During the pandemic I binged “Girlfriends” on Netflix and it changed the way I saw myself as a Black woman. At the turn of the century, Joan ( Tracee Ellis Ross ), Lynn ( Persia White ), Toni ( Jill Marie Jones) and Maya (Golden Brooks) entered the TV landscape and pioneered what it meant to be a Black woman going into the new millenia. The show aired on Sept. 11, 2000 on UPN and with its rebirth on Netflix a new generation gets reintroduced to these characters and their intimate lives on screen.
Joan is the mother bear of the group, Lynn is the free spirited bohemian girlfriend, Toni is the super girly but super self centered girlfriend and Maya is the sassy girlfriend. It goes without saying that “Girlfriends” held a space on television that people were not used to at the time, but desperately needed to see.
There were sitcoms about the lives of Black people such as “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” and “Martin, but nothing that focused solely on the lives of Black women that showed complexity and brought our humanity to the forefront.
In an era where there was an oversaturation of sitcoms that centered around white characters, “Girlfriends” was this show that gave space to see Black women’s relationships, not only with men, but with each other.
Joan, Lynn, Toni and Maya showed that Black women can be perfectly imperfect. Through the lens of these characters we got to see that Black women can be put together, messy, sexual, spiritual and everything else in between.
Paradigms like the “mammy” figure, which is depicted as an asexual Black woman with a grandmotherly figure or the “jezebel” which is an oversexualized Black woman are depictions that Black women have been subjugated to. In “Girlfriends” Black women’s full humanity was displayed and that was a radical act given those paradigms.
The show was ahead of its time when it came to the themes that were discussed that people still have discourse about to this day. Topics like classism, colorism, interracial relationships and what it means to be Black were topics that were not off limits. Even though it sometimes has been dubbed the Black version of “Sex and the City,” this show holds a space that is unique all on its own.
It’s uniqueness came not just because it centered on the lives of four Black women but because friendship and sisterhood were the anchor of the show. Between breakups, makeups, marriages and divorce these women were there for each other. It was also refreshing to see a show about Black women that was not always centered around racial trauma. “Girlfriends” was a celebration of Black womanhood that we need more of today.
This show has been so pivotal for my adulthood. “Girlfriends”have given me an outlook on how to handle difficult conversations and my own relationships in life. Lessons learned from this show will stay with me for years to come.