Entitled to Trust Funds & Prescription Drugs

Delia McAleer
Nov 5 · 3 min read

Television shows often show characters breaking the law to provide viewers with entertainment. In Gossip Girl, teenagers can be seen buying drinks at bars, doing drugs and throwing parties in their penthouses. Although these entertaining scenes may please viewers, it is not without cost. This show appeals to a young audience who are easily influenced by what they see in the media. In the first episode, Gossip Girl portrays the high schoolers as alcoholics and drug abusers, they mainly enforce that upper-class children rebel from distant parents.

Within the first few minutes of the episode, the character’s relationships with their parents are established. Dan, who’s called “lonely boy” because he has no friends, is seen sitting down on a Friday night with his father eating a family dinner. The two seem very close and share stories about their day. Dan’s father, Rufus, asks Dan, “How did you do on your English paper you were so worried about?” Rufus seems aware of what is going on in his child’s life. Throughout the rest of the episode, the viewer gets the impression that Dan’s family is not wealthy like his classmates. Dan lives in Brooklyn in a loft where a majority of the episode he is seen doing schoolwork and spending time with his family. This healthy relationship between Dan and his father has made Dan a hardworking student who stays away from alcohol, drugs and partying.

Not much further into the show until we are introduced to Nate and Chuck. The two mentioned that they have been friends since kindergarten. They discuss Nate’s relationship with Blair in Chuck’s penthouse suite. Nate explains that he wishes his parents didn’t force him into this relationship and wishes he could do whatever he wants, despite his parent’s wishes. While lighting a joint, Chuck responds with, “We’re entitled to trust funds, a house in the Hamptons, and prescription drugs, happiness is not on the menu.” At the end of the episode, Nate breaks up with Blair even though it would affect his parent’s business deal with Blair’s mother. Nate’s parents care less about their son’s wishes and more about their work. This is reflected by Nate’s actions of going out with Chuck and getting high.

As the show dives into Blair’s life, we see Blair, recently broken up with, lying in her bed eating chocolate. Blair’s mother walks into her room and begins to ask her what’s wrong. As Blair explains what happened, her mother responds with, “Just remember you’ll never be this young and thin again, watch what you eat.” Her mother’s response was not sympathetic and showed that she cares more about superficial things like being young and thin rather than her daughter’s emotions. In the next scene, we see Blair in a limo with her friends opening a bottle of champagne on her way to a party. Instead of spending the night in with her mother, Blair dealt with her problems by getting drunk. This sends the message to the young audience that getting drunk will make your problems disappear.

All in all, Gossip Girl does include examples of healthy relationships between parents and their kids like Dan and Rufus. However, the other character’s relationships with their parents send a very bad message on how to handle situations. At first glance, I was not surprised to see Upper-Class high schoolers to be portrayed this way, which shows that Gossip Girl is keeping viewers in the cave about this demographic. Teenagers this age are consuming this media and all of its messages. The show enforces that using drugs and alcohol is a way to escape parents. This is not a healthy message to send to teenagers on how to deal with their problems.

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