Gilmore girls: a new age show?

Gilmore Girls – A new age show? Juana Luck
Gilmore Girls- A New Age Show?
Julie D'Acci proposes in her essay “Television, Representation and Gender” that television is an
ideological institution and as such transmits norms and rules through its programs to the viewer.
Thereby it tells its spectatorship what is acceptable to do, and what is not, to any given nation (373).
According to D'Acci, TV also functions as a cultural institution which perpetually produces
programming that represents gender, race, ethnicity and more to its audience. Julie makes clear in her
writings that her ontological orientation is constructional. This is a view hold among social scientists
who believe that “social phenomena and their meanings are produced by social actors through their
interaction and that they are in a constant state of negotiation and revision” (Bryman et al, 13). Thus,
she believes, humans continuously construct their realities and are ultimately unable to discover the
truth of reality. This standpoint leads her to conclude that the depiction of gender in Television does not
represent nature because what humans think of nature is constructed, is constantly re-negotiated, and
therefore cannot mirror nature (D'Acci, 376). After all, a clear distinction between sex and gender is
necessary whenever one discusses gender, to emphasize the difference between the biological traits one
is born with and the attributed constructed expectations towards being male and female. It is important
to grasp that the portrayal of humans on TV, such as family hierarchy and patriarchy acceptance, do not
stand for all people in a given society and it is not the “natural” or “real” way of human existence, but
only one possibility of many. Therefore one has to be skeptical about TV's depiction of life and it is
worth analyzing. In a nutshell, this is why this research paper will scrutinize the popular American
show Gilmore Girls in regards to its gender portrayal and to explore the question of whether intelligent
women in the show have to be desirable and beautiful in order to be socially accepted. The writer
thinks it is important to investigate these kinds of questions to be able to identify the shows ideological
standpoints and whether or not the show reinforces stereo-typical gender-roles or patriarchy. Especially
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due to its success not only in North-America but also in Europe and other nations it is worth while to
take a closer look at Gilmore Girls' connotative messages, that is, messages that are not explicitly said
but inferred to from within the show.
Gender Portrayal and Gender Stereotyping in the Media
Before one can think about gender stereotyping, a distinction between "sex" and "gender" may
be useful. As Susan Basow (1992) explains:
Sex is a biological term; people are termed either male or female depending on their
sex organs and genes. In contrast, gender is a psychological and cultural term, referring
to one's subjective feelings of maleness or femaleness (gender identity). Gender may
also refer to society's evaluation of behaviour as masculine or feminine (gender role)
(p. 2)
Therefore, the sex of a person is a born trait, while gender is socially constructed. Since gender is
socially constructed and divides male and females socially, certain “stereo-types” are attached to being
male and female. Basow defines stereotypes as “strongly held over-generalizations about people in
some designated social category. Such beliefs tend to be universally shared within a given society and
are learned as part of the process of growing up in that society” (3). Furthermore Basow dedicates a
whole page in her book “Gender: Stereotypes and Roles” (1992) to typical gender assumptions, a
couple of them are that women are neither independent nor logical and this differentiates them from
men, who are independent and logical. Women are also subjective and home-oriented while men are
objective and worldly. Female's competency ratings are low because they are emotional, illogical, cry
very easily, are not skilled in business and very passive. Men's competency ratings on the other hand
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are high and therefore desirable. They are rated as logical and not emotional, they do not cry at all, are
active agents and skilled in business (1992, pg 5). With this foundation of knowledge to build upon I
furthermore underwent a preliminary literature review of seven scholarly sources. All but one source
portray a striking image of the media reinforcing stereotypical gender roles and downplaying a
woman's intellect, reducing her to her sex alone. In “Beauty and the Patriarchal Beast” the authors
Kimberly Walsh et al. make a claim that situation comedies on Television depict emancipated and
smart women yet affirm patriarchy none the less. In their analysis the authors scrutinize two popular
situation comedies of our time: The King of Queens and According to Jim:
The first [step] positions women as physically and intellectually superior to their
husbands, and the second [step] restrains feminist ideals while reaffirming male
dominance. The study demonstrates how contradictions within the narrative element of
plot, characterization, and setting sustain a repressive gender constellation. This textual
structure, the humour of the show, and the popular myth of beauty and the beast work
together to encourage viewers to accept patriarchy as a "natural" male trait and trivialize
sexism as a laughing matter" (Walsh, 2008, 123)
One could argue that the title already suggests the power relations of the show. The male protagonist
(the “King”) governs over his "Queen" and whatever "Jim" says is considered a reliable source to refer
to. The article is intriguing because it mentions a seemingly emancipated shift towards equality
between husband and wife, obvious by the smart comebacks by the women on the cost of their
husbands. Yet the author states that under increased investigation one finds that during the plot of each
episode the female is undermined by her husband by the decisions he makes. For example gambling
away the family car and lying to her about it, which she will forgive him for and accept his decision by
the end of the episode. Another point made is the typical role men and women have in these shows by
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the men's dominant portrayal in the public and the women's dominant portrayal in the private sphere,
thus reinforcing gender stereotyping.
As Georg Gerbner has proven with his Cultivation Theory, Television plays an important role
in peoples perception of the world as it “cultivates” one's understanding of reality. If TV portrays an
acceptance of patriarchy and gender-stereotypes a move towards equality between the sexes and
individuality is in the writers opinion hindered, even battled. Karin Westman's investigation of the
very intelligent Faye Emerson, a TV-icon during the 1950s on American Television and considered the
"First Lady of Television", also supports Kimberly Walsh et al.'s claim that Television reinforces
patriarchy. The author argues that Faye was only popular on TV for as long as she did not voice her
opinions and kept wearing low-cut dresses. When she began to speak her thoughts and dress more
modest she soon was frowned upon and eventually displaced from TV (253). During this phasing out
process she was not as much criticized for her opinions as much as for her looks, which downplayed
her intelligence, as one contemporary witness reports: "Importantly, no critics reference Emerson's
political outspokenness as a reason for the decline of her career. However, I would argue that the
frequent references to her breasts and her changing physical image were a way to mask these
viewpoints. (254)”. This issue still seems to be current in contemporary situation comedies: even
though the female protagonist appears as wittier and smarter as her male counterpart, she is played
down by her physical appearance, namely her sex. Naomi Wolf understands this issue in her
controversial book “The Beauty Myth” and claims that with the arrival of feminism and emancipation a
new sort of patriarchy has evolved: The Beauty Myth. Naomi explains that women are pressured into
thinking that in order to be considered as a female they have to look pretty and beautiful and this,
according to society, should be more important to them than attaining a good education. Again this
patronized women despite of their new attained emancipation because it makes them insecure and
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indifferent to the world around them. This opens the dialogue to whether or not beauty is more
important than knowledge, bringing it back to Faye Emerson who got discarded as soon as she did not
fulfill the expectations laid upon her. At the same time this also raises the question if women really do
need a so called “beauty-passport” to be socially accepted and able to have a career in industries like
broadcasting. Westman makes a point in her article called “Beauty and the Geek” that there seems to be
a change happening in our culture with the emergence of a show called “Gilmore Girls”, surrounding
the beautiful and intelligent mother Lorelai and her equally beautiful and intelligent daughter Rory:
“The classical beauty of Lorelai and Rory gives the show its most public face in publicity shots and
promotional trailers, but [the director] Sherman-Palladino is quite interested in reminding viewers that
women’s brilliance can emerge from a variety of body types, aged to various years”. Therefore the
director of the show explicitly takes on a position that supports brilliance in women regardless of their
physical appearance and making a point by arguing that women do not necessarily have to be beautiful
or old to be smart. On the contrary she also agrees that in order for the show to air, two beautiful ladies
have to star in it! In Intelligence, Gender, and the Media Innis makes the argument that: “The negative
social reaction to brilliant girls teaches them that it is not acceptable to be intelligent and they should
hide their academic ability in search of social success.” (4). Innis therefore agrees with Naomi Wolf
who says that the media teaches women to value beauty above everything, therefore not counting on
intelligence as a means for social success.
In the article “The Mask of Beauty” Sumera analyzes the patriarchal forces at work in Disney’s
“The Beauty and the Beast”. She says that even though the female protagonist Belle is an emancipated
and smart women she is still subject to patriarchy, similar to Doug and Carry from The Kind of Queens,
because she gets married to the prince, whom she rescues, at the end. Although I found her article and
point of view interesting and challenging I find her viewpoint slightly biased and over-exaggerated.
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The author claims that Belle, even though she physically saves the Best's life and therefore, in my
opinion, shows how active an agent she is, is wearing the chains of patriarchy because she marries the
Beast in the end and thus submitting her independence to him. In my opinion does the fact that she
marries at the end not mean that she loses her independence and that her relationship cannot be one of
mutual equality, respect and free of stereotypical gender roles. After all, one could argue, the Beast
now also wears “the chains of marriage”. I think gender-stereotyping encompasses both sexes and does
not particularly prefer one sex alone. Males for example are basically told at a young age to deny their
feelings because they “ are not emotional” and “never cry” (Basow, 1992, pg. 5). I know out of
experience that men also cry and these stereo-types laid upon them by society and reinforced through
the media makes them ashamed of it, thereby denying their human nature and feelings. Both sexes
suffer under these categorizations and its useless to blame the other sex for their existence not to
mention plain harsh to make sexist assumptions about Belle's and the Beasts' “happily ever after”.
In this secondary research I found out much about underlying gender roles and patriarchy on
Television, one may not particularly pay attention to while viewing. While many scholars paint a
pitch-black picture of such schemes I also found one source which described a change in modern TV
situation comedies to a more wholesome gender-free portrayal of modern life, and I would like to
support and add to this with my own research which consists of a content analysis of the show Gilmore
Girls and an audience study of how audiences perceive and decode the show.
Gender Portrayal in Gilmore Girls
Gilmore Girls is an American situation comedy which centers around a single mother named
Lorelai Gilmore and her teenage daughter “Rory” in the fictional town of “Stars Hollow in
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Connecticut”. Even though it has been 16 years since Lorelai, due to her teenage pregnancy, moved
head over heels out of her rich parent's house, the relationship between her and her parents is still a
strained one. As a matter of fact, at the beginning of the series the only time they see or hear from each
other is at holidays, despite the fact that they only live about 20 minutes apart. This all changes when
Rory receives admission to an elite High-School, a necessary step for her to pursue her dream of
studying at Harvard University. Since this admission comes with a high yearly tuition fee Lorelai
cannot pay on her own, she has to ask her parents for a loan. They readily agree under the condition
that the two girls have to come to their house for supper every Friday night. From then on everything
important going on in their lives is scrutinized by each other, bringing this unlike family closer
together.
In the content analysis of the above described show I employ primary research methods to
investigate its gender portrayal and whether or not it reinforces a stereotypical view of gender. By
stereotypical view I mean attributing a set of ready-made characteristics to females and males, like
suggesting that women make decisions based on emotions while men make decisions based on logic. I
am also interested to find out if women who show above average intellectual potential have to embody
the standards of beauty of their respective societies in order to be socially accepted. I found that
Gilmore Girls does not portray stereotypical gender depiction because men and women have no
traditional gender roles in this show. Women, as much as men, act as independent agents, voice their
opinions freely and the show emits an ubiquitous air of equality and freedom of choice for both sexes
in general. Yet the show also has its drawback because I find that the depicted women who are smart
and popular, are only socially accepted because they are seen as attractive.
With these questions in mind, I chose a content analysis approach because I wanted to analyze
the content of the show in regards to my research-question and its related themes. I analyzed eight
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episodes with the help of a coding sheet, therefore counting instances when a variable proofed right or
wrong. Through this counting I hoped to draw conclusion and find answers to my research question
and also generalize the findings from eight episodes to the entire show. I decided to select the eight
episodes of my study by means of a probability sample because: “probability sampling allows the
researcher to employ tests of statistical significance that permit inferences to be made about the sample
from which the sample was selected” (Bryman et al, 217). My sample-frame were all the Gilmore Girls
episodes, all in all 153, and by chance, I used a website which generates random numbers for any
given interval, I sampled episode four, 33, 48, 57, 111, 113, 114 and 149. Through this I hope to
achieve external validity. Although I am using probability sampling to be able to generalize for the
show as a whole, I am aware of the limitations of this procedure. By not coding each and every episode
I can only make well-grounded assumptions of the show as a whole, but technically I can only speak
for the episodes that I have coded.
To investigate my first research question, I decided to make a list and count the instances of
main characters doing anything related to the theme of gender portrayal. I counted the instances a main
character would win an argument against another main character or who was the leading and dominant
partner of a conversation. A character has “won” a conversation when his or her opponent either
apologizes, leaves the conversation abruptly or does not know what to respond and submits. A
conversational upper hand is signified when one party does all the talking. Again, and also drawing
from Julie D'Acci, this categorization is by no means absolutely objective but I actively tried to pursue
it unbiased.
Another theme I analyzed was whether or not women would question male authoritative
figures. A male authoritative figure, in this research, is a husband, if speaking of his wife, a father, if
speaking of his daughter, male police officers and the mayor of Stars Hollow, the town in which
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Gilmore Girls takes place. I also analyzed if men questioned female authoritative figures such as one's
wife and mother, and female police officers.
I also counted how many times main characters were portrayed in the public sphere, which
traditionally is associated with men (Baslow, 1992, pg. 5), and the private sphere, which traditionally is
dominated by women. As another category of sphere, I included “Luke's Diner”, which is one of the
main characters' restaurant, because it seems to be a overlapping space of both spheres. On the one
hand it is a public place because people go there to order and eat food and on the other hand Lorelai
and her daughter Rory, the protagonists of the show, also go there to meet their friend and owner of the
diner, Luke. Oftentimes they do not even pay for their order, therefore making it seem like visiting a
friend.
An additional theme I investigated was the instances main characters appeared as active or
passive agents in a scene, because femininity is often times associated with being passive while
masculinity is associated with being active (Basow, 1992, pg. 4). This means whether or not a character
was actively involved in the action going on or actively contributed to the conversation. I considered
the character as passive if he or she had nothing to say or submitted to others requests.
The last theme I coded in regards to gender portrayal was if characters behaved logically or
emotionally. By logically I mean giving understandable reasoning to their actions and by emotional I
mean acting out of their emotions with no thought of possible consequences. In stereotypical views,
women are considered to act out of their emotions while men act out of their logical deliberation
(Basow, 1992, pg. 4).
Analyzing my second research question proofed as a hard undertaking, since it is hard to code if
people only like smart women if they conform to societies standards of beauty. Therefore I decided to
analyze first, if the main characters, Lorelai and Rory, are perceived as intelligent or stupid and
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beautiful or ugly by other characters and counted the instances they were referred to as such or if any
actions proved that they indeed are beautiful to others, for example if someone asked them out on a
date or plainly told them so. I also counted the instances of how many times Rory and Lorelai were
asked for advice and how many times they solved a problem successfully or unsuccessfully since this
would have been an indicator of their intelligence. Lorelai has proved herself as a capable and
intelligent women by solving problems at the “Inn” she works at as a manager. In one episode she
effectively carries out her task of caring for the guest of her “Inn”, even though a fire accident made it
impossible to reside in it. She involved the whole town in arranging accommodations and food for the
guests. Therefore she is successful in business which disconfirms the stereo-typical notion of women
being unsuccessful in business. She is also seen as beautiful because she has been told so twice during
the eight episodes I have watched and in episode four called “the Deer Hunter” a teacher of Rory's paid
particular romantic attention to her when he first met her.
In episode 33 called: “Richard goes to Stars Hollow”, Lorelai's dad, Richard, spends the day
with his daughter. This father-daughter experience soon turns into a challenge for Lorelai due to her
father's constant criticism. When Rory's boyfriend, Dean, appears and gives her a car he has build by
himself, Richard intervenes and says Rory cannot drive the car because it is not safe. This causes
Lorelai to take a stance against her father, an authoritative figure to her, making clear to him that his
opinion does not matter.
Episode 111, called “Fight Face”, depicts the aftermath of Rory's and her mother's fight after
Rory told her, that she was not going to return to Yale, even though going to an elite University has
been her dream for a long time. As a result Rory stays at her grandparents house instead of her mothers'
and the two are not talking to each other. Rory also has to serve community hours due to an accident
she had caused.
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Episode 148 is called: “The Hay Bale Maze”, in which Rory and her current boyfriend Logan
come to visit Stars Hollow for the annually “Spring Fling festival” in which an enormous maze out of
hay bales is set up. Rory shows Logan, who has never been to Stars Hollow before, the “landmarks” of
the town and introduces him to her mother, Lorelai. Rory also receives a job offer from a low-profile
newspaper but rejects it in the hopes of getting a better offer.
I also analyzed the episodes called “The Swan Song” (third season), “Eight O' Clock at the
Oasis” (third season), “Always a Godmother, never a God” (sixth season) and “We'v got magic to do”
(sixth season) which content is not of any particular importance. During these eight episodes, Lorelai
was depicted to 85 per cent as an active agent which means that she most of the time was involved in
the events surrounding her. She was also more often portrayed to be acting out of logical reasoning
than out of emotional (71.5 per cent of the time). For example, when she first met Rory's boyfriend,
Logan, she behaved polite even though she dislikes the fact that he gambles and lost his father's
company millions of dollars. She gave concrete arguments to why she is worried about her daughter's
future instead of acting hostile and moody towards him. Scenes also showed her to more than 58 per
cent in public places, such as her work or at community places. These numbers clearly indicate to me
that traditional gender depiction is not at work with Lorelai, or the show would place her more often in
the home-sphere and also not give her such a leading role which most often dictates the action. She
even openly questions an authoritative figure, her father, at the end of the 33rd
episode (“Richard in
Stars Hollow”). Stereotypical gender roles do not allow leeway for women to stand up against their
father. Rory, too, embodies these non-traditional characteristics. She behaves more logical than her
mother surpassing her with 87.5 per cent which definitely could be an indication of her intelligence
which is often brought up in regards to her outstanding grades at school. It seems apparent that people
who are intelligent also think things through before they act, to make the best possible choice. Rory is
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seen slightly less often in public places than her mother (55 per cent of the time), which is still a
considerable ratio if one considers the stereo-typical assumption of women belonging to the home-
sphere and that popular TV-shows such as The King of Queens and According to Jim depict a strict
division between gender and spheres. She is not as active of an agent as her mother, since she only 59
per cent of the time actively shapes her environment and only 27 per cent of the time questions male
authoritative figures. For me this is more an indication that she is young, though, since most of the time
she submits to her grandparents wishes and lets them decide things for her over her head, out of respect
and naivety one could argue. This could also be the reason why she only wins approximately every
fourth argument and her mother every second: the deficiency of life-experience. Another good example
to support my standpoint that Gilmore Girls does not portray gender stereotyping is the character of
Paris. She goes to the same school as Rory and is depicted as very competitive and domineering which
certainly are unusual characteristics for a women in traditional gender assumption. She wins arguments
to 71.4 per cent and wins therewith, after Lorelei’s mother Emily (90.1 per cent of the time), the most
arguments in this show. Lorelei’s dad, Richard, only wins 62 per cent of his debates and acts to 84 per
cent out of logical conclusions. The only time he acted out of his emotions was, when his
granddaughter received a self-engineered car by her boyfriend and he was worried about her well-
being. He repeatedly made the mechanic check the car even though she said it was safe. To support the
claim that Gilmore Girls does not depict gender in a stereo-typical way I am going to add that Richard,
according to my content analysis, is depicted to 50 per cent in the home-sphere, therefore more often
than his daughter and grand-daughter. A variable which I therefore conclude guides the portrayal of
people in this show, is not gender, but age and intelligence. This would also explain why Emily,
Lorelei's mother and Rory's grandmother, wins nine arguments out of ten, which makes her the
indisputable leader of a conversation. The only time she was pictured to submit to someone else's
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viewpoint was, when her husband, Richard, ensured and convinced her of Rory's professionalism and
success. During episode 114 “We've got Magic to do” Emily and her prestigious club called the “DR”
appoint Rory to organize an important charitable event. When Rory fundamentally changes the entire
sequence of the event- from the location to the food-menu- Emily starts to worry about the outcome and
approaches her husband with her fears. To make a point of Rory's successful nature and his
indispensable trust in her he says: “This girl could name the state capitals at three. Recite the periodic
table at four. Discuss Schopenhauer's influence on Nietzsche when she was ten. She's read every book
by every author with a Russian surname and had a 4.2 grade point average at one of the toughest school
on the east coast”. This proves not only Rory's intelligence to the viewer but also how characters are
mainly defined by their age and intelligence as opposed to their gender alone. Emily, inarguably one of
the oldest cast-members of the show, only submitted once in a conversation and this was to her, about
equally old, husband Richard. Emily does not only win by far the most conversations, she is also the
most active agent in the show (94.4 per cent) and 88.8 per cent of her actions are based on logical
conclusions. On the contrary, a prominent character on the show, Luke, who is about 35 years old, is
just as often portrayed in the private sphere as in the public sphere, and his action originate to 25 per
cent out of emotions. Therefore he also does not incorporate typical assumptions of he male sex. Thus,
the show depicts a wise and well-grounded assumption that the defining forces of a character's
portrayal stem from her intelligence and age as opposed to gender, since there is no indication to the
contrary.
Social Acceptance through Appearances
For this research paper I also conducted an audience analysis to address issues of perception by
the audience while watching the show Gilmore Girls. I wanted to answer the question of whether
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intelligent women in Gilmore Girls have to be beautiful in order to be socially accepted. I knew that in
order to answer this question I would have to conduct a focus group or an in-depth interview to be able
to analyze people's reactions and preferences. I had decided against a focus group approach because I
did not want to facilitate a group discussion of this topic but simply get an interviewee's reaction on it. I
did not want anyones opinion to be influenced on what someone else said or expressed. Therefore I
decided to undertake an in-depth interview, to isolate participants and get their sole un-contaminated
input regarding the answering of my research question. To explore this I decided to write down a
dialogue between the two protagonists (Appendix A), Rory and Lorelai, out of a randomly picked
episode from the entire show. I used the website “Random.org” to generate a random number between
the first and the last episode and received number 26, which is the 5th
episode of the second season
called “Nick and Nora”. This process makes my results more generalizable to the entire show. My plan
was to first show the participants the dialogue on paper so they could form an opinion about the
characters based solely on their words and expressed attitudes. Then I asked the participants, among
other questions, how they would rate the characters' intelligence, popularity and appearance. After this
I visually showed them the scene so they now were able to make themselves a complete picture of the
female characters by seeing their appearance, followed by the same questions as earlier. I hoped to
obtain meaningful conclusions towards my initial research question and paid attention to a positive or
negative change in intelligence and popularity ratings by my research participants.
The way I chose participants was to ensure that they had never seen “Gilmore Girls” and most
importantly the protagonist of the show before, since I wanted to find out through my interview if their
opinion about them changed after they knew that they are beautiful or not. Once I knew who to
interview I made arrangements to meet them in a public place and began the interview. I let them read
and sign the “Letter of Information/Content” and also gave them a brief summary of what the show is
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about. Then I proceeded as outlined above, taking notes while they answered questions. I conducted
two in-depth interviews for two reasons: first I wanted it to be fairly representable to the public and
therefore chose one male, participant one, and one female, participant two. Second I did not think that
one interviewee would be sufficient enough. Despite all of this I am aware that my findings are by no
means generalizable to the public since the participants were not chosen by a random sample and the
sample size is too small. The questions I have asked (see Appendix B and C) were mostly open ended
and probing questions and the interview was held during one appointment only, but separate from each
other, and within approximately one hour.
My key findings of the first stage, in which the human subjects only looked at the dialogue,
were, that both participants would be friends with the female protagonists Lorelai and Rory but only
Rory would be invited to a party they hosted. Both participants, who are childless students in their early
20s, expressed concerns regarding Lorelai, the mother, because both participants mentioned
difficulties in relating to her since she is older and has a child. I thought this interesting because in my
primary research “age” seemed to come up as a determining factor for a number of things: Firstly it
seemed to govern one's actions in the show, as I found out in my content analysis as opposed to
“gender”, this could be because with age comes presumably wisdom. Furthermore it seems to also limit
one's social access. Participant two for example said when asked if she liked them that much that she
would invite them to a party: “If I were close to them. I don't know if that was possible with Lorelai
because one is a mother and one is a daughter” and participant one said that he would invite Rory but
not the mother because she is “too old”.
When I asked participant one what he imagines them to look like he said: “Rory is good looking
but not Lorelai, she is fat because of her love of danishes and because she loves dessert”. At this point I
am not sure if there is a correlation between Lorelai being perceived as ugly and not being invited to
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the party and Rory's invitation and being perceived as pretty but it seems to correspond with Becker's
investigation of the equally beautiful and intelligent Faye Emerson, a TV-icon during the 1950's on
American Television, who needed a so called “beauty-passport” to make it and remain on Television
(253). It seems as if women have higher chances of being socially accepted and successful if they are
good looking.
To my surprise did both participants think that Lorelai and Rory are not very smart. Participant
one rated Lorelei’s intelligence a four out of ten while Rory received a seven out of ten, even though
the show is popular for its clever lines and Rory receives acceptance letters from Harvard, Yale and
Princeton! Participant two gave Lorelai a six out of ten and Rory a seven out of ten rating for their
respective intelligence. When I questioned them about the low ratings they argued that Lorelei’s child-
like behaviour is inappropriate for her age and therefore deserves to be ranked lowly, while Rory on the
contrary acted more mature than her mother yet was unable to solve the task of getting danishes and
coffee for the both of them. I found this interesting because I never thought that observers would
categorize the main characters as “not smart”. It seems as if it is hard to judge a character by only one
scene, especially if the particular scene appears to demonstrate a childish mother, as has been
mentioned by both participants. Yet I thought their clever conversation would make people realize
whatsoever that they are truly smart. For example, when Rory does not want to share her coffee with
her mother and only gives her a danish, Lorelei asks: “What is a danish without coffee?” and Rory
wittily answers: “The eternal questions springs up again”, sarcastically remarking the meaninglessness
of her question compared to the quest of meaning to life. Lorelei again answers to this: “ Sad danish,
angry danish, step-danish”, which is a clever punch-line and proves her high degree of intelligence.
Also in my content analysis I came to the conclusion that Lorelei and Rory are depicted as smart and
intelligent women because they mostly act out of rationality than emotions. Lorelei also wins a lot of
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arguments in the show and Rory's outstanding school achievements are mentioned often. One
drawback to this audience study is therefore definitely that the participants did not recognize what I
expected them to recognize. On the other hand they did, albeit partially, support the theme that
intelligent women have to be beautiful to be socially accepted, because even though Lorelei and Rory's
true potential did not get recognized by my participants, they did prefer to get socially involved with
the more attractive female, namely Rory. By finding out if women in general have to be beautiful to be
popular I am also finding out if smart women have to be beautiful to be socially accepted.
After I had showed the episode to my participant I asked them to rate their appearance and their
popularity and my observations confirm my assumption that women have to be beautiful to be socially
accepted! Participant one for example rated Rory's physicality a nine out of ten while her mother
received an acceptable seven out of ten, again because she is older. When I asked participant one to rate
their popularity he gave them both a nine out of ten, for reasons ranging from “no shy-issues” to
“talkative”. Participant two on the other hand did not think them popular (“I don't think they are
popular”) and only gave them a six out of ten for their appearance. Again confirming my assumption
that good-looks and popularity are correlated.
Conclusion and Further Research
Due to this research I am able to identify two distinct and important sets of human behaviour
that are apparent in the show Gilmore Girls and are maybe transferable to society as a whole. Firstly,
character's behaviour and depiction seem to be related to their intelligence and age. Rory, who has a
“4.2 grade point average at one of the toughest schools on the east coast” (Gilmore Girls) almost never
acts out of her emotions (14.3 per cent) and is furthermore often portrayed creating a pros and cons list
17

in order to decide how she should proceed in life. Since she is a teenager this is even more astounding
because teenagers are often times believed to make poor decisions and throw temper tantrums. On the
other hand, despite her exceptional logical behaviour, does she not win a lot of arguments (25 per cent)
and also rarely questions male authoritative figures (27 per cent). Furthermore does she only act to 59
per cent as an active agent. If one sees this in relation to her 16 year older mother, who wins
approximately every second argument (59 per cent), questions to 66.6 per cent male authoritative
figures and acts to 85 per cent as an active agent on can see a clear distinction between these two. This
could have something to do with their age difference and a growing ability to become more assertive
and enforce one's opinion. The other aspect I noted was that a woman's social status, popularity and
even success are highly dependable on her appearance and evaluated attractiveness by others. In
further research I would like to complement this by an analysis of whether a man's social status,
popularity and success is equally correlated to his appearance and attractiveness or if other factors, such
as aggressiveness or even intelligence, are also involved. If I had one million dollar to spend to further
investigate these research questions I would at first request that a from me independent researcher, who
is unaware of my research questions, replicate my content analysis to be able to exclude any bias in the
coding of themes. At times it was hard to decide whether an action sprung out of emotionality or
rationality and whether a character was active or passive over the course of a scene. Therefore I am
concerned with a partial bias since I constantly had my research questions in mind. If however the
independent researcher collects the same data then I would still improve this research by hiring two
more independent researchers. These three researchers would then code the entire series of Gilmore
Girls. This way there will be no general assumptions about the show because every episode has been
coded and I can make discrete, not well-grounded, assumptions about the show.
To improve my audience analysis I would interview a higher number of people, probably about
18

one thousand, from a variety of ethnographic demographics which would be selected by a probability
sample because this makes the outcome of the research more generalizable to the entire population.
During the in-depth interview a variety of “text-only” conversations from the show and their respective
scenes, selected by means of a probability sample to increase generalizability to the entire show, will
be shown to the interviewee. Through this I hope to avoid drawbacks from my first audience analysis in
which participants were not really able to make themselves a complete picture of the main characters
and did not identify them as intelligent, which I am sure a greater selection of clips will improve upon.
The procedure thereof would be mainly the same, except that I would also include an investigation of
male characters to test their social acceptance in regards to determining factors such as appearance or
distinct personality traits. In addition I would also like to investigate if a person's intelligence has
anything to do with their popularity and social acceptance as well. These are pressing issues that are
worth analyzing because I think that a conclusion of this matter is not limited to the show Gilmore
Girls alone but to society at large.
References
Basow, Susan. (1992). Gender: stereotypes and roles.Pacific Grove: Brooks/Cole Pub.
19

Co.
Becker, C. (2004). 'Glamor girl classed as TV show brain': The body and mind of Faye Emerson. Journal of
Popular Culture, 38(2), 242-260. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?
direct=true&db=cax&AN=CAX0280020000930s&site=ehost-live&scope=site
Bryman et al. (2005). Social Research Methods: Canadian Edition. New York: University Press.
D'Acco, Julie. (2004). Television, Representation and Gender. In R. Allen (Ed.), The Television Studies Reader.
New York: Routledge.
Innes, S. (2007). Who Remembers Sabrina? Intelligence, Gender, and the Media (1st ed.). New York:
Palgrave Macmillan.
Sherman, Amy. (Writer), & Michael Katleman (Director). (2003). Eight O' Clock at Oasis. Gilmore Girls. WB
Network.
Sherman, Amy. (Writer), & Michael Katleman (Director). (2007). Fight Face. Gilmore Girls. WB Network.
Sherman, Amy. (Writer), & Michael Katleman (Director). (2007). Hay Bale Maze. Gilmore Girls. WB
Network.
Sherman, Amy. (Writer), & Michael Katleman (Director). (2001). Nick & Nora. Gilmore Girls. WB
Network.
Sherman, Amy. (Writer), & Michael Katleman (Director). (2002). Richard in Stars Hollow. Gilmore
Girls.WB Network.
Sherman, Amy. (Writer), & Michael Katleman (Director). (2003). Swan Song. Gilmore Girls.WB Network.
Sherman, Amy. (Writer), & Michael Katleman (Director). (2006). We've Got Magic. Gilmore Girls.WB
Network.
Sumera, L. (2009). The mask of beauty: Masquerade theory and disney's beauty and the beast. Quarterly Review
of Film & Video, 26(1), 40-46. doi:10.1080/10509200600701156
Walsh, K. R., Fürsich, E., & Jefferson, B. S. (2008). Beauty and the patriarchal beast: Gender role portrayals in
sitcoms featuring mismatched couples. Journal of Popular Film & Television, 36(3), 123-132. Retrieved
from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=cax&AN=35951338&site=ehost-
live&scope=site
Westman, K. (2007). Changing Gender Stereotypes on the Gilmore Girls. In S. Innis (Ed), Geek chic: smart
women in popular culture. New York: Palgrave Macmillion.
Wolf, N. (1990). The beauty myth. London: Chatto&Windus.
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