Gossip Girl is getting as many viewers as those shows that you claim “most of Americans understand,” but the current ratings system (Nielsen) isn’t set up to count those viewers.

Your Cory Kennedy reference might woo these kids, but it ain’t fooling me. It’s a basic principle of American pop culture that the masses want to ascend to a higher status in society, (which is what enables celebrity culture in the first place). Gossip Girl IS successful because it displays the sort of ornate wealth that most Americans are conditioned to dream about, just like American Idol is successful because it shows average people attaining similar wealth.

Anyways, awesome topic, but you’re way off base.

I think you made a lot of good points… I think what you were sort of sidestepped is the huge role that logos play. On the OC, every once in a while Marisa would wear a Chanel necklace or bag (in fact when she switched schools her display of logos was pointed out to her as why she was getting shit), but most of her stuff was just neutrally expensive. I’ve yet to notice any Gossip Girl bitches carrying a Louis Vuitton or rocking a logo of any kind. When Cory blew up all the message boards talked about her Chanel shoes (I honestly don’t know why I know this), while other things she wore were far more unique and by designers of equal or greater status. This is the major differentiator… why the super rich kids from the Midwest, or the rich kids you see on My Super Sweet 16 who are like, the only really rich kid in their upper-middle-class-income-range town, are all decked out in Chanel, Coach, Louis Vuitton and (sometimes, if they’re younger or way annoying) Dooney and Bourke, while the rich kids in LA are in Balenciaga, Ferragamo and what have you. It’s not even that the people buying and wearing these items lack of knowledge of these different designers , but rather that their peers do. So, in order to have their spending justified (by the items being clearly recognizable as expensive), the brands that splash their logos all over everything are the ones that they go for.

i admit that i’ve never read the gossip girl books, but i do watch the show pretty religiously and when i try to figure out WHY i hold such a fascination with it, i have a hard time pinpointing one solid reason. yes, some of the story lines and typical teenage dramas but what really holds my interest is the backdrop of the city and the glamour and scandal and money and CLOTHES (oh my god, the clothes). i can confidently say that if ‘gossip girl’ took place in like, kansas and they all wore abercrombie and carried rainbow-y dooney and burke bags, i wouldn’t be interested. i could go to my local public highschool and see that.
their scandalous lifestyle and the way that they use their money and power and their style captivates me.

and i think it’s cool when one of the girls is like “omg, look at my new Nanette Lepore!” and i can be like hey, i have one of those too.
(but this relation only goes so far, that’s why i tune in)

i agree with you mostly….except you don’t blame anything on the writing staff. from the few episodes i’ve seen, the characters are flat and one-dimensional and the plotlines are just rehashed teen dramz. i know you love the show, but the fact is the material simply isn’t strong enough.

it’s all about wealth and dazzle in this case. and the wealth and dazzle in gossip girl is generally not accessible. we’re not talking about rich like, OC rich. we’re talking wealth. old money, private schools, stocks, bonds, lasting power, NY wealth. who can identify with that? we LA kids can get it, because we grew up with rolls royces and jimmy choos all up in our faces all day, but NY money is still a completely different echelon.

the reason girls like audrey and whoever hannabeth is because they represent suburbia. girls in the LA and NY scene simply do not look like that. we don’t have pink hair and asymmetrical cuts. kids in the valley are still getting lip rings. you know?

i dunno. i do like the show’s wardrobe, because i do recognize the names they’re dropping and i can spot YSLs a mile away, but if i didn’t, the show would hold no interest content-wise.

the pen is mightier than the erin fetherston hair accessory

Post more skull graphic tee humor.

WE ARE HANGING ON TO YR EVERY WORD SKEET SKEET!

PS LUV YR STEEEZ. YOU ARE SO WELL GROOMED!1!11!1!