This is a polarizing topic ! | GLEE 2x18 REACTION 'Born This Way' | First time watching 

I def agree with your take on cosmetic surgery in your later years. I don't see it as a problem to make small improvements in order to be your happiest self. I think the episode was created to mainly show the affect social media and being "perfect" has had on the younger generation who grew up in it. I think the episode did a good job of voicing multiple different views on the topic.

I love Quinn and Rachel’s duet! So pretty, and I love the message in it

pretty/unpretty mashup is one of the best mashups on the whole show imo and although “gotta be me” is barely talked about it’s honestly one of my favorite performances from finn. along with blaine and kurt’s performances! i had honestly forgotten how many amazing performances were in this one episode.

Santana with her Lebanese shirt in the audience was one of the most iconic moments in glee.

Teens in particular can feel pressure to look conventionally pretty/handsome, so it really is a good idea to wait before getting work done. Not to mention, the difficulty of learning to accept anything else about themselves that's out of the ordinary. So, doing an episode about embracing their flaws is great. If you want to do stuff later after you have more life experience, go for it! The song Kurt sang is called "As If We Never Said Goodbye" and it's from a musical called Sunset Boulevard. Usually, the show cuts songs for time or for lyrics that don't really fit, but this song's lyrics fit his emotions down to a T and it was perfect for his voice, and yes, Kurt hadn't had a solo in a long time so the showrunners decided to celebrate reuniting the original crew by doing the whole song - and it's only 5 and a half minutes long, not 9 minutes long, lol.

I know that others have left comments talking about this already, but I feel the main message of this episode is that you need to be completely *honest with yourself* why you don't like a part of you.

The “problem” I can see with cosmetic surgery (outside of them being kids in this show) is that the line is so blurred between what you “want to change” and what society has made you dislike about yourself. I agree that in later years you should be able to make those decisions without judgement, but no one’s decision is entirely removed from our current world, and it’s…everywhere. I knew what Botox was as a young child, the women around me always talked about needing it. I got my first forehead wrinkle and it was one of the first things that crossed my mind. As a fat girl, I’ve been conditioned to think negatively about my fatness in so many ways. Idk, it’s hard to know how/if you were negatively influenced. And as I said, there’s really no separating it at this point, so you just hope people go in informed and doing what is best for them! It was cool to hear your perspective on this episode! The show has aged in interesting ways 😅

I think the problem is if you are doing something to improve yourself just for you, then yes more power to it. But you have to make sure your doing it just for you. If your changing it just cause society has told you its a problem and you shouldn't accept the way you look cause they have a problem with it then thats just it, its their problem and you shouldn't care what they think. And yes I know its easy to say we don't care what other people think of us but we all do on some level and thats a problem we all as people need to work on ourselves first before going under the knife.

Rachel and Quinn’s duets is one of my favorites. Quinn sounds so good and she doesn’t get enough featured numbers.

I think a lot of people get cosmetic procedures for other people and not for themselves. If someone wants to do something like that then I think it is fine if they take time to really think about why they want it. It is like any kind of body modification imo. As long as they are adults. I agree with you that in this show they are playing teens, so I think that was why they were kinda pushing that people should accept things. It was also kinda a message to not judge other people based on those things as well.

I Feel Pretty/Unpretty is iconic till this day!

Obviously there are so many different viewpoints on the issues brought up in this episode, and I definitely see where you're coming from with the idea that no one should have to feel bad about making changes to themselves if those changes make them happier. But as you also pointed out, the fact that these characters are teenagers does make a difference - and in my opinion, Rachel's choices were shown to be rooted not in her own desires so much as in how she believed everybody else saw her - what and who she believed was the "standard" for beauty (Quinn). I think there's a big difference if you're making a major physical change because you have truly always wanted that change, and believe you'd be genuinely happier that way - as opposed to if it's just something you see around you all the time, presented as the only acceptable look or body type or whatever... and you're desperate to fit in with that aspect of society? Not sure if that makes sense, I've got a lot of feelings about this episode. :P Especially the Emma storyline really gets me, as someone who has OCD... Glee by no means handles it perfectly, but they definitely hit some really solid notes that resonate with me and my experience.

both "im with stupid/stoopid" shirts were hilarious, buck's pointed down. pretty on point.

Kurt's song is from Sunset Boulevard, I believe. This is one of my favorite episodes from season 2.

12:09 there are stealth onion cutting ninjas. They get me too lol.

I really HATE the way people call this cosmetic surgery "IMPROVIMENT" C'mon now, people don't go after this surgeries to look like a better version of themselves, they just do to change them into the "Western Model". I know that people has the right to change their own bodies, but why don't we try to think more about the origin of this thoughts? Jewish changing their noses, Asians chaging their eyes, real bodies just getting thin without even nutritional education... I wouldn't call any of that improving

i feel pretty/unpretty is my second fave glee song

The song of Kurt’s is from Sunset Boulevard. Check out Betty Buckley’s version. It’s great! Also, I love this ep so, so much.

I love that the whole class is in the mall for "Barbara Streisand"

I agree it’s not a bad thing but something I notice in the ep that isn’t really addressed most of the features mentioned were traditional non white features on the women. Something to think about with western beauty standards and cultural norms

I will forever love and laugh at the line "No, this is a mall in Ohio." It made me cackle when it was first said and it makes me cackle now.

Thank you for sharing your views, Travis. I can see both sides, but the main thing should be respect for the person's autonomy over their own body. Sure, disagree if you disagree, but don't shame or belittle the person's feelings.

Thank you for the videos! It's one of those episodes that has a good idea even if the delivery is flawed. I think the point is-- would they still want to change something, if there wasn't pressure to? It's less about harping on someone for improving themselves, and more about being pressured to change-- it isn't necessarily "improving", because there's nothing wrong with big noses or small boobs or being fatter. But if someone truly feels like it'd make them happier, because they're doing it for themselves, they should! Body autonomy is good!

The guy playing Mike Chang is a choreographer - and he does atleast some of the choreography in the show, but I do know they also have others helping with it

i mean Rachel didn't really want to do a nose job she wanted to do it because she was obsessed with the idea of being more like Quinn bc of Finn if you realise she never had a problem with her nose before

"Trouty Mouth"...LOL

One of the best episodes of the season and a personal favorite of mine!

Kurt's solo is long because they didn't cut it. It's just the full studio version and they had to extend the episode for it. Considering how few Chris Colfer's solos are compared to everyone else, it was much deserved. And it's his best solo imo.

My favourite Kurt solo. Blaine is always adorable. Especially when it comes to showing his affection for Kurt.

Santana this episode is so good

I totally agree with you about people being able to choose if they want to make changes to themselves for self improvement purposes and that what Zises did to Quinn was really shitty and mean.

I can't wait for you to watch this episode!!! And I love your comments on self-improvement as well

I think the difference between cosmetic surgery being okay vs bad is the mentality and outlook of the person receiving it. If you have a healthy self-esteem and want to do it just to improve your quality of life, that's great. If you're only changing yourself because you're insecure and think it'll make you happy, you're going to be extremely disappointed.

I love watching you watch the show 😅

I think it's ok to change things as long as you're not doing it for others

Somewhere Only We Know is my 2nd favorite Blaine song (you’re not at #1 yet), in my Top 5 of all Glee songs and ruined every other version of this song for me.

Santana is the best character with the best insults and her Mexican third eye is never wrong much like her gaydar.

i agree with your opinion on cosmetic surgery and as a trans person the whole message of “you clearly dont love yourself if you need to change yourself to be happy” feels very icky. i do think that this conversation gets more complicated when its about ethnic features tho. i respect any adults decision to do whatever they want with their body as long as its not hurting anybody else but as a latino dude its also sad that so many poc and jewish people do this to fit white beauty standards

early 😁🌟

I have mixed feelings about this episode as well. As a trans person, putting so much focus on the message being "if you change yourself, you don't love yourself" instead of "society is making people feel ashamed for certain things about themselves" is uncomfortable because I hear this stuff all the time. I think the biggest mistake of this episode is simply putting too much emphasis on the wrong message for this kind of topic. It's a good idea but executed poorly, like the writers didn't really know the nuance of the topic they wanted to discuss.

As long as you don't turn out looking like Gwen, Joan Rivers or Madonna I don't see what's wrong with having a few touch ups. Just don't go over board.

"Lebanese"