Peggy Carouthers explores how Gilmore Girls helped her understand her relationship with her stepfather, Russ. Not all father figures are biological—which the show acknowledged again and again, giving Carouthers a language for what her own relationship meant, and a way to honor the grief of its loss.
Growing up, none of the depictions of stepparents I saw matched my experience with my stepfather. Most shows and movies with stepparents portrayed them as villains, like Cinderella or The Parent Trap. A few movies showed a loving stepparent, such as The Santa Clause, but the stepparent is treated as competition for the absent biological parent. My biological father wasn’t a hero, and my stepfather wasn’t replacing him; Russ was my father. And though there were a couple movies with stepfathers and stepsons who came together, like Man of the House, or stepmothers and stepdaughters, like Stepmom, I never saw any media with positive stepfather-stepdaughter relationships.
More picks from Electric Lit
Eurovision Reminds Me of a Country That No Longer Exists
“Europe’s pop music Olympics makes me nostalgic for my motherland before war splintered it.”
I Can Never Own My Perfect Home
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Working Black Friday in the Rich Part of Town
“To be a service worker is to be in constant deference to Karens, but in retail, a Karen can be anyone.”
How Literary Translation Can Shift the Tides of Power
“I am just one parent. What if more parents read translated books with their children?”
We Need to Translate More Armenian Literature
“We need them to assert our very existence.”
