#anyway klaine had good intentions and they deserved a better episode to be able to showcase that.

[tuiyla]

This isn't you but I have noticed that fandom does tend to single out Klaine for Lady Music Week, which imo is ridiculous because unlike Finn singing about sapphic women 'just wanting to have fun' 🥴 and Puck singing about banging a teacher, Kurt and Blaine's song was about loving yourself just the way you are and being perfect despite your flaws and critics, which is something that was really fitting for Santana's situation.

I really don't think they were singing about 'how good their relationship was.' Were they happy to be up there singing publicly for each other? Yes, but that performance was still for Santana. It always seemed like they were coming at it from an angle of 'we've been through it but look where we are now, and someday you'll get here too' rather than it being condescending. I don't think they should've 'known better,' I really thought they were being genuine and unlike Finn, were actually trying to help.

Obviously Santana was justified in snapping at them no matter what bc she'd been fucking outed and had every right to be upset, but I also don't think Kurt and Blaine were inherently wrong or offensive for singing for her.

Yeah the thing is about IKAG, it's all bullshit. Really. I think there's a degree of fairness to saying Puck and Finn were two ignorant straight boys but Klaine should have known better than to participate in this farce that ultimately just took even more agency away from Santana. But there are two main problems with singling out Klaine in that way: 1, it cuts Puck and especially Finn slack and for what? Because boys will be boys or some shit? No, they should have also known better, it's unfair to place higher expectations on queer characters and only call them out when theirs was at least a heartfelt song about both their own queer love and the acceptance of Santana into this small McKinley High queer community. Perfect the way she is. They genuinely did try to help whereas Puck was just seducing the adoptive mother of his child/bio mother of his ex and gave no fucks about Santana. And don't get me started on Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, it haunts my dreams.

2, and this is perhaps a more important, critical, and out of universe examination of it: the show doesn't see an issue with Lady Music Week. So in-universe and in the framing of the show, everything the boys, all the boys, are doing that week are good, actually. And obviously we can recognize that Puck is just gross and Finn is, hmm, I'll refrain from labeling his actions that's for the best. We recognize it's all such bullshit and that sours the good intentions of Klaine. And it's a problem, because yes the whole thing is egregious and this was not the way to help Santana but put this exact same scenario of Klaine singing Perfect to her into a different context and it's miles better.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: if we have to out Santana and have a Lady Music Week follow it, a) play songs by queer and/or female artists and b) have the girls perform most of them. In this context I'd allow Klaine to be the exception and still sing Perfect, still have this moment of appreciation for queer love and queer identities. Because in this context it would be just that, like I think the intention was. It could have been poignant and like you, I think even in the original context their performance was primarily for Santana. And if we remove Finn's stupid blackmailing bullshit from the context it could be just that, an offering to a friend and a celebration of queer love. Not “I’m so horny for my teacher” and not “let me mansplain... Sapphic love? whatever the fuck to you”.

Basically TL;DR I think it's fair to have issues with Perfect because of the overall context but I don't think it's fair to be more critical of it than Puck/Finn and the overall concept of Lady Music Week. I agree, it wasn't inherently wrong at all for them to sing to her and to sing that song; the whole concept of Lady Music Week and men singing to Santana while she's being silenced on all levels was wrong. And that's very far from being on Klaine.

(Klaine also come first chronologically when Santana's the most resistant to the whole thing, so that adds another layer of burden and explains her snapping. Wild how they allowed her to express it with Klaine, who genuinely were trying to help her, and then had her cry about and thank Finn. IKAG failed everyone people I keep telling you. There's a single scene that doesn't fill me with visceral rage and it's the one actually written by a queer woman.)

Anyway where was my one-on-one scene with Kurtana? Fuck IKAG so hard man.