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Inclusivity within “Ginny and Georgia” Part 3 of 3 Finally!!

Be wary of potential spoilers!

Refreshingly there are multiple characters with queer representation within the show, those being Maxine, Sophie, and Nick. 10 year old me who never got to see queer relationships on the screen is screaming for joy and relief on the inside!!

Being a queer teen in a mainly heterosexual high school is hard, and that is evident when in episode 3 Next Level Rich People Sh*t when Max thinks this girl staring in the play she’s in is gay. Long story short she isn’t and Max embarrasses herself just like everyone else at the Sophomore Sleepover and finds out the girl is straight, and then she has to play it off like she’s “drunk or on acid or something.” 

Even though Maxine is annoying and such a corny character, I love how proud and open she is about her sexuality. It’s so amazing to finally see several queer characters in mainstream get to be openly who they are with no repercussions. Max’s friends love her and she doesn’t receive any hatred nor outcast from her classmates or people within her community. I loved getting to watch a teenager get to genuinely be who they are going through the nuances of being in their first relationship without having to be in fear of not getting to be openly with their partner. 

What’s better is that there’s Nick, who works for the mayor. Finally, to see a character in mainstream media that is intelligent and someone who is openly gay, thank you!! My favorite was when in episode 7, Happy Sweet Sixteen, Jerk Nick shows up to Ginny’s birthday party per request of Georgia to do karaoke and he and his partner are just on their “way back from Drag Brunch from Jacko’s Cabaret in Boston.” So not only do we get to see him be openly gay, but he is able to express himself how he wants and dress in drag and no one in the show questions it or finds it weird. 

While the show may seem to miss the mark in a lot of aspects, I would say they nailed it with the queer representation and making everyone feel safe!

#georgia #ginny #georgia x ginny #queer #queer representation #netflix

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The way Joe looks at Georgia!!

#gngedit #ginny x georgia #raymondablack #beautiful #netflix

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Inclusivity within “Ginny and Georgia” Part 2 of 3

Be wary of potential spoilers!

Also, trigger warning with self-harm and ED

Mental health was not addressed into mainstream media until recently and when it was finally addressed we got the toxic trash that 13 Reasons Why.

The different between my post and Ginny and Georgia is that my post contains a trigger warning. While there is only one or two scenes from the show that I can think of where Ginny deliberately self harms with a lighter. Main stream media should talk about mental health and topics such as self-harm, but I think the show could benefit from trigger-warnings as they play an important role with mental health and are used in order to not cause anyone unnecessary anxiety or rehashing of their trauma. 

Besides that really small but really big detail, I feel the show dealt with mental health better than any other show I’ve seen in awhile, especially when it comes to self-harm, depression, eating disorders, along with the stress and trauma of your home life via your parents divorcing. 

A secondary character that doesn’t get as big of a plot as others, though deserves more screen time in season 2, Abby, one of the girls a part of MANG. Every character in this show has their own nuances, Abby especially with her divorced parents and eating disorder. In episode 3, Next Level Rich People Sh*t, we see the first instances of Abby’s life at home with her divorcing parents, though viewers don’t officially know that yet, and her body dysmorphia/eating disorder. She’s laying on her bed texting MANG, then she gets up and in the background you can hear two adults fighting, she stares in the mirror and starts pulling at the skin on her thighs, she goes into her drawer and low and behold she pulls out a roll of duct tape to tape up her skin before putting her jeans on and heading out to the Sophomore Sleepover. Flash forward to the event and Max gives her shit for wearing jeans because it’ll ruin the Instagram picture, meanwhile she’s not even aware of the effect her words have on her friend. Then, in the same episode when Abby and her friends are off in a classroom getting wasted, Brody dares her to swap clothes with someone and she panics. 

*Don’t read further because I will be discussing self-harm*

Ginny has moved around almost the amount times for the years she has been alive. Her mom going through countless relationships in order to sustain her family and do what is best for her kids. Not to mention, Zion, Ginny’s dad is a travel writer and photographer, and so while he’s a good dad he’s not really in the picture, on top of racial discrimination. One can say she doesn’t have the best mental health due to all of this, so her way of coping is through burning herself. The first time viewers see this is in episode 5, Boo Bitch, when at the Halloween party Bracia makes a comment without really saying it about Ginny essentially not being “black enough.” Which we already know from throughout the season is a big struggle for her. Bracia, while not knowing the affect of her words, causes Ginny to be triggered so she goes to the bathroom to cry. When in there she sees a comment about her on Hunter’s YouTube video saying she was “This is the whitest black girl I’ve ever seen, she looks like she’s at a Jonas Brothers concert.” These two situations back to back trigger her anxiety and so she burns her wrist on a candle to calm down. Later in the season Marcus, the “bad boy” aka simply misunderstood teenager with depression, catches Ginny with a lighter about to burn herself. They later address it in episode 9, Feelings Are Hard, where we find out that she basically in one way or another says she has mental health issues and gets overwhelmed and has no way of healthily dealing with it. Everything simply feels like too much, and once she burns herself it’s like a release. 

We also find out in this same episode and same conversation why Marcus struggles with depression. Throughout the entire season everyone pins him as the angsty bad boy who’s also a player, when in actuality he is just coping with the loss of his friend who died the year prior. He gives Ginny and the viewers a run down of what it’s like to grieve for someone and how many people don’t realize others are struggling until it’s too late.

I think Marcus says it perfectly, “Can’t you see I need help?” I think everyone in one way or another needs help and someone to understand and listen, and he did exactly that for Ginny. When her mom was too busy killing one of her husbands and her dad too busy traveling, he leant her the empathy no one else had. Abby also brings this same concept up to when her friends abandon her while she’s struggling with her parents divorce. 

While Ginny and Georgia can be over the top sometimes and oversaturate’s the show with one too many cliches, it touches on mental health in a way that is almost universally relatable for everyone. 

#mentalhealth #marcus baker #ginny x marcus #ginny x georgia

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Antonia Gentry is so awesome! So glad we’re able to have roles like Ginny in mainstream media! 

Entertainment Spotlight: Antonia Gentry, Ginny & Georgia

The star of Ginny & Georgia, Antonia Gentry, discusses playing and connecting with the role of Ginny, and shows us what she kept from set!

#netflix #ginny #georgia #antoniagentry #ginnyandgeorgia #mainstream #media

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The Way Joe Looks at Georgia 😍

#why is he so cute #joeisperfect #iloveraymondablack #ginny #georgia #ginnyandgeorgia #joe x georgia #georgia x joe #ginnyandgeorgiaedit

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Inclusivity within “Ginny and Georgia” Part 1 of 3

Be wary of potential spoilers!

I want to talk about the inclusivity of Ginny and Georgia because of the amount of backlash I’ve seen from articles and social media surrounding the show and its character. 

While the show is far from perfect, I think it’s impossible to please everyone, especially when your dramedy is one of the few shows in mainstream media that touches on such relevant and important topics facing teens around America. When your show is the only one that includes this much representation it will face a lot of backlash from critics and people because the show is unable to represent everyone and what they’re going through. That being said everyone’s personal experience is relevant, which is why diversity within film and tv shows is so important. 

The show addresses topics such representation of diversity and people of color, mental health, and queer relationships. The show delves into these topics in a way that feels safe and comfortable and shows viewers that you don’t know what other people are going through.

Ginny, the lead protagonist, plays a bi-racial teenager to a white mom. This could go one of two ways, fortunately her mom, Georgia, is super supportive and does her best to understand her daughters identity and what it’s like for as a woman of color. Obviously, being one of the Black women in her rich, white community, Ginny struggles to fit in, which she has all her life. In episode 2, It’s a Face Not a Mask, you can see right away Ginny doesn’t fit in her with her friends, she narrates a scene where they’re all in the school bathroom putting on makeup besides her, “It’s a face, not a mask... I know about masks, mine never comes off” (1:43). This line followed by episode 3 (Next Level Rich People Sh*t), where at Ginny’s Sophomore Sleepover where her friends totally dismiss the fact that as a woman of color her hair is naturally curly and has less natural oils, therefore you can’t just brush through her dry hair without making it frizzy. Alas, their only worries were that MANG all looked the same for the gram. Her mom unintentionally comes to her rescue and fixes her hair telling her daughter, “How many times have I told you not to let anyone touch your hair?” While this is something so little, I think it goes to show the effort her mom makes to understanding Ginny and protecting her from people who don’t understand her. 

While Ginny experiences many micro-aggressions throughout the show, even from her friends (as white people we all have internalized racism and biases due to a lack of knowledge and education), a more blatant moment of racism from the show occurs during episode 10 (the last episode), The Worst Betrayal Since Jordyn and Kylie, when her english teacher, Mr. Gitten (a white man), takes a moment during class to acknowledge that the book they’re reading includes the n-word. He calls out Ginny for being Black and makes her feel embarrassed and goes on being racist to say that the cultural context of the word back then wasn’t bad (newsflash it f**king was). To top it off her friend Maxine just sits back silently and lets her friend experience this all because she is mad at Ginny for sleeping with her brother. Hi Maxine, your white privilege is showing! Good to know that racism is excusable just because you’re mad at your bestie.

After this Ginny runs to the bathroom to breathe where she runs into Bracia, one of the only other Black girls that attends school with Ginny. They bond over shared experiences with Mr. Gitten and the micro-aggressions they have faced from him. Bracia being called “B” because he couldn’t pronounce her name, way to show that you’re really racist by not bothering to learn the pronunciation! 

While those are problematic parts of the show, it’s intentionally placed within it as a form of social commentary and to reflect on real life scenarios that people of color and Black people experience. 

One last pivotal part of the show in episode 8, Check one, Check other. Hunter and Ginny get into a fight and they’re both say racially insensitive things towards one another. After school one day Hunter and Ginny are hanging out when Ginny complains about how Mr. Gitten was being racist for now giving her the scholarship award for paper (Hunter won despite Ginny’s paper being so poetic and creative). This gets them into a fight as they both deal with being bi-racial in their own ways- Hunter being mixed White and Taiwanese. He prefers to keep a low profile whereas Ginny prefers to speak up and vocalize her thoughts. She stereotypes him with being a “genius and a prodigy” because of his Asian heritage, it’s not okay to white-wash people Ginny you should know that as it has been done to you before. “When I went to Taiwan I thought, wow. Finally, my people. But it was this hard reality check that, no, you don’t belong here either” (38:00). Ginny’s response to this is just to be more problematic? She tells him she knows more Mandarin than him and his favorite food is cheeseburgers. Then, to make it all worse she tells him, “You’re barely even Asian!” While this is an intense scene to watch, I think that’s the point. Being a mixed person is difficult, not having people from either of your race’s fully accepting you.  

With that being said, hopefully this trend of “diversity” doesn’t end in 2021 and with Ginny and Georgia, I hope to see more media in the future that continues what they started and does it better. Social activism is not a trend, it is a necessity, especially in representing minority communities.

#diversity #inclusivity #biracial #ginnyandgeorgia

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Joe 😍 & Zion 😍

NGL I feel #bad for Scott Porter (Mayor Randolph). If I saw the actors who plays Joe and Zion, I’d quit on the spot. Not happening. Those two men are so beautiful. Too fine. Not to mention, but Joe and Zion are totes #feminists 

#feminism #nathan mitchell #raymondablack #ginnyandgeorgia #THESEMENAREPREFECT scottportershouldbejealous

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#Ifykyk

#netflix #ginny #gerogia #cute #sweet #joe #raymondablack

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The perfect man doesn’t exist...

#raymondablack #ginnyandgeorgia #ginny #georgia #netflix

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The Big Decision...

The long awaited announcement mother-daughter drama, Ginny and Georgia, has officially been announced by Netflix for a second season with at least 10 hours with of content. Bring on the drama! 

#ginnyandgeorgiaseason2 #season2 #finally thank god

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Ginny and Georgia vs. Gilmore Girls Similarities and Differences

Welcome to Netflix’s newest original series Ginny and Georgia where the mother-daughter duo who are close in age, work together to figure out life and the teenager ends up parenting the mother who ran away from home and had a child way too young. Sound familiar? Well, that’s because they essentially took the concept of the CW’s Gilmore Girls, and made the mother-daughter duo less wholesome. Both shows having leading protagonist mother-daughter duos where the daughter acts more like the parent than the actual parent. Think of Ginny and Georgia as Lorelai and Rory, but with a darker, more southern twist, and then when you add a little bit of diversity with people of color, queer couples, and those with disabilities— it’s practically the same television two decades later!

(Photo creds: https://bit.ly/3bcKc8s)

1. Similarity: Locations Both shows take place in the middle of small towns where everyone knows everyone and is in each other’s business. While Gilmore Girls takes place in fictional Stars Hollow, a town that takes place in Connecticut, while Ginny and Georgia have their fictional town set in Wellsbury, Massachusetts. Both shows take place in locations where local festivals and events are a big deal where if you don’t show up and show out your family is basically blacklisted by all of the elite parents in town.

(both locations of shows established in the pilot episode)

2. Difference: Parenting While both Georgia and Lorelai rely on their daughters to keep them in check and act like parents, their family dynamics are a little different. Lorelai for the most part, other than her dating life and the occasional silly parenting mishaps, is a trustworthy and reliable mother. On the other hand, Georgia cannot be trusted by her daughter, it’s lie after lie to keep her past a secret and that’s apparent when Ginny’s aunt and cousin, who she didn’t know existed, randomly show up at her house one day. (Gilmore Girls, Red Light on the Wedding Night, Season 2 Episode 3) (Ginny and Georgia, Season 1 Episode 6, "I'm Triggered")

3. Similarity: Georgia and Lorelai’s Love Life Sure, enough both women follow the same pattern of confused love lives, and coincidentally each has a connection in their respective show with the hard-to-get man that owns the local cafe or coffee shop in town. Though we don’t know that with Georgia just yet, one can only assume that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, or in this case the single mom with dating struggles from the quirky teen television show. (Gilmore Girls, pilot episode) (Ginny and Georgia, pilot episode)

4. Difference: Lives of Rory and Ginny; Ginny and Rory are very different teenagers but have that key element of mother-daughter relationships where they overshare. Rory grows up in the same town her entire life where everyone knows and adores her, with a mom who is financially stable, and a consistent best friend from elementary school. Ginny on the other hand has moved around to 12 different homes within the last 15 years of her life due to her mom’s past with embezzling money from spouses that she secretly kills for their inheritance. Therefore, she doesn’t know who she is, nor does she have any best friends or stability. Each new place she goes to requires adopting a new persona in order to fit in. (Gilmore Girls, Season 1 Episode 4) (Ginny and Georgia, season finale)

#ginnyandgeorgia #blog #tvblog #netflix #gilmoregirls #ginny #georgia #lorelai #rory