Why Jess II

These posts are starting to just become an excuse for me to use nice pictures of Jess up. Anyway, this one is less about how Jess and Rory would fit into what the show sets out to say, and more about their relationship (albeit flawed) itself. 

1) Jess was the only one out of the three that treated Rory like an equal and not as property. I don't think I even need to mention how possessive Dean was, his constant aggression towards Tristan and Jess were testament to that, but Logan too, when Jess showed up in S6, his body language was immediately incredibly possessive of Rory and his uncalled for aggression towards  Jess reveals his need to drive him away from Rory as soon as possible, lest she run away with him the first chance she got. This lack of faith and quite frankly, misogynistic level of possessiveness is something that Jess never displays. When he finds out that Rory was on friendly terms with Dean again, he just asks her politely to tell him so that he doesn't have to find out from local gossips. 

2) Jess is the only love interest who was truly respectful of Rory. In the same incident mentioned above, Rory however, full of apologies and "nevers" and "promises", lingering habits from her relationship with Dean where she seemed to constantly have to prove herself as trustworthy and apologise to him for her friendships and actions. Even when Rory wrongfully accuses Jess of getting into a fight with Dean, he's incredibly accepting of her apology, no anger or passive aggression. Even with Logan she seems to always be treading on ice, when they first start dating she's incredibly upset at his inability to commit and later on, when he does commit,  he never seems to be mindful of what she wants, never modifies his plans or actions to make her more comfortable and he does all of this under the pretence of getting her to "take risks" and "get out of her comfort zone". In S6 episode 8 where she confronts him about having been rude to Jess, he doesn't bother to apologise he just mocks her, him and proceeds to take offence to a statement that may or may not have been about him and shout at her in front of an entire restaurant. The incident reeks of the time that Dean did something similar at the Dance Marathon. Public humiliation is uncalled for and a sign of aggression, a need to assert power. 

3) It is Jess who has Rory's best interests as a person and not just as his girlfriend at heart. Dean is constantly threatened by Rory's ambition. In Season 2, Rory prioritises planning for Harvard over a date with Dean and he gets incredibly aggressive and insecure. Then again in Season 3, closer to Rory's graduation, after her lunch with Harvard Alumni, Dean begins to get passive aggressive about the attention she was giving him and began giving her ultimatums about their future. He'd always been insecure about the status of their relationship when she went off to Harvard, and while that's a valid concern, he expected her to prioritise that over her ambition which shows how shortsighted he truly was. When Rory dropped out of Yale, Logan was apprehensive about the situation but accepted it pretty quickly, even throwing a party to celebrate her arrest for the yacht incident. While I understand that taking a year off college can be extremely valuable, Logan wasn't able to grasp that firstly, it wasn't something Rory would normally do. Since he was unable to catch on to that, he was unable to deal with the fact that she was afraid ( due to comments made by his family). Furthermore, the year off college aside, he seemed to see nothing wrong with her chosen lifestyle of D.A.R. meetings and cocktail parties that so closely mimicked that of her grandmother. This is disturbing because we know he comes from a family who would rather that Rory not work if she were to marry Logan. I find it shocking A 21st century boy from a good school and with seemingly progressive views saw nothing wrong with the fact that his girlfriend's life was starting to mimic that of her grandmother, who grew up in an era where women were offered far less choices and opportunities than they were in Rory's era. Its easy to draw parallels between this and Dean's constantly expressing that he wanted a Donna Reed-esque wife. Ugh. Either way, there were only two people who knew Rory well enough to catch onto the fact that there was something wrong with the way she was living her life: Lorelai and Jess. Its telling that Jess was the only other person who knew Rory as well as her mother, a clear indication of his genuine concern for her. Going back to Yale wasn't going to help his relationship with her, infact it could push them further apart. However, it was the best thing for Rory and so Jess never failed to express this. 

As a conclusion, here's an interesting article on why Jess shouldn't be team Rory (something I bet a lot of people haven't considered): http://www.mtv.com/news/2927430/team-jess-team-rory-gilmore-girls/

Why Jess

Gilmore Girls is a show that I only recently got into, and by got into I mean became unhealthily adsorbed and obsessed with. Its been a while since I watched an American TV show, and one belonging to the eternally ambiguous "drama/comedy" genre at that, that handled interpersonal relationships in such an endearing and thoroughly realistic way. Its also a show that deals with society and money with themes like feminism and family running deep.
Right in the first episode, there's a clear binary created between the "haves" and the "have-nots", the world of Rory's grandparents and that of stars hollow. Two completely separate societal spheres between which Rory is the bridge. The whole show is about how she shuffles not-effortlessly between these two worlds, trying to retain the salt of the earth, grounded outlook her small-town upbringing has inculcated in her while also  trying to inculcate in herself the ideals of the high-culture world of her grandparents and the privileged, idealistic world of academia.
Most of the show has her involved in this eternal tug of war between these two worlds, and at key moments we come to realise that neither of these worlds exist at all, suddenly Lorelai and her mother no longer represent sections of society but become completely and totally human. It is in these incredibly human moments, where the stark similarity between Lorelai and her mother is exposed, that its clear that these two worlds need not exist as a binary, in fact, they need not exist at all. The distinction being made between Lorelai's world and that of her mother's is what creates the rift between them. A rift that is seen to inch to a close when either one dares to cross the border and revel in the other side, as with Emily at her "bachelorette party".
Rory's love interests too, reflect her misplaced need to conform to one of these two worlds both of which are so vital to her identity. Dean quite clearly represents Lorelai's world. The world of working class America. Dean keeps his head down, he doesn't see the bigger picture and he hasn't the inclination or wherewithall to do so either. Logan on the other hand thinks he does see the bigger picture. The privileged exposure that he's been given by virtue of his parent's societal standing gives him a worldly, cultured air about him. But he too has an air of cynicism and rebellion that stems from his rich-kid sense of naivety. Both of these belong strictly to one of the two worlds, and in choosing either of them, Rory would be choosing between these worlds, defeating the purpose of the show altogether, which is to humanize the people in these worlds and make one realise that the distinctions are entirely material and totally disregardable.
The only love interest of Rory's that doesn't ask her to choose between these worlds is Jess. Jess comes from a modest background but his perspective, insight and ability to think broadly allow him to access the world of literature, a world often attributed to the higher classes. He, much like Rory is able to shuffle between the two worlds but on his own terms. He reads Proust and Dante but on his breaks from his job at Walmart. He's the only character that seems to have figured out that these two worlds need not necessarily be disparate and distinct. He knows that while there are material and economic distinctions, nothing else really separates them except will and there's nothing wrong with wanting both. Yale doesn't sound as alien on his tongue as it does on Dean's and he can relate to Rory's upbringing and her mother's world without the condescension that Logan often displays. He's not asking Rory to choose between these two worlds because he himself is an outsider to both, and yet, is able to access both.
So honestly, come November 25th, if the decision isn't in Jess's favour, I won't say I would be totally disappointed, I quite liked Logan. However, my faith in the show's ability to address things like inequality, privilege, and society will have taken a total nosedive.