The Gilmore Girl Diet: Body Image and Our Relationship With Food, As Represented On-Screen

Over the past two months or so, Netflix has worked its nostalgia magic on thousands of people across North America, bringing back into the spotlight a show that had long become lost in the annals of the CW’s illustrious history. This show, depicting the adorably co-dependent mother-daughter relationship of Lorelei and Rory and the well-meaning but eccentric cast of Stars Hollow residents surrounding them, is, of course, Gilmore Girls.

Now, I had never watched Gilmore Girls when it first aired. The only thing I remember about it from the 2000s was that one of my friends – obsessed with the show – would talk about the “will they, won’t they?” relationship of diner owner Luke and Lorelei with a manic glint in his eye while clutching his Hilroy notebooks to his chest, fingers trembling.

I decided to give it a go, because I don’t like being left out. I also convinced my own mother to watch it with me, because isn’t that sweet?

As the first few episodes glided by, and Netflix began its intervention tactics (“Are you still watching?”) my mom turned to me and said, “I cannot believe how much those girls eat, and they’re still so skinny! Maybe they stay skinny because the other characters always interrupt them while they’re eating, and so they never finish anything.”

Somewhat disregarding that last sentence, her thoughts reflected my own. While the show is fluffed up with numerous instances of “witty repartee,” one of its running jokes is also that Lorelei and Rory, both exiguous Hollywood beauties, eat and eat and eat without ever thinking about pesky things like calories, sodium intake, or fat content. Not once do they read a nutrition label, not once do they reconsider ordering dessert, and not once do they show themselves to be insecure in any way about their appearances.

Now well into Season 4 of the show, I’ve realized that the Gilmore Diet, consisting of burgers, pizza, Chinese takeout, and Red Vines, is referred to in almost every single episode. Whether Rory and Lorelei are planning their next junk food binge, or a supporting character is glancing up to the heavens, asking their chosen deity how these women can survive without consuming anything resembling a vegetable, the Gilmore Girls’ eating habits are thematically held up as a joke and a way of life.

My initial reaction to Rory and Lorelai’s diet was positive. I was excited that the writers were giving us characters, women, who could eat. In a culture that tells women that size four is the new six, it’s refreshing to watch a television show in which two girls massacre four pizzas in one sitting.

As I traipsed through more and more episodes, however, the Gilmore Diet began to lose its novelty.

I started to see it as one more trait enforcing this image of the perfect woman as gorgeous and slender, but also cool with putting away a burger as a midnight snack. Not to mention this woman, like the Gilmores, must be perfectly and at all times comfortable in her own skin.

I wonder if Gilmore Girls would have been different, had they cast more “normal” looking actresses. Would a heavier-set Rory and Lorelei have held the same sway over audiences for seven seasons? Would viewers have tuned out if, one morning, Rory had come out of her room and said, “I don’t like the way I look today”?

Being the curious Internet adventurer that I am, I did a little research, and found numerous message boards, blog posts, etc. about the show, on which women posted comments like, “I wish I could eat like the Gilmores and never gain weight,” or “It’s so unfair that they can eat that way and I can’t.”

The fact of the matter is that the Gilmore Girl Diet is not sustainable. Even Lauren Graham, the actress who played Lorelei, has said she exercises and eats very carefully to maintain the shape that Hollywood requires of her. She has also said she struggles with self-image issues.

The Gilmore Girls Diet isn’t even doable for a Gilmore Girl.

The point is that girls shouldn’t feel bad for feeling bad. Feelings of anxiety and self-consciousness are natural and human. On Gilmore Girls, life is shielded by a force field of happiness, keeping out those bad thoughts (and somehow keeping curves off of women who eat six meals a day). The show doesn’t seem to realize, however, that showing excessive eating doesn’t necessarily combat a culture of dieting and self-starvation. Although, yes, it’s often funny to watch Lorelei get berated for wanting a burger at 11 PM, it would be nice to see healthy women represented on-screen.

It just takes one television bigwig to realize that, on the spectrum of womanhood and girldom, nestled somewhere between Lorelei Gilmore and Lena Dunham eating a cupcake in her bathtub on Girls, there’s a human being.