Early on in The Glee Project, we were told that it wasn’t a talent competition; that they were simply looking for the best person who fulfilled the Glee persona. Yet almost every single person who does that has been voted off the show. Now that Hannah is gone, only Alex remains as a person who belongs on Glee; the rest of the hopefuls are all pretty people who, it seems to me, likely have no idea what it’s like to be different or bullied or on the outside looking in.

Sure, they maintain they do, but look at them! They aren’t what we need on Glee. We need people who are fat, or have pimples, or who are geeks. We have no real geeks on the show, unless you count Artie. Where’s the RPG guy, the person who collects Lord of the Rings swords? And as much as I love Tina, she doesn’t really embody the whole goth persona. I had lots of goth friends growing up and they wore Marilyn Manson shirts, had muddy, smeared makeup, unwashed hair, the works. Tina is more goth-cheerleader, or at least goth fashionista.

I couldn’t believe it when Ryan Murphy said that it came down to who was the most talented at the end of the last episode. Really? Because that’s not what we’ve been told the entire season. We’ve been told that it’s about who embodies the Glee persona most, not about who sings the best! What liars. What fakes. If anyone embodied Glee, it was Hannah (or Mattheus, or that girl who looked very young; I can’t remember her name).

And for Murphy to tell her he wished that she had more confidence was a crock of s***. Just by being on the show she exuded far more confidence than the average fat girl has—believe me. I’m one myself. And the show needs that—the shy, fat girl who doesn’t think she belongs just because of her size, who is used to everyone treating her like she’s less than human. THAT is what Glee is about—not the best singer. If that were the case, then why even have the competition in the first place?

If Alex doesn’t make the cut, then we’re going to have another Cheerio. It’s that simple. And you know what? Glee has enough pretty people as it is. If you really want to make it about the “losers like me,” you’re going to include people considered losers in school! Right now the show only has three or four people that would’ve been considered as such in my high school.

How about more fat kids? Kids with braces? Poor kids, kids who wear crummy clothes, kids who have to work actual jobs to help their families out? (Sam doesn’t count; that was such a temporary stint, and I certainly didn’t see him getting bullied out of the cafeteria for it like I was in high school.) How about kids who are bullied on the bus? A sweet girl with a lazy eye, a fat boy who can’t do sit-ups in gym, a boy with deep pock marks on his face from acne… These are all people I was familiar with in high school, friends I had who were bullied alongside me, who found solace in activities like choir or student council, who are not being represented on Glee and need to be.

This contest is a joke. And so is, I’m thinking, the show itself.