Kurt and Quinn: Depression and Suicide

dragonagron:

Quinn: I feel sorry for Karofsky, but what he did was selfish. He didn’t want to just hurt himself, he wanted to hurt everyone around him. I went through the ringer, but I never got to that place.

Kurt: Quinn, please. Sure, you had a baby when you were sixteen and you had a bad dye job for two weeks. But seriously, the world never stopped loving you. And you’re going to Yale. You have no idea what Karofsky was struggling with.

Quinn: You really want to try to compare-

Kurt: The dispair, the self loathing…

Quinn: It doesn’t matter. I just can’t imagine things getting so messed up that you would consider taking your own life. 

Kurt: That is so harsh and reductive. Have some compassion. Do you know that they’re still writing on his Facebook? Better luck next time and try, try again.

Okay, so, I have issues with this scene. I think each of them makes a valid point, but the way that Kurt goes about expressing his side, belittling Quinn. That is not okay. It is not a good message the show is putting out.

I don’t necessarily agree with it being one or the other, because, reality check, nothing is ever just black or white. 

Kurt and Quinn’s stance on the issue both make sense to me. 

Quinn
—16 and pregnant
—Kicked out
—Disowned
—negligent parenting
—Postpartum depression
—Christian
—Young and naive

Kurt
—Coming to terms with sexuality
—Bullied
—Sexual harassment
—Life was threatened
—School wide prank
—Young and naive 

They’re both young and naive and were raised in drastically different households. They’ve dealt with different issues. In high school, everyone is very much stuck in their own head. It’s harder, without the years of life experience, to empathize with others.

The fact that they clashed the way they did makes sense as well. They’re both very opinionated, intelligent people. They both have very different mindsets and opinions. They can both be caustically witty in a not-so-nice way. I think that it was smart to have Kurt and Quinn clash in this way.

Kurt knows what Dave’s going through on a more personal level than Quinn. But, that does not mean it’s okay to downplay Quinn’s situation. The message the show puts out through that, as well, is terrible. It is giving the vibe that Quinn’s situation wasn’t bad. The way that Kurt belittled and downplayed what Quinn went through. Postpartum depression is an incredibly sensitive topic that Glee basically just said was nothing. 

Comparing Karofsky’s situation to Quinn’s in the condescending way that Kurt did, granted he was understandably emotional, was not the right thing to do. That’s apples and orange. They’re both fruit, or hard hitting topics that can lead to depression and suicide, but they’re completely different vehicles.

Suicide and depression is there, no matter the cause. Be it bullying, gay bashing, familial issues, school. Like Schue said, “everyone has something that might take them up to that edge”.

This, this, and all this.  Because I’m sick of Quinn’s issues being dismissed as #whitegirlproblems.