Gossip Girl and social injustice.
It may surprise you that I draw a parallel between the fictional media site that the book series and television show entitled "Gossip Girl" is based around with unfortunately common social issues in today's society such as racism and sexism and many others.
For those of you who can't handle the hours of intense drama, plot twists and backstabbing that take place in the show, Gossip Girl is an anonymous site that every one on the Upper East Side of New York submits juicy stories about their friends and foes to in order to back-stab or blackmail others - and it is posted on this anonymous site for people to indulge in the "scandalous lives of Manhattan's elite".
Many times, characters such as Serena Van Der Woodsen and others express their hatred and disgust for the Gossip Girl website, which exposes the most intimate details of their lives. Despite this, they seem to accept Gossip Girl as a normal part of their lives. As Blair Waldorf says at one point in the series, "I might've posted something on Gossip Girl. All the girls do it. It's how we communicate." Though Blair has her privacy invaded regularly by Gossip Girl and has been hurt over and over through the site, she still accepts it as a normal part of her life, and so do the rest of the characters. Constantly checking their phones for Gossip Girl blasts, maintaining a love-hate relationship with the site, and even submitting tips to the site.
As I was thinking about the series, I was also thinking about some of the popular issues in today's media that concern injustice: sexism, rape culture, racism, religious discrimination, homophobia and so many more.
It might seem like a silly comparison, and I do not mean to trivialize these important issues by comparing them to a drama show from the CW, but I believe it is the same message behind it that matters. Gossip Girl is a media site that they all "hate", but all accept into their lives regardless because it has become culturally acceptable in the Upper East Side. In a like manner, I have heard plenty of people pronounce disgust for racism, sexism and homophobia, but the amount of people who are willing to step up and speak out and change things when it truly matters is frighteningly small.
The thing with accepting injustices as norms is that nothing ever changes when we approach these issues with the attitude that "this is the way it has always been".
I don't think there is a phrase that I hate more than the one: "this is the way it has always been". Perhaps this comes from my anti-traditional view on life, or my desire to initiate change and break from norms in today's day and age. An acceptance of something whether good or bad is rarely ever justified by tradition only.
My call to you is this: don't let injustices around you become culturally acceptable. There is something that is vastly wrong with allowing important issues to fall by the wayside simply because they are norms. None of the big advancements in this world would have taken place if somebody somewhere didn't take it upon themselves to change the cultural norms.
I want to be that person. So don't be a Blair Waldorf or a Jenny Humphrey.
Choose to be different, and choose not to accept injustices and immoralities into our culture and let them slide. After all, as Desmond Tutu says, "if you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor."
Don't choose the side of the oppressor - in whatever form that oppression may present itself. Push towards making the future a better place with fewer social injustices.
