This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Jefferson chapter.
Shows that ~raised me~ that probably shouldn’t have
I thought about what shows I used to watch and realized they probably affected how I see the world in very drastic ways, so I asked my friends to do the same just to make sure I wasn’t crazy.
- Degrassi
- I will stand by this for the rest of my life that Degrassi is probably one of the best shows to ever exist. The fact that it started in 1973 and is still relevant today? Dope. The entire point of the show is to showcase just about every issue a high schooler can have in everyday life which definitely allowed me to see things from a different perspective but…there is also SO much happening all the time in that show. Watching it at 13 years old? Questionable for sure.
- Criminal Minds/CSI/crime shows in general
- If you watched any of these shows before you turned 10 you are not alone but you are absolutely a weirdo now because of it. No 10-year-old should know that much about murder and yet I feel like most of the early gen-z-ers of today probably do.
- Sex and the City
- This show is built on unhealthy relationships and yet for so long we looked to it as the pinnacle of love. Why did our moms let us sit and learn about sex from an outdated (and in my opinion, very often sexist) point of view before we turned 13? No clue, but it happened, and here we are.
- Skins
- Skins was the epitome of teenage angst. It was totally unnecessary for the already depressed, mentally unstable, body-shaming person that I was to watch a show about all these things happing to other people just in another country. And yet I LIVED for this show, hot people with my problems? Score! Did it help my own teenage angst? No. Am I still here slightly damaged but all around, ok? Yes.
- The Nanny
- I identified with so many parts of it, but it also ingrained a lot of Jewish stereotypes for me as a Jewish woman, so it definitely did the same for people who weren’t Jewish which has its detrimental factors.
- How I met your mother
- Once again, a lot of sex for someone who was way to young. Also, the misogyny that is ingrained within the writing of that show as humor affected how I see myself as a woman in some not-so-great ways.