Toxic Femininity in 'Gilmore Girls'
The 2000s hit show Gilmore Girls has recently experienced a resurgence in popularity. The return of Y2k fashion trends has created a cultural nostalgia for the noughties, which the Gilmore Girls series, with its pop-culture references, comforting New England setting, and of-the-era music, has seemingly fulfilled. It comes as no shock then, that the show, which pulled 4.6 million viewers when it first aired in 2000, is returning with a fervour, as a variety of groups on social media become dedicated to appreciating, recreating, and analysing any and all aspects of the series. Gilmore Girls has inspired an aesthetic, a mindset, and an autumnal way of life, with its viewership almost cultish in its devotion to coffee, sarcasm, and academic achievement; more than just superficial value, the protagonists of the show, Lorelai and Rory, are often viewed as female role models for audiences - indeed each episode, and, it has been argued, almost every scene, passes the Bechdel test. So, what went wrong?
The series' narrative has been critiqued by many for the negative character arc it delivered to Alexis Bedel's lead role, Rory Gilmore; there are countless conversations currently occurring across social media platforms - most prominently YouTube - with viewers of the show frustrated with the downfall of the once studious and humble protagonist. Writing the transition from adolescents to adulthood will inevitably present obstacles and challenges, yet writer Amy Sherman-Palladino and her team decided to have Rory fail so entirely spectacularly at each major bump in the road. The shows consecutive major conflicts continue to leave audiences dissatisfied and infuriated with the stupidity of their favourite protagonist - Rory developed from a hardworking student in the first three seasons of the series, to a dissatisfied, failing journalist, with a history of extra-marital affairs in the spin off show A Year in the Life.
What, perhaps, makes Rory's failures all the more upsetting to audiences, is her stubborn refusal to support other women across the show. The writers of Gilmore Girls were certainly not discrete in their diminishment of conventionally feminine girls - the introduction of Rory in the series pilot episode depicts her studiously writing an essay, whilst the girls around her share nail polish and gossip, effortlessly made inferior to the more 'masculine' protagonist. Could it not have been enough that Rory was simply more academically focused or capable than her fellow students, without effectively labelling all feminine girls brainless, vain creatures with no academic futures? The show seriously focused on the toxic femininity of the "I'm not like other girls" trope, singling Rory out as entirely removed from the 'otherness' of feminine girls; unless, of course, we consider Rory's intense, dedicated rival Paris, in comparison to whom Rory is undeniably conventionally feminine - in Episode 18 of Season 1, Rory helps Paris dress for a date with Tristan, as Paris has little to no dating experience and a limited wardrobe, which is intended to leave Paris inferior to Rory, despite her higher academic ability. The show works in overtime to separate Rory from other female characters, and this undoubtably leaves a negative impression not only on young female viewers, but on the protagonist herself, as it is arguably the seed from which Rory's resentment of women eventually grows.
"Most girls don't eat. It's good you eat" - Dean,. Season 1, Episode 7
"I don't want to be that kind of girl [...] the kind of girl who just falls apart because she doesn't have a boyfriend" - Rory,. Season 1, Episode 17
"This is the last weekend I spend sitting around like an idiot hoping you'll call, okay? I'm not going to be that girl" - Rory,. Season 3, Episode 15
"I was embarrassed because I didn't want to be that girl [...] the girl who lets her boyfriend treat her like dirt and then lies to her mum about it" - Rory,. Season 3, Episode 20
The most prominent conflict of the show that perhaps best encapsulates Rory's disapproval of "other girls" is her affair with a married Dean at the end of Season 4. The new couple, Dean and Lindsay, marry young at the beginning of the season, and it is gradually clear that the marriage is not stable. Both Dean and Lindsay are dissatisfied with conventional, domestic life, as Dean leaves college to work, and Lindsay spends her days alone, cleaning, cooking, and building a home from scratch. However, in typical, feminine-women-hating fashion, Rory immediately sides with Dean, believing him to be overworked and forced out of education by Lindsay's 'extreme' demands, without even speaking with Lindsay about her own difficulties and disappointment. What makes this situation so much worse, is that Rory uses these reasons as justification to have an affair with a married man and blames Lindsay for pushing Dean to cheat. Because patriarchy never blames women for men's dissatisfaction?
"I'm more mad at Lindsay she's so selfish. [...] She's his wife. She should be encouraging him to go to school and think about his future, but, no. She needs a townhouse and a Rolls-Royce. [...] I mean, why doesn't she get a job, what does she do all day?" - Rory,. Season 4, Episode 18
It is evident that the character of Rory is concerned only with her own wants and needs, and, having been portrayed as not only different from, but superior to 'other girls', feels she is justified and capable of belittling other women to get where she wants to. There are countless other situations across the series which serve to further evidence Rory's toxic femininity - Rory's diminishment of Paris' relationship with Professor Asher Flemming to assuage her own loneliness across Season 4, Rory's tactless and fat-shaming review of the Ballerina's performance for the Yale newspaper in Episode 8 of Season 4, and Rory's lying to her friend Lucy about having met her boyfriend, Marty, before in order to rekindle their lost friendship in Episode 10 of Season 7. All of these instances leave a bitter taste in the audiences' mouth, and severely undermine the feminist girl-boss appeal of the show at first glance. What was, from its creation, intended to be a homely, small-town story of two empowered women taking on the world, in cool clothes and pretty settings, is mutated into the failure of one young woman to appreciate and support other women, which inevitably leads to her downfall. This is, perhaps, why, when viewers rewatch the series, they are incapable of naming the protagonist as their favourite character.
This piece was written by Student Editor Freyja
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