Ginny & Georgia’s portrayal of biracialism

The wildly popular Netflix series Ginny & Georgia has been in the spotlight for many reasons: with 52 million viewers in the first month to people discussing how the character Ginny is #relatable.

The show about a white family with one biracial daughter with an absent father, though kind of stereotypical in that sense, breaks all kinds of other stereotypes and shows what really goes on in a teenage biracial girl’s head.

To look closer into the Ginny & Georgia series in relation to hybrid identities, multiculturality and stereotypes is interesting, because typically, when we see a biracial couple on television, the differences between the two are highly exaggerated. It is even a stereotype that when a biracial couple or black has kids, a black father is absent.

Netflix’ Ginny and Georgia portray all kinds of exaggerated stereotypes, yet is different in showing the multicultural identity of for in our case Ginny. In this analysis we will look at the first season of Netflix’ Ginny & Georgia.

We will zoom in on the portrayal of the biracial family that consists of daughter Ginny, mother Georgia, and “absent” father Zion. Georgia also has another son Austin, with a later husband, who is white as well. The family can be connected to concepts of hybrid identity, mixing of cultural features, tension between groups in society based on ethnicity, gender and age, cultural appropriation and stereotypes.

Netflix' Ginny & Georgia

Season one of Ginny & Georgia was released in early 2021, and consists of ten episodes. Its core is about the mother-daughter relationship between daughter Ginny and mother Georgia, who are only 15 years apart.

Despite the expectations of a Gilmore Girls kind of series, Ginny & Georgia stunned fans instantly in its trailer: “We’re like the Gilmore girls, but with bigger boobs”. Georgia acts more like her children’s best friend instead of their mother, but is facing more and more issues now that her daughter Ginny is going through puberty.

The show starts out with the family moving to a new place after the death of Austin’s father and Georgia’s wealthy husband. As a new young, multiracial family with a massive inheritance in Wellsbury, they immediately draw attention. The family faces many microaggressions, dreaded questions and racial injustice, based on Ginny’s appearance.

As the show continues, Ginny faces challenge that are typical for puberty: love, sexuality, friendship and mental health. She is portrayed as the biracial kid who is somehow always seen (when her friends are stealing), always asked about her ethnicity, and even looked at when the class discusses racism. What is it like to be the only biracial person in your mysterious family?

On Georgia’s end, it becomes clearer with every episode that she just wants to help her daughter but does not really know how. We also see flashbacks of her youth full of being on the move – escaping even – from her family and boyfriends. She was only 15 and pregnant of Ginny, and does everything for her.

The show even becomes violent. Georgia has a habit of killing or hurting her boyfriends, but in her defense, they were hurting her or her children first. She sees herself in Ginny, experiencing young love, but of course cannot understand her on certain biracial issues. She is almost blinded by her desire to protect, that she does not see what kind of mother her children really need – stability.

Hybrid (cultural) identity

When one analyzes the show in terms of multiculturality, we immediately see that Ginny has a hybrid identity. This identity is created and shifts as it progresses.

Ginny says in the first episode that she is “too white for the black kids and too black for the white kids” when she wants to put on makeup with her white girlfriends and none of them have makeup in the “right shade”. Another example is a Halloween party Ginny attends in a blonde wig.

While going to the bathroom / away to get some fresh air, she looks in the mirror and is disturbed at the fact that she is trying to “be whiter” than she is. Viewers also relate to this, as many biracial people feel like they don’t fit in their races, which makes them feel alone on this level. Enoughness here is a key point.

The question “when is one black or white enough?” is one Ginny deals with on a daily basis, which leads to her mixing both cultures.

As discussed before, the family of three faces a lot of micro-aggressions in Wellsbury. Austin, the nine-year-old brother of Ginny is picked on from the start of his new school. Ginny also has a hard time at school due to her AP English professor telling her in front of the class that it is okay if his class is too hard for her.

In an attempt to be “woke” a girlfriend of Ginny puts her hand close to Ginny’s face and says: “oh wait, or is this like white girls wanting to touch black girl’s hair?”. Having mixed or biracial babies is also glorified in society; Samantha, on of Ginny’s friends, complimented her on looking so “exotic” and that she wants to “marry a black man” so that she can have “adorable little mixed babies”.

Georgia, mother of a biracial child and teen mom, is also faced with every day, subtle yet mostly intentional remarks about Ginny’s absent black father, how she is too young to have a child half her age and that she is, due to her many relationships, including with the mayor of Wellsbury, a gold-digger.

Again, as Ginny & Georgia includes the mixing of cultural features, the border of cultural appropriation is close. A clear example of this is also the Halloween party, attended by Ginny’s friends. Ginny and three girlfriends decide to each dress up as a different Britney Spears, a white singer and actress.

The group decides that because of Ginny’s hair, she should just wear a blonde wig. This would have been problematic if it was the other way around.

Stereotypes

When we think of a biracial family in a lot of series, we see an absent black father and a white, supportive mother. In the case of Ginny & Georgia, this thought is correct. Ginny’s father Zion is absent, but as a twist still sends her gifts, calls her, and later in the season even visits her.

Ginny, as a half white half black girl, is too black for her school. Her AP English teacher thinks she is not capable of completing his course and calls her rap poetry “too unconventional”. Being mixed is also sexualized (Looking kind of white but with black stereotypical features like being curvy and good at twerking) and glorified (Her friend wants an adorable mixed baby).

Another half white half Chinese (boy)friend of Ginny’s even states that when they are arguing over how Hunter does not understand what it means to be half this half that, that she is “causing drama” (Angry/ attitude black woman) and that Ginny’s implying an “oppression Olympics”. This scene received a lot of hate as it implies that some minorities have it worse than others.

What is also toxic and not well thought out by Netflix or the series creators, though, is how while these stereotypes are challenged or defeated, others are overlooked. Ginny acts on her racist teacher, but does not ever correct her friends on subtle comments.

She lets everyone close to her say things like “if you had an ass, you’d be perfect. It’s weird that you don’t”, “you look so pretty with straight hair”, “your bars could use a little work, homie” “you’re causing drama” and “you can’t twerk”, while in the beginning of the season, Ginny went against every racist remark. When other biracial people watch this show, it tells them that friends don’t mean it like that and that they should just let it slide.

Ginny & Georgia deals with many stereotypes and societal problems like racism and sexism. The intentions behind the show are good, as we have seen that the show wants to show the truth behind struggling with one’s cultural identity. The microaggressions portrayed as never stopping, everyday things are relatable to many people with one foot in one culture, one in the other.

The main goal is to defeat the typical stereotypes created by many shows and films, but somehow, in an attempt to be “woke”, Netflix has overlooked many other stereotypes and toxic situations.

The take home message would thus be that Ginny & Georgia has been successful in portraying biracialism, how teenagers whose goal is to find their identity are struggling and that what we see in most other series or films are far from the truth. The creators still have a lot to take into account next time, though.

References:

Curney, J. (2021, April 20). ‘Ginny and Georgia’ and what it means to be biracial. The Michigan Daily. 

Facey, L. (2021, March 7). Netflix’s Ginny & Georgia: An Excellent Show Undermined by its Race Problems. Den of Geek. 

McFarland, M. (2021, April 16). Let’s have a cringey talk about multiracial identity, from “Ginny & Georgia” to Harry and Meghan. Salon. 

The Spectator Web Department. (n.d.). Ginny & Georgia: Netflix Is “Woke.” The Spectator.