College Girls’ Sex Lives picks up just as our four favorite Essex College suitemates return from Thanksgiving break for another season of collegiate fun, heartbreak, and final exams — sometimes all within the span of 15 minutes.
The first four episodes of College Girls’ Sex Lives that were provided to critics, we’re thrust back into action with our goal-oriented and determined freshwomen: Kimberly (Pauline Chalamet), Bela (Amrit Kaur), Whitney (Alyah Chanelle Scott), and Leighton (Reneé Rapp). This winter, the women are determined to conquer Essex in each of their respective ways.
Kimberly struggles with losing her academic scholarship, and Whitney weighs her money-making options. Whitney is dealing with the complicated relationship with her casual hookup that turned into something more, and the beginning of an identity crisis after her chaotic soccer season. On the opposite side of the suite, roommates Leighton and Bela experience no shortage of a busy schedule as Bela’s all-female comedy magazine faces its first ever public launch and Leighton grapples with her identity as an openly queer socialite approaching her sorority’s rush week. Although it may appear that the first four episodes were packed, the pace feels like college life.
The first season TSLOCGMindy Kaling, Justin Noble and Justin Noble co-created the book. It established these foursome as fully fleshed out characters. I must thank all the writers for making their growing bond a major part of the A story, rather than shuffle it to the B and C stories in favor of romances. Very average men. Don’t get me wrong; their titular sex lives — from hook-ups and slow burns to a shirtless frat boy strip tease — are far from lacking in season 2, and thank goodness for that. These romps fall by the wayside to the budding and possibly more interesting relationships between these four girls, who have absolutely nothing in common except a shared space.
As they all stumble through classes, extracurriculars and medical procedures, they keep each other company, helping to ease the transition from high-school to independent adulthood. College Girls’ Sex LivesIt is deliberately lighthearted and realistic in its portrayal of diverse relationships between women. This is a worthy intention considering the controversial and limited representations of female identity throughout television history. (I love) Sex and the City GirlfriendsIt’s also something we all know!
It is worth noting that the show does make reference to modern feminist ideas through its direction and writing. A major visual theme in the series is the reversal of the male gaze, whether that be through the girls’ navigation of hook-up culture, responses to the differing — and sometimes problematic — forms of male sexual prowess, or even Magic MikeA series of dry-humping, muscular pageantry.
Characters often reinforce patriarchal beliefs or habits when they are trying to defeat an institution as powerful as the patriarchy. The series has the potential to use better feminist ideologies, but it is being used as the show’s “buzzword”. It breaks down the fourth wall rather than displaying an understanding of its ethics.
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For example, Bela quits comedy magazine The Catullan — a wink at The Harvard LampoonThis historic building is filled with white cis men. Kaling’s coworkers are among them. The Office — and launches a female-led rival, yet she’s guilty of diminishing other women when she jokes that women aren’t funny. Leighton also contributes to harmful hook-up culture by failing to update her sexual partners on her latest STI diagnosis. Instead, she chooses to ghost and gazlight as bad as any man.
These characters are however SupposedThey are complex, imperfect and self-absorbed. The beauty in this show is that the girls aren’t scolded or antagonized for making mistakes as they mature in a male-dominated society; it shouldn’t be their job to deconstruct the systems that hurt them, and they’re still doing a pretty damn good job for a couple of freshmen. They learn from their mistakes and pick up the pieces for next time. Sometimes we fail tests we’ve studied for for 48 hours straight and make a beeline to the nearest frat party for a night of excitement and mistakes we (hopefully) won’t remember in the morning. In this comedy-drama second season’s first half, the writers capture the chaos and uniqueness of undergraduate life.
Here’s the season 2 crash course. Kimberly is still as foolish as a baby. Whitney should probably remain single. Her love life is giving her whiplash. Leighton will soon be entering her fuckboy age, and I hope she leaves. Bela is not yet comfortable in her own clothes, or any clothes at all. The girls should pray for character development as they watch the final episodes of this season. This will help to alleviate their difficult situations and professors. It looks like there’s no stopping the momentum anytime soon for our college pals.
