To be continued...

The semester is ending and technically I am done with this blog for school, but I love writing in it so much that I definitely plan on continuing my posts. There may be few during the holidays but, like I did before, I want to tell you what is to come, mainly so that I will have a reason to write later on.

• Miley Cyrus....that will be an interesting post for sure
• Hannah's OCD on GIRLS
• Hannah's relationship with Adam
• Shoshanna and her failing relationship with Ray
• If I can find any guys that will watch GIRLS I will talk about the male perspective--so far I haven't found any.

Finally, GIRLS season 3 will start in early January, so there will be tons to blog about soon!

Girls Season 3: Trailer (HBO)

Oh Marnie...

So the last of the girls I need to cover is Marnie. She is definitely pretty different from Shosh, Hannah, and Jessa, and in many ways. In the beginning of the series she is dating Charlie, who she has been dating for a while. She talks about how weird her relationship has become and how he loves her too much, she says its like her "weird uncle" love. She is miserable in her relationship and she wants nothing but to be free of his overwhelming care.

Before I tell you how that changes I want to briefly say how happy I am that they showed that. It is very rare that you see a guy that a girl is not equally in love with on TV! I mean think about it, how many times have you watched a show or a movie where there is a woman who has a man in love with her and she just doesn't care about him? Not many. This definitely does not include the girls that wont admit they like them or they are in the process of "falling in love" with them. I'm talking, there is a normal girl and an annoying guy following her around. Its funny because this isn't shown often on TV, especially in relationships. I think that this happens a lot more than the media shows! Girls aren't always as obsessed with their boyfriends as they are expected to be. This makes me question whether it is intentional that men are never seen as the "weaker" one in the relationship. They are almost always seen as the one that goes after the girl, makes the mistake, makes an apology, loses interest...etc. It is obvious that Marnie doesn't really love Charlie, and she should get rid of him.

So Hannah basically gets rid of him for her when Ray and Charlie find Hannah's notebook, which tells all of Hannah's feelings about their relationship. Almost immediately after he finds out and leaves Marnie to what she wanted, she runs back to him. She feels like she made a mistake and she still loves him, but they quickly discover it just isn't working. Marnie continues to struggle with this breakup throughout the series. While I think that it sucks that Marnie is so pathetic in this situation, I think it is realistic. There are way too many girls that just cant live without their boyfriends, and Marnies character, if anything, shows girls how pathetic they are when they do that. She struggles to put her life together and winds up sleeping with Booth Johnathan.

Booth is an artist that Marnie is a fan of, and she eventually starts a "relationship" with him. At first I think this is liberating for her because Booth is so different from Charlie and she randomly leaves work to have sex with him, a total Jessa move. I was proud of her and excited to see her change out of her pathetic role. Instead, she assumes Booth is her boyfriend and becomes too involved in the relationship too soon. She finds out that he isn't her boyfriend at a party she thought they were throwing together and she cries right then; while her reaction is typical of a girl like her it is Booth's response that I think is critical to Lena Dunham's point. Watch this short video from the episode:

http://youtu.be/Eex9HdWkjlc
(ignore the weird "I love him" someone put on the end of the video)

You should be able to tell from just watching that how much of an asshole Booth is. He puts up this huge front that he is perfect and overly talented and he tries to be an asshole on top of it. I think that is because he is trying to be a popular artist in NY and in order to do that he needs to fill his role as a man. I mean, we see in the end of the video that he is just as capable as Marnie to throw a hissy fit. The first time we see Booth in the series he warns Marnie that the first time he has sex with her he "will scare her because he is a man and he knows how to do things". I think that Dunham does an awesome job in illustrating how men have these ridiculous roles to fill. Being a tough man just doesn't fit his character, yet he tries to look that way and I think there is a lot of that in our society. Men are pressured to be this powerful figure and it is often over looked that they are human too and have emotions.

After this, Marnie seems to have an easy time getting over Booth, probably because she saw how annoying he really is. Then she finds out that Charlie has suddenly become successful from an app he created. He now has a fancy office and a decent amount of money. The first thing she does is walk right in the office to see him! This is crazy, it makes you want to slap her for being so pathetic. As soon as she sees what she is missing she runs right back, even though she doesn't love him. It may seem bad that this is in the shows, maybe the complete opposite of everything Lena has shown us so far, but I think it shows one of many realties girls face. I have had one too many friends who have not been able to get themselves out of a relationship because they feel so attached. They wind up miserable but never leave because the relationship guarantees them male attention. I think it is important for GIRLS to have a character like this. If you watch Marnie and you don't think she is pathetic, I'm not sure you're really watching. Her actions show women how horrible some of the decisions she makes are! Maybe girls will be less likely to act this way if they see how it turns out and how they really look. She winds up back together with Charlie in the end of Season two, but will she continue to "love" him next season?

Deborah Morgan

I just have to take some extra time to talk about my absolute favorite series of all time, Dexter. Now, I must tell you that I am a series junkie! I've watched way too many but I love getting attached to the characters and watching them evolve with the show. Deb took a long time to become a favorite of mine but now she is in my heart forever. I think she is by far the strongest female (fictional) character I have ever seen on TV. If you haven't seen Dexter, this post may be irrelevant, or a spoiler, but I have to give her some attention. I've been reading through some other students' blogs tonight and I've seen a lot about the image of women and the lack of the "empowering" image on TV. Well here is my response to that, you need to watch Dexter.

 

In the beginning of the series I thought she was annoying, her excessive bad language got old and I didn't think she was very pretty. That is the thing about watching a series start to finish, you see the character in their entirety; you get to see why she is the way she is.
Starting with the simple fact that Deb has lost both of her parents should just show you how strong she is. I personally have no idea how I would deal with that, and that is just a miniscule start to her incredible strength.
She wants to be the best cop she can be, that is her ultimate goal. She loves her job and she is 100% dedicated. She starts at the very bottom when the series begins and winds up all the way Lieutenant several seasons in. Deb repeatedly falls for men that either try to murder her or get murdered themselves, yet she takes it in and keeps going.
Starting season one, she falls for Rudy, unaware that he is the Icetruck Killer, winds up engaged to him and then kidnapped and almost killed. This is the first case where we see Deb being taken
advatange of and she is truly hurt afterwards, but guess what? She gets back up and continues to advance in Homicide.
She then falls for Frank Lundy, who is the age of her father. This really made me dislike her at the time, but it lets you see how hurt she is by the loss of her father, Harry Morgan. She struggles with this and falls for a man like him, trying to find a replacement for her father. This could be seen as a sign of weakness, but I think that it just shows how strong she is that she is so hurt, yet she continues to work towards becoming a better detective and keeps on even when Lundy is killed and she is shot along with him. She continuously suffers losses and lets it make her stronger every time.

Eventually Deb is promoted to lieutenant and she is hesitant to take the job over Angel Batista. Around the same time her former partner, Quinn, proposes to her. She denies his proposal because she isn't ready for marriage and she wants to focus on her career. I think that this is an awesome situation to show on TV because there are plenty of women that aren't in a huge rush to get married like many women are made out to be. Women value their careers, and they don't all want to drop their aspirations to become a wife and mother. Quinn's reaction is obviously not a happy one, he is certainly not very understanding. I think that this is also realistic. I feel like many women, if put in that situation, would just say yes, simply because they feel bad for the guy. Deb is stronger than that and she sets an awesome example by doing so. She channels all of her energy into becoming a good Lieutenant, and she turns into an amazing one!

 

Eventually, Deb sees a therapist because she has been shot more than once, and has been through several traumatizing experiences. Through her therapist, she begins to rethink her relationship with her brother, Dexter. She becomes fed up with the way Dexter lies to her and hides things from her, and she refuses to deal with it. Deb is awesome because she never lets people get away with treating her the wrong way.

Deb Morgan continues to get pushed down by other people, mainly Dexter's, problems. She always finds some way to get through it. We see her character hit rock bottom, but again, she pulls out of it. I have really enjoyed watching Deb's character grow and see how strong she really is. I'm not sure there is another character on TV with more problems than Deb, yet she is still a powerful and confident woman. There need to be more of these on TV, and less of the Housewives and Jersey Girls!

Dexter and GIRLS don't have very much in common but I would like to add in that anytime Deb is having sexual relationships, they are about her. She always does it because she is attracted to the man and not because he pursues her, she is never marginalized for her sexuality. This is definitely not a big part of the show, but I think it is important that this show hasn't shown the oversexualization of women that many other shows have. She dresses like a normal woman, even feels uncomfortable when she has to change the way she dresses for work--yet she is still gorgeous. You should know by now how much I love to see women just being themselves and doing exactly what they want.

Apology

I went a little crazy with the photos and gifs tonight, but there was so much out there on "Girl Code"! I had to add this one on, just so you can see how blunt the show is...plus its pretty great. Sorry if this one is too raunchy for you. Opinions on whether that subject deserves a post?

Girl Code

So I have to flat out tell you how much I love the MTV show "Girl Code"! It is absolutely hilarious and I think the women on it are straight up honest. My friends and I wait for it to come on every week. I'm sure the reason we love it so much is because it relates so much to our lives. They talk about random subjects and they don't keep anything a secret. It almost feels like you're sitting around talking with your girlfriends on a night in. The show talks about everything from Walks of Shame, wine, blind dates, plus many more uncomfortable subjects. The ladies speak their mind and I think it gives women an edge. It is also important to note that the women on the show are pretty diverse, and sometimes there are men commenting as well.
There were a few subjects that really caught my eye while watching recently, the first being the episode on dieting. Most of the girls joked about how they've done every diet, they even defined a diet as "when you eat food that makes you sad". While I disagree that healthy food makes you sad, I like that they can put it out there that it is okay to not be stick thin! One of my favorite girls, Jessimae Peluso said, "You'll never look like the girl in the magazine; the girl in the magazine doesn't look like the girl in the magazine". The show is packed full of sassy things like this, but they are all so honest and realistic. She hits the point I made in my Victoria's Secret post on the head in one sentence. They continue to talk about how girls try too hard to look perfect, and make themselves miserable. They end on a note reminding you to be active, eat well, and love yourself!

I also love how "Girl Code" discusses hookups and relationships in such an honest way. They talk about sex the way that I would talk to my friends, or even the way Hannah and Jessa might on GIRLS! When they talk about making your walk of shame, they make fun of your outfit from last night, not the fact that you had sex and are being "slutty" or anything like that, its a casual thing that college girls relate to. The girls talk about how you should OWN IT! They have no reservations, and they shouldn't. If the amount of shows like this continues to rise on TV, maybe people will stop looking at female roles in such a mixed, messed up way.

Then we have "GUY Code", this show actually came first on MTV. The very first thing I noticed when going back and watching a few episodes was that some of the women from "Girl Code" are on the show, and they dress differently!!!
So here is Melanie Iglesias on "Girl Code":

and here she is on an episode of "Guy Code":

I mean, do I even need to say more?

She looks like a normal girl in the first photo and then in the second her and the other girl are wearing low cut shirts and (somehow I found this gif that fits perfectly) just grabbing herself. Anytime there is a girl on "Guy Code" she is sexed-up someway!

The ladies also get a little caption when they are on screen that says their name, yet several of them add that the girl is something like a "Maxim Hometown Hottie"--describing April Rose (seen below). It is ridiculous to me that none of the guys need titles like that but when a woman comes on they have to give her some sexy title!

 

 

 

Despite that detail, the show displays the same type of material except it is all from the male perspective. Its hard to say that "Guy Code" is a bad show since it is based on opinions, but I think it just reinforces a lot of what is created in the rest of the media. I definitely appreciate the honesty in the show. The first episode I watched talked about dancing at a club, one of the first guys says "the main motivation behind and man dancing is to have sex with the girl he's dancing with". I think this is probably true, not many guys go out looking to find their future girlfriends. However, the way they talk about women like they are objects throughout the series just gives everyday guys a reason to do the same. Just like they are shown with less clothing on, the women's main purpose in the show is to draw male viewers. This plays into how many series and movies, and even those music videos are made for the male eye. I can't say that I hate "Guy Code" though. Maybe that's because its just as honest as "Girl Code", and "Girl Code" is often guilty of talking about guys like they are a piece of meat also. :) 



 

Some Visuals

I just wanted to include some visuals for my previous post. The first photo is Carrie Bradshaw and the second is Hannah Horvath (dressed in her best we've seen in GIRLS)

Then we have Jessa and Samantha. Jessa on top; this is probably her most extravagant outfit. Samantha is in the bottom photo...I don't think she needs much of a caption