XOXO, Your Panopticon

The CW TV show Gossip Girl has become a great presence in the lives of adolescents from the time it hit TV sets in September 2007.  The malevolent blogger aptly known as Gossip Girl keeps track of the exploits of the lives of the “Upper East Siders” of New York City. These teenagers whom Gossip Girl blogs about, always seem to get themselves into some sort of trouble, and Gossip Girl always seems to be watching. Throughout each of the shows, Gossip Girl voiceovers, narrating the missteps of the characters, as they break the rules. 

Foucault wrote about similar societies, disciplinary societies, specifically the Panopticon scheme. What the hell is a Panopticon you may ask? Some dystopian torture device? The answer is, “The panopticon refers directly to the design of prisons… where the structure of the building is roughly circular with a large guard tower placed in the center. Inmates are rendered invisible from one another, cinder block walls separate their cells which face outwards, they also cannot see into the tower itself. However, the guard tower… can see and monitor every inmate, defining their existence within the prison. With the emergence of the Information Age, the panopticon image has shifted from the physical to discursive. The watcher… does not have to be physically present in order to be felt and define the behavior of others” (Hudson).

Of the many “gossip girl blasts” that have occurred throughout the six seasons of the show, there are a few that stick out. The first few minutes of the pilot episode shows Serena, the beautiful vixen-like supposed 16 year old played by Blake Lively, at Grand Central Station. She has just returned from a mysterious hiatus from NYC, and Gossip Girl is drooling on her keyboard to find out the reason why. “Everyone knows Serena. And everyone is talking.” (“Pilot”). In the first two minutes of the show, Serena has been established as a reckless and mysterious character, someone with a shady past. But what is also established is the fact that everyone, and not just gossip girl is involved in the surveillance of Serena.

via tumbler.com 

A few episodes down the line in, “A Thin Line Between Chuck and Nate” (Henderson), Serena is caught buying a pregnancy test. Gossip girl has her little “guards” with their camera phones all over the city, and one in particular caught Serena in the act. Of course Serena was only buying the test for her best friend Blair Waldorf, whom had recently shacked up with two different boys, one her boyfriend, and the other her boyfriend’s best friend! Every indiscretion minor or otherwise is carefully recorded and blasted for the world to see.

According to Foucault, one is never living outside of a disciplinary society, that is especially true for the characters of Gossip Girl, “The Individual never ceases passing from one closed environment to another, each having its own laws: first the family; then the school; then the barracks” (Deluze 89). These characters move around in their world however they are always being watched and being molded by either society or their own power structures.

One specific power structure that is constantly seen throughout the show is that of Blair Waldorf, “Queen Bee”, and her army of pretty girls. This is nothing new, the pretty mean girls coming together to bully the other unfortunates. This is just another way for order to be kept. Queen Bee’s army is especially known for their ability to spread and create gossip whether that be with them at the center or watching smarmily from the sidelines.

Via tumbler.com

Gossip Girl is the epitome of the digital panopticon. In this case of the TV show, the surveillance is done to make sure that the characters stay within their respective stereotypes and class. Therefore prisoners and in this case teenagers stay in line and/or do not care whether or not they get caught by the guards or the elusive blogger. In order for any society to function there are stereotypes in place- the mean girls, the slutty ones, and the poor kids. Stereotypes are typical in high school, but they are especially integrated into the high schools shown in Gossip Girl. “Although constructed iconographically similarly to the way stereotypes are constructed… social types can be used in a much more open and flexible way than can stereotypes” (Dyer 210). Blair is the stereotypical mean girl complete with her very own army, throughout the series she is seen as the sometimes villain and sometimes the victim, making her almost defy her own role within the plot. Serena is characterized as the slut from the very first episode. Granted she did sleep with Blair’s boyfriend, but is publically shamed for it by Gossip Girl and her peers.

Via tumbler.com

And then there is the Humphreys- the poor kids who have one foot in the Upper East Side, and the other in Brooklyn. Dan is attempting to solidify that foothold it seems by dating the beautiful (albeit according to some slutty) Serena who valiantly sees past his bank account. All of these stereotypes become necessary to the plot of the show. Dan is the outsider, which is something that is not taken as a good thing to those already firmly placed within the “in crowd”. To those in the Upper East Side he is “Dan Humphrey from Brooklyn”. In order for their society to continue they [those of the rich and entitled personas] must differentiate themselves from him, or else their social order will break down and he will integrate. Of course we find out later that Dan Humphrey is no outside but the elusive Gossip Girl herself/himself/itself?! The fact of the matter this makes no sense for the survival of a disciplinary society. Dan cannot be both the disciplined and the disciplinarian. But the writers at CW just like to ruin things- like this great concept that I came up with. I digress.  Dan Humphrey as gossip girl aside, the panopticon is still in place, cementing the Upper East Side and the lives of these ridiculously privileged “insiders”, as a disciplinary society.

Works Cited

“A Thin Line Between Chuck and Nate.” Henderson, Felicia. Gossip Girl. The CW. 09 Jan.         2008. Netflix. Web. 05 Mar. 2016.

Deluze, Gilles. Postscript on Societies of Control. Print.

Dyer, Richard. The Role of Stereotypes. Print.

Hudson, Lauren. "XOXO, Foucault: Gossip Girl and the Digital Panopticon." The Narrator. NY             Writers Coalition, 19 Dec. 2012. Web. 05 Mar. 2016.

“Pilot.” Savage, Stephanie, and Josh Schwartz. Gossip Girl. The CW. 19 Sept. 2007. Netflix.        Web. 05 Mar. 2016.