‘Gilmore Girls’ was racist, homophobic, and fat-shaming over and over again. 5 times they cooked cringeworthy scenes, but we were foolishly laughing!
‘Gilmore Girls’ had many cute and fun scenes despite their flaws. ‘A Year in the Life’ debuted on Netflix in November 2016 and fans went crazy. For better or for worse, the revival was like the older version. Amy Sherman-Palladino and Dan Palladino had stuffed the new season with pop-culture references and emotional moments. They basically knew why the fans loved this show so much. In keeping up with the formula, ‘Gilmore Girls’ again repeated those culturally insensitive jokes. Most of us probably watched ‘Gilmore Girls’ as a child or teen, and these problematic elements bounced from our head. It is understandable.
We can’t even wholly blame ‘Gilmore Girls’ because the TV landscape in the 2000s was racist, homophobic, and would shamelessly fat-shame people. But still, we can’t forgive ourselves for laughing on particularly 5 of these cringe-worthy scenes with the ‘Gilmore Girls’
Is it possible to hate Gilmore Girls at all?
1. ‘Gilmore Girls’ didn’t bother about Emily’s maids
Most of the maids of Emily were women of colour and not native English speakers. She is shown to be repeatedly firing them for no reason. There came a point in the series when this rude behaviour by Emily towards these nameless women became a point of humour. We were laughing foolishly without thinking if there’s anything funny about an accomplished white woman firing a woman working in her home as if they aren’t human beings. How couldn’t we smell racism in this Gilmore Girls’ scene?
2. When Rory fat-shamed the dancer in her Yale news article
This scene proves Logan’s father was right when he said you can’t be a journalist. She does such terrible news writing in the episode titled “Die, Jerk” in season 4. Rory spent 90 percent of the dance review of the ballet performance in fat-shaming the dancer instead of critiquing the actual performance.
Remember, when she calls the ballet dancer a “hippo” and pointed out the “roll of fat around her bra strap”. Jerk is such a small word to describe Rory in this Gilmore Girls scene.
3. Paris was rejected from Harvard despite hard work (only for losing virginity!)
That Paris deserved to go to Harvard way more than Rory is an indisputable fact. The timing of ‘Gilmore Girls’ for punishing Paris is so horrible. It feels problematic because if we remember clearly, Paris faced the rejection just after losing her virginity. Though ‘Gilmore Girls’ didn’t explicitly say that they are punishing Paris for this, it seems obvious. Rory was a virgin, the so-called “good kid” and so she is deserving.
The writers of ‘Gilmore Girls’ couldn’t explicitly mouth their views, but they threw shades of conservatism indirectly in this scene by doing this to Paris.
4. Fat people shouldn’t go to parties! – Emily
“Good lord! If someone needs that much room to get around a chair, they shouldn’t be at a party. They should be on a treadmill.” Yes, you heard it, word to word, how Emily bashed fat people for attending parties.
It’s true, we don’t expect political correctness from Emily but this was unexpected and uncalled for from a woman of her calibre.
5. Two gays kissing is a funny picture for Lorelai
“We need to leave the country and have extensive plastic surgery and sex changes. Both of us so you know … we can kiss and not look funny.” These are one of the many cringe-worthy lines spoken by Lorelai. No one can argue that ‘Gilmore Girls’ wasn’t homophobic and trans-phobic.
This wasn’t the only time ‘Gilmore Girls’ ridiculed gays in their scenes. Remember when Luke said that Kirk’s bag was “gay”. Comparing inanimate objects to gays was so common in the 2000s. But we can’t believe Lorelai said this. We can’t forgive ourselves for the fact that we laughed on this shamelessly.
Are you still laughing at these so-called jokes pulled by ‘Gilmore Girls’? You need to rethink. Share your thoughts about ‘Gilmore Girls’ in the comments section below.
