The last few decades of television have been heavily focused on the high school experience, from Gossip Girl and its reboot, to Euphoria and Riverdale. The high school scene has been overly romanticized and sexualized, with grown adults playing mere 15-year-olds.
These examples of media are not only inaccurate and un-relatable depictions of ‘coming of age,’ but also problematic in the narratives they push.
Mindy Kaling’s new comedy, The Sex Lives of College Girls, however, reaches uncharted slopes. It tackles a new domain, following the lives of four suitemates at a prestigious, and fictitious, Vermont university: Essex College.
Each of the four leads toys with a more typical high school stereotype: Leighton, the rich and preppy blonde from New York, struggles with being a closeted lesbian; Kimberely, a valedictorian from her Arizona high school grapples with the loss of her scholarship and the financial hardships of university; Whitney, daughter of a senator, fights to free herself from her mother’s shadow whilst trying to hide the affair she is having with her soccer coach; and Bela, an aspiring comedian trying to hide from her strict Indian parents that she is not actually studying neurology.
In addition to inverting stereotypes, The Sex Lives of College Girls is transformative in its relatability and intimacy. The actors are much closer to the age of their characters (aside from Pauline Chalamet – the sister of Timothée), and their accounts of sexuality are not glamorised. Sex is portrayed as gritty, honest, and, at many points, quite funny. It explores the different kinds of sexual relationships one may encounter at college: ranging from one-night stands to “sneaky links” and serious relationships. More importantly, it explores the good and the ugly of each type.
But the show interrogates more than just sex. Its feminist tone eats at the myriad of problems college women might face: sexism (from teachers, fellow students, mentors, and institutions), sexual assault and how one deals with the aftermath, classism, racism, and much more.
And yet, the show maintains a light-hearted tone – tackling these issues with earnestness, while not depressing its viewers.
Despite its US setting, UK watchers will find the show equally relatable and enjoyable. The small Essex campus makes for a very applicable comparison to St. Andrews culture. And while their going-out scene is centered around frat parties rather than 601-bops, even the drinking culture speaks to a universal first-year of uni experience.
And at its core, it is the camaraderie between the suitemates, rather than the sex, that reveals the essence of the show. It eats at the most important realisation in coming of age: the value and power of female friendships.