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…
I didn’t take that interaction as downplaying her situation, but rather bringing to light that she plainly didn’t know what Karofsky was going through, as no one but Karofsky himself does. I think that her reaction was realistic though, and I can appreciate that. I’m super glad that Mr. Schue talked to them all the way he did, and that the overall message of the issue was you can’t weigh the value of someone’s pain. Anyone taking this as an opportunity to #whitegirlproblems this shit is just a moron anyway so they get a big ol’ spitty raspberry from me.
She didn’t know what Karofsky is going through, but the underlying point of the scene is that Kurt somehow does, because both he and Karofsky are gay. Kurt makes a really valid point, but at the same time completely belittles Quinn’s problems. You can’t qualify depression like that. It feels to me like Kurt is saying “Okay Quinn, yeah, you were sad or whatever, but your sadness doesn’t compare to Karofsky’s internalized homophobia.”
Quinn wasn’t “just sad.” She had a baby at sixteen, was disowned, and struggled with postpartum depression. Her depression and self-loathing wasn’t worse than Karofsky’s, but that certainly doesn’t mean it was better or easier to deal with. She has a callous reaction to a suicide attempt, and in an effort to put her in her place, Kurt dismisses her and her experiences.
