BURSTEIN: “Gilmore Girls” empowers women of our generation

This past week saw two equally notable occurrences in American culture. The first, which occurred on Thursday, was the annual Thanksgiving celebration that many participated in, consuming an unholy amount of mashed potatoes and avoiding political discussions of any sort. The second, which occurred a mere day later, was the release of the long-awaited revival of “Gilmore Girls.”

Even if you’re not entirely sure where Stars Hollow is or why everyone keeps talking about Luke and Lorelai, chances are you’ve encountered at least some of the hullabaloo surrounding this long-awaited return of the popular TV show. The show focuses on the relationship between Lorelai Gilmore and her daughter, Rory, as they face romantic, academic, legal and professional obstacles.

My Friday was spent in my pajamas on my childhood best friend’s couch, as we powered through all four of the 90-minute episodes of the revival, entitled “Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life.” We were surrounded by bowls of popcorn and leftover pie from the night before, in true Gilmore style. We laughed, we cried and we gasped in utter shock (those final four words!) for all six hours.

In the wake of the excitement, I started to wonder why the show felt so meaningful to me, and why so many other viewers, especially women, felt the same. I then realized that the show introduced me to my earliest conceptions of feminism and female empowerment.

For me, the most important components of “Gilmore Girls” are the complex female relationships portrayed. It doesn’t show simply one type of mother/daughter relationship or one type of best friend pair. Lorelai and Rory’s relationship is completely different from Lorelai and Emily’s or Lane and Mrs. Kim’s. Similarly, Rory’s friendship with Lane is starkly different from her friendship with Paris, but both of them are considered to be her best friends. But both of these relationships vary from Lorelai’s everlasting friendship with Sookie.

And, most significantly, all of these relationships are completely imperfect. They’re filled with arguments and misunderstandings and mistakes, but in the end, the love each pair has for each other brings them back together.

Speaking of imperfections, the characters, though incredibly strong, are far from flawless. I rooted for Rory as she jumped headfirst away from her longtime dream of attending Harvard and chose Yale instead, but banged my head against the screen when she angrily left home to live in her grandparents’ pool house after arguing with her mom.

These flaws gave these female characters dimension and made them more relatable, and thus, more empowering. I watched Lorelai, who shares my stubbornness and fear of commitment, evolve from being a practically homeless teenage mother to a successful business owner with an irreplaceable presence in her community. This is why women love “Gilmore Girls.” Each one of us can find a little bit of ourselves in each character, and we can watch them encounter failure, success, despair and happiness.

“Gilmore Girls” is an example of a more modern type of wholesome television. It makes us feel nostalgic and happy, not because it dumbs down its characters, but because it makes them more real. In other iconic programs of the past, we watched women fall into stereotypes. They were the housewife or the perpetually single one or the mean girl or the one who was too naïve. “Gilmore Girls” takes all of those conventions, crumples them up and throws them away. I would even argue that the show was, and continues to be, a trailblazer for programs with female characters today.

I’m incredibly grateful to live in a world where “Gilmore Girls” exists, female relationships are coveted and the women in them are realistically empowered. The revival only continued to make me feel this gratitude as I watched my favorite women make difficult but strong decisions in how their lives would continue. It only feels fitting a few days after Thanksgiving to say thank you to “Gilmore Girls,” for its continued inspiration, encouragement and presence in my life.