#cause it's cheerleading you don't need singers you need dancers first and foremost. athletes

[tuiyla]

You are probably tired of getting asks about UHT's past of bullying Rachel, but I have to ask: why do you think they targeted Rachel to begin with? Because let's not forget that in Pilot, Quinn was cyberbullying Rachel before Finn even entered the picture. Rachel's gold star narration in Pilot came way before Finn was blackmailed into joining Glee Club.

I personally think it's a mix of Rachel being the daughter of a interracial gay couple in a small town, and being a potential threat to Quinn in general, not in romantic sense.

Because to this day, I am still shocked Sue never once tried to snatch Rachel up for her squad. Girl can sing, can dance, can follow directions, and really, you can't tell me Sue wouldn't have managed to rein Rachel in. Not to mention Rachel is dangerously loyal to a fault— she could have been one of, if not the most, Sue's most powerful assets!

Hey Anon, no worries I think I've only really gotten asked about the UHT's bullying of Rachel once so it's not a dead horse topic. It's gonna be long but I hope you're along for the ride.

I think there are two dimensions to this ask, why the UHT targeted Rachel and, connected to that, this topic you introduce of Rachel's potential as a Cheerio. Let me answer the first one by saying she was an easy target and elaborate as we go.

Rache was an easy target. That's an easy answer to the bullying question and explains why, even before the threat of Finchel entered the picture, Quinn and by extension the rest of the Cheerios bullied Rachel. And it wasn't just the cyberbullying we see before On My Own, or at least I'm also willing to consider the deleted bathroom scene with Rachel and Quinntana canon. The fact that they bullied her in person, too, is canon to me, anyway. Why is she an easy target? Well, high school social hierarchies do be like that, especially in media aimed to exaggerate these divides. We all know Rachel is beautiful but she's not the conventionally attractive type, which already places her lower on this cruel food chain. And then there's her loud, overachieving and overbearing personality which I'm sure already alienated a lot of "cool" and "laid back" kids in middle school and freshman year. Even put aside the theater kid thing which already gives her an aura of uncoolness in McKinley's established sports-obsessed world, Rachel's too much. Personality-wise, she's just too much for people and kids can be stupid and cruel and turn the traits of a well-meaning but sometimes obnoxious girl into subjects of ridicule.

To be clear, I am most definitely not saying Rachel deserved any of it. Not for her interests, not for her personality - which is admittedly too much but in an endearing sort of way when you get to know her. And certainly not for her looks, when even the most shallow environment has to admit she is pretty just not in the most conventional way. Rachel never deserved to be bullied and she didn't bring any of it on herself, but by a combination of things and by nature of someone having to be at the bottom, she became an easy target. An easy target gets piled on and leaders of packs and those at the top are even more likely to pick on them just 'cause. Quinn, as we come to learn, is desperate to be on top and willing to throw people under the bus, and to be on top someone has to be at the bottom. Maybe she started the bully train against Rachel, maybe a more senior Cheerio did in her freshman year and Quinn followed suit to fit in. For our purposes, it doesn't really matter because she did lead the charge when we're introduced to her and there's no excuse for that.

And I think with that answer I'm also disagreeing with you, Anon, because I don't think it's because of Rachel's dads and I don't think Quinn saw much of a rival in Rachel until she set her eyes on Finn. First, the gay dads thing: as I established, there were plenty of other factors that landed Rachel at the bottom. Valid or not, a discussion for another day because of course bullying itself can never be justified. Did having an interracial gay couple for fathers also contribute to painting a target on her back, maybe. I hardly think that would have been the only factor, but I'm sure the backwards parents of Lima kids would have heard about the Berrys and dissed them in front if their kids. The kids, in turn, feeling empowered to extend the bigotry they heard at home and hurling insults at the poor Berry kid herself. Russell WASP patriarch Fabray and Alma anti-Black homophobe Lopez don't strike me as people who wouldn't have all kinds of colourful things to say about Hiram and LeRoy Berry.

But that said, my point is that that's not reason enough alone for Quinn Fabray, personally, to target Rachel. I think it can potentially be part of a bigger picture of toxicity learned at home, sure. And it's not like the UHT's insults didn't have a shocking dose of transphobia and some homophobia in canon. I just don't think it's that simple, and I think what high school kids perceived as cool and lame contributed more. Such as Rachel embodying much of the "lame" part. And to also say, about the rivalry, I don't think Quinn or any of the other Cheerios saw Rachel as anything but a loser prior to the show's start. There's no reason to. If anything, based on her reactions throughout Showmance and s1A, pre-series/early Quinn would be offended at the notion that she and Rachel could be considered rivals, that someone like Rachel could be a threat to her.

And this brings us to the Cheerio Rachel question, which... is another point on which I have to disagree. See, even though Sue, later on, does expand the squad and includes more non-traditional candidates. the Cheerios at the beginning are very much building on the high school social hierarchy I mentioned before. Sue literally spells the HS caste system out to Will in the Pilot. She strictly adheres to these cruel notions and wouldn't pick someone with Rachel's aura of uncoolness. Sue also recognizes difficult personalities and I doubt she would have wanted to deal with Rachel, even if she likes a challenge every now and then. And to your point about singing and dancing, well. The Cheerios aren't singers. The only time we see Sue include singing in the routine is (conveniently) when Kurtcedes join. Apart from that, even though she literally has the Unholy Trinity at her disposal, Sue knows that cheerleading isn't Glee, you don't typically need to belt a Celine out. As for dancing... well, oof, I know Glee tells us Rachel practices oh so much and is an okay if not good dancer, but even Lea Michele admits she really can't dance. Most of the time, even in her "dance" numbers, Rachel does a few moves while the actual dancers do their thing around her. Sue hardly has a need for that. Besides, I don't think Rachel herself would have wanted to join anyway.

Bottom line, TL;DR? Kids are cruel. Environments that foster hierarchies based on arbitrary indicators of cool vs lame also foster the type of bullying Rachel went through. At the end of the day, it's just the plain stupid cruelty of those at the top feeling insecure but also being boldened by their perceived power. Quinn and Santana and all the other Cheerios bullied Rachel not (just) because her dads didn't fit in with a small conservative town. They didn't put that much thought in it. And not because they looked at Rachel as anything but a loser who was beneath them. It's good old-fashioned picking on someone who the world deems inferior, not because you yourself know them and have decided they deserve it.