One of my favorite shows, Gilmore Girls, is a perfect example of the circle of whiteness discussed in Chidester’s article. Lorelai and Rory Gilmore live in Stars Hollow, a small town in Connecticut. The town is entirely white. The mother and daughter are close to some members of the town (Lorelai, Rory, Luke, Miss Patti, Suki, etc.) and it is very clear that other members do not matter. There are very few minorities on the show, even as guest characters. The only one who is part of the main cast is “Michel” who is a very ambiguous character in a service position at Lorelai’s inn. He looks black and speaks French, but also is made to sound homosexual at times. It is very clear that he is not “part of the group” and he is always complaining about being left out. He is also never viewed sexually within the show, which Avila-Saavedra’s article on queer representation in the media.
Rory’s Korean friend Lane is the only example of an accepted minority on the show. Lane has a very strict Korean mother, but the reason she is accepted is because she acts entirely American. She loves rock n’ roll music, she dresses very American, she hides her activities from her mother, she has crushes on boy,s and does every other typical American girl thing while rejecting her Asian heritage. This rejection allows her to enter into the all-white circle of the Gilmore Girls.
The scenery grows even whiter when we meet Lorelai’s parents, who are wealthy socialites in Hartford, Connecticut. The only minorities in their society are the numerous maids hired by Emily Gilmore. In comparison to this version of Hartford, Stars Hollow is diverse. This (inaccurate) portrayal of Hartford makes it very clear there is no place for minorities in high societies.
Looking just at Rory, she goes from small-town public high school, to exclusive preparatory school to Yale University. Every location is the same: all white with one or two token minorities thrown into a couple scenes every few episodes. While Connecticut may not be the most diverse area in America, the version shown in Gilmore Girls is as far from diverse as possible.
The different men they date make this even more obvious. Both Rory and Lorelai are single girls and go through various stages of relationships throughout the show. But every single love interest is tall, white, wealthy, attractive, strong, and the perfect picture of masculinity. The girls literally did not date a single minority or even take an interest in anyone who didn’t represent ideal masculinity.
Another aspect of Gilmore Girls is their ability to exclude others from their conversations. The Gilmore Girls have a rapid speech pattern that only they can follow. No one else can interject. Their conversations are filled with inside jokes and obscure references that most people cannot understand. As viewers of the show, we do not necessarily understand everything they discuss, but we are “in” on most of the inside jokes, meanwhile most of the other characters on the show are not. Their speech pattern has the same effect of the circle discussed in Friends, it keeps “others” out and only lets the viewer into the unique mother-daughter relationship.
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