If I could ask the EPs (especially Stephanie Savage) one question it would be this:
WHY DO YOU HATE WOMEN?!
I sincerely wonder how a female writer and show-runner can allow and encourage such awful mistreatment of women. At this point it is not a matter of chair/dair/derena. It is a matter of how men treat women and women treat each other and themselves.
And before anyone gets their dander up about “It’s just a tv show. They’re fictional characters. It doesn’t actually matter.” A.) You cannot have it both ways. In one breath you can’t say “It doesn’t matter.” And in the next send hate mail and demand the writers put Blair and Chuck together. And B.) Yes, it does matter. Portraying unconscionable behavior without repercussions or lasting consequences is irresponsible and also simply bad unrealistic storytelling.
And again, before you say “It’s only a tv show. If you think it’s real or affects peoples’ behavior you’re stupid,” I present you with one simple fact: You think Chuck and Blair have a good, long-lasting, worthwhile relationship that is enviable. You think this because despite everything you have been shown, everything you know to be abusive, the writers have told you they belong together so YOU BELIEVE IT. You believe a toxic relationship is worth having, that someone like Chuck is a worthy partner because of this show.
But back to my main point. This show hates women. This show degrades women. This show treats women as objects. This show is wildly unequal in its treatment of men and women. And it isn’t only in the season 5 finale. It has been evident in the entire run of the series. But because the finale just ended and Stephanie Savage had some remarks about the season and next season let’s get real shall we.
This season there has been a “lingerie show”, ivy/lola fake prostitute sting, a brothel, the reveal that Diana runs a sex trade business, Blair going back to Chuck who has previously sold her to his uncle Jack for a hotel, the Waldorf family having to agree to a dowry, Chuck saying he’ll pay her dowry to get her out of the marriage she telling him not to him paying it against her wishes anyway, Lily buying off Ivy for her participation in the sting to arrest Lily’s sister, Chuck lying, using, and seducing Alessandra in order to gain her trust and use her information and connections to ruin Dan’s career.
Now that is only a small sampling and are all instances where women were used as commodities. IN A SINGLE SEASON. I repeat COMMODITIES. There are not male scantily clad models, male prostitutes, the buying and selling of men. Only women. It is a pattern with this show.
I won’t even get into everything that happened in the finale because my dash is full. But when the two main female characters, between them, end the season with nothing, not school, not a job (or with a job they’re specifically dead set against), having lost a husband, a baby, the respect of friends and boyfriends, proclaiming love for an abusive ex-boyfriend, snorting coke on a train being felt up by a stranger there is a big fucking problem. Because all I’m getting from this show is if you’re like one of the Bass men expect the world. If not, if you’re a woman, you don’t deserve good things.
Gossip Girl creative staff, look at your choices.
(And I watched it because with the introduction of Dan/Blair friendship and Blair’s stronger persona mid season season 4 I naively believed that maybe there was something worth watching, that maybe the lady-fail would decrease, that maybe they’d do it right. But it just got worse and even though I enjoyed Dan/Blair I still recognized there was a lot to be angry about on this show.)
