Gossip Girl: Why Jenny Humphrey isn't as bad as you think.

When I first watched Gossip Girl in the 6th grade, I brewed strong hate for Jenny Humphrey. I found her to be jealous, annoying and hated that she stood up to my queen Blair Waldorf. Going on Tik Tok, I see that so many people hate on her and call her the worst character. But I realized that perhaps if we look at the actions of the characters of the show objectively, Jenny really isn't that bad. In fact, I'm pretty sure the average viewer hates Jenny because the show and its writers have brainwashed us into loving Blair way too much. Don't get me wrong, I was obsessed with Blair for years. Blair's fashion, comebacks, superiority, and wealth were all so attractive and cool to middle school me. But I think just like America's obsession with mean girls, we love characters like Blair because we want to be like her, we wouldn't want to be around her. Blair is a horrible, pretentious, selfish, egotistical brat. The writers have set up the situation so that every time we watch her tear an innocent bystander down, we think it's funny, and see the bystander as pathetic compared to Blair. But in reality, for me at least, I'm more like the bystander than I'll ever be like Blair. If someone spoke to me like that in real life, it would probably crush my soul and I'd have to go to therapy for the rest of my life. Take the whole Jenny and Chuck situation for example. Even though I know the situation was orchestrated so that Jenny's actress, Taylor Momsen, could leave the show in real life, it was extremely problematic on Blair's end. Jenny slept with Chuck, that's horrible. But why isn't it said that Chuck slept with Jenny? In fact, that was Jenny's virginity that Chuck took, yet Jenny was the one that received all the blame. Obviously, Blaire learned to forgive Chuck who's forked her over so many times but banished Jenny from all of Manhattan. Chuck is even worse. He sexually assaulted Jenny and Serena just in the first few episodes, was extremely toxic to Blair, and blamed the whole Jenny situation on Jenny. Yet, because he's physically attractive, wealthy, and has a love plotline with Blair, all of his actions are forgiven and forgotten... they make it seem like sexual assault is okay if you're attractive. To be honest, the least problematic person on the show is Nate (despite his obsession with MILFS), and it's only because he starts and ends the show as a 2-dimensional, bland, unsalted cracker. Don't get me wrong, it's a great show that was probably the only consistent item in my Netflix "continue watching" section before it was taken off. 

Ok, got to go, my pool is flooded with water again.