Representation

Gossip Girl Series 2 Episode 6

Gossip girl is mainly representing the lives of rich, solcialite teenagers of New Yorks Upper East side. The stereotypical view of these people is that they are just dumb, spoilt 'daddy's girls' or 'mummy's boys'. However Gossip girl shows us they have far more difficult and complicated lives than we think.

Breakfast: The episode starts in the morning as the characters are eating breakfast. First we see the Van der Woodsens and the Bass' scene They are hugely rich as this is even represented in their breakfast. They are all sitting down as a family together eating coissants and real coffee with flowers on the table in the centre. Whereas in the next scene we see the Humphry familys breakfast. They are not all sitting down at a table eating coissants instead they are just standing at a breakfst bar in the kitchen drinking orange juice. This shows a they are a bit more rushed as they don't have maids to do everything for them.

Serena and Blair: Serena and Blair were both born into rich families and are both very pretty, so in some ways they are representing the typical spoilt rich girls. Serena is a socialite who loves fashion. However even though she has long blonde hair and loves the spotlight, she is not a steroeotyped character. She is not a dumb blonde and we find out that she has had a very hard childhood as her mother cared more about her boyfriends than she did her kids. Similarly with Blair, at first she comes across as the stereotypical spoilt girl, as she does always seem to end up getting everything she wants. Nevertheless she is also very clever as in order to get what she wants she always has some elaborate scheme going on. Also she is not as confident and self assured as a typical spoilt girl as we know is actually very insecure about herself, constantly comparing herself to Serena. Although Serena and Blair seem to have everything the could want they both have issues with their parents as there were times when they didn't feel truly loved by them. This means they are represented as more than one dimensional, stereotypical characters as there are deeper issues behind the 'rich girl' exterior.

Vanessa: Vanessa is the girl who lives in Brooklin, and we see that she is represented very differently from the rich kids. She is generally a quirkier character. She dresses in more bohemian way, and wears a lot of jewellery and has very wavy, textured hair. This is very different to the designer lables and clean cut look of Serena and Blair. Also we see that she is very smart and doesn't like to get involved in the politics of the lives of Blair & co as she finds them fake, and their issues stupid compared to the real world.

Chuck and Dan: Chuck is very wealthy and is kind of evil. His wealth is represented by the way he dresses; cravats, velvet, silk etc. But also in the way he is styled. He has gelled back hair, in a side parting making him look somewhat suspicious anyway and like Blair he always has a plan or scheme going in an attempt to get what he wants. He is a show off and stands out whereevery he is. In school he had his tie done right up and was wearing a satin spotted scarf over his shoulders whic also give us the impression of a typical posh boy. This was a great contrast to Dan who was wearing his school uniform with his top button open and his tie loose This gives him a much more laid back look, and his slightly wavy hair give him a much more innocent look compared to chuck.

Families and Homosexuality: None of the families represent in Gossip girl are uncomplicated. They are either single parent families (the Humphreys), or the dads in jail (the Archibalds) or they are two families now linked by marriage creating a step father/mother (the Van der Woodsens and the Bass'). This is to show that the teenagers do not have perfect lives. The Step parents represetnation shows the conflict between Serena ad Mr Bass and how she blames him for a lot that is wrong with her life even though it may not be his fault. It is also interesting to see how Gossip girl represents Serena brother who is gay and peoples reaction to him. When he brings his boyfriend to meet Serena and Blair they welcome him with open arms. However his parents encourage him not to invite his boyfriend to the party because there's paparazi there. This shows that although they are ok with him being gay, they media might give him a hard time over it, therefore representing the media in a bad light.

xoxo