MovieChat Forums > Gilmore Girls (2000) Discussion > Gilmore Girls: A Show That Seems Glaring...

Gilmore Girls: A Show That Seems Glaringly Sexist Against Men

posted 8 years ago by jmbwithcats
17 replies | jump to latest

Gilmore Girls: A Show That Seems Glaringly Sexist Against Men

Bear in mind, I wrote this in season 6... everything changes in season 7 when suddenly it seems they try to redeem all the guys... Luke, Logan, Michel gets a heart when his dog dies... I mean they really do redeem the men finally in season 7.

I know this is going to be a polarizing topic, but I'm in season 7, and all I can think of is the repeated personality trait that men aren't treated very fairly on the show.

Those who find out important info and hide it seems to be a repeating theme. We saw Luke do this with his daughter April and Lorelai, with Logan with his business and Rory, in fact the only guy who doesn't exhibit this trait purposefully is Christopher, but he's also the guy making up for not being in his daughter's life.

Richard is a sweet grandfather, but he doesn't show interest in his wife Emily... Marty lies, I mean I get it, this show is primarily a "chick flick", it's about three generations of women... and I love it for that, but this show doesn't treat men very well.

The men act like aggressive puppy dogs who are enamored by much smarter, much more put together women... oh wait, I just realized, that's not sexist, that's kind of reality... I must admit, as a man I do look for a woman like that... hmm... maybe I just debunked the premise of this post.

But only in part. This show really is about successful women and the men who barely eek by and not really doing anything noble or meaningful... for the love of God, even the town mechanic is a woman.

Emily runs the DAR

Lorelai and Sooki run the Inn

Rory gets everything one could possibly want and she deserves it.

Logan is a gambler, who lies, and takes irresponsible risk, is cocky, arrogant, vain... the men seem to have all the worst traits, the women, all the best.

Michel helps at the Inn but he's a completely insane pain in the ass
Patsy runs a dance studio

Christopher apparently works in software but it's never explored, at all.

Luke runs a diner but he inherited the place from his dad and dresses like a slob, he appeals to the everyman, the romantic who wants to see Lorelai's free spirit win in the end.

Jackson delivers the fruits and vegetables to the inn but we never really see what he does either.

Kirk is a scum capitalist who would drown his mother if he could sell t-shirts.

Taylor basically represents the necessary but hated authority that nobody likes and he's got nothing else in his life.

After 7 seasons it just becomes clear, that this show is creating hero worship of women, and disdain and distrust for men in general.

And apparently I'm not the only one who thinks so.

http://nomoresexism.tumblr.com/post/101769557786/6-reasons-gilmore-girls-is-everything-thats-wrong

http://empowering.hearst.co.uk/be-inspired/gilmore-girls-feminist/

In closing, I must reiterate that one thing I love about the show is the strong women, but the imbalance of strong men and character traits seems a bit irksome to say the least. Now you might say yes, the women all have flaws too, but they are redeemed, the men not so much.

Web www.jmberman.com
Fcbk www.facebook.com/catnipdream

[–] rainbow26 8 years ago

All of the women on this show (Emily, Lorelai, Rory, Paris, Sookie, Lane) are just as flawed as the men as far as I'm concerned.

[–] jmbwithcats 8 years ago

The difference is the women have far more redeeming qualities and successes, while the men have no such triumphs over their flaws... except through the understanding and forgiveness of the women around them.

Web www.jmberman.com
Fcbk www.facebook.com/catnipdream

[–] faulknerster 8 years ago

I have a problem with some of this show's characterization, but claiming reverse sexism is lame. Firstly, because it's not true. Secondly, because claiming reverse sexism and racism is the new way of pretending racism and sexism don't exist. Thirdly, because this is one of the best female-focused shows (particularly at that time) at fleshing out its male characters. No, they're not gonna have as fleshed out backgrounds and stories because this show is called "Gilmore Girls".

But Luke, Jess, Richard and Logan (although I have varying degrees of how much I like those characters) were all fleshed out characters with their own personalities and ambitions and arcs. Did Richard not run his own successful firm? Was Logan not a smart guy who eventually got a handle of his ambition (and with no assistance from Rory)? Did Luke not own and run his own successful diner and was consistently there for his friends and family despite his innate grouchiness? Did Jess not follow his dreams of a writer and publish a novel and mature? Hell, even Chris somewhat it together. And did those men not often give the female characters important advice and support?

Hell, there are people who think Lorelai or Emily or Rory or Mrs Kim or whoever had no redeeming qualities or had fatal flaws. So, claiming someone not having redeeming qualities is subjective. The show morphed into something else in the last two seasons (speaking of which, the most ridiculous, multi episode caricature was a female: Anna Nardini). But yes, a pinpoint of the show is about female empowerment, but unlike a lot of things it's not at the expense of men. This show has some weird, off-putting gender and sexual politics, but it's hardly anti-men. If you're gonna claim this show has reverse sexism you could say the same thing about almost every show with mostly female main characters.

[–] rainbow26 8 years ago

Disagree. Most of the men were given redeeming qualities and success.

Jess was presented as extremely flawed in his two seasons as a regular, but in Season 6 he's more mature than Rory and a published author at age 21.

Luke was practically painted as a saint in the letter Lorelai wrote about him for his custody hearing. He runs a successful restaurant (which is extremely difficult to do), he's always been someone Lorelai can rely on, and he tried his best with April when he found about her.

Logan matured a great deal in his 3 seasons on his show, and certainly showed a lot more growth as a character than Rory and Lorelai did.

Richard was a brilliant businessman and a wonderful grandfather to Rory. I agree he wasn't the perfect husband to Emily, but she wasn't the perfect wife either.

[–] jmbwithcats 8 years ago

Ya, I suppose that is true, thanks.

Bear in mind, I wrote this in season 6... everything changes in season 7 when suddenly it seems they try to redeem all the guys... Luke, Logan, Michel gets a heart when his dog dies... I mean they really do redeem the men finally in season 7.

Web www.jmberman.com
Fcbk www.facebook.com/catnipdream

[–] blondiebear_17 8 years ago

I think thats just your own bias. I personally never saw the show as painting men in a bad light. There simply weren't as many male characters as there were female characters but I think they are treated as fairly as possible given the fact that many of them are not central characters. I mean if Luke was the main character would you judge the show based on his exes? I mean geez if you were meant to judge women by the way Anna Nardini acted you might try and say it was sexist against women but she is just a plot device.

[–] jmbwithcats 8 years ago

Good point.

Web www.jmberman.com
Fcbk www.facebook.com/catnipdream

[–] nuhor_lir_gurenna 8 years ago

I am a guy and I have no respect for modern feminism, and I don't like politics of any kind. Conservatives or progressives to me are all lying dirty bags with only self interests in their minds (Yes, even Bernie Sanders).

With that aside I am quite sure that this show is not about gender politics, or at least gender politics are not featured strongly or intentionally in the show.

Whatever you felt I think is not done intentionally for gender politics, more of this is a show made mainly for women (or girls more specifically).

To be honest two main female leads are portrayed as very selfish and self absorbed borderline criminals (Rory stole a yacht, Lorelai endangered her infant daughter for selfish reasons). A lot of people think poorly of them.

Anna Nardini is just about the most hated person in the show. The custody battle with Luke I think pointed out men are treated poorly in term of parental rights. You can even say it is done for men's rights (which of course is not true, like I said before it was not done intentionally).

A cynic is what an idealist calls a realist - Sir Humphrey Appleby

[–] rainbow26 8 years ago

Don't forget Sherry abandoned her daughter, Madeline and Louise are empty-headed bimbos who only care about boys, Lindsay is demanding and selfish, Liz was a flaky and neglectful mother, etc. Plenty of women were portrayed in a pretty unflattering light on this show.

[–] jmbwithcats 8 years ago

Bear in mind, I wrote this in season 6... everything changes in season 7 when suddenly it seems they try to redeem all the guys... Luke, Logan, Michel gets a heart when his dog dies... I mean they really do redeem the men finally in season 7.

Web www.jmberman.com
Fcbk www.facebook.com/catnipdream

[–] kathykato 8 years ago

I disagree with you that everything changes in season 7. Lorelai and Rory are still self-centered, narcissistic, and immature in the view of many viewers. Anna Nardini is much nastier than she was in season 6. I don't think the men were suddenly transformed in season 7, either. They were still all complex characters with flaws and strengths just as they had been since season 1, though some showed more growth than others.

[–] nutsberryfarm 8 years ago

luke's lack of shaving indicated he had some barbarian sympathies.

The food I've liked in my time is American country cookin'-Colonel Sanders 🇺🇸

[–] Eva_Marrie 8 years ago

Except that stubble was a fashion trend of the mid to late 2000s. Luke was actually being very hip!

[–] RjanaR 8 years ago

I have 2 issues regarding men on this show. One is ASP's apparent opinion that fathers are useless and not really neccessary for a child's upbringing. We've only had 3 decent fathers on the show: Luke, TJ and Zach.

Richard while he provided financially for Lorelai as a child totally emotionally neglected her. While that perhaps reflects how he was brought up and their social circle it's still neglect. Jess's father was a deadbeat. So was Rory's. We never even see Mr. Kim. And generally we only ever meet mothers and never fathers (like in Dean's case).

The other thing is that men seem to turn into raging jerks, jealous douchbags, personality drains and so forth once they start dating Lorelai (and I do mean both Lorelais). And apparently they are the best thing to ever happen to these guys to the point where these guys can never move on.

[–] Eva_Marrie 8 years ago

This is a female fantasy and one of the few Hollywood shows ever produced where women are protagonists and men are secondary characters. It could be that it just takes you off balance because we're all so used to it being in reverse.

I second the person that said that claiming discrimination against privileged groups is really a PC version of maintaining the status quo these days. Which completely misses the point that sexism, racism or homophobia cannot be practiced in reverse by the very definition of power structures. Women might say mean things about men, dark-skinned people about white people and gays about straights, but those mean things don't translate into institutional oppression because society is not set up that way. Slaves might've cursed against their white masters on the plantations, but you can't call that reverse racism because of established power dynamics.

It never ceases to amaze me when claims of 'misandry' are laid with unsavoury quotes by radical feminists, because they are just words. There are no groups of radfems out there who go out to gang rape men out of their raging 'misandry', no violent revolutions for women to take over the government and institute a social structure to make men into property, or practice sex-selective abortion against boys. There are no institutional repercussions for men resulting out of that 'misandry' because they are still the ruling class.

There are actually some thoroughly anti-feminist things in this show - gay and body-shaming in regard to women, and the fact that being single is treated as a disease for a woman. For example, when Sookie pushed Luke out of his own wedding planning - she wasn't being sexist against him. She was actually being patriarchal in reinforcing gender stereotypes ("it's not something a groom wants to deal with" ) and you wanted to slap her for that.

[–] perfect_lover2012 8 years ago

Well stated. I don't want to derail the thread but I wanted to commend you on this post. I also agree that there are quite a few anti feminist things about this show.

"When life gives you lemons"
Jessica D: sleep with their fathers and have secret lemon children

[–] Eva_Marrie 8 years ago

Thank you!