Gilmore girls

By: lily pimentel

The show Gilmore Girls was released in 2000 and had 7 seasons. The director of this show is Amy Sherman-Palladino, who, on a trip, saw a small town and knew she wanted others to feel the fairy-tale experience through the show. (Tsintziras.) Amy had seen someone go behind a counter and pour themselves a cup of coffee (as we see Lorelei do in the show), and she was just amazed by how close everyone was.

The show follows the life of Lorelei, the single mom who got pregnant at sixteen, and her daughter, Ror,y whoshe named after herself, and follows multiple feminist legacies. "She named me after herself… she says her feminism just kind of took over." (Gamber) This show follows the lives of this close mother-daughter duo, with many other characters who influence their lives. Lorelei and Rory maintain a BFF mother-daughter relationship throughout the show, while they both experienced girlhood in different waves of feminism, their experiences helped contribute to who they become and how they maintain their bond.

While this is a coming-of-age show and the audience is mainly targeted towards teenage girls, many millennials and people of all ages enjoy it. The time it emerged made sense with all the style choices, pop-culture references, new technology, and more. The show wasn't a big hit when it first came out, but it grew popular over time, having the most views when it got released on Netflix in 2016. (Tsintziras.)

The generational differences presented in the show are drastic, starting with Emily Gilmore, Rory's grandmother, er always with pearls, a full face of makeup, and done-up hair, always presenting her best self, never being caught dead eating a frozen pizza. She values her social/class status, is part of fancy clubs, etc. Lorelei, her daughter, on the other hand, felt trapped and suffocated throughout her childhood and wanted nothing but the opposite li. She is known for her fun style and frantic self and love for junk food and coffee, of course, without any shame.

Then we have Ror, who we see to have a perfect mix of both and more. While Rory loves to indulge in junk food and concerts, wear fun, colorful accessories, and talk about boys, she also considers school her number one priority. Originally attending her sending school in her hometown, in the first episode, she gets accepted into a prestigious school called Chilto, filled with spoiled kids who come from old money and wealth.

There are three generations of women, along with three different waves of feminism, and the character expression can enhance our understanding of this topic. Rory has seen both her grandmother and mother, who believe each other to be opposite, share and express their experiences and identities, and she takes those and others to help create her own. Emily Gilmore, who has a very high societal status, is married to Richard Gilmore, a big traveler, and is considered very "old-fashioned." She grew up in the first wave of feminism, where the focus was on legal issues, women's suffrage, the secured right to vote, property rights, and access to education. (Pomerantz, 2020.)

Her daughter Lorelei who left at sixteen and pregnant had grown up during the second wave of feminism which mainly focused on equality and discrimination, workplace, and reproductive rights (Pomerantz, 2020.) which is very fitting for this character because she named her daughter after herself because as she stated "If a man could name their son after them, why can't women do so?" and she is a successful business owner of an inn. Then, Rory, the daughter of Lorelei, grew up in the third wave of feminism,ig hhighlightingdiversity, intersectionality, individual identity, challenging gender norms, etc. (Pomerantz, 20). Gamber states, "Yet Rory never exactly mimics any one of these models, instead crafting her feminism from her experiences." (Gamber) I think she has many traits of her grandmother, mother, and has developed many unique ones of her own.

We see the generational traditions in the episode "Presenting Lorelai Gilmore" (2.06). There was a debutante ball, and Emily had wanted Rory to go, so she agreed to be nice. Lorelei responded along the lines of "Oh, I'm a marriageable age, no,w look at me, take a good look at me." (Ahlgren.) This whole event was an objectification of girls, where Emily and women her age do not see a problem with, but in younger generations, this isn't as common or acceptable. She was escorted by her boyfriend at the time, and to society, that was the man she would marry right at eighteen years old, and she was vividly uncomfortable by thatwithThere have been other instances where Emild wanted to parade Rory around in a way, and this is exactly what Lorelei never liked as a k, id and would never make Rory do things like that.

About our class, this show highlights gender representation, bedroom culture aspects, roles in the media, shipping of relationships, and more. This show also touches upon some world issues, such as class and status. While the grandparents in the show seem to have endless money, Lorelei, who has a distant relationship, means asking for help is the last thing she wants to do. On the other hand, her love and support for Rory mean doing anything to support her. So with Chilton being so prestige and pricey, she has no choice but to ask for money, creating an agreement of a weekly dinner in return for a promise to pay them back eventually.

This show can help us see how different generations and relationships can have an effect on young impressionable girls and why this might be. In one article by Pomerantz, she states, "Girlhood studies is a multidisciplinary field of inquiry into the lives, experiences, and cultural practices of people who identify as girls, as well as an examination of how girls are discussed and represented in popular and academic venues." (Pomerantz.) Then she elaborates on the need for girlhood studies due to the lack of research. The creator of the sh, ow Amy born in 1966 during the second wave of feminism. I wonder if this had an impact on how she portrayed any characters in the show.

In relevance to our course, a huge aspect we see is a moral panic, especially revolving around Lorelei being pregnant at sixteen. She received endless judgment from those who knew her, along with being criticized for being open about it. Even some of Rory's friends’ mothers believe she is a bad influence and think her daughter will turn out the same way.

Along with youth sexuality, Lorelei is always open to the conversation, even though sometimes Rory shuts it down with an "Ew, Mom, Stop!" which is where the BFF duo can draw the line sometimes. It shows how most mothers aren't like that and are willing to educate and answer questions for their daughters. Rory, growing up in the third wave, there is more DIY, embracing of self, more sex-positive, more music, blogs, and being proud of being a girl.

The made-up town of Stars Hollow, C, T is for sure interesting! You can walk anywhere, like the famous Luke's Diner, Gypsys mechanic shop, Doose’s Market, Mrs. Kim's antique shop, oMissPattie’s’s dance studio, seeing everyone along the way. In this town, there are multiple women like Sookie (Lorelei's best friend who works at the Inn), Miss Patty, Gypsy (a woman mechanic), and Lane (Rory's best friend), who have all very different identities and personalities that impact her life. "All of these women – and more – have surrounded Rory since she was a young girl and have impacted her journey into feminism, in subtle but very definite ways." (Ahlgren.) Growing up surrounded by all these people, she knew it was okay to express herself however she would like, and none of those women would judge her for it.

In one article by Pomerantz, there was a mention of the show mentioning how some characters chose the life they live, including success portrayed as smart women, superhero characters, perfect can-do girls, and more. Contributing to the field of girlhood studies, Pomerantz states, "Shows and films such as The Gilmore Girls, Veronica Mars, High School Musical, Girls, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Mulan, and Frozen draw on characters whose lives are disconnected from but made possible by feminism." (Pomerantz.) We see girls with freedom, diversity, and power in films now that weren't always shown. The show being mentioned in articles by Pomerantz is important and shows that many have seen how aspects of the show relate to the field.

We can tell that Rory is well aware she does not need to conform to any stereotypes, specifically in an episode that was called "That Damn Donna Reed" (1.14). In this episode, Rory's boyfriend Dean is over and they are all watching The Donna Reed Show, mocking how stereotypical her life is by needing to have dinner on the table, have a full face of makeup to clean the house, and how her whole life was designated to care for a man and children. Dean decided to pitch in and say, "… the general idea of a wife cooking dinner for her husband and family – that's nice." This statement upset Ror, and they had a little argument over it for a while. Even though people of all ages watch this show, specifically watching this show as a teenage girl, you see the self-expression differences and how times have changed, similar to how many feel when they compare their time to their grandmother's time.

Many of Rory's schoolmates and friends envy what she and her mother have and see as he best friend relationship. It's very apparent that they are best friends, even to the grandmother who asks why they weren't like her, and Rory replies, "Rory and I are best friends, Mom. We're best friends first and mother and daughter second. And you and I are mother and daughter always." (S1 E6.) It's funny, many would say Rory is more of an adult figure, sometimes being more responsible and on top of things. Rory has always been like an angel to Lorel. He focused on school, would never break a rule, was nd responsible, so there was never a need for Lorel to implement strict rules and punishment. She even jokes about wanting Rory to throw ragers, is thrilled by passing grades when Rory always wants an A, lets her go out, and lets her date whoever she wants. Lorelei shows nothing but support for Rory and is glad she is experiencing all the things she never got to, like going to college and living freely. When Rory has her first kiss, she is nervous to tell Lorelei because she is her mother, but also wants to tell her as her best friend. She ended up caught in a lie when her strict best friend's mom told her Lorelei was upset she didn't know first, but did not care about the fact that she kissed a boy.

To conclude, Gilmore Girls has high importance to girlhood studies, showing different waves of feminism through character expression and their bond, touching upon moral panics, cultural issues, and more. Watching this show, you truly see the generational differences, especially after having some background information about the waves of feminism and knowledge on the field of girlhood studies. It is important to know the history of girlhood studies and why there is such a need for it, and with interpretations like this, it can become better understood.

References

Duvall, S. (2021). "Celebrity Girl's Studies". Interdisciplinary Scholarship on Fame, Girlhoods, and Identity, 319-332.

Gamber, F. (2008). Riding the third wave: The multiple feminisms of Gilmore Girls. Teen television: Essays on programming and fandom, 114-131.

Gonick, M. (2020). "Girls". In The SAGE Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood Studies, 852-855.

Hiddlestone, J. (2007). Mothers, Daughters, and Gilmore Girls. In Coffee at Luke's (pp. 31-42). BenBella Books.

Pomerantz, S. (2020). "Girlhood Studies."In The SAGE Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood Studies, 846-850.

Sherman-Palladino, Amy. Gilmore Girls. Warner Bros., 2000.

Stache, L. C., & Davidson, R. (2019). Gilmore Girls: A Cultural History.

Tsintziras, Aya. (2021, February 21). This is the inspiration behind 'Gilmore Girls'. TheThings.