"I'm mad at you. You're still so hot."

I like to write about the representations of sexuality in pop culture. A lot. And today I watched Glee, so this was pretty much inevitable. Sexy Spoilers for Glee, up to and including today's episode Duets.

Glee's Brittany (of "Dolphins are just gay sharks" fame) and Santana (former head cheerio) are totally rocking a "not dating but there is totally sex and affection and occasionally jealousy" friend/relation-ship. The coolest part of which is that their label free adventures in sexuality have been going on since last season without it being a big deal.

It's such an cool contrast to Kurt's storyline. Kurt is all about his sexual identity. He states "I'm gay" in many many episodes (I was going to go back and count, but I don't have time to rewatch all of them). His sexual identity is  obviously a huge part of his life and how he experiences the world. His coming out and dealing with the people around him forms one of, if not the major, component of his story lines.

Then we've got Brittany and Santana who are much more about the action and not at all about identity in regards to their sexuality. Where Kurt is openly gay before he's done anything sexual with anyone (he's never kissed a boy or a girl), Brittany and Santana evidently are very much into sexual activity (both with each other and the school's population at large) but aren't inclined to identify and declare their sexual orientation. They sleep with the football team, Brittany has made out with pretty much everyone at the school (boys, girls, + janitor), they have sex with each other, they go on dates with the same guy at the same time, they encourage each other to have sex with other people and they both have a lot of sex with a lot of people all the while not bothering with labels or sexual orientations. Their sexuality is not a cause of angst in the same way Kurt's is.

Whereas Kurt gets an entire episode for him to come out as gay, complete with his teary-eyed confession to his father who reassuringly gives him a hug and assures him that he loves him just the same, Brittany mentions once "Sex is not dating. If it was Santana and I would be dating" back sometime in the middle(?) of season one. It took 3 seconds, was mentioned in passing and is not brought up again until this weeks episode where we see them in bed together. And delightfully, we're not supposed to take away "Santana and Brittany are lesbians" from seeing them together. 

Here's hoping that Glee continues to bring representations of fluid sexuality alongside the more heavy handed Kurt story line.