What Is Marxism And Psychoanalyzing The Gossip Girl
In today’s media world, there are so many genres like horror, comedy, action, musicals, family etc. that helps viewers identify the content and one of the most popular and my personal favorite that has risen tremendously over the years is chick-flicks. For this paper, I will be analyzing a very popular series ‘Gossip Girl’ that reflects many cultural theories like feminism, structuralism, Marxism, psychoanalytical etc. but I would mainly analyze the text through the lenses of two cultural theories namely, Marxism and Psychoanalysis.
Gossip Girl presents the Marxist idea of class that uses a criterion of labor and wealth to differentiate between the public and the bourgeoisie (Meloy, 2009) and many such television shows revolve around the same …show more content…
plot that depicts leisure privileges of the upper class. Gossip Girl was a successful series based on the scandalous lives of a group of people (Mostly teenagers) living in New York City. Most of them lived a luxurious life and were considered as elites on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. While some were just average teenagers from Brooklyn who were desperately trying to fit in amongst these elite for their own reasons. All these teenagers studied in an expensive private school filled with privileged students who never had to work a penny with two main outside characters from Brooklyn, Dan and Jenny Humphrey who managed to get in via scholarship (Malavika, 2015). Also, what actually explored the class difference in the series was the inclusion of the Brooklyn family. Dan Humphrey, son of a guitar player and not very wealthy created this anonymous character named Gossip Girl only to fit in the elite society and get the girl of his dreams.
The crust of the Marxist theory is “getting and keeping economic power is the motive behind all social and political activities that includes education, technology, media, philosophy etc”(Montabone, 2015) and this is what went around in all the seasons not only by the teenagers but their whole family where they organized social events, political agendas, manipulations, sabotaging each other etc. just to hold their economic and social status in the city. Some of the examples that best replicates the theory by Marx are:
Dan, an ambitious hardworking student wished to go to Yale University after school but his plans were constantly been ruined by the rich class who had no regard for academics but got through the interview process only due to their class, family connections, dirty politics etc.
The show represents the inequality in the opportunities of the Brooklyn kids and the rest of the Upper East Siders that allows the rich to have access to resources that are unavailable for the rest of the deserving candidates. Dan’s sister Jenny is also one perfect example of Marxist representation. She was a young and ambitious fashion-savy girl but the domineering system of the big names in the industry won’t let her rise by making her do menial tedious tasks by her boss who is also a famous designer, Eleanor Waldorf (a bourgeoisie according to Marxist context).
Both the Humphrey’s tried to get into the so-called classy world in the entire series. On one hand, Dan tries to impress Serena Van Der Woodsen (his dream girl) by taking her to expensive restaurant in a chauffer driven car on their first date and on the other hand Jenny tries to impress Blair Waldorf (the queen bee) since she wants to get into the world of cool Upper East Side girls and she did everything possible to be there from underage drinking, wearing excessive makeup and slutty clothes, helping sneak her friend out of the hospital, stealing from Eleanor’s store …show more content…
etc.
I feel financial status is the main reason for the disparities between the two groups in the Gossip Girl series. For instance, Blair would never go to Brooklyn simply because of the name and the class of people who live there while, Jenny is exposed to the upper east life. However, she was never fully accepted because once you are a worker bee, you can never be a queen bee and so was always dominated by the more powerful and richer ones. However, in the final episode, the father of the Brooklyn kids actually marries the mother of Serena and Eric, who is played by a gorgeous wealthy woman and thus destroys the whole class gap.
The second theory is the psychoanalytical theory.
I strongly feel that Gossip Girl reflects Mulvey’s psychoanalytical theory by using many aspects like scopophilia, male gaze, and voyeurism. Now, as we know that Dan Humphrey started the Gossip Girl blog due to his scopophilia desires for Serena Van Der Woodsen. According to Gossip Girl’s Gaze article, in the first episode, Dan Humphrey reveals his crush anonymously using a Gossip Girl blast due to his castration anxiety. In the entire series, the two main female protagonists, Serena and Blair were caught in the flow of action in moments of erotic observation. Serena played a role of a sexy blonde object to be gazed by all the male characters in the show. She is the mere content of the show for spectators and Blair had also been seen wearing provocative lingerie many times. There have been many scenes where the camera focuses on Blair’s lips/thighs while she moves sensually during her striptease. Not only the two main female characters but also, other characters like Vanessa, Olivia etc. have been depicted as sexual objects to other characters and the audience
too.
Moreover, if we see beyond the screen, the advertising strategy of Gossip Girl also reflects every aspect of the theory. It depicts visuals of mainly Serena and Blair in sensual shots as objects of male gaze to promote the show.
Finally, I am in total harmony with the theories applied to the chosen text. Gossip Girl highlights the disparity between the elite classes and the struggling working class and also presents American people who are obsessed not only with youth culture but also with a financially elite social class (Meloy, 2009). Therefore, as per the Marxist theory, the elite will either always stay elite or will grow whereas the lower class will always take the subway (from Brooklyn). As a viewer of the show, I was taught that social success is not equal to production but to consumption and the privileges depends on winning the economic game.
This representation that is actually very dangerous where “power as a consumer marks social status, and where social positions constantly change hands - mirrors many current reality shows” (Meloy, 2009).
Likewise, I support the notion that Gossip Girl was comprised of sexually expressive scopophilia and the characters especially created activities and social events for the same like “Kiss on the Lips Party” and “Masquerade Ball” where the only intention was to hookup with others (and get the audiences hooked to the show). Moreover, the male gaze was so strong and the way these female characters were objectified within; it actually forgot that the main audience was young females.
To conclude, Gossip Girl and other Teen shows have become a successful pop-culture phenomenon that represents pretty much of everything from class, culture, competition, consumerism, male gaze, disparities and feminism.
Gossip Girl presents the Marxist idea of class that uses a criterion of labor and wealth to differentiate between the public and the bourgeoisie (Meloy, 2009) and many such television shows revolve around the same …show more content…
plot that depicts leisure privileges of the upper class. Gossip Girl was a successful series based on the scandalous lives of a group of people (Mostly teenagers) living in New York City. Most of them lived a luxurious life and were considered as elites on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. While some were just average teenagers from Brooklyn who were desperately trying to fit in amongst these elite for their own reasons. All these teenagers studied in an expensive private school filled with privileged students who never had to work a penny with two main outside characters from Brooklyn, Dan and Jenny Humphrey who managed to get in via scholarship (Malavika, 2015). Also, what actually explored the class difference in the series was the inclusion of the Brooklyn family. Dan Humphrey, son of a guitar player and not very wealthy created this anonymous character named Gossip Girl only to fit in the elite society and get the girl of his dreams.
The crust of the Marxist theory is “getting and keeping economic power is the motive behind all social and political activities that includes education, technology, media, philosophy etc”(Montabone, 2015) and this is what went around in all the seasons not only by the teenagers but their whole family where they organized social events, political agendas, manipulations, sabotaging each other etc. just to hold their economic and social status in the city. Some of the examples that best replicates the theory by Marx are:
Dan, an ambitious hardworking student wished to go to Yale University after school but his plans were constantly been ruined by the rich class who had no regard for academics but got through the interview process only due to their class, family connections, dirty politics etc.
The show represents the inequality in the opportunities of the Brooklyn kids and the rest of the Upper East Siders that allows the rich to have access to resources that are unavailable for the rest of the deserving candidates. Dan’s sister Jenny is also one perfect example of Marxist representation. She was a young and ambitious fashion-savy girl but the domineering system of the big names in the industry won’t let her rise by making her do menial tedious tasks by her boss who is also a famous designer, Eleanor Waldorf (a bourgeoisie according to Marxist context).
Both the Humphrey’s tried to get into the so-called classy world in the entire series. On one hand, Dan tries to impress Serena Van Der Woodsen (his dream girl) by taking her to expensive restaurant in a chauffer driven car on their first date and on the other hand Jenny tries to impress Blair Waldorf (the queen bee) since she wants to get into the world of cool Upper East Side girls and she did everything possible to be there from underage drinking, wearing excessive makeup and slutty clothes, helping sneak her friend out of the hospital, stealing from Eleanor’s store …show more content…
etc.
I feel financial status is the main reason for the disparities between the two groups in the Gossip Girl series. For instance, Blair would never go to Brooklyn simply because of the name and the class of people who live there while, Jenny is exposed to the upper east life. However, she was never fully accepted because once you are a worker bee, you can never be a queen bee and so was always dominated by the more powerful and richer ones. However, in the final episode, the father of the Brooklyn kids actually marries the mother of Serena and Eric, who is played by a gorgeous wealthy woman and thus destroys the whole class gap.
The second theory is the psychoanalytical theory.
I strongly feel that Gossip Girl reflects Mulvey’s psychoanalytical theory by using many aspects like scopophilia, male gaze, and voyeurism. Now, as we know that Dan Humphrey started the Gossip Girl blog due to his scopophilia desires for Serena Van Der Woodsen. According to Gossip Girl’s Gaze article, in the first episode, Dan Humphrey reveals his crush anonymously using a Gossip Girl blast due to his castration anxiety. In the entire series, the two main female protagonists, Serena and Blair were caught in the flow of action in moments of erotic observation. Serena played a role of a sexy blonde object to be gazed by all the male characters in the show. She is the mere content of the show for spectators and Blair had also been seen wearing provocative lingerie many times. There have been many scenes where the camera focuses on Blair’s lips/thighs while she moves sensually during her striptease. Not only the two main female characters but also, other characters like Vanessa, Olivia etc. have been depicted as sexual objects to other characters and the audience
too.
Moreover, if we see beyond the screen, the advertising strategy of Gossip Girl also reflects every aspect of the theory. It depicts visuals of mainly Serena and Blair in sensual shots as objects of male gaze to promote the show.
Finally, I am in total harmony with the theories applied to the chosen text. Gossip Girl highlights the disparity between the elite classes and the struggling working class and also presents American people who are obsessed not only with youth culture but also with a financially elite social class (Meloy, 2009). Therefore, as per the Marxist theory, the elite will either always stay elite or will grow whereas the lower class will always take the subway (from Brooklyn). As a viewer of the show, I was taught that social success is not equal to production but to consumption and the privileges depends on winning the economic game.
This representation that is actually very dangerous where “power as a consumer marks social status, and where social positions constantly change hands - mirrors many current reality shows” (Meloy, 2009).
Likewise, I support the notion that Gossip Girl was comprised of sexually expressive scopophilia and the characters especially created activities and social events for the same like “Kiss on the Lips Party” and “Masquerade Ball” where the only intention was to hookup with others (and get the audiences hooked to the show). Moreover, the male gaze was so strong and the way these female characters were objectified within; it actually forgot that the main audience was young females.
To conclude, Gossip Girl and other Teen shows have become a successful pop-culture phenomenon that represents pretty much of everything from class, culture, competition, consumerism, male gaze, disparities and feminism.