The agent in this episode is Meg. This is shown when she is partnered with the “pretty/popular” girl in class. The act is she is making herself gay and is “coming out of the closet” to her family. This occurs at the lesbian allegiance club, where Meg pronounces herself as a “super, huge, mega-lesbian”. The agency is that to make herself believe she was gay and to appear gay she cuts her hair, starts dressing “butchy”, looks at penthouse magazines, and kisses her female classmate. The Scene is that Meg is in high school in a heteronormative society. The purpose is that Meg wants to belong and find friend along with popularity.
The most important key ratio in this specific episode is purpose-act. The purpose drives the acts. This episode is where Meg, who traditionally is called a boy and is unpopular, is given the chance to be popular by being paired with the most popular girl in school. This girl asks Meg to be a part of her club, and mindlessly Meg accepts without finding out what this club entailed. After finding out that the club was the lesbian alliance Meg decides that becoming popular and belonging was more important that being who she really is. Therefore, when she realizes that in order to be popular she need membership in this club she began to pronounce that she was in fact gay to this group of lesbians. However, she did not stop there, her purpose completely influenced her acts. Meg wants to be popular, therefore she acts like a lesbian. Meg’s pushes the limits by even “coming out” to her family at dinner. She performs “rule-breaking” behaviors for the purpose of becoming popular. If becoming popular did not require her to be gay, Meg would not have come out to her family or the club at school. However, the importance that she put on being popular actually caused her acts.
This show is widely seen across America by adults, teens, and even some children. Although I would not recommend that a child watches this show, it does happen. Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered (LGBT) issues are very prevalent in our society and were just as prevalent when this show aired. One of the potential implications is that those who may be in a transition of becoming gay may see this over glorified view of gay groups in high school. It is not likely that you will become popular by being gay. Also, seeing a woman change herself to become popular can have a negative effect on young women, due to the fact that this is an issue in our society already. False-sense of self is a prevalent issue and this show pokes fun at that.
I think the part about women changing their sexuality for the sake of popularity is interesting and worth more discussion
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