31 Times Gilmore Girls Had the Best Representation of Female Friendship

1. Rory and Paris Work Out Their Differences

Season 3, Episode 16 “The Big One” & Season 7, Episode 21 “Unto the Breach”

From the moment Rory starts attending Chilton she and Paris become rivals. They have a lot in common: academic intelligence, a desire to write for the school paper, and mostly a childhood dream of attending Harvard. Paris views Rory as competition, just another person standing in the way of her dreams. Over their years at Chilton Rory and Paris have a few friendly moments, but they don’t truly become friends until closer to graduation.

Senior year Paris discovers she didn’t get into Harvard and is destroyed by the news. Despite their recent fighting, Rory is the one she leans on to cope with her disappointment. Rory, to her credit, has always been there for Paris. She comforts her over the Harvard meltdown and has supported her numerous times usually with little change in Paris’ attitude towards her. From this moment on though, they are friends. They both attend Yale and end up as roommates.They go through breakups and classes and even Rory replacing Paris as the editor of the Yale Daily News. And it is Paris who comforts Rory during on their graduation day at Yale, reassuring her that she will have a bright future.

Rory and Paris going from enemies to friends is the show’s strongest representation of female relationships. These characters could’ve been adversaries, fighting for the role of the “smart girl,” but Gilmore Girls is much stronger for not going in that direction. It is nice to see a show with not one, but two, strong, intelligent females who come to respect each other, rather than viewing each other as competition. Their friendship feels earned. Rory and Paris are able to find success through supporting each other. And ladies supporting ladies is what female friendship is all about.

Next: Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life Finally Gets a Trailer

The new series, Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life comes to Netflix on November 25th. We are so excited for the return of our favorite girls and cannot wait to see what new moments these ladies share.