Dawson's Creek

For my last blog, I have decided to analyze and discuss an old favorite of mine, Dawson’s Creek. Dawson’s Creek was one of the first television series that I, and many others of my age watched that was made for teens about teens. It follows the lives of five teenagers through their High School trials and tribulations further in to their first years of college. The show shows a combination of a varying female representations, as well as many examples of times when the characters problems were taken seriously as larger issues, and seen as petty problems.

There is a continuous virgin/whore dichotomy between Joey Potter, the girl-next-door character who seems to be as innocent as they come, and Jen Lindley, the big city slut who immediately moves into town and “steals” Joey’s true love, Dawson, away from her. (Mayne). What is interesting about this dichotomy in regards to sexuality, is the fact that while Joey follows these “good girl,” virgin notions, she moves from boyfriend to boyfriend throughout the show without much concern for the feelings of anyone else. Jen also becomes a “good girl” once she moves into town. Although Jen was sent to live with her grandmother in Capeside, Massachusetts, for being an out of control teenager interested only in sex, drugs, and alcohol, once she moves to Capeside, she, for the most part, changes her ways, and the “wild Jen” of her past no longer exists except for in memory. Although Jen has changed her ways, she does still attempt to enjoy sex with no strings attached, but in the end there is no chemistry between her and Pacey Witter, another main character of the show, and nothing comes of it. Overall, Jen is an example of how not only adolescent female sexuality exists, but she is an example of how the idea that all a female is is sex, or a sexual object to be used by a man, can be changed, and she rewrites her sexual representation by her own choice. (Brown).

As far as the title character Dawson Leery goes, he is constantly portrayed as “the eternal optimist.” For the majority of his life, until all of his beliefs are questioned because of a broken heart, Dawson explains life through different Steven Spielberg films, which according to a majority of the people in Dawson’s life, is a naïve way of looking at life. Through his heartbreak, he begins to change, and he evolves into a character that is known to be “wise beyond his years.” Before he changes, Dawson is a good example of adolescent problems can be seen as petty and unimportant. In the beginning, he was a white, middle-class, only child of two loving parents that were still married, who was also heterosexual. The only problems his life consisted of were a break-up with his first girlfriend, or an average grade on a test. As the show continued he experienced his first real heartbreak, his parents divorce, and his mother moving to another city, later, his parents remarrying, a life or death choice for an older gentleman being left in his hands, the birth of his younger sister who is 18 years younger than him, and his father’s death. Through all of these real issues, he evolved into a respected character that begins to care about others more than any petty teenage problems that others may be dealing with. (Brown). Overall, I believe that Dawson’s Creek shows adolescents as both children with lesser problems, and no sexual inclinations, as well as it shows adolescents as growing into adults with real problems and sexual desires.

Brown, Adriane. Self Representation. 2 December 2009.
Mayne, Judith. “Women, Representation, and Culture.” In Reading Women’s Lives.