Chuck eventually becomes the show’s romantic lead, inciting countless YouTube videos highlighting his adoration of Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester), without ever being held accountable for his actions. And it’s this — allowing Chuck to be both prince and predator — that elevates Gossip Girl’s portrayal of sexual violence to a level a nuance other shows rarely achieve. He wasn’t just a villain capable of perpetrating sexual violence against women; he was also a character capable of making grand romantic gestures, having his heart broken, caring for the adorable dog he adopted, and donating large sums of money to charity. He is often the most sympathetic character on the show, but that doesn’t negate his sexual violence. This is true of real life, too. Every day men, even those celebrated by society and considered to be the “good guys”, are capable of sexual violence, yet this remains something other television shows fail to deeply explore, often opting for narratives in which sexual predators are just sexual predators.

It seems the only reason the pilot episode characterizes Chuck as a sexual predator is because it follows the blueprint of events in the book upon which the show was based. Following the pilot episode, the show deviates from the book series, forming its own narrative. In the television show’s timeline, Chuck is the Bad Boy With Daddy And Mommy Issues Turned Good For Love, not a sexual predator. Aside from Jenny’s discomfort around Chuck for a short period and remarks made by others, the show never examined this juxtaposition of Chuck’s character and actions.

GOSSIP GIRL, Taylor Momsen, Ed Westwick, (Season 1), 2006-. photo: © The CW / Courtesy: Everett Collection ©CW Network/Courtesy Everett Collection

Many times, sexual assault storylines include a revenge fantasy. Shows such as Big Little Lies, Game of Thrones, and The O.C. showed sexual predators being killed at the hands of women who were victims. Meanwhile, Gossip Girl presents a more complicated, more realist examination of sexual violence and its aftershocks (or lack thereof), especially highlighting how sexual violence inflicted by teenage boys raised within a certain socio-economic class is often disregarded in favor of their futures. Being that Chuck’s sexual assaults seem to have been accidentally included, the intention of the show’s creators and writers likely wasn’t to highlight the reality of how often sexual violence occurs against women with the perpetrators rarely facing substantial consequences — but that’s exactly what the show achieved.

It’s also worrisome how many cliché and false conversations about sexual violence continue to happen. Many uninformed conversations about sexual violence continue to be perpetuated today, including defenders of Kavanaugh claiming Dr. Blasey Ford would have reported the crime. The sitting POTUS tweeted that, “if the attack on Dr. Ford was as bad as she says, charges would have been immediately filed with local Law Enforcement Authorities by either her or her loving parents.” Meanwhile, RAINN reports 2 of 3 sexual assaults go unreported, with statistics for attempted sexual assault likely even lower. Another defense made for Kavanaugh is that successful men — the types that graduate from Ivy Leagues, excel in competitive fields, and drive carpool — simply do not attempt to rape girls in high school. Gossip Girl’s depiction of attempted sexual assault dispels these stereotypes, as neither Jenny nor Serena report their experience and Chuck goes on to be a Successful Man. At the same time, the show reinforces rape culture by romanticizing a character who moved through his life, including the sexual assaults he perpetrated, free of consequences, almost supporting the argument that the alleged actions of Kavanaugh’s youth shouldn’t affect his adulthood. Gossip Girl accurately depicted sexual violence, but in doing so, it also promoted a rape culture in which sexual violence is normalized and glossed over, the trauma endured by teenage girls simply inconsequential.

Gossip Girl, of course, is not a perfect barometer for reality nor is it being investigated for the highest court in the land. While it’s still the show that coined the phrase “Nairtini,” it also told a story of about how privilege and money often protect men from being held accountable for their sexual misconduct. Both in Gossip Girl and in life, a select group of teenagers not yet old enough to legally imbibe the martinis they drink get away with criminal behavior in their youths, only to become the decision-makers of the world in their adulthoods.

Related: The FBI Ended Its Brett Kavanaugh Investigation Without Interviewing Dr. Ford

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