Gilmore Girls: A Perfect First Kiss

Little girls watch TV and are socialized to fantasize about having the “perfect first kiss.” In this scene from Gilmore Girls, Rory goes into the town grocery store where the new boy in town, and her crush, works. She walks in to pick up a few items but her main focus is on getting to speak to Dean. He walks over to her and offers her a free pop. She says she’d like one after mocking him for saying “pop” and then she follows him to the back freezer. He puts two cans behind his back and tells her that if she guesses which is in which hand she will get one. She is thrown off guard and he leans in and kisses her. Rory replies with “thank you” and then she runs off to tell her best friend about how she was kissed and that it was “perfect.”

As mentioned in the Lippman, Ward, and Seabrook article, people who perceive media as realistic are likely to idealize a romantic situation such as a first kiss. Rory being a down to earth schoolgirl in a small town is someone relatable to many teens. She lives what would be considered a normal teenage life. According to this study, children who watch a show like Gilmore Girls would then imagine that their first kiss would be just as memorable and special as Rory’s first kiss because of the show’s perceived realism. However, would this kiss (according to standards of magazines such as Seventeen and Teen Vogue) be considered a perfect kiss?

Rory and Dean did not look deep into each other’s eyes until they knew the moment was right and they were not alone in a romantic setting. They do not finish kissing and then both look at each other and simply smile. According to a lot of media, this was not the picture perfect moment. Instead of kissing Dean back, she says, “thank you,” and runs off to tell her best friend what happened. This scene shows that Dean follows the kissing script, noted in the Kim et al. study, in the sense that he initiates the kiss but it shows teens that every first kiss is different. Everyone’s first kiss will be special simply because it is one’s first kiss. Rory was thrilled to tell her best friend about this special and monumental moment in her life and the excitement she shared was so realistic and genuine. She was clueless as to how to act, according to a first kiss script, afterwards but it made the scene realistic. These aspects of the scene, which may have taken away from the picture perfect moment in teen magazines, actually made the moment more real for the audience. Therefore allowing teens to view imperfect moments as personal perfect ones. By creating such a realistic scene, Gilmore Girls is able to share the message that everyone’s moment will be perfect because it’s a special life experience. 

References-

Lippman, J. R., Ward, L. M., & Seabrook, R. C. (2014). Isn’t it romantic? Differential associations between romantic screen media genres and romantic beliefs. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 3(3), 128-140. doi: 10.1037/ppm0000034 

Kim, J. L., Sorsoli, C. L., Collins, K., Zylbergold, B. A., Schooler, D., & Tolman, D. L. (2007). From sex to sexuality: Exposing the heterosexual script on primetime network television. Journal of Sex Research, 44(2), 145-157. doi: 10.1080/00224490701263660