Gossip Girl

Gossip girl is an American TV show that revolves around the lives of young teens that live in Upper East Side of Manhattan. The show also features the parents of the teens as supporting actors, whose main roles is to guide the youngsters. In addition, a family lives outside Upper East Side who relate with the rich. The show brings to light many issues that rich society experience and their day-to-day problems for the young stars. There are the minorities in the fictional community who includes non-whites and those who are not part of the high society. The show also shows how different classes relate. It is clear that when the lower class are discriminated by some, most do not mind and even have a good relationship with them.

Class representation

Gossip girl represents the high class in the society; only one family is not rich, and later they move to Upper East Side. Blair waldoff is a young teen who has very high regard to herself and her family name. Blair is conservative and refined, and very careful not to tarnish her family name. She belongs to the high class and does not like those who do not belong there. She does not like Dan Humphrey at first for his low social status, but they later become friends. She has friends who only belong to her social status, and later she gets married to the prince of Monaco. Another character Serena van der Woonsen is a young, rebellious, and very attractive woman who has the status of a celebrity in this show. Her dressing is expensive portraying her high-class status, on the other hand, grandmother who is highly respected and has high-class standards. However, Serena is less concerned about upholding her family name unlike other characters. She also dates Dan a less rich teen from Brooklyn. Chuck, another man character in this series is a billionaire kid who is spoilt and keeps company of teens of his status. He belongs to high society class and does not like those who do not belong to his class. Nate Archibald’s family is rich however; her mother gets the treatment of an outcast for marrying a less wealthy man. Gossip girl portrays class of people who depends on their families or their class status apart from Dan Humphrey who writes a book and gets his own credit.

Gender representation

Throughout the series, Serena and Blair represent the girls and they dress with class. Serena dresses flirtatiously while Blair is a bit refined and classical in her dressing. Gossip girl represents girls as both carefree and conservative. Their women are feminine but also self-independent. There is a lot of empowerment as far as girls and women are concerned. They use extrinsic as well as intrinsic resources to achieve things. Extrinsic resources include material thins while intrinsic means use of a person’ body or sexuality to get what she wants. Women in this show are financially stable, and are in control; lily van der wodsen is an example of a character that is independent and is able to bring up her two kids. Women are more empowered than men, and they try very hard to achieve what they want. There is, however, girls who are sidekicks of Blair, they represent girls who are insecure and feel that it is important for them to be associated with the rich and famous. There is, however, the issue domestication of women and not having to work to earn a living, lily for instance does not have any noticeable career throughout the series. Lily is also submissive to her mother and decides to leave Rufus for a man her mother approves of. She also chooses a man who is financially stable to secure her future thereby contributing to the theory of women wanting a man who can provide for them. There is an implied notion in this show that professional women are not capable of raising good families (Signorielli, & Kahlenberg, 2001). This is because Blair’s mum who is a professional designer is not a good mother to her daughter. This show has tried to break from the normal stereotype of women in a society.

Race representation

Gossip girl is a show that represents whites mostly; the main cast consists of whites only, and only the supporting characters are from other ethnic origins. Minority representation in this show is huge; however, characters that do not have a lot of say in the fiction community represent the minorities. The minorities get judgments on issues the whites easily get away with, and there is no noticeable progress, they all have a white character close to them who takes all the attention. Blair waldorf’s friends who serve her are African American and Asian American. They are Blair’s friends but mostly they act as her servants, they do what she wants and do not say anything without her permission. They act as Blair’s accessories, which imply that, according to this show other races are for pleasure of, the whites.

Another place where a race representation is vague is how Vanessa Abrams is treated. She has a label of a girl who does not belong to the high society of Upper East Side. A lot of stereotype is noticeable in the episodes she appears, and other characters make her feel that she does not belong to their class. This it means according to the show a non-white person does not belong to Upper East Side that has a percentage of 80% whites. The fact that her family is rarely mention in the show makes the viewers view them as negligent. Humphreys is her only steady family making it looks like African American parenting is not good enough. It is also noticeable that Vanessa is in first and second season trying to bring tension to relationship. This show that non-white girls do not have the liberty to be part of the society since all they do is complicate things.

Dorota, Blair’s house cleaner of polish origin is another character with non-white origin. She gets a treatment of a typical house help who does all Blair says, she is humiliated, but she does not seem to mind. Blair treats with a lot of arrogance, at some point she tells her not to attend high ever school not even considering that; she might have gone to high school in Poland. This show highly celebrates the whites and their wealth and dark lighting signify bad times. Gossip girl simply views the white as the dominant race and as the wealthy and popular. Other races to them do not have a say in the society and do not mind the humiliation they get from the whites.

References

Signorielli, N, and S Kahlenberg. "Television's World of Work in the Nineties." Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media. 45 (2001): 4-22. Print.