Paper #2

Umika Kumar

Professor Lydia Hearn

English Writing 2

16 July 2016

Fallacies: genetic, tu quoque, ambiguity

Maddening Marginalization of Minorities: Gilmore Girls Edition

Moral self-licensing is when we allow ourselves to stay racist, homophobic, or

misogynistic because of one behavior that “proves” us as otherwise. Stanford psychologists

Merritt, Effron and Monin explain, “Past good deeds can liberate individuals to engage in

behaviors that are immoral, unethical, or otherwise problematic, behaviors that they would

otherwise avoid for fear of feeling or appearing immoral” (Merritt et al). This phenomenon is

apparent in all aspects of our daily lives, from Presidential elections to baseball drafts alike. An

example of moral self-licensing in action, highlighted in Malcolm Gladwell’s Revisionist History

podcast, is the assertion that people who voted for Obama were more likely to be racist

(Gladwell). Casting a vote for a black man was their justification to continue being racist—their

one good action allowed for any amount of subsequent negative action. Most subtly, we see

moral self-licensing in our TV shows and media. A show will shatter stereotypes in one area and

perpetuate stereotypes in another. This is particularly apparent in Gilmore Girls, a popular

television show from the turn of the century that is often lauded for its feminist trailblazing.

However, despite challenging notions of Western womanhood, Gilmore Girls uses the standard

of Western culture to subordinate people of color.

Gilmore Girls shows Lorelai, the mother and protagonist, as a spectacular boss and

parent, thereby challenging the norm that mothers are not leaders. Yet while one stereotype is

shattered, the show continues to marginalize the people of color in her workplace, asserting that

they are not as important. While Lorelai shines and breaks down barriers for single mothers

everywhere, people of color are continually reduced to sideline characters. A perfect example of

this dichotomy is shown in the very first instance of her being seen at work on the show. The

scene opens on the gorgeous colonial inn. As Lorelai steps into work, Michel, the black, French

concierge is on the phone with a customer, repeating over and over that they are completely

booked in a heavy French accent. He is professional in tone, yet has an air of resolute annoyance

with the caller. A minute later, Lorelai’s teenage daughter Rory appears to say hello, and Lorelai

tells her to ask Michel to check Rory’s French paper. He says no sharply1, finally succumbing to

their pleas when Lorelai begins taunting him with a fake French accent. But as early as in the

fifth minute of the show, when this scene occurs, it is obvious that even considering being mean

to Rory makes you a bad person, as Rory is a sweet and intelligent girl. In contrast, Michel is

tall, thin, and incredibly irritated; his persona does not waver throughout the duration of the

show. More than him just being a direct person, he is shown as elitist through the way he speaks

and his body language. Bluntly, he is not a loveable character. In one instance in the first episode

of the series, he notes “people are particularly stupid today. I can’t talk anymore” (“Pilot”).

Michel’s elitism also furthers the divide between “us” and “them.” Because he is the only French

or black character on the show, his elitism is automatically assumed to be representative of the

“other side’s” feelings towards Americans. This assumption creates an almost-imperceptible rift

between the white American and the international community / people of color. This scene is

particularly meaningful because it shows Lorelai efficiently running the inn and remaining an

engaged and loving mother to Rory at the exact same time as showing Michel as an antagonizing 1 It is important to note that Gilmore Girls sets up Lorelai and Rory as the most loveable characters, namely because they are the protagonists of the show. They have flaws, of course, but these flaws exist to humanize the women rather than to demonize them.

figure. While Lorelai breaks the glass ceiling, Michel’s actions drop him down the hypothetical

lovability ladder. Even though Michel is only one character, a lot of people in more homogenous

areas get their intercultural understanding through the one or two people of color on a given

show. So to demonize one of the three consistently-appearing people of color only works to

reinforce stereotypes and xenophobic attitudes.

While Michel is the one person of color who speaks in Lorelai’s interactions at work, he

is not the only example of her empowerment being at the expense of people of color. Many of

her interactions at work are with men of color, be it the plumber, a bellhop, a line cook or

Michel. But none of these interactions afford them any kind of agency; aside from Michel, we

often never see their faces. They are props to the series. For example, in the pilot episode, a black

bellhop hands Lorelai a key as she walks in. We see him just long enough to know he is black,

but not a second longer; the blurry half-glimpse of his face is his entire cameo. She thanks him,

but the camera remains focused on her face and her movements through the hotel lobby. This

entire exchange takes up a grand total of three seconds, whereas the transition to this scene, a

panning of the greenery around the inn, takes at least fifteen (“Pilot”). Later on, we see her

talking to (perhaps) the same man, breathlessly rattling off a laundry list of little chores to be

done. To this, he nods and dashes away from her. In this instance, again, we do not see his face,

only enough to know that he is black, nor do we hear his voice. The focus remains on her. She is

running an inn, and the implication with her quick speech is that she has a lot to do. In both

instances, Lorelai is a strong working woman and the men of color are inconsequential and

forgettable. In terms of female representation, Gilmore Girls portrays a clear step away from the

motifs of yesteryear, with older TV shows like “Leave It To Beaver” and “The Waltons”

showing “all-American” families with a mother, father, and multiple children. Unlike these

decades-old television shows, Gilmore Girls is headlined by a happy, successful single-mother-

and-daughter pair.

Gilmore Girls’ marginalization of minorities is not just limited to situations in which it

affects the issue of women at work. The show often focuses on parenting as a place to lift

Western women up and also tear minority women down for their otherness. The show pushes the

idea of a new standard of parenting in how it portrays the relationship of Lorelai and her

daughter Rory. Upon getting Rory’s letter of acceptance to an elite preparatory high school,

Lorelai exclaims, “This is it. She can go to Harvard and get the education I couldn’t. Do things

that I couldn’t. Then I can resent her for it and we can finally have a normal mother-daughter

relationship!” (“Pilot”). This comment pokes fun at the idea of the “typical,” dysfunctional

parent-child relationship while emphasizing the Gilmore girls’ amazing relationship. Their

relationship is in stark contrast to Rory’s best friend, Lane Kim, and her relationship with her

parents, Mr. and Mrs. Kim. In the first episode, Lane puts on an Eminem t-shirt over her long-

sleeved top as the two girls walk away from Lane’s home. Rory then asks, “When are you going

to let your parents know that you listen to the evil rock music? You’re an American teenager, for

God’s sake” (“Pilot”). To this, Lane responds, “Rory, if my parents still get upset over the

obscene portion size of American food, I seriously doubt I’m going to make any inroads with

Eminem” (“Pilot”). While innocuous at first, these comments reveal a deep-seated “us” versus

“them” sentiment, implying that while Lane’s identity is stoutly American, her parents’ identity

is not. Lane’s enjoyment of “American things” is negative in her household. This interaction sets

the tone for the rest of the series. Lane’s parents are strictly Christian, disapprove of many things

their daughter does, and keep Lane on a tight leash. But these things are not attributed to the fact

that they are strict parents, but to the fact that they are Korean, rooting the judgement in

xenophobia rather than in a rejection of the norm. Throughout the series, Lane is often grounded,

hiding her CDs under her floorboards and colorful lights and fun clothing in her closet. Lane’s

relationship with her parents is exactly the kind of relationship that Lorelai poked fun against

earlier in the episode—marked by secrecy, miscommunication, and mistrust, and exacerbated by

the fact that they have a cultural gap. The mere juxtaposition of the two of these familial

interactions serves to vilify the “other” and drive home stereotypes. Yet familial interactions are

not the only level at which Gilmore Girls uses the Kim family as a figure of sharp contrast.

Women speak a lot in Gilmore Girls, which challenges the ideal of submissive, demure

women, yet when minority women speak, they are often abrasive, which works to ostracize

them. To exemplify this point: Lorelai speaks a lot, in fact, she and Rory dominate the speaking

time in Gilmore Girls. Their comments are chock-full with literary and popular culture allusions,

wit, and intelligence. Yet they remain easy to listen to; their voices are not shrill or harsh, and

they rarely yell. This is in stark contrast to minority women, particularly Mrs. Kim, an incredibly

flat character whose only apparent role on the show is to reinforce stereotypes. Lane is portrayed

more often as a victim of the minority woman rather than as a minority herself. With her

obsession with music and American mannerisms, Lane is set up as an American girl who has to

put up with her Korean mother’s antics. So Mrs. Kim remains the one dependable example of a

minority woman on the show. Her accent is thick and she speaks in an almost-stilted manner,

using fewer words than a grammatically perfect English sentence normally would. Mrs. Kim’s

voice is almost like a bark, even when she does something as simple as offering the girls a snack

after school. At one point in the pilot episode, Rory asks Lane why Mrs. Kim doesn’t like her

mother, to which Lane states, “She doesn’t trust unmarried women” (“Pilot”). This serves to

vilify Mrs. Kim in a number of ways. Mrs. Kim clearly prefers the married-with-children norm

of the day and is suspicious of Lorelai, even though the show has established the kindness,

coolness, and all-around positivity of Lorelai as a person. Mrs. Kim thinks differently from the

show’s accepted point of view. Further, Mrs. Kim’s distrust of Lorelai shows Mrs. Kim

immediately to be a judgemental and harsh person. This reinforces the idea that minority women

are different in a negative way.

Television is an incredibly mainstream form of media, and until recently, reflected the

culture of the time. If Gilmore Girls was our sole cultural snapshot into the 2000s, we could

assume that America was warming up to more nontraditional families and backgrounds, yet was

not fully integrated with immigrants or people of color. In a strange way, Gilmore Girls back

then is representative of today. Minorities have made major inroads in places like the Silicon

Valley and other technology hubs, and women have learnt to “lean in” a lot more in the

workplace. Yet there is a division between the families who have been in America for

generations and the recently immigrated people of color—it is a disconnect about what it means

to be American. Gilmore Girls used moral self-licensing to say that since they were changing the

view of women by making Lorelai strong, courageous, and dynamic, it was okay for them to

leave views of immigrants as more or less the same. This is a classic example of White

Feminism, a recently-coined type of feminism that ignores the intersectionality of identities and

the distinct struggles of women of color. As a child of immigrants and as a woman of color, this

dichotomy leaves me frustrated. I am as much an American as a white teenage girl from Stars

Hollow with a single mother. I am as much a woman as she. Yet our culture so often makes it

okay to demonize minorities whilst lifting up white people; we see examples of this division in

shows like the Big Bang Theory (Raj), Ally McBeal (Lily), and, yes, in Gilmore Girls. While it is

praised often for being a feminist masterpiece, it has its pitfalls. Employing White Feminist

undertones and continuing to marginalize of minorities is very much one of them.

Works Cited

Gladwell, Malcolm. “The Lady Vanishes.” Audio blog post. Revisionist History. The Slate

Group, 15 June 2016. Web. 13 July 2016. <http://revisionisthistory.com/episodes/

01-the-lady-vanishes>.

Merritt, Anna C., Daniel A. Effron, and Benoît Monin. "Moral Self-Licensing: When Being

Good Frees Us to Be Bad." Social and Personality Psychology Compass (2010): 344-57.

Web. <http://www-psych.stanford.edu/~monin/papers/Merritt,%20Effron%20%

26%20Monin%202010%20Compass%20on%20Moral%20Licensing.pdf>.

“Pilot.” Gilmore Girls. Writ. Amy Sherman-Palladino. Dir. Lesli Linka Glatter. Warner Bros.,

2000. Netflix. Web. 12 July 2016.