to be, “Don’t you see how hard it is for Artie to get around? Can’t you see how much harder his life is because he is in a wheelchair?” rather than “Artie deserves the same resources and opportunities that you all have access to.” The characters aren’t necessarily being asked to create any kind of solidarity with Artie; it feels more like they are being asked to feel bad for him.   

Because of the ways that Glee centers able-bodied narratives like this, it is useful to consider Artie’s storylines through the framework of compulsory able-bodiedness as laid out by Robert McRuer. Compulsory able-bodiedness considers the framework of compulsory heterosexuality as laid out by Adrianne Rich and applies a disability studied framework. Rich’s framework posits that heterosexuality is made the “foundational sexuality” through the marginalization of lesbian identity. It casts homosexuality as an “alternative” sexuality, suggesting that heterosexuality is not itself an alternative but is, rather, the natural order of things. McRuer applies this theory to able-bodiedness, suggesting that it has a similar hold on society. Able-bodiedness is the natural way of things, with disability being an “alternative” and subpar way of being.  

Nowhere is this framework more clear than on Glee. On Glee, able-bodiedness is compulsory. The activities that the Glee Club does are so inherently physical; they are creating elaborately choreographed dances in time to music that they are singing. Many of the members of the Club are athletes, like cheerleader Quinn or football player Sam. In fact, a large focus of the first few seasons of the show is the ways in which the Glee Club drew in athletes to participate, especially cheerleaders; this is part of what leads to the rivalry between Glee Club sponsor Mr. Shuester and cheerleading coach Sue. Lauren Levins of Middle Tennessee State University researched disability on Glee. She found that there are twelve disabled characters featured during the run of Glee (this includes two characters with temporary disabilities and includes Tina, although her disability was faked). Other than Sean Fretthold, a paralyzed football player who is featured only in one episode in season one, Artie is the only character who has a physical disability that means he cannot dance. Glee cannot imagine a world where he participates fully because of how it centers on the physicality of dancing.  

When applying this framework, it is clear that it would be a challenge for Glee to portray a disability centered narrative. The show is focused on what able bodies can do. Disability is inherently ranked as subpar because Artie’s physical impairment prevents him from doing what everyone else is able to do. This is incredibly obvious through Artie’s storylines in both “Dream On” and “Glee, Actually.” In “Dream On,” the entire focus of the episode is what Artie can’t do because of his disability and what he could do if he were able to be fully healed of it. Tina wants Artie to believe in a cure, because a cure means he could dance with her. Artie wants to dance, and the narrative of the episode gives us clear reasons why: he cannot be a full member of the Glee Club, or a full boyfriend to Tina, as a wheelchair user. Think, for example, of the mall flash mob scene. Directly before the song and dance routine, Tina leaves Artie to go upstairs to get pretzels; Artie cannot join because there is an escalator. While he is waiting alone for Tina, he envisions a scene where he sings “Safety Dance” by Men at Work and does an impressively choreographed dance routine, with friends and a variety of strangers joining in to create a dance mob. In this scene, Artie has full command of his body. He is confident and in control. He is impressing Tina and commanding the space. This is a huge change from the Artie we see throughout the rest of the episode, who is uncomfortable in his body, awkward, and deeply unhappy with his disability.

 At the tail end of the episode, Artie directly tells Tina, “you have worked too hard on this routine to have half a partner,” suggesting that because he is not able to do the dance as choreographed, he is only able to be “half a partner” to her. Inevitably, Tina chooses Mike to be her dance partner in the final number. Mike becomes her boyfriend shortly after this episode, suggesting that she prefers to be with Mike because he can dance with her and fulfil a full “partner” role in her life. This fits the common trope of a disabled character as asexual or somehow a less effective partner. Because Artie is disabled, he is deemed not good enough to be Tina’s boyfriend, and she instead chooses someone able-bodied.

Shepherd comments that  “[Artie and Tina’s] relationship will wobble and ultimately fall on the issues of disability and cure.” Their relationship is inevitably brought to a halt by Artie’s inability to be cured of his disability so that he can be an able-bodied boyfriend to her. Shepherd writes that “Tina thrusts a cure at Artie, literally handing him her research on new stem cell therapies and spinal cord stimulators. If Artie can be cured, he will, in the long term, be able to be realize his dream to be a dancer. In the short term, Artie being able to stand, walk and dance means that he will be a better partner for Tina in dance and in life.” Tina has a personal stake in Artie’s cure narrative. She wants Artie to get better because she wants a partner who can dance with her.  Sheppard elaborates that “Artie's inability to walk becomes a cipher for his ability to serve as an adequate dance partner or boyfriend.” In the end, the episode lands with Artie not being able to be the partner Tina wants in either sense, specifically because he is unable to dance with her.

This sets up a relationship dynamic that continues into Artie’s other relationships on Glee.For example, consider Brittany, who Artie dates in later seasons. In the season three episode “A Very Glee Christmas,” Brittany’s desire to get Artie to walk takes precedence over anything Artie might want. The entire Glee Club conspires to find some way to get Artie to be able to walk for Christmas, even though it is inconvenient, expensive, and Artie has expressed no interest in it. The narrative focuses completely on Brittany’s able-bodied discomfort with Artie’s inability to walk and on Artie’s disability as a problem that needs to be fixed. In this way, in both of Artie’s major onscreen relationships, his disability is shown as a major issue that prevents him from being a fully present boyfriend. 

Similarly, it is interesting to consider the use of the song “Safety Dance” in the flash mob scene. The lyrics are all about dance and belonging. “You can dance if you want to/you can leave your friends behind/because your friends don’t dance/and if they don’t dance/then they’re no friends of mine” feels like an interesting choice of lyrics given that the end message of the episode is that Artie can’t dance even though it is his dream, and dancing is a crucial part of being a Glee Club member and being a boyfriend to Tina. The episode ends with Artie having to come to terms with the fact that he will always be on the outside of the group because of his inability to dance. He is the friend who is denied the opportunity to dance, and he is “left behind” in the world of Glee, where having an able body that can dance to the choreographed dances is an integral part of being a member of the community. 

This is unfortunate for many reasons, chief among them being that there is no real reason why Artie is not able to dance. There is a long history of wheelchair and paraplegic dance; there are entire dance companies dedicated to wheelchair dance, and a full category at the Paralympics. Despite this, Glee cannot even imagine a world in which Artie is able to dance. There is no moment where it is even conceived of; on Glee, being a dancer and being able bodied are intrinsically tied. Artie is not taught how to dance. Neither Tina nor Artie attempt to choreograph dance involving Artie’s chair, except for the failed attempt at making “tap wheels.” which gets about twenty seconds of screen time and is played only to show how foolish of an idea it is. No one suggests to Artie that he might be able to learn how to dance and do choreography that involves his wheelchair; no one shows any awareness that such a thing is even possible. Even Emma Pillsbury, the guidance counselor at the school, fully buys into the narrative that to be able to dance, Artie must be cured of his disability. She tells Artie that he cannot live his life focusing on when he will become able bodied, since that could not happen for years into the future. At no point does she, or anyone for that matter, even entertain the idea that there may be some way for Artie to achieve his dreams now, in his current body. The only focus of the storyline is on what Artie could do if he were able-bodied.

However, there is no real reason that Artie’s character cannot be a dancer. As stated earlier, there are many examples of wheelchair users performing professional dance. Marisa Hamamoto, for instance, is a professional dancer who uses a wheelchair; she founded Infinite Flow, a dance company for disabled dancers. Ms. Hamamoto has been winning awards for dance since 2006 and is a highly awarded and sought after choreographer and dancer. She was recently named one of People Magazines “13 Women Changing the World.” She is just one example of the many highly decorated disabled dancers. Paralympic dancing is a worldwide sport; the Para Dance Association has been holding global competitions since 1975 and has been a sport with the International Paralympics Committee since 1998. Hearing Emma tell Artie there is no way he could possibly dance until years in the future feels incredibly dismissive of the rich dance community that wheelchair users have created. Artie himself says, “I’m never gonna dunk a basketball or kill a lion either. I have to focus on dreams I can make come true.” I don’t think anyone should kill a lion, but I do think Artie could dance; it is disappointing to watch Glee rob him of that opportunity through its able bodied focus. 

Another way you can see the compulsory able-bodiedness of Glee is through the contrast in stories starring Becky, played by Lauren Potter, and stories starring Artie. Becky has Down Syndrome; a lot of her storylines center on her disability, however like many of the other characters mentioned, she is an athlete, and that forms a large part of her identity. The bulk of Becky’s stories focus on the fact that she doesn’t want to be treated differently than the other characters. In Yes/No (S3E10), Artie has gone on a date with Becky and wants to break up with her, but isn’t sure how to. Sue encourages him to treat Becky like he would any other girl, because she just wants to be treated with respect. In Wheels (S1E9), Will chastises Sue for pushing Becky too hard during cheerleading practice. Sue retorts that Becky doesn’t want to be treated differently than any of the other cheerleaders, and that she deserves to be treated as an equal member of the team. 

 Contrast this to, for example, the storyline of” Glee Actually.” It centers around the idea that Artie is the “soul of the Glee Club” in a faux heartwarming episode about how Artie is the glue holding them all together, specifically because of his disability. It’s a far cry from Becky’s “I deserve to be treated like anyone else” storylines. In Artie’s storylines, he is treated differently because of his disability, and in “Glee, Actually,” there is some sense that this different treatment is justified. It even goes so far as to suggest that if Artie were treated “just like everybody else,” the entire Glee Club would fall apart. Similarly, in “Dream On,” no one suggests to Artie that it is possible for him to dance or achieve what the other students can achieve. Everyone assumes Artie must be healed of his disability to be able to be a dancer, because in Glee’s compulsory able-bodied framework, to be a dancer you need to be able bodied. 

 It’s also possible that this has something to do with the fact that Lauren Potter, the actress who plays Becky, has Down Syndrome, rather than a physical impairment. Becky’s storylines on Glee can be very ableist, however, they are ableist in a different way than Artie’s. She is often used as comic relief; the idea of her being sexually insatiable, for example, is constantly played for laughs. Consider Becky’s storyline in “Glee, Actually,” in which she becomes the “school slut” when magically able-bodied Artie doesn’t ask her out. In this way, she cannot escape the othering that comes from Glee’s compulsory able-bodied framework. However, the storylines that focus on Becky’s disability tend to focus on what she can do, rather than what she can’t do. Artie is not given this same grace.

On Glee, being physically impaired is not a livable option. Episodes about Artie’s disability focus on the fact that being disabled makes his life inconvenient and stops him from doing the things he wants to do; consider “Dream On” in which he is unable to dance, or “Wheels” in which it is more costly and inconvenient to get Artie to and from competitions. They focus on the fact that being disabled makes him a subpar partner;such as in “Dream on” and “A Very Glee Christmas.” All of these episodes, as well as “Glee, Actually,” also center around the fact that Artie doesn’t want to be disabled. He quite literally wishes he weren’t disabled in “Glee, Actually,” and says as much in several other episodes. The only counter to this narrative in “Glee, Actually” is the idea that Artie is the “soul of the Glee Club” and the glue holding everyone together, and that it is his disability that allows him to be this way. Able-bodied Artie is an overly confident jerk; the storyline seems to suggest that being disabled gives Artie perspective that allowed him to bring this group of misfits together to become the Glee Club. This isn’t a truly positive disability narrative. First of all, the only benefit of Artie’s disability being that it has made other people’s lives better is hardly a disability centered narrative; it doesn’t even care about Artie as a person, and only considers how his actions affect the able-bodied people in his life. In this way, even in an episode focused on Artie, the narrative is still centered on able-bodied people. Secondly, the idea that Artie was an overconfident jerk and his disability somehow humbled him is also a problematic narrative. Artie’s portrayal by McHale, a man with no framework for what it actually feels like to be physically impaired, feeds into these narratives, but they are also a symptom of a larger problem. 

Glee makes a valiant effort to create a diverse show that tackles the complications and trials of teenage life. However, it falls short of creating a disability inclusive narrative for the character of Artie. Glee is consumed by its own compulsory able-bodiedness; there is no scenario in which Artie could be shown having as full of a life as the other characters. His disability is something that detracts, and something that makes him different from the other students. His storylines focus on him “coming to terms” with the fact that he cannot dance and cannot be cured. Although Glee strives for inclusivity, these are the same tired ableist stereotypes we have seen time and time again. To have a disability centered narrative, Glee would need to move away from seeing being disabled as Artie’s challenge and move towards a framework in which ableism is seen as the problem. 

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