Why You and Your Mom Should Watch “Jane the Virgin”
When I first eyed the cover photo of Jane the Virgin on Netflix, I was not interested. Protagonist Jane Villanueva stands solo, holding a positive pregnancy test above bowed legs, biting her lip. The sickly-sweet pink color of the backdrop combined with the nearly doll-like belted fuchsia dress seem all too familiar, like the outdated sleeve on nearly every teen-drama. The dumbfounded look on Jane’s face, and the word “VIRGIN” splashed across the page, all beg me to keep scrolling. Luckily, I don’t.

The plot of Jane the Virgin revolves around Jane, a young Latina woman living in Miami with her mom and grandma. Jane’s character is essentially the saint of the family, making up for her mother’s past mistakes (which includes a teen pregnancy), and exceeding expectations. That is, of course, until she becomes accidentally artificially inseminated.
Without giving too much away, what I can tell you is that this show involves much more than the typical teen romance. Crime. Drama. Love. Family. Mystery. Culture. And, of course, the iconic telenovela flair. All of these elements operate within a framework surrounding Jane’s pregnancy, which is, in fact, based off of a Venezuelan telenovela plot.
And though the word VIRGIN is blatantly and uncomfortably placed right in the title, it is no joke to Jane (or the show writers). The way that the show handles the topic of virginity is one of the most intuitive takes I have ever seen.
Jane originally chooses to wait to have sex until marriage for the sake of her grandmother, a deeply religious catholic. Though she stands firm in her decision (for the most part), Jane still struggles. The show presents the pursuit of virginity for young women in an honest way: difficult and, quite frankly, pretty lame. Jane gets laughed at, questioned, and tested often for her decision, a reality that pretty much every virgin faces in contemporary culture. The show itself presents virginity as a valid option for people, something that most pop culture mocks. In Jane the Virgin, however, Jane’s struggle with virginity is at the forefront of the show, in an honest and real way.
And if a pro-virginity message isn’t proof enough that this show would be mom-approved, there is also the heartwarming relationship between the Villanueva women.
Family is central to the show, and to Jane herself. There are too many tender mother-daughter (and grandmother) moments to count, in an almost modern-day Full House fashion. Just as DJ would come crying to Danny Tanner after her latest episode of teen angst, Jane confides in her mother, Xiomara, with her latest anxieties about boys, the baby, and whatever else is happening in her (very) chaotic life. Roots of nostalgia run deep in the show, prodding the viewer to think back to their own silly mistakes and moments where a mom’s hug was all you needed. And hey, who doesn’t love a story about three generations of strong women?
So, don’t let the title scare you off. If we are called to chastity, shouldn’t we at least talk about it?
