Exploring Feminity Through Gilmore Girls

No show does fall and high school quite like Gilmore Girls. I was hooked to the show because of a clip I saw from a season two episode: where Paris Geller told Rory Gilmore (one of two protagonists of the show) about her flurry of incredible extracurricular activities and how it took more than a good “GPA” and “SAT Score” to get into Harvard. That clip, though filmed about twenty-five years ago, was still immensely relevant to the high school and college admissions landscape today - and resonated with me as a high school student myself. I began watching Season 1, Episode 1, the same day.

Rory and her mother, Lorealai are the perfect picture of a quintessential mother-daughter duo living in Stars Hollow. Lorelai is an independent, free-spirited woman who refuses her parents assistance (both financial and otherwise) in furthering her life and her daughter’s life. Rory is a smart, sweet, and kind-hearted sophomore in high school (when the series starts) who cares about her mother and her friends. And don’t get me wrong, despite the analysis I’m about to delve into, Gilmore Girls still remains one of my favorite shows to date and one that will forever be my comfort show.

So first off, I want to address how “different” Rory and her mom are, and how this influences the femininity and concept of feminism in Gilmore Girls. And I don’t mean this in the way that most people think. Rory and Lorelai are the main characters of this show - of course they’re going to be unique and special, and have depth that most others in Stars Hollow or the Gilmore family aren’t shown to have. It’s not the personality quirks or the contemplative moments that makes these girls stand out: one of the things that really makes Rory and Lorelai so different is their relationship with food.

Food is crucial to the landscape of Gilmore GIrls. Almost every episode includes a breakfast from Luke’s diner, a Friday night dinner with the grandparents, or a glimpse of Sookie’s delicious meals. But the relationship the gilmore girls have with food becomes oddly superficial, confusing, and toxic once analyzed. 

Rory and Lorelai are at the apex of the “chill” girls - ones who don’t care about their diet and subsequent weight changes. The frustrating thing about this is that Gilmore Girls idealizes women who don’t diet and put effort into looking conventionally attractive, but end up meeting beauty standards even with their careless mentality. Rory and Lorelai have this effortless beauty - not the “I just rolled out of bed this way,” but rather, “I eat unhealthy to the point where it’s a personality characteristic, yet body image, both weight and otherwise, is never an issue for me.” 

Their relationship with food is exhausting, but is also featured in so many episodes. It serves to increase their uniqueness, the way they eat junk food and indulge in unhealthy habits, but fail to see any negative effects to their face or body.

Their relationship with food is one way the “not like the other girls” trope is highlighted. I actually saw this for the first time on a YouTuber’s video analysis of Gilmore Girls, but essentially, Lorelai’s actor (Lauren Graham) had to maintain a strict diet in real life specifically to maintain a particular look for the show. Behind the scenes, this effortless relationship Lorelai had with food was plagued by intense diets and exercise. The odd relationship the girls have with food only furthers to increase their conventional attractiveness and uniqueness -- achieving a healthy look while maintaining a (fake) effortless air. 

Lorelai’s (actor’s) diet is a testament to the not like the other girls trope. Meeting the beauty standards while eating unhealthy is pretty much impossible, but Rory and Gilmore continue to consume junk food while not seeing any negative effects on the way they look. But in reality, the way they looked was fueled by effort that they put in to look and appear a certain way. In the show, this relationship is blurred and modified such that the effortless look, and not caring about oneself, is paired with beauty and successful beauty standards. 

This is a micro-scale, a pretty significant zoom-in on the Gilmore Girls’ life. This show has so many beautiful and touching moments, but seemingly small things (to be honest, this relationship with food isn’t small -- it’s a pretty pervasive theme, especially through the second and third seasons) like these remind us that the femininity presented in Gilmore Girls might be significantly skewed.

Today, I wanted to touch in on the Gilmore Girls' exploration of feminity via a pervasive theme: food, that I've seen all throughout the series. I still admire the show and the characters, but this odd relationship seemed so fruitless and toxic to me. Keep in mind, I'm only on season three currently. I will probably make more Gilmore Girl-themed posts in the future following a catch-up on more episodes!