Dear Glee, this might be your idea of a joke but it’s not really funny.
As part of their “Born This Way” episode, the cast of Glee was asked to make T-shirts with a quality they hate about themselves but wouldn’t change because they were “born this way” and one character saw it fit to confuse – yet again – Lebanese with Lesbian.
The same character, Brittany, goes on in the conversation about how Santana is “Lebanese” and she, Brittany, is “bicurious”.
The joke is seriously getting old. And as a Lebanese, having my nationality mixed up with a sexual orientation isn’t really flattering. So dear Glee, get a grip.
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A Separate State of Mind | A Blog by Elie Fares 
If I am late for work tomorrow it is all your fault because I stayed up late reading this fascinating debate! Now to my point… There is a joke in The Simpsons where Homer points to Uraguay and says “U R Gay, hate to live in that country!” you might suggest that this is offensive to the people of Uraguay or to the gay community but in fact it is not about either of them, the about the character who is supposed to represent the average American man: white, overweight, small and simple minded. Simlarly, Glee laughs at stereotypes, brittany is the butt of the joke, not the Lebanese or their culture. I had not heard the joke before. Remember britney also said dolphins were gay sharks. Kind of offensive to gays, but they dont kick off coz they know they are not the butt of the joke.
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sorry to the Americans who are not accurately represented by Homer Simpson by the way… it was just an example of a similar joke!
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Bahahha! This is great. Thank you.
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1. Its a joke…about a linguistic misstep…not about someones nationality or sexuality.
2. It was making fun of people who make that misstep
3. If ur offended cuz you are lebanese and dont want people confusing u with lesbians…then I wonder why u view lesbians as a bad thing u dont want to be confused with…prejudice.
5. And seriously if anyone on here is really that bothered by this I think they need to go out and get laid…by either a lebanese or a lesbian. 🙂
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i don’t think it was meant in a wrong way…i understand been hurt by it but still, this episode did bring out a good point 😉
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Get over it
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I really don’t think Confusing Lebanese and Lesbian is really offending.
Like Jason said, for many years people called things they don’t like or bad “Gay”
This is something I only noticed recently and has no effect on people INSULTING Lebanese people.
I think you should remember how stupid some people can be, thinking Lebanese would be Lesbian, and that it’s not something to fuss about., there are going to be people who don’t know things and people that do.
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I didnt know anything about lebaneses before until i came to live in Qatar, which is full of lebanese people. i cant believe that Elie Fares is truly offended by this innocent joke cause is not really attacking nationalities whatsoever. is about the stupidity of an american blonde girl who cant even spell her own sexuality. It might be an old joke if you mention that is been on tv shows since 1980s, Imagine that some people never heard about this little country in their whole lives .. it wouldnt have any meaning for them, but now Lebaneses are on the scene, in lady gaga song , in glee, comedians like rusell peters.. etc..( i think you would be more offended if you see Rusell peters stand up comedy mentioning lebanese people) .. Ellen Degeneres trying to disguise lesbianism with lebanese saying she starts to like baba ghanoush and hommos….hahaha i find it Hilarious!!! they never mention anything negative about Lebanon, every country has his own way of mocking about themselves. look at spaniards, chinese, indians, french, mexicans,colombians, russians,,, . I think you should be thankful for this kind of publicity. at least you are becoming famous.. 😉
chill out
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2 things: 1) I am Lebanese as well, and wasn’t all offended, in fact I thought it was cute. My family has always been very proud of our heritage, our culture and our past but never once have I been offended by the word ‘Lebanese’ being used in the place of ‘Lesbian’ so I think maybe you are the one who needs to get a grip. 2) In addition to being of Lebanese heritage I am also a theater professional, A.K.A. a Thespian (say it out loud, it sounds like Lesbian to a lot of people). The number of times I have heard someone make a joke about THAT similarity is probably getting close to 100,000 by now and I don’t feel the need to write a blog about it. Instead I choose to get off my high horse, come down to their level, and laugh along with them. Because honestly, if we cannot laugh at ourselves and find the joy in our hearts to laugh at others then all we are is sad, lonely people who are looking for a reason to complain. Don’t be a complainer dude, have your grandma make you some Mujaddarah and get over it.
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brittany.. you know the character on the show- shes supposed to be a little stupid.. or ‘stoopid’ if you will.. its in her character to be.. slower than the rest. duh- thus her mistaking the word lesbian w lebanese- once she asked ‘is god an angry elf?’ do you think people are loosing sleep over her comparing god to elves? doubtful. relax w the anger, chief- its just a show.
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Instead of getting angry about lesbian/lebanese issues, why don’t you devote your time & effort to something like defeating rape culture or bringing light to human trafficking issues. I’m sure there are lebanese people out there who would appreciate it much more if you fought for their human rights instead of making sure no one confuses them with being a lesbian. Oh my a lesbian?! How offensive to be mistaken as.
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I think the real issue is that they didn’t even get the joke right. If someone says they are Lebanese, it is then confused into lesbian. If her “dumb” girlfriend was making a shirt from scratch she would not write Lebanese on accident. No one ever says I’m a lesbian and the listener gets confused and says “oh your nationality is Lebanese?” They really stretched for that joke. Also, how would the “dumb blonde” know Lebanese was a word, nationality or anything else.
Either way, it is a show that crosses a lot of lifestyles and issues and is going to offend a lot of people if anyone with similar circumstances gets offended every time they deal with something differently than your experience. It’s entertainment and the show seems to do more good than bad for Tweens confidence.
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Hey you moron what you are saying is that you are A: an idiot who clearly doesn’t understand the concept of metaphors, B: a homophobic prat who gets offended by lesbians and C: a miserable asshole who must have a hard time watching any tv shows or movies from the “comedy” genre given that most of them contain references that some sad idiot somewhere in the world is going to find ‘offensive’. Oh yeah one more thing, why on gods green earth would anyone, no matter how stupid or prejudiced they are, find it offensive to be associated with homosexuals ??
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