Gilmore Girls: 10 Things About Emily That Have Aged Poorly

Emily Gilmore is certainly one of the best characters in Gilmore Girls. Her wit and sardonic humor, mixed with her haughty demeanor, made her the perfect contrast to Lorelai and Stars Hollow’s fantasia and provided the show with plenty of its most unforgettable moments.

However, for all her strengths as a character, Emily was also deeply flawed, and, looking at her from a 2021 perspective, it becomes clear that she had some very problematic views of the world. From her overall elitist behavior to her disregard for other people’s feelings, Emily would be the show’s most controversial character if it premiered today.

Her Involvement With The DAR

The Daughters of the American Revolution is a lineage-based organization of women direct descendants of people involved with the United States Independence efforts. They promote education and patriotism through several activities. The organization has been the subject of criticism over its perceived exclusion of Black women. It wasn’t until 1977 that they welcomed their first Black member, Karen Batchelor.

The premise of the DAR might seem outdated, but the show openly criticizes it by portraying its members as vapid, rude, and elitist. Emily finally gets tired of it all during the revival, quitting in the now-iconic “bulls**t” scene, showing that she could see through the superficiality of it all at long last.

Her Reckless Spending

Emily and Richard are among the wealthiest characters in Gilmore Girls. They live in a large Connecticut home, employ a large staff, throw lavish parties, and spare no expense in their comfortable lifestyle. However, Emily often overdoes it, going to extremes whenever she wants to prove a point.

When Richard begins to ignore her because he’s spending too much time with Jason, she goes on a shopping spree that even frightens Lorelai and Rory. Later, when Rory leaves her and Richard to go back to Yale, she attempts to time-share a plane. Emily doesn’t know how to deal with her feelings of neglect, but such displays of obscene excess receive several judgmental looks nowadays.

Her Attachment To Archaic Traditions

At times, Gilmore Girls seems to take place in a time of yore, where large puffy dresses are in style, and debutante balls are still a thing. Emily is the show’s most staunch supporter of such traditions, going out of her way to have Rory debut in society to make up for the fact Lorelai never did.

She also organizes a party for Rory to meet “respectable” suitors, going so far as to put a tiara on the girl’s head. Emily also gives one of her worst pieces of advice when she insists Lorelai marry Christopher at 16, something she continues preaching decades later. Emily seems trapped in the past, still holding on to old-fashioned customs and values and refusing to understand that times have changed.

Her Mockery Of Other People’s Weight

Body positivity is more important than ever. People are becoming more respectful of boundaries, recognizing it’s never okay to give unsolicited comments about other persons’ bodies.

However, this wasn’t the norm in the early 2000s, and Gilmore Girls is guilty of several crass comments and jokes at the expense of other people’s weight. Emily makes several, like berating Lorelai after the girl seemingly gains weight and cannot fit in her debutante dress or criticizing Shira Huntzberger’s weight loss struggles.

Her Need To Manipulate People

Gilmore Girls makes it clear that Emily is right many times, but she can also get things overwhelmingly wrong. However, she’s unable, or unwilling, to realize her mistakes most of the time. She insists on knowing what’s best for other people, going so far as to manipulate them to make things go her way.

Fans remember how she went to Christopher to try and ruin Lorelai’s relationship with Luke. She also throws Rory a large party in season 1 and invites people from Chilton whom Rory doesn’t even like. Emily can’t stand when others disobey her, and such behavior is currently out of fashion.

Her (Initial) Treatment Of Luke

Luke and Emily have a tense relationship throughout the entire show. She openly looks down on him and wastes no time in letting her feelings show. When Luke first visits her home for dinner, she passive-aggressively insults him, demeans his diner, and makes snarky comments about his habits.

She later realizes Lorelai won’t leave him and instead tries to change him into a more “suitable” son-in-law, pushing him to franchise Luke’s. Ironically, and as Gilmore Girls fans know, Luke is quite wealthy, so Emily’s treatment of him becomes all the more ridiculous. Still, even if he hadn’t any money, Emily should treat him with respect.

Her Narrow-Mindedness

As previously mentioned, Emily is very stubborn and refuses to back down. At one point, she claims she re-does the beds every morning because none of her maids know how to do it properly. Emily refuses to meet Lorelai halfway and spends years without having any meaningful relationship with her daughter or granddaughter because she refuses to understand their lifestyle.

Emily’s intentions aren’t malicious, but as the series progresses, it becomes clear that many of Emily’s problems would disappear if she opened her mind to new ideas. She finally does so in the revival and begins a new chapter in her life. However, her behavior throughout the original series earns several eye-rolls from today’s audiences.

Her Overall View Of The World

Emily has a strong and nearly unmovable outlook on the world. In her eyes, some people are better than others, and that’s the way things are. She holds classist views on people, placing value on others because of their wealth or status and looking down on those who have less.

She constantly tells Rory she has to meet the right kind of people. She expresses disapproval of Dean and Jess and is elated when meeting Logan, to the point she refuses to see any sort of fault in him. As previously mentioned, she thinks less of Luke and constantly refers to the inhabitants of Stars Hollow as “carnys” or “misfits.”

Her Contentious Relationship With Lorelai

The tense and openly antagonistic dynamic between Emily and Lorelai is one of the pillars upon which Gilmore Girls stands. The tragedy is that they are unable to understand each other despite being so similar. In fact, Lorelai is a lot more like Emily than she realizes, which is why she openly contradicts and defies her most of the time.

Despite Lorelai’s wrongs, Emily is no saint either. She takes every opportunity to criticize Lorelai; at times, she even reminds her how much of a disappointment she is, whether by reproaching her for not going to college or making snide comments about her lifestyle. No parent is perfect, but Emily’s particular brand of tough love, which involves criticizing everything her daughter does or says, is very toxic.

Her Treatment Towards Her Maids

One of Gilmore Girls’ many recurring jokes is the number of maids Emily has. She has a new one in each episode, and the other characters point it out and treat it like a source of endearing entertainment. Emily herself treats the women more like objects in her house than actual human beings. During one particularly infamous moment, Emily fires one of the maids because a bored Rory helped clean the silver while chatting with her.

The revival tries to put a positive spin on this particularly controversial plot point but only succeeds in making things worse. Indeed, the character of Berta received scathing reviews from critics and audiences, who considered her a very racist portrayal of domestic workers.

About The Author

David Caballero
(798 Articles Published)

David is a twenty-eight-year-old Mexican writer and reader. Having studied Marketing in school, he spent three years working a nine-to-five desk job before deciding to pursue a writing career. He now works as a Senior Writer in ScreenRant and does some more freelancing job, talking about the entertainment business he so loves. Currently, he’s also writing his second novel while actively working to get his first one published.

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