*Contains spoiler alerts for Gossip Girl (S1-S6)
Being born and raised in New York City, if you asked me for a show recommendation, “Gossip Girl” would have to be at the top of my list. The series takes place in the Upper East Side of NYC and revolves around white privileged teenagers who all attend private school. The students are affiliated with the same website, none other than the anonymous blogger known as Gossip Girl. The blog serves to expose the students by revealing their darkest secrets and scandals. With six seasons of the show running from 2007-2012, the biggest question that remains all that time is: who is Gossip Girl? For those who have yet to watch the show, you’ll just have to wait and see. However, Gossip Girl is going to be removed from Netflix’s streaming service by late December of 2020. After all, with all of the stereotypical themes expressed in the show, it may just be the right time to say goodbye to a show we all thought we loved.
In season one of the show, we meet Nelly Yuki, the only Asian character in the entire show. As viewers we automatically did not like Nelly, because she was the only person standing in Blair's way of getting into Yale University. Blair Waldorf, a white main character in “Gossip Girl”, is a driven and ambitious teenage girl, who has been an overachiever for her entire life just to make the same college as the one her father graduated from. However, Nelly is the only Asian character and is depicted as a studious nerd throughout the whole show. She was always seen carrying books and following Blair around as one of her “minions.”. This feeds into the stereotype of how Asians are viewed as hard workers in terms of their education. Clearly, not all Asians are part of the “Model Minority” stereotype where all Asians are viewed as incredibly smart.
Another issue in “Gossip Girl” is how Blair, known as Queen B, treats people of color as what she deems to be her “minions.” They must take orders from Blair and follow her around school, sort of like an absolute monarchy. One of Blair’s minions is Nelly, who is also seen as her enemy several times in the show. Both girls are striving to get into Yale University which only has one spot for the private school’s students. At one point, Blair even removes the batteries from Nelly’s calculator on the day of the SATs to sabotage her. Blair, being a white privileged teenager, feels the need to throw curveballs at people of color who she views as her personal threats. Because Blair was worried that she would not get into Yale, she tried to eliminate her one competition who was Nelly. Not only this, but when seated on the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art during lunch, Blair always feels the need to tell her minions to sit one or more steps below her. Thus, once again she is marking her territory as Queen and superior to her followers, which entirely goes against the idea of women supporting women. Had this show not been stereotypical, then “Gossip Girl” would have allowed all of the girls to sit on the same level as Blair, or Blair could have been portrayed by a POC. Instead, the character of Blair Waldorf is played by a white actress named Leighton Meester. Once again, this serves to prove how the show is stereotypical in terms of people of color following around and taking orders from a white person.
From the series premiere, we meet Dan Humphrey. Often viewed as an outsider, his rich schoolmates have always looked down on Dan because he lives in Brooklyn, as opposed to those who live on the Upper East Side. Even though Dan was always someone who never stood out in the crowd, he ends up becoming friends with some of his schoolmates later on in the show, but they continue to view themselves as better than Dan. This is especially prominent in S5E5, when Serena Van Der Woodsen, Dan’s ex-girlfriend, approaches him. Serena tells Dan that after writing his book and saying so many hurtful things about her in it, that she “invited you [him] into my [her] home… and my [her] world”. Ultimately, this goes to prove that even though Serena and Dan were once in love and head over heels for each other, Serena has never forgotten that she practically “invented” Dan. To which he replies with “no, it has always been your world and you’ve never let me forget it. ... The poor kid from Brooklyn who you’ve never seen as an equal to you.” This applies to how the Upper East Siders view Brooklynites because they can be reluctant to accept people like Dan in their own lives. He was always seen as less of a person just because his home was not located in the Upper East Side, a rich neighborhood in Manhattan. Not only this, but Dan was never even actually “poor” even when he was established this way in the show. The Humphrey loft is located in Dumbo, Brooklyn where homes tend to be more expensive, as compared to the rest of borough. His home even has an extravagant view of the Brooklyn Bridge, an iconic picture spot in New York City.
For someone who has watched “Gossip Girl” twice and is a big fan of the show, it certainly upsets me that it is being taken off of Netflix by the end of the year. But with all of the controversies and stereotypical themes that are present, it makes me question whether the upcoming reboot will tackle such topics in a more mature way. The “Gossip Girl” reboot is expected to release in 2021 on HBO Max and even when the original was made in 2007, it is important to note that times have changed. People of color being viewed as less in society when compared to white people CONTINUES to be an issue today. Not only that, but there is so much more to a person than from when they came from, such as the case with Dan Humphrey. Though the reboot is holding much controversy as of now because the original cast has not mentioned their return, I hope that the reboot will involve a less stereotypical plotline.
Written by Kelly Xie from NYC
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