Let's Talk About Ginny & Georgia

The record-breaking Netflix Original show, Ginny and Georgia, dropped on the platform in late February of 2021. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but Netflix Originals have been on a steep decline these past few years. Of course, there are some exceptions, like Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, The Umbrella Academy, and Atypical, but even shows that started off good have been getting worse with each season.

Netflix bombarded us with new content during the pandemic, and since we had nothing better to do, we ate it up. Do you remember the Tiger King/Outer Banks/Love is Blind era? None of those shows were good (Outer Banks hive, argue with a wall), so you can imagine my surprise that I actually enjoyed Ginny and Georgia. It’s one of the best shows we’ve gotten since the pandemic and arguably one of the greatest Netflix Original series ever.

Although Ginny and Georgia received an overall positive audience response, there were also those who found issues with the series. Right around the show's release, Swifties (Taylor Swift stans) rallied on Twitter trying to convince people to boycott Ginny and Georgia because of a sexist joke made on the show. During an argument with her mother, Ginny says, “what do you care, you go through men faster than Taylor Swift.” The comment was a jab at Georgia’s frequent romantic partner changes. Personally, I didn’t think it was that big of a deal considering the context, but it did release during international women's month so maybe the timing wasn't the best. In response to the joke, Taylor tweeted, “Hey Ginny & Georgia, 2010 called and it wants its lazy, deeply sexist joke back. How about we stop degrading hard working women by defining this horse shit as FuNnY. Also, @netflix after Miss Americana this outfit doesn’t look cute on you 💔 Happy Women’s History Month I guess.”

The Taylor Swift sexism scandal wasn't the only drama to arise out of this series. In the eighth episode, “Check One, Check Other”, an essay contest sparks friction between Ginny and her then-boyfriend, Hunter. I don’t want to give away too much, but one argument led to another, eventually resulting in what Twitter calls the 'Oppression Olympics'. In this edition, Ginny and Hunter debated about who really had it worse, Black women or Taiwanese men. Once you get past the cringiness of it all (due to the predominantly white writers), both sides actually raised some solid arguments. Though every person of colour has stereotypes attached to them, they are not all weighted the same. “Asians get to be stereotyped as talented geniuses and prodigies ok? Black women are stupid, lazy, angry.” I think this line alone is the exact reason POC solidarity will never exist and I think this show did a good job of reigniting that conversation. Hunter’s rebuttal to this was that because he was a man, he was expected to go to war and if he relinquished his Taiwanese citizenship, he would be shamed for being a draft dodger. After rewatching this scene way too many times, I realized that Hunter’s point had less to do with racial oppression and more to do with the gender roles within the Taiwanese community. So, even though Ginny may have had a more solid argument, there are no winners in the oppression Olympics, only losers.

Another important topic Ginny and Georgia didn’t shy away from is mental health. All throughout the show, the majority of the characters brought up how they benefit from therapy. Especially Abby, whose parents are both therapists. Even Marcus, who fills the 'bad boy' trope, shared that seeing a therapist had helped him deal with his grief. Really the only character against therapy is Georgia (unsurprisingly). As someone who sees a psychiatrist regularly, it was refreshing to watch a show that shines a positive light on asking for help when you need it.

Finally, I wanted to close with a few of my Ginny and Georgia hot takes:

• Hunter was a terrible boyfriend

• Joe deserves better

• Everything Marcus said about Max is true

• Georgia is an excellent villain

• Ginny isn’t that terrible