Is Gossip Girl Dangerous? Yes
I didn't want to write this about the CW show Gossip Girl, but I feel I have to before it's too late.
As it stands now, Gossip Girl is spreading throughout the United States a disjunctive, distorted, ultimately dangerous, view of what buys what in New York City right now, and the show's doing so mostly through its depiction of real estate. Like Friends in the 1990's and Sex and the City earlier this decade, Gossip Girl is giving the impression to Suzy in Nebraska and Mandy in Alabama (and Clay from Texas) that real estate in New York is as affordable as anywhere and that poor in New York means living in a $2 million Williamsburg loft.
In last Wednesday's episode, the impossibly WASP-y grandmother of Serena—who lives with her mom in the Palace Hotel, where rooms now go for $620 a night at the cheapest, well above the record high Manhattan average—doesn't want Serena going to the debutante ball with Dan, because Dan lives in Williamsburg with his dad, a fading rock musician turned artist, and his kid sister, a wannabe socialite (think Paris Hilton, not Talulah Bankhead). To Serena's grandmother, Dan from Williamsburg is working-class chum, good for feeding upon but not for taking around the Upper East Side.
That's just one example, albeit a glaring one, of Gossip Girl spreading the gospel to the unsuspecting of a New York City where affordability and leisure are easy to come by.
We must dash these notions quickly, lest a fresh wave of flyover country folk flock to neighborhoods like Williamsburg (just like they did in the 1990's) to waste some of the choicest years of their life coming to grips with the reality that $1,000 in this city is like $100 elsewhere.
The facts are this (and please listen up and tell a friend back home): Dan's father's loft—it looks to be at least 3,000 square feet—probably sells for about $600 a square foot now. That's going by the general rule of thumb that Brooklyn condos (and we'll assume it's a condo as no co-op board, even in Brooklyn, would likely let in a rock musician-turned-artist who keeps odd hours) sell for half of what they would in most of Manhattan; and in most of Manhattan, condos sell for over $1,200 a square foot on average, according to research firm Radar Logic.
Now, of course, Gossip Girl is just a TV show and not that spectacular a one at that. (On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being The Sopranos and 1 being Two and a Half Men, I'd give Gossip Girl a 4.) But what makes it truly dangerous is that it falls snugly into line along a continuum of pop cultural messaging devoid of anything but a single one-trick pony: Do not adjust your sets—everybody everywhere in this wonderful country is doing fabulously well! Especially in the fabulously big cities! Buy! Buy! Buy!
The television networks long ago did away with most vestiges of working-class reality in their prime-time programming (Roseanne may have been the last such hit sitcom, and it went off the air in 1997), opting instead for an endless litany of shows about thirty-something women coming to terms with things, thirty-something men simply coming, and, oh yes, reality shows and shows made to unfold like reality shows.
This mass mental marketing of easily attained affluence as the New Normal wouldn't be that big a deal if some people didn't take it seriously. But they do; and we're in danger as a city because of it. As the late Neil Postman wrote in Amusing Ourselves to Death, "There is no more disturbing consequence of the electronic and graphic revolution than this: that the world as given to us through television seems natural, not bizarre."
In other words, sure, to you and your friends, Gossip Girl seems silly and trite and stupid in places. You get the joke. Others may not. They're banking on that $2 million loft and they'll take the mortgage to get it.
So, when the average L train stop starts looking like the opening scenes of Heathers, don't say we didn't warn you. And to those of you who're going to move to this city after absorbing the mental marketing of Gossip Girl, please, when you wash out about five years from now—six, tops—don't move in next-door and play your TV loud. We don't want to hear it.
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I think that was a snobbish and completely ignorant response to a television show (remember fictional entertainment for the masses?) Gives the impression that whomever wrote it (aka Mr. Acitelli) is too old to be watching Gossip Girls anyway...
Mr. Acitelli, as with most New Yorkers you have lost touch with reality. I think more girls would move to New York to be like Sex in the City than gossip girl. Also, do you think the OC was really how Orange County is? Go worry was something real....
You are ignorant if you are calling middle America "flyover country folk"... Has it ever occured to you that New York became the great city that it is because noone is actually from New York but there are people from every walk of life here? Did it ever occur to you to venture outside of NY and look around before you start calling people names and judging the rest of America -- they watch the same shows, read the same magazines and shop at the same stores. It is ignorant, unaccepting people who think there is only one way of life like you that are the reason we are in a war today. And not to mention you are writing an article about how upset Gossip Girl makes you?? Go get real problems to worry about.
I'm glad others are taking Mr. Acitelli to task for this narrow-minded and silly article. If you really think that shows like Gossip Girl are the thing highjacking the minds of youth, I agree with the others above who say perhaps you should take a little step outside of Manhatten, where there is, (gasp) art, fashion, controversy, expensive real estate, forward-thinking, etc. Give me a break. I'm sure you're not from New York, and if you are, you're probably no different than the silly characters on the show. If kids think they can pay $600 for a loft, let them move to NYC and try. It's called exposure, it's called moving outside your comfort zone. How snobbish you sound, you should maybe stay in NYC, people in Chicago would laugh at you, and we'd never invite you to our HUGE apartments which cost $400 a year, where we serve Old Style and pigs in a blanket. Hee Haw...you moron.
on same note, Gossip Girl had Blair's bday party episode in some $5 million manhattan loft, entire floor w its own elevator, looked like it was a hundred feet long etc etc -- supposed to be friend of friend's early 20 something brother...whose 20something brother in mnhttn has a pad like that??? another unrealistic display for tweens good for little girls to watch and dream (supposedly that loft really belongs to the internet guy sam hamadeh from the vault.com)
I think the funniest thing that you did not mention is the fact that all the shots of "Williamsburg" are actually in DUMBO, but I guess that was not hip enough of an area for the GP writers.
Once upon a time, when I was a wee little cowpoke, I lived in a gigantic new South city that was flush with oil money and big ten gallon hats. The boots were new, the hair was sprayed, the Cadillacs big, and the Dooney and Burke purses carried by the social girls at my fancy prep school were cavernous. At least until a certain Tuesday in 1987, when a whole lot of things changed in my gigantic new South city. But not that many - cotillion went on as planned. The debs bowed low and touched their noses to the floor. And the prom was held at a ranch. A *private* ranch.
On more than one occasion over the course of this particular childhood I was questioned closely about the similarity between life in my gigantic new South city and the life portrayed on a certain evening television soap opera named after another, differently named gigantic new South city flush with oil money. By which I mean, of course, "Dallas."
Television is fantasy. Complaining that it doesn't look anything like real life is batting down a straw man of the most flimsy order. Real life is tedious, fraught with pressures and worry, bad clothes, bills, and leg stubble. Television provides an escape. If Mr. Acitelli finds this arrangement untenable, I propose that he address his complaints to the tedium of everyday life, and not the escapist drivel with which we all medicate ourselves.
Anonymous1 posted the following at 6:48 p.m:
"...New York became the great city that it is because noone is actually from New York..."
Uh, ok...
I was born in Manhattan and most of my friends were as well. My family goes back three generations here. I guess all of the children I grew up with and went to school with don't count? I'll never understand why some transplants to this city insist that they outnumber the natives.
In fact, if you check the Department of City Planning's stats you will see that out of 8 million or so in this city, about half of us are from NYC originally. About 40% of the city consists of foreign born people and less than 10%, or about 700,000 people in this city are from flyover states, California, Florida or wherever else.
I guess it makes sense if you consider that most transplants hang out with other transplants in a select few neighborhoods, the Lower East Side, Williamsburg, etc.
My advice to you anonymous is to get out and explore the city a bit more. Get to know some actual New Yorkers. You'll be surprised how many of us there are. Good luck!
Looks like someone has his panties in a twist because he can't afford a spanking new loft.
Seriously, you must be able to find something a little more important to get all riled up about. It's a stupid tv show.
And guess what? Most people in flyover country are smart to understand that tv is fantasy, are not desperate to pack their wagons for the big city, and, frankly, they prefer living in a place where you don't have to share your teeny walls with strangers.
If Suzy from Alabama can afford the down payment and mortgage on a $2mm dollar loft, good for her.
Umm... Gossip Girl is more like an 8 or 9, and if you don't get it, I feel bad for you.
I am amazed at what you've decided to attack about a show that is marketed to a younger generation. You make it sound though as if no one has ever dreamed of moving to New York City until television shows showed them what it was like. That's just ridiculous, oh and where can you find an apartment for $100 a month that's actually worth living in? Cause where I live in middle America sir, the prices are more around $1000 a month for a decent apartment. How about you actually travel and talk to real Americans before you open your snobby mouth.
Doesn't everyone in America, not to mention the world know that New York is one of the most expensive places to live on earth? I bet poor, ignorant Suzy from Nebraska and Mandy in Alabama are educated enough to know that particular fact.
Such a snob New Yorker thing to say, that anything outside Manhattan, never mind the five boroughs, might as well be labeled "here be dragons."
Neil Postman and Amusing Ourselves to Death:
That trite book needs to stop being cited. "There is no more disturbing consequence of the electronic and graphic revolution than this: that the world as given to us through television seems natural, not bizarre." Sure, I thought this was true. And then I turned 12.
Gossip Girl:
I agree with one of the other posters that Tom Acitelli probably doesn't belong to the demographic Gossip Girl is aiming for. I love the show and think it is escapist fun. The music is good, the girls wear cute clothes and the boys are nice to look at.
If I follow Tom Acitelli's logic, I sit and watch the show fantasizing about how cheap a loft like the one the Humphreys live in because I live outside of New York. Of course, I don't do that, because I've been shown a picture of the Easter Bunny and Barack Obama and asked which one is fantasy and which one is reality. Maybe Tom Acitelli needs to have the same lesson when it comes to his perceptions of the outside world.
Pretty contrived article. Especially considering just 20 years ago you couldn't pay people to live in new york.
Also, fun fact: George Steinbrenner is from Cleveland.
Dan's dad has probably lived in the building for 20 years from when it was an abandoned shell and is now covered under the loft laws, and paying only $600/mo. Although, I am paying market rent, there are (2) 3,000sf spaces in my building in wbg. where that very situation exists.
You Moran foool. I bet you are from the midwest. I am a native newyorker and I found your article to be completly arroogannt. You foool.
You Moran foool. I bet you are from the midwest. I am a native newyorker and I found your article to be completly arroogannt. You foool.
Just another example of how The Observer continues to be the worst in all media. Perhaps Mr. Acitelli should write an article about how the New York Observer is dangerous to people who actually want respectable media, instead of worrying about how "dangerous" fictional television shows are
Yes, because people in "flyover country" have no access to media or any real ability to form opinions that aren't based on television shows. That's so tedious and ignorant. The rest of the country is entirely capable of getting the joke, and right now the joke is you.
I currently live in “flyover country,” as Mr. Acitelli so judgmentally puts it.
Yes, our real estate is significantly cheaper (and salaries less too), but that doesn’t make us rubes. Really, mister, TV is NOT an accurate portrait of life in New York City? You don’t say! And just when I was planning to pack of the truck and move to Beverly to get me one of them cement ponds ...
New York real estate prices are legendary, as are stories of “stupid” New Yorkers paying way (WAY!) too much for homes in other parts of the country. Sticker shock—and failure to self-educate beyond what you see on the talking picture box—works both ways.
-Susan
This author seems to believe that Gossip Girl is really just a plot by the subprime debt market that is just itching to entice ignorant, naive "country folk" to move to New York and plunk down egregious sums for a tiny piece of real estate.
If you want to criticize television, or a particular show for distorting reality, how about the whole motion picture/television industry, which is made up of super attractive people? I think constantly being assaulted by unattainable images are far more damaging than delusional real estate value.
I'm so glad someone finally understands me!
So why is it dangerous again? Because it undervalues NYC property or something? Great. I remember this was a problem when Friends and Sex and the City were airing new episodes. All these bright-eyed bushy tailed midwesterners coming live in Manhattan lofts, then getting assraped by crackheads.
The article on Gossip Girl misses the point - the real estate stuff is fluff. What is disturbing is the way the show perpetuated the false myth in this country that things are egalitarian. That the debutante's mother realizes that the Willliamsburg father and son are fine for her daughter. What a lie. We're becoming more and more a society divided by income AND REAL ESTATE. Including Williamsburg.
Ummmm! I generally watch TV for entertainment. To be perfectly honest, I'm not really interested in watching a 'real life' episode of someone living in NYC - it would be particularly boring. Could you imagine a TV show based on the life of anyone living a real life? Yawn. Television is designed to entertain...to deliver a great STORY. Go Gossip Girl and all TV that provides me an escape after a long, unglamorous day. xx oo
First of all I want to start by saying how incredibly condescending and insulting it is of you, to assume that us non-new yorkers are ignorant or stupid enough to move to NYC without informing ourselves about the cost of living because of a TV show that obviously exaggerates the truth for dramatic purposes. I guess you failed to notice that, since you take it's ridiculousness so seriously. The show is a guilty pleasure, nothing more, and maybe you should stop taking it so seriously and stop worrying about what other people do with their lives or not. If someone wants to move to New York because he/she wants to believe a TV show is reality, I don't think it's the shows fault to begin with. I'd blame the person's stupidity/lack of common sense instead.
So to call a TV show dangerous is extremely ridiculous, but if you want to call it that, at least give an intelligent reason to it. And please stop assuming that the rest of the world is as ignorant as you are. Thank you.
"I'll never understand why some transplants to this city insist that they outnumber the natives."
* * *
Simple -- because they only hang around with the transplants who, like them, they consider the "right" people...living in the proper neighborhoods, educated at elite private universities, working in the fashionable occupations. In contrast, a higher percentage of the natives live in neighborhodds not deemed all that chic (imagine "Gossip Girl" taking place in Astoria or Bay Ridge!), attended CUNY, SUNY or other non-elite colleges that don't have swank midtown alumni clubs where networking connections are made, and have jobs in professions that are never turned into subjects for TV series.
Someone needs to pay more attention to the show.
At what point did they ever imply that the Humphry's are paying $600 a month for their loft? The guy is a ROCK STAR! Don't you think he has money? Did the author of this article miss the part of last week's episode where Jenny's mom was going to buy her those shoes from the department store? Just because they are "anti-establishment" doesn't mean they are poor. Just because the UES think they are poor, doesn't mean they are poor. WE KNOW they are not poor because they send two kids to private school in Manhattan. They apparently have two houses (the mom was living in one of them before she came back). Jenny is able to buy all the fabric and thread she could ever need in order to make knock-off clothing.
Some of us (including those who don't live in NYC) actually have a lot of money and choose NOT to spend it on stupid things. Real estate is a good investment, especially in Williamsburg (or DUMBO) so it's not like they are frivolous with it. The reason Rufus can live off of his rock star money is because he doesn't squander it. Those paintings probably go for thousands. Some of us don't like to waste away our earnings on name-brand stuff because the off-brand stuff is made by the same Chinese kids. You are paying for a label.
I moved to NYC after I graduated college. I had a place in Staten Island for $900 a month (util incl.) that was big enough, 3 bedrooms and a view of lower Manhattan. When I moved back to Arizona I couldn't find anything comparable for $900/m so I bought a loft and pay $1450 a month in mortgage. From what I can tell, I've got a place that's just as cool as the Humphry's but I paid significantly less for it, don't have to shovel snow, and can go watch baseball without getting into a fight with some drunk idiot.
I'm glad I left NYC. Best decision I ever made. Maybe you're glad I'm not there because you didn't want me. Either way...this article is trash and the author can move to AZ and teach our kids (worst educational system in the country, you'll fit right in) english when he gets fired.
I think it's important that we realize that the Observer is really a paper devoted to this city.
As a resident, the author does have a veritable point. It's a stretch, but when people actually ask you if your life really is "Gossip Girl", I think it's time to worry.
Probably my favorite thing about New Yorkers is that thier opinion of themselves is so high they assume that everyone else is dying to move there and become one, and yet... New York's population hasn't changed that drastically...