Gossip Girl Cares About Women In Politics

Last night, on Gossip Girl, Dan was waiting wistfully for Serena to appear, and passed the time by reading… Rebecca Traister’s Big Girls Don’t Cry: The Election That Changed Everything For American Women. Huh?

The fact that the camera lingered for so long and so close on the cover, making sure to show Dan’s earnest and thoughtful expression as he considered cross-generational tension in the women’s movement, means this was surely no accident. (Was that an eyeroll as he put it away?) But why? Was it supposed to be Serena’s book, given that he was in her room, or was Dan’s? Either scenario is entirely out of character. So which stealth feminist got it on the air?

We checked in with Traister, who does in fact know someone on the show but doesn’t really know how or why her book came to be so prominent. She raised the possibility that it was Blair’s book. “It was definitely an episode about Blair’s fascination with powerful women although it did seem from the shot that it was possible that it was Serena’s,” she told us. Also, let’s not forget that CW official literature indicates that Serena reads Jezebel. She contains multitudes.

Speaking of Traister, it so happens I will be moderating a discussion with her about women in politics next Monday, January 31, 7:30pm at Red 58, 158 W 58th St in New York, hosted by DL21C. Come say hi if you’re in the area.

Big Girls Don’t Cry
Earlier: What Exactly Did The Presidential Election Change For Women?