Gilmore Girls is loved for its ease of rewatching and its familiar characters that you really want to succeed at. But over the course of more than 150 episodes, they are bound to encounter setbacks at times. The show produced some problematic moments, many of which came at the expense of the women in the Gilmores' lives.
In fact, the titular mother-daughter duo wasn't always the girl's girl—Rory, in particular, frequently neglected friends, loved ones, and perceived romantic rivals throughout the show's seven seasons and reruns. While she may be good friends with Ryan and Paris, she also has a habit of rejecting women who aren't in her close circle or who get in the way of her relationships.
Here are seven times Rory fell short.
Visit Jesse in New York
If being a girl’s girl—in the purest sense—means celebrating and centering women, Rory falls short of that goal in season two as she impulsively travels to New York to visit Jesse . The risky decision causes her to miss her mom, Lorelei's graduation, and even Rory is surprised by her decision.
While Jesse and Rory's flirtatious, impromptu outings make them a couple worthy of being on board, it's a low point for her.
Being mean to Shane
Look, holding a grudge against your new crush is a common thing in high school. But even so, Rory was particularly hostile to Sean, and Jesse started dating Sean while Rory was in Washington, D.C., for the summer. Even though Rory was in a relationship herself, she went out of her way to belittle Shane's job at the beauty shop. "It might be interesting to you how ice is made," she said.
brutal ballet review
Remember when Rory wrote an outright mean review of a school ballet performance, comparing the dancers to hippos? Even after being confronted, she looked back at another show and learned all the mistakes she made from the experience. "Sometimes you've got to make enemies," she told Lorelai, as if the problem with her comments was just about being a harsh critic rather than unnecessarily criticizing another woman's body.
her comments about arthur
Later, in the season four episode "Afterboom," Rory continued body shaming, telling Asher Fleming, who was having an affair with Paris, that one of the women at his book signing had "fat thighs." . She may think she's here to represent Paris, but she's just fueling a paradigm that hurts both of them.
sleep with dean
Apparently, sleeping with a married person (whose spouse isn't upset about it) is never girl-girl behavior. But what adds another nasty layer to Rory and Dean's romance is that she and Lindsay are friends from school! That's not to say they're good friends, of course, but their acquaintance should give Rory pause. "He's not a married man," Rory told her mother. "He's Dean! My dean."
In fact, all cheating
Rory's ability to be unfaithful was not lost on Dean. She also had a longer romance with Logan on Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, Even though he was engaged to a woman named Odette. She seems to have committed the logical fallacy that former school lovers are always fair game. Rory may not be a girl's girl, but she's always the same.
Keep a secret from Lucy
When Marty pretended not to know his ex-best friend Rory in Season 7, she was probably too shocked to immediately set the record straight. To be clear, this is Marty telling his girlfriend Lucy that he doesn't know her, which is weird. Logan telling the truth over dinner was also a bad boyfriend move. But for Rory, not telling Lucy the truth for weeks - only admitting it when forced - remains one of her most confusing storylines.
