Last night was the return of one of my favorite television programs Gossip Girl. Now, before all you haters have your piece I want to explain what this post will entail. I wish to explain for those of you who do not know, what is Gossip Girl. Why I enjoy it, and finally, why it can be the worse thing since 90210 for teenage girls to watch. In addition to why it’s actually a positive thing for teenagers and their parents.The show is set in the Upper East Side of New York City and focuses of the lives of the wealthiest teenagers in New York and their parents. Drinking champagne, limo escorts, penthouses, and brunches at five star hotels are no big deal to the characters. All of them openly have sex and even participate in role-playing and other tantric sex games. Drugs, affairs, political scandal, are all very typical in the lives of these characters.So why would an educated young girl like myself subject myself to such superficial programming, because that is not my life. Shows like Laguna Beach and The Hills are not relatable to my current situation, so a fantasy world is created and escaping there for an hour a week is fine by me. Much like the feeling I get from watching Breakfast at Tiffany’s, its enjoyable to watch young socialites fret about what designer they will wear for the Masquerade Ball. If I wanted something to relate to I’d stare at people at the library doing what I am doing.Sadly, I cannot say the same for young girls watching Gossip Girl. Mimicking the bullying ways of Blair Waldorf and demanding elaborate birthday parties and clothes like the characters on gossip girl. When you are older, you can understand that it is an exaggeration of wealthy kids in New York’s socialite circle. However I feel younger girls can not, and think “I should get that...”.Is it really all that bad though? Issues such as drinking, and sex and drugs are brought to the table. It gives parents an opportunity to watch something with their teenagers and discuss. The Team Canada Women’s Olympic Gold medal winners recently received a lot of flack concerning their drinking, questioning their ability to role model. Yet once a week a program is aired normalizing consumption of luxury, sex, drama, bullying, hierarchies and of course drinking…Image: Flickr carla mh lopez
