target women

I think McRobbie brings up an interesting point when she discusses issues of post feminism in Sex and the City and why women (who consider themselves feminists) enjoy watching the show. She writes that "fandom then seems to be the key to understanding complicity." That statement made me examine my own viewing habits and why I watched the first two seasons of Gossip Girl.

In the entire show, there is no character that I can identify with or sympathize with. The reason I stayed with the show for so long because I loved the character of Blair and *spoiler alert* I wanted to see when she and Chuck would get together...they do. I think fandom is part of the reason these shows are so popular but I can't really imagine viewers actually liking Blair or Serena. Fandom in this case results from wanting to be those characters or at least be their friends(never their equals...ex: Blair's token asian and black friends.) Blair and Serenas consumption (of clothes, boys, etc) gives them status. I've had friends argue that Blair and Serena are examples of strong female characters, but they can't be that strong if they only find fulfillment in buying the trendiest clothes, dating the hottest (or richest) guy and backstabbing their way to the top. The first year the show came out, teen fashion magazines would have pages devoted to how to look like Blair or Serena and later Vanessa (Dan's ethnically ambiguous friend from Brooklyn... which brings up issues of whiteness and race in Gossip Girl and Sex and the City.)

In order to be these girls, you have to buy clothes like them and dress like them. A show that glorifies consumption is not shocking at all, but it is sort of disturbing. The show falls under McRobbie's critique that within these shows is embedded "the constant focus on femininity as requiring the regular consumption for fear of repudiation by others." Gossip Girl is literally all about the fear of repudiation by others.

random clip from Current: