Crazy Brittanalyst Grab-Bag: Part LVIII

The Battle to Tame the Ask Box continues…

1. Hey, Anon!

Actually, I just pause the episodes a lot and watch them repeatedly with my Text Post box open so I can write about things as I see them. It makes the viewing process longer, but since there’s Brittana involved, I don’t mind.

2. Hey, Anon!

Thank you so much for your amazingly kind message! I’m glad you like my tags—I’m quite fond of writing them myself. While I don’t romantically ship HeYa, I certainly don’t begrudge anyone who does or make judgments about them doing so. I do adore HeYa’s friendship. Anyway, thank you for taking the time to write to me! I appreciate your readership. Internet hugs?

3. Hey!

So I’ve actually got a big fanfiction project in the works right now that I intend to publish over the hiatus. It will be my first real multichapter story with serialized installments, and, because it’s me, a lot of it will be fluffy—though not all of it.

Right now, this project sort of consumes my time, so I don’t know that I’ll publish anything else aside from this project over the break. If I get a chance, maybe I’ll write some pure fluff, just because fluff is my jam, but I can’t promise that I will.

In the meanwhile, can I interest you in an internet hug? That episode was rough. I think the whole fandom could use a hug, actually.

4. Hey, Melissa!

Thank you so much for your thoughtful message and for taking the time to write to me! I’m so glad you enjoy my posts and it makes me really happy that I can in any small way contribute to your confidence! Your Ask basically makes my day. Thank you for being so awesome!

5. Hey, Anon!

First of all, thank you for your kind remarks! I’m glad you like my blog.

Secondly, as I’m not part of the Faberry fandom myself, I’m not too familiar with its members. However, I can tell you that my friend Bella publishes Faberryanalyses from time to time.

I would invite anyone more familiar with the Faberry fandom than myself to leave answers for this Anon in the replies to this post.

Sorry I can’t be more help!

6. Hey, Anon!

I honestly don’t know. On the one hand, one would think that if it were from Santana to Brittany, Santana would attempt to hide it when Brittany appears, laptop in hand, next to Santana’s open locker door, so as to keep it a surprise. But, then again, maybe Brittany’s gift just so flustered Santana that Santana forgot to shut the door. It’s also possible that Brittany got Santana more than one Valentine’s Day gift, so the rose comes from her.

Really? I think it could go either way. Fanfiction writers can do with it what they will.

Thanks for writing in!

7. Hey, Anon!

Okay, so I felt tempted to break out my Simone Weil and Judith Butler, but I’ll spare you that.

My main point with that tag is that the Troubletones seem to communicate using the typical feminized consensual model, as opposed to the male hierarchal one.

Interestingly, when the Troubletones first form in full, with Santana and Brittany joining the team in 3x04, Santana attempts to impose a masculine striated pattern of communication on the group, essentially telling Sugar to sit down and shut up while more qualified members of the group make decisions. But, ultimately? That’s not what happens; it would appear, based on what we see in 3x06, that all members of the group get an equal vote, regardless of talent-level, seniority, social position, etc. I would therefore argue that the Troubletones are an egalitarian group.

While Mercedes functions as the ostensible leader of the group, she does not have the unilateral power to “out vote” anyone; instead, she simply functions as a voice for the group, holding the same amount of power as her constituents. Indeed, the group seemingly functions as a meritocracy, with members securing solos and the opportunity to choreograph based on performance.

As for what I said about the Troubletones reminding me of a preagricultural Proto-Indo European matriarchal society, what I meant was this:

Prior to the advent of farming in early European and Near Eastern societies, many tribes and living groups functioned a matriarchies, with a female leader who—like Mercedes—functioned as a voice for the people, but held no extended powers over the group.

For the most part, these societies were nonhierarchical, meaning that people did not have specialized careers or social roles. Everyone contributed to hunting, foraging, making tools, etc., equally. They existed in a state of sexual parity.

I find that the Troubletones resemble such societies, insofar as everyone in the Troubletones fills all roles—as singers, dancers, voices in the community, and creative partners. Everyone has equal voice, without apparent hierarchy.

I find it especially interesting that the Troubletones are an egalitarian collective, given the fact that several members of the Troubletones are also Cheerios. The reason I find this point interesting is because, though the Cheerios are a predominantly female group, they function on patterns of male communication and hierarchy, with a strong central leader—Sue—who places tiered or striated levels of middle leadership beneath her—i.e., Santana, Becky, and Brittany—over the “plebe class” group members.

Though Santana is a central leader within the Cheerios team, her power with that group does not transfer to the Troubletones, as we see in 3x06, when the extra Cheerios on the Troubletones happily out vote Santana in her bid for leadership, seemingly secure with the knowledge that their actions at Troubletones practice will not carry over to Cheerios.

One would perhaps imagine, given the fact that the Cheerios actually compose the largest portion of the Troubletones, as a demographic, that some of the Cheerios’ hierarchy might manifest within the Troubletones as a group, but it doesn’t.

Without Sue enforcing the hierarchy, it dissolves. When left to their own devices, this group of teenage girls  communicate with each other on an egalitarian and democratic level, without regard for who is a Cheerios captain and who is not, who is a senior versus who is a junior, who is straight versus who is gay, etc. 

It really just blows my mind—and especially since this egalitarianism seemed to have evolved organically within the group, if we can take the fact that it exists both while Shelby leads the group and after her departure to mean anything. It’s something that the girls came up with on their own.

Suffice it to say, the Troubletones deeply impress me. They make my little feminist heart happy.

In short, the Troubletones are Amazons. Who run the world? Girls.

Thanks for writing in!

8. Hey, Anon!

For as much as Influence is part of the fanon, we have no canon evidence that Brittany does drugs in any capacity.

Though Brittany often makes jokes about drugs, we can’t take her jokes to indicate a drug problem any more than we can take Santana’s references to 1970s and 1980s pop culture to mean that Santana is actually secretly thirty years old and that she grew up during the Carter administration.

Is it possible that Brittany does drugs recreationally? Yes. Is it possible that she’s a drug addict? I suppose. But, honestly? I seriously, seriously doubt that she is. Drug use is a serious problem and I would be incredibly surprised to see Glee take a character who primarily functions as comic relief on the show down that road.

Besides, it seems to me that if Brittany were on ecstasy, we’d know about it. That’s not the kind of drug habit that someone can easily hide, you know? 

Anyway, until the show says otherwise, I have to believe that Brittany is not addicted to drugs in any capacity.

Thanks for writing in!