Throughout the television series Gilmore Girls, Lorelai Gilmore proves herself to be a strong independent woman, upholding feminist views, and defying what many might call typical male roles. She often makes jokes about things that proves her belief and understand that the male population tends to dominate. She is a great example of a woman living in this world attempting to remove the stereotypes from her life and live it how she wants, not how others expect or how the world has told her she must. For example, in the GIF shown below, we see Lorelai making a silly joke about Rory, her daughter, going on stage in front of a crowd and jokingly tells her to keep her legs closed because she’s wearing a skirt, like that was the most important thing. This is funny and ironic because both Lorelai and Rory know that that’s not the most important thing. Rory is going on stage to present ideas and her knowledge and Lorelai makes a joke that many might say because she’s a girl.

Our textbook, A First Look at Communication Theory, brings us a theory called Muted Group Theory. Muted Group theory is one that looks at the construction of our language we use today and the ways in which it is literally “man-made”. Muted Group theory sets out to explain how “women’s words are discounted in our society…the masculine control of communication places them at a tremendous disadvantage.” (457) These things make women what the authors of Muted Group Theory would call a muted group. Muted group theory believes that because our language was constructed by men, there are holes in language for women. Making women’s language private, as well not have the same ability to name as men do. Because our language is based off of naming, this aspect is extremely important. With all of this, women are also subject to gatekeepers. Gatekeepers are “editors and other arbiters of culture who determine which books, essays, poems, plays, film scripts, etc. will appear in the mass media.” (460). All of these things fall within the “feminist dictionary” that muted group theory has said was created to “keep women in their place.” (463) These are things that I’m sure we can all see as present in our everyday lives in one way or another. In the media, these are things that are prevalent especially today.

While the Gilmore Girls example may just seem like a silly GIF, it has meaning behind it that we can find within Muted Group Theory. Because muted group theory discusses how women’s language is altered based on how men created it and the ways in which women have certain expectations through language that men do not, we see that play out in the Gilmore Girls episode. Lorelai is essentially using Rory’s situation where she is defying typical male roles that were established by men, and using language that would be used and expected by women. By telling Rory that she has to keep her legs closed because she is wearing a skirt, she is following the feminist dictionary, and even making a stab at the ways that we are to consider sexual harassment, as discussed in this chapter. With all of this being said, we are able to see through Gilmore Girls the ways that Lorelai is determined to deify the stereotypes and make jokes along the way.

My favorite TV show, Gilmore Girls, always finds a way to remind me of things that relate to the topic at hand. As you know by now, Lorelai Gilmore is witty, funny, and always up to tackle new tasks. In this episode of Gilmore Girls, we see Lorelai discussing with her friend and boyfriend, Luke Danes, the ways she feels about email, which in the time Gilmore Girls was filmed would be a fairly new technology advancement. She tells Luke that emailing gives her the feel of Charles Dickens, and she likes the way an email communicates a message. Luke questions her about favoring email over talking on the phone. She then goes into a funny rant of all the ways email is favorable over talking on the phone because of the things she feels it communicates. With this Lorelai shows how email can be a great medium to send a message, which leads us into the topic we will be discussing today of Media Ecology.

Our textbook A First Look at Communication Theory, presents us with a new theory in chapter twenty-five. This theory is Media Ecology. Media Ecology is a theory that was authored by Marshall McLuhan. Media Ecology is a theory that believes “the medium is the message.” (316) What does McLuhan mean by this? Overall McLuhan is trying to communicate to us through his theory that “media-regardless of content-reshape human experience and exert far more change in our world than the sum total of messages they contain.” (317) In short, how you hear something is more important than what you hear. When considering the idea that the medium is the message, we must understand what McLuhan considers a medium. Media Ecology describes the medium as a “generic term for all human invented technology that extends the range speed or channels of communication.” (317) This could be email, television, the internet, etc. Technology, or the media, plays a large role in McLuhan’s theory of Media Ecology. Overall, media Ecology studies the “different personal and social environments created by the use of different communication technologies.” (317). This leads us to understand how Media Ecology can go hand in hand with the Gilmore Girls example mentioned above.

In the Gilmore Girls episode, Lorelai is relaying to Luke the way she feels the medium, which in this case is email, and how it becomes an essential part of her message. She tells Luke all the ways her email relays a Charles Dickens novel or letter and she believes email makes her message what it is. This idea that Lorelai presents to Luke could potentially be used to explain how McLuhan believes media to be present when sending a message. Lorelai then uses multiple metaphors to say what the email could be saying just because of the fact it was sent through the medium of email. It creates meaning to the message by sending it through that medium. Without the use of the email medium, her message would not relay the things she is saying over the phone and it gives the message meaning that would not be created elsewhere.