As Autumn approaches and everybody is starting their annual Gilmore Girls re-watch, there’s no better time to look at the tragic downfall of one of the most idolized characters from the Pinterest moodboards of every teenage girl: Rory Gilmore.
An Unworthy Icon
Having aired over 20 years ago, Gilmore Girls has never seemed to lose its popularity with its ongoing crowd. The show takes place in a small fictional town called Stars Hollow, based in Connecticut. It’s easy to see the mutual appeal across the audience. With its vintage feel and witty sense of humor, everyone seems to find some part of the show that resonates with themselves, including characters such as Rory.
The show circles around Lorelai Gilmore and her daughter Rory Gilmore, who is going through high school and is later accepted into Yale University, where she studied to pursue Journalism. After spending her high school years attending a private school called Chilton, Rory is proudly listed at the top of her class and even named valedictorian. Her character is well known for academically rising above her class, being a respectful person, always leading with the right intentions, and overall, she seems like the perfect role model for young teenage girls. Unfortunately, her character suffered some inner conflict during her growth on this show, which constructed a more poorly made version of her.
Lack of Decency in Relationships
As Rory grows and changes throughout the seasons, the most consistent decline we can see is her overall morals in relationships. Instead of showing growth and maturity, many of her choices were questionable and often outright wrong. She was pretty persistent when it came to giving up on relationships that didn’t serve her anymore, and letting her egocentric ways get in the way of building better bonds with people. After spending three years living in Stars Hollow, Rory’s romantic life revolves around the same few boys: Dean, Tristan, and Jess. Even though they aren’t fond of each other, they all have one thing in common: they all wanted Rory. There was a consistent fight for her attention over the other, and it seemed continuous up until she left for Yale, where things were completely different. Instead of the constant back and forth of who was currently scoring at winning her over, Rory quickly learns that that is now how things work outside of her humble town. She now finds herself chasing after people without a connection, and leaves herself feeling ultimately rejected and defeated. Instead of reflecting this behavior on her own characteristics, she once again concludes it is something she hadn’t done wrong. Because this is such a switch-up, she resorts to her first love from the early seasons of the show, Dean. Ultimately, she works her way back into his life, excusing the fact that he’s married, and waves this logic away by explaining that he was planning to leave his wife anyway and reports to her mom saying, “He’s my Dean.” She chooses to have relations with him with these facts at stake, and although it leaves her troubled, it’s not because of the actions themselves but because of the reactions she received from doing so, and that is saying a lot.
So Casually Cruel
Growing up, Rory was often seen as the “golden child”. Whether this was seen by her family, friends, or anyone remotely involved in her life, her actions and opinions were typically showered with overly positive affirmations. Because of this endless praising, Rory easily grew accustomed to viewing herself in the same way.
Early on this falling point, Rory makes a snide remark about another girl’s body. It’s treated as a quick, witty joke, only meant to make the best of an awkward situation, but it’s also too casually cruel and serves no purpose to Rory in any way. She returns with the behavior multiple times when writing an article for her school paper at Yale. Rory uses her excuse to write good press as a way to promote a talented dancer as a mess. She compares her dancing to a hippo and then makes rude comments about the “roll of fat around her bra strap.”
Even when striving to earn attention for your writing talents, honesty doesn’t need to be this brutal, especially coming from someone who can only critique.
Academic Decline
Rory’s academic decline is something most people find to be very realistic and true to her character. Throughout all of high school, she strives to be the best version of herself, and we as the audience see this to be true as she graduated as valedictorian and managed to get into multiple of her dream Ivy League schools. Her best seemed to come with hard work, but something that was never out of her reach completely. This is why attending Yale was so different. Her classmates were now just as effortlessly at the same academic levels as her, and while she could normally sustain this pressure, the burnout of years of hard work just seemed to continue. The weighted expectations of herself and those around her eventually felt too heavy.
Rory’s school burnout was not ultimately a reason why her character’s morals switched up, but her handling of the situation was not in a friendly manner. She let herself fall behind in classes and dreams, years in the making, due to the lack of a support system. The way she handled this situation was very flawed in her character. After she loses motivation and drops out after Mitchum’s comment about her “it” factor, she takes a backseat for the remaining time she had at Yale. Instead of confronting these issues, it seems like she was almost willing to throw everything away at these minor inconveniences.
Rebuttal
While the audience may feel like the hate with her can be a little forced, considering that she is in her early twenties (the age people are typically figuring out their life and major life decisions) and maybe she is simply reflecting all the mistakes and imperfections that she can’t hide through a screen, some of her actions are too unjustifiable and something many people including myself could never understand the mindset of. Some of her qualities and mistakes can be commonly found in other people’s lives, but it is how they choose to act in the same situation or circumstances that sets them apart.
However, some parts of her decline can further prove to be resilient and resonate with people in a positive way. It can show that even the smartest and hardest-working people can hit an extremely low point in their lives. But using Rory Gilmore as a role model for young girls is setting a low bar as a person with flawed ideas, yet great potential.
