November 1st 2024.
The television industry has recently come under fire for perpetuating a tired and frustrating trope for female characters. This trope involves the lives of our beloved fictional women being thrown into chaos after they make the decision to have sex. It all started with a viral tweet from StardustNova, calling for people to share the common plotlines that make them switch off from their favorite shows. The responses were varied, but one in particular gained a lot of traction, with over 2.6 million views and 77k likes. The tweet, by Lauren, pointed out the problematic narrative that needs to be eliminated.
Lauren began her tweet by stating, "Making it weird when a female character has sex." She then used the example of Gilmore Girls, a show that first aired in 2003 and is still popular among fans, especially during the autumn season. In one episode, Lane, a character who is pregnant with twins, has her first sexual experience, which she did not enjoy. Lauren continued to criticize the show for constantly using this trope, stating that women's lives should not fall apart simply because they had sex.
Gilmore Girls follows the lives of mother Lorelai and daughter Rory in the small town of Stars Hollow. While the show is often praised for its cozy and heartwarming feel, it seems that some viewers have taken issue with certain storylines involving female characters. For example, in one episode, Rory's classmate Paris doesn't get into Harvard University and believes it is because she lost her virginity. When Lorelai overhears this, she remarks, "I've got the good kid," insinuating that having sex can make someone "bad." In another instance, when Rory receives acceptance letters from prestigious universities, Lorelai jokes, "You must be the biggest virgin in the world."
Lane, Rory's best friend, has sex once and ends up getting pregnant, which leads her to give up her dreams of becoming a rockstar. Even Rory herself falls victim to this trope when she has sex for the first time with a married man and is then sent away to Europe for the entire summer. Lauren added to her tweet, "Having sex does not make you bad at all. I hate that they feel the need to villainize it for girls but praise it for men. Boring, sloppy, yawning, lazy."
Unfortunately, this trope is not exclusive to Gilmore Girls. Many fans responded to the tweet with examples from other popular shows, such as Secret Life of the American Teenager and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In the former, a character named Grace's father dies in a plane crash and she believes it is her fault for having premarital sex. In the latter, the main character loses her virginity to her love interest, Angel, who then immediately turns evil. Another character, April Kepner from Grey's Anatomy, also falls victim to this trope when she goes from being the most promising resident to failing her exams and quitting medicine because she had sex.
It's clear that this trope has been used in various genres, from horror/thriller films like Halloween and Jaws to beloved nostalgic shows like Gilmore Girls and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The punishment for female characters who have sex may not always be as obvious as in horror films, but it is still present. As one Twitter user pointed out, "It's frustrating how often female characters are defined by their sexual experiences in ways that derail their lives. Sex shouldn't be portrayed as a catalyst for chaos or shame - there are so many more nuanced ways to explore women's stories!"
Thankfully, there are recent examples of positive representation for female characters who have sex, such as Penelope Featherington in Bridgerton and Marianne Sheridan in Normal People. It's time for this negative and outdated trope to be ditched forever. Positive representation is much appreciated by viewers, and it's time for the TV industry to catch up. Let's hope that in the future, we see more diverse and realistic portrayals of female characters and their sexual experiences.
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[Generative AI is experimental.]
