Featured Image Credit: Getty
Topics: Gossip Girl, TV
Ilana Frost
Take me back to the Met steps (2008’s version). Those of us who aren’t cringe were Blair girls, and that label is still my defining personality trait to this day. A fashion-forward Upper East Sider nepo baby with a dream to scheme, a few psychological issues, and an undeserved underdog complex… she was simply That Girl through and through. Naturally, I aspired to be her, so I tried on headbands and dabbled in bullying back in the day. That was unsuccessful as the girlies were intent on bullying me. I also romanticized bad boys in the Chuck category for good measure.
I’d like to take a moment to beg you to NOT cancel me, please. As an adult, I’m very aware that Chuck is an infinitely problematic, woman-hating scumbag. But I didn’t give that much thought when I was a tweeny bopper with a Netflix account and a concerning addiction to this show!! Give me some grace — at the end of the day, I’m just a mentally unhinged Scorpio at my core. I know I can’t be alone in this GG truth, so I’m speaking out for all of us: That Chuck and Blair strip tease scene in season 1 episode 7 had a ~lasting impact~ on me.
Okay, I KNOW the male gaze is bad and we hate it, but hear me out. First of all, I used to live for it a little bit ’cause I didn’t know any better. Second of all, there’s something weirdly empowering about understanding the MG, so you can use it to your advantage and make men do what you want. My queen knew her audience and understood exactly what she was doing and why it was working. When she gets on that stage, she flips the power dynamic and makes him fall in love with her in minutes. It’s just… chef’s kiss.
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Like everyone else who’s ever been a teen, I was convinced that I was profoundly Not Like The Other Girls. I was a shy girlie who got good grades, but wanted to shriek from the rooftops: “I’m hilarious. I have stolen a few items. I’m edgier than all of you. I was literally born to be a star.” So, it makes sense that I died when Blair, an uptight goody two-shoes, proved to Chuck that she was actually kind of a ~bad girl~. There’s something so sexy about being seen the way you dream about being seen, leave me alone.
I wanna see hatred. Fury. Disgust. And then a slow burn that ends in poetic witty banter and wildly passionate sex scenes. As someone who relentlessly insulted all of my school crushes, I was deceased when Blair seduced Chuck after supposedly despising him. The built-up tension is just too good!
Call it outdated. Call it offensive. Call it unrealistic. The scene is probably all of those things, but it’s still iconic. If all dramatic fictional television was perfectly moral and appropriate, we would not fucking relate to it or get our weirder feelings and desires validated. I’m also a victim of the Ezra and Aria Pretty Little Liars introductory bar scene. It’s alarmingly wrong, but it is what it is, frankly.