Pink and blue is an understatement for gender representation in shows like "Girls." "Girls," which premiered on HBO in 2012, was written by feminist/actress Lena Dunham, who is one of the main protagonists on the show. "Girls" is based around four girls who are all best friends living in New York, but each having their own significant arcs and personalities. Marnie, Shoshanna, Jessa, and Hannah are all great representatives of an early 20s couple of girls with relatable and real-life conflicts.
The show "Girls" represents gender equality in a phenomenal way, as the show delves into real-life problems, breaking sexist norms and capturing the attention of the audience with relatable "little things."
"Girls" take on real-world problems for the average person in a very realistic manner. For example, in the third episode of the first season of the show, Marnie starts to have conflicts with her boyfriend who loves her deeply, because of the cheesy background he bases them under. Marnie is described as an indecisive woman, who never really knows what she has or wants till its gone. In addition, her boyfriend, Charlie, who is a naive man who is mostly a push-over in Marnie's perspective and does not have much confidence in him which makes Marnie grow "bored" of him. Both these personalities can depict a clear relatable response from viewers, as their relationship is steady, but has a lot of internal problems they each ignore to avoid confrontation.
At one point Marnie breaks up with Charlie for being "a bore and an unconfident mess." Months pass by and Marnie is scrolling through Charlie's new Facebook photos with his new girlfriend. As she scrolls through the photos, she insults every picture she sees and at the same time delves her emotions into a bag of Cheetos. This is a great depiction of an everyday problem within a toxic couple, as Marnie's reaction to the breakup began strong and confident but progressively started becoming insecure and negative. In contrast, Charlie got healthier and had developed within himself, as he found a new girlfriend and started his own indie company.
Although Charlie and Marnie are still hung up on one another. This couple's problems balances out the sensitivity between genders as it sends a clear message to the audience that everyone can be dominant and sensitive at the same time. The male and female norms of a breakup are broken here, as they show both perspectives of the male and females reaction to the whole situation. Marnie and Charlie may have had many problems, but all were felt with realistically.
Another example of great gender representation was around the sexist norms of nudity in television and how "Girls" breaks that norm. For example, Lena Dunham character, Hannah, has multiple nude scenes within the show, and all of them are used in a realistic depiction of nudity. In one episode, Hannah was about to engage with another man sexually until she took her clothes off. The man's reaction was discomforting to her as he looked at her in a disgusted manner because of her overweight body. Hannah's reaction was to go on a rant about how her body was beautiful and that no man could tear her down for shaming her over her body. She ended the rant by insulting his masculinity and calling him a "closeted man ready to bloom" and left the man's house. The monolog Lena goes on shows how women are human beings and not just eye candy for men to judge. If sexism took its toll in this scene, Lena would be more submissive to the man and would have had an "ideal body type" that men desire.
Although Hannah says the complete opposite and says how men are no different than women in body, therefore there is no room to judge. Around the fourth season, Hannah comes across the same man who insulted her at a gay bar. This shows how masculinity is also described as a dominant factor in all men and once someone insults it, insecurities start to bloom. Therefore Hannah seeing him at the gay bar shows how he was trying to protect himself with masculinity before because of the "reputation" men need to keep up with, when in reality he just was not honest with himself. "Girls" breaks nudity norms found in television shows and leans towards an equal treatment between genders.
"Girls" not only break stereotypes but also provides many relatable and raw scenes to help connect to the audience. For example, In the sixth episode of the second season, Jessa is seen having a sexual encounter with a man named Kevin in her apartment. Although her roommate Shoshanna is in the apartment as well and can hear everything that's happening behind Jessa's door. The reason why this is relatable to the audience is the reactions Shoshanna gives to the noises Jessa and Kevin make, and from the other side of the door where Jessa and Kevin are engaging with one another. In one scene Shoshanna tries to drown out the noises with headphones and starts texting her friends about what she should do in the situation. Since Shoshanna is also a virgin, her curiosity starts to build as she starts to google specific terms that Jessa and Kevin would scream to see if it has any significance.
Shoshanna begins taking notes and starts learning from what she can hear. This whole scene was meant to be comedic, but also depicts the reality of women having their own curiosity with sex without being labeled a shaming slur (whore, slut). Shoshanna is a curious person like any other, no matter her gender, she is still human and has questions about how everything works. On the other hand, the sex scene shown by Jesse and Kevin was grimy-awkward and realistic. The show avoids the glamorization of sex between people, as "Girls" takes it to a more raunchy, awkward place. Jessa and Kevin struggle to be in a comfortable position throughout the whole scene and they both start making small conversation and both equally have the same reactions. This can be relatable to the audience, because the show tears down the "beauty" of sex and rather films a realistic depiction of what it could be for anyone, with a slight comedic twist. "Girls" use its gender in a very equalized manner as every scene in "Girls" (no matter the title) shows both perspectives of both genders at all time and avoids the reasoning of topics with gender (e.g. because I'm a boy, because I'm a girl, etc).
"Girls" breaks many stereotypes that involve gender equality, as it sprouts many situations to grab the audience's emotions and for the viewers to connect with the characters. Overall "Girls" perfects characterization and connection to gender, with its real-life problems, avoidance of sexist norms (nudity) and by connecting with the audience through relatable little details.
