New Girl’s objectification of women- How far is too far?

Fox TV’s comedy show New Girl has captivated audiences since it’s witty pilot episode premiered in the fall of 2011. There are multiple Buzzfeed lists praising the show (such as ’18 Life Lessons We Learned From Watching New Girl, or ‘21 Times Nick Miller Was Literally You’), gifs taken from the show are abounding, and personally; it’s one of my favorite things to watch. How could it not be? The plot is equally hysterical as it is earnest. The writers’ portrayal of Jessica Day’s relationship with her three (sometimes four) male roommates is sweet and at times, charming. The character’s struggles remind the viewer that it’s okay to not always have your life together. It’s a good show. That being said, there is some issues with the way women are viewed on New Girl.

One of New Girl’s main characters, CeCe, is continually sexualized and objectified throughout the show. In true New Girl fashion, most of the time this is done in a comedic (as funny as the objectification of women can be) way, and you as the viewer find yourself laughing along as another character tells a woman  “I’m really gonna need you to step it up tonight, okay? When I see you, I wanna be thinking, ‘Who let the dirty slut out of the slut house?’” But when did it become okay to call a woman a slut for dressing a certain way? And even worse, when did it become funny (hint: the answer to both is that it didn't)? In Cultural Studies: Theory and Practice, feminism is described as “asserting that sex is a fundamental and irreducible axis of social organization which, to date, has subordinated women to men.” This subordination of women can be found in multiple episodes of New Girl in the way the male characters talk about and treat women. Although it is done in a covert and laughable way, it is unfortunately still there.

            In an even worse episode, main character Schmidt (a womanizing goofball who has been CeCe’s love interest throughout the show) learns that CeCe is considering receiving a breast reduction. Schmidt actually goes through the five stages of grieving for CeCe’s breasts, and in the end of the episode bursts into her doctor’s consultation and demands to say goodbye to them. After much debate, CeCe finally agrees. However, before she agreed, CeCe told Schmidt more than once “no”. But New Girl teaches us that no does not in fact mean no; and in the end, Schmidt gets what he wants- a conversation with CeCe’s breats. Not CeCe herself, but her body.  He forces her to put on a pair of headphones so that he could only talk to the body.

As NPR writer Linda Holmes states, “It goes without saying that in real life, an ex-boyfriend feeling entitled to complain, let alone obsessing and whining, about this [the breast reduction] would be deeply creepy and very wrong and would throw up every red flag in the book.” But because it is done strategically and creatively, we laugh. It doesn’t raise any red flags as we watch, because it’s done in a lighthearted manner. Lighthearted or not, this type of behavior on TV is not okay. It’s not acceptable to teach audiences that this type of sexualization and belittling of women is an appropriate way to act. Writer Heather Price-Wright phrased her dissatisfaction with the show’s writing perfectly when she said, “In [2015], we should be able to do better than this.” She’s right, we should.