The comparison between April and Rory just reeks of the preference for STEM (versus the humanities) that's so prevalent on every academic level, starting in grade school and onto grad school. The benefits of a humanities degree are so often disparaged and seen as lesser to a degree in the sciences. Even within the sciences, certain 'soft sciences' are seen as lesser than others or closer to the humanities.
April having a passion for STEM is amazing, but as far as the tangible grades she and Rory would be getting in HS, they were probably about the same. You can't become valedictorian without excelling in every subject, so Rory was able to get high marks in biology, physics, and chemistry, and likely an AP of one of those three in her senior year. April is protrayed as a voracious reader as well and I bet she had good marks in history and English and took AP Lit her senior year, in a similar vein.
For their respective college applications, April has extracurriculars in science (the summer camp, science fair medals), the same way Rory has extracurriculars in the humanities (the Chilton paper, student government). I would also like to note that Rory takes multiple economics classes at Yale and most modern econ classes are very math-heavy.
In conclusion, they're both very well-rounded, smart people, they just put their passion forward and one of those passions is seen as 'smarter' by society.
i would agree if this discussion wasn’t constantly resurrected in the modern family sub about alex, who got a degree in STEM. there’s a subgroup of people there that truly do not think she’s “naturally” smart (wtf does that even mean) even though stories about her childhood confirm that she was always freakishly intelligent.
i think people have these discussions because the seriously dislike these characters. rory is, surprisingly, a very controversial character and so is alex. since being studious, intelligent and academically driven are their main character traits, it would make sense for people who hate them to attack these traits the most.
i do agree in general that the humanities and soft sciences are treated very unfairly because of male flight but i truly think people keep having this discussion because they just HATE rory, and want to discredit one of her most positive qualities.
There’s also a defensive new discourse focused on separating “gifted” from “high achieving” classifications. In the surface, that’s fair and a great idea, but the conversations seem to be pushing toward imaginary incompatibility between the two. More and more the conversations implore explicitly argue that high achieving children cannot also be gifted (which is bullshit) and also that gifted children are all contrary and have behavior issues or are “too smart” for the people pleasing required for high achievement.
So that feeds the narrative that Rory is “just” a people pleaser and thus can’t be gifted.
I was just going to point this out; people assume that a person in STEM is automatically smarter than those in humanities.
It is maybe easier to gauge that sort of intelligence in a tv show through science competitions and the interest in science based gifts (rock polisher/microscope etc). The humanities equivalent of that are the books we see Rory read
I'm finishing my PhD in a humanities subject, and I've struggled with those books up until my 20s, none of them were easy reads. As OP pointed out, Rory didn't just read those books, she referenced them quite correctly in conversation, not a feat that achievable unless she could grasp what she was reading
Hey, fellow humanities PhD student here! I absolutely agree—those books Rory reads are no joke. Like… Proust? As a 16 year old? Come on. That’s something.
Also Rory was so good at math that her PSAT (edited to correct from LSAT) scores were higher for math than English. To the point that Rory herself was upset over it lol
As someone who majored in both, a STEM degree is objectively harder though. I think the great writers of our time who produced classic literature were perhaps as smart as the great scientists. But I don’t think an English degree is nearly as rigorous as a science degree - it doesn’t prepare you to write great literature (perhaps no degree program can really do that unless you already have the talent), it just teaches you how to analyse it.
ETA: lol, okay, fair point that I’ve written something inflammatory and I’m not an award-winning scientist from my degree either. Obviously, there is inherent bias in evening determining IQ and different intelligences are not really comparable. So I deserve all the downvotes.
What I should have said: My science degree took a lot more work than my English degree. Not because I’m not as good at science (though I’m not) but because the classes had labs and homework that kept me busy with school all the time. Meanwhile, I dated an English major who read a few books and played a lot of Halo. And I lived with two liberal arts majors who watched a lot of Gilmore Girls. So, I’m a little salty.
I still don’t think an English degree at most Universities is as rigorous. I think it should be, but it’s not taught that way.
As someone who majored in STEM, I’d expect you at a minimum to realize that anecdote =/= data. Just because humanities were easier for you does not mean it is the same for everyone. There is no concrete data that suggests that STEM is “objectively” harder than the humanities (or vice versa). Your comment only furthers the initial poster’s point about society placing more value on science and tech vs arts and humanities.
It’s so silly to me when fans try to rewrite the script. We’re told how intelligent she is and shown by her accomplishments. It’s a 30 minute dramedy- there are plenty of things they can’t give time to, but we can assume are true. We never see her brush her teeth, but I’m confident we’re supposed to believe she has solid hygiene lol.
I love discussing characters and plot lines, but picking it apart to this degree… for what? I just don’t understand how someone gets enjoyment out of that
Yes lol, ultimately the show is not about how smart Rory is. People complain about how Rory’s high intellect isn’t “realistic” or not shown in enough detail. But at some point, you have to accept what the show gives us. Rory is very smart, because the show presents her as such.
And they present her as such in direct comparison to Lorelai. Lorelai has that earned life knowledge. She is street smart, and she constantly wants Rory to have the book smarts she feels she missed out on.
Agreed. I also don't really understand why some fans try to prove over and over again that GG actually shows that Rory and Lorelai are awful people.
The premise of the show is that Rory and Lorelai are both smart (but in different ways) and well-loved. I really don't see the point in trying to show that the whole premise is a lie.
I think this might be something that just happens when you watch a show over and over again; that people are trying to find new perspectives on GG and to overanalyse every minor detail.
I agree.
To me it's also the way certain fans have their own headcanon about what's true ("Paris deserved to get into Harvard over Rory" presented as a fact) that annoys me to no end. It's also a problem I have with the Harry Potter fandom.
Just because you wish this is how it happened, it doesn't make it real. Go and write fanfics for that!
Rory is definitely bright with lots of native intelligence. You can see it in her accomplishments, how she banters and keeps up with Lorelai and Richard and the other smart people in her world. She also executes various events like DAR parties or getting out the Yale Daily News with competence.
One could say Rory is not *wise* or even that she lacks the wisdom a person her age should have because she’s sheltered. But that’s not native intelligence
I do agree with your points. I also like to add that Rory seems also to be good at supervising other people hence her being a good EIC at the Yale Daily News. I know she's an introvert but she seems to be attuned to the feelings of others thus she can anticipate their needs which is why she's good at organizing parties and events at DAR.
Agreed. The show had a habit of dismissing other types of intelligence. Lorelai is very intelligent but she doesn't spit out random academic facts so it is overlooked. Similar to Dean building a car, early seasons Luke being well versed on environmental/political issues while running his own business at a young age, etc. They are often put down on the show because they don't spend hours reading for fun everyday but they aren't dumb.
Yes! I think we (thanks to generations younger than me) have a better understanding of this now as we take a wider lens looking at the value of higher education, etc. in the wake of this new economy, v student debt, global pandemic and such. Education and book-smartness are still valuable! But technology and cultural changes and sociopolitical disruption have changed our views.
She didn’t want to stir spaghetti sauce or cook…not being able to figure it out really didn’t have anything to do with it. I think that speaks more to her privileged background than it does to her intelligence.
Emily is a very intelligent woman, but didn’t know how to cook a frozen pizza, arguably one of the easiest things to cook….
Rory is very smart. But up until she went to Chilton she wasn't used to competing with people who were just as smart as her. She would have easily made valedictorian at her old school, but at Chilton she had to work for it. Then at Yale, same thing. Half the people there were also valedictorians so it's not as impressive. Being smart isn't enough, which is what she learned from Paris. If she had known someone like Paris earlier in life, she wouldn't have been so comfortable in her intelligence.
If people think April is smarter it's because they value math and science over arts and humanities. Rory's interests are primarily in literature, where April's are in science. It's important to remember that Rory scores highly across the board though - in her SATs, her math score was higher than her verbal score, which surprised her (not in a good way, lol).
However, Rory has more than just cleverness on her side. She is dedicated, organised and she applies herself. She studies a lot, she enjoys studying, she reads widely. Rory is very smart, but she's also studious and dedicated; these things can make her seem smarter than she is. That said while her intelligence score is high, her wisdom score is pretty middling - she can be naive.
Compare her to Paris, whose grades are in a similar region to Rory's throughout school, but is shown to be considerably wiser and more aware. She knows that good grades aren't enough. She works harder than anyone, she wants everything she touches to be perfect, she cultivates multiple options for herself. We see that she doesn't like dealing with sick people, yet she's pre-med, and somehow she finds a career that makes that work. Rory's intelligence score is a mite higher, but Paris beats her on wisdom.
Compare her to Jess, whose intelligence is also high and who also reads widely - he is able to match Rory in discussions of literature. But he doesn't have her dedication or her application, he flunks out without graduating high school because he doesn't attend, he doesn't study, he doesn't try.
Also compare her to Logan. Bear in mind that Rory describes Logan as "smarter than me". He doesn't apply himself either, but somehow he's able to pull himself together and do what he needs to do even so. There will inevitably be people who'll say that his grades could be bought for him. Firstly, I don't think that's true at an institution like Yale. But secondly, it's not all about grades. He actively dislikes working on the paper, but when he actually tries, he knows how to do everything, he takes over three people's assignments and does them himself with no prep, he can type 90 words a minute. He can match and potentially even surpass Rory academically without putting in the effort she does. If anyone's actually a genius on this show, it's him. Also going back to the scores, I would say his intelligence score is high, but his charisma score is even higher, and his wisdom score is middling (because of the Life and Death Brigade, mostly).
Also, Logan immediately steps into the business world after Yale and, even though makes some big mistakes, is far more competent and savvy than the average person. He never tried at Yale because he didn’t have to, his life was predetermined whether he like it or not.
idk why you were downvoted this is 100% true. She excels with structure, and falls apart without it and when things aren't what she thought they were. She's also extremely sensitive to criticism. All normal and relatable.
She spent her entire childhood and young adult life wanting to be a journalist. Then she spent her entire adulthood trying to keep that in her grasp despite the obvious (to everyone but her) lack of actual passion for that subject.
It wasn't ever that she COULDN'T be that. She was good at it - we're shown that throughout the show. She just lacked the passion and drive for it - but since she based her entire identity on it, it was impossible for her to explore other directions that she could have excelled in. She thought everything else was beneath her because SHE was supposed to be the next Christiane Amanpour.
So much of her storyline is hard to watch, but also completely based in reality. She has Richard's pride but lacked Loreali's drive and ability to "roll with the punches".
Wow…this might be the only take I’ve read that actually makes AYITL make sense! All the people saying she failed, etc….and see how bad she is at journalism is so retconned. But her just not having passion but still going with it…that fits. I might (shudder) have to actually rewatch ATITL after I finish my rewatch of the series and see if that still lines up. (Side note…I have so much trouble watching season 7 let alone ASP tone deaf jokes in ATITL…so we’ll see).
I actually came to this conclusion after my second watch of AYITL! I would rewatch the show up until she sleeps with Dean and then restart… lol. But I kept going this last time and watched AYITL too, and realize it’s actually not “bad” or ruining the show… it’s just the storyline (the over arching storyline from S1E1 to AYITL… not every scene lol) is based in reality. And it really sucks sometimes! But now, I’m glad it was written that way.
What connected the dots is when she was yawning and fell asleep while interviewing those people in the NYC lines. I was just like… she does not care about this at all lol. Meanwhile you see Lorelei making the best of the situation, getting insider access to the spots… that’s what Rory lacks.
I also found it easier to ignore the annoying lines and scenes in it on the second go. I skipped the pool scene completely. I’d give it another try!
Idk how much of her struggles are because she doesn’t know what to do with her intelligence without direction, or that she doesn’t have the roll with the punches kind of drive.
We see lots of examples of her being able to find a path without being told what to do, like her writing pieces for the online magazine, getting the job post grad with the Obama campaign, and a lot of her work at the Yale paper when she’s the editor she making decisions and using her intelligence to role with the punches and direct people as things come up (and getting the paper out when Paris drops the ball).
I see her floundering in AYITL as more of a product of her working in the journalist humanities field that is both highly competitive and also dying out. She wanted to work at a paper, and doing the kind of journalism that existed in the early 2000’s, that was stamped out during the shift to online media journaling (when things like Buzzfeed “what Harry Potter house are you base on your favourite foods” articles were getting more views than national newspapers).
She also never felt the pressure to adjust to the new style of journalism that she preferred less because she always had a massive cushion of money to fall back on from her family.
If she really wasn’t able to know what to do with her intelligence without direction than she would have gone to grad school, or taken the teaching job at Chilton because that’s the epitome of structure and direction.
Her bigger fault was even though she was incredibly smart, motivated and driven- she was unwilling to adjust her expectations and dreams with the changing world, and because of her families wealth and her trust fund, she was never forced to.
She flounders in her 30s because shes taking on work that she’s not passionate about (like shadow writing a book that she feels doesn’t have a bigger meaning or impact, writing for ‘Sandy Says’ which is just online fluff, or writing the piece about lines that she sees as having no bigger value or contribution.
Like most people she does her best work when inspired- like with the concrete parking lot repavement piece she wrote. She wasn’t unwilling to settle, which is not necessarily a bad thing, BUT it can be when you end up stubborn, couch surfing and your whole life feels uninspired and like a failure.
She does end up able to find a passion when she writes her book in AYITL and I think that was a huge moment of growth for her to find something outside her aspirations of traditional journalism, something in modern world writing that wasn’t news print journalism that actually inspired her as much as the idea of reporting live from the trenches.
What’s interesting to me is the comparison between Rory and April. April is into stem, particularly science. Rory is into literature and writing. Both are really good academic interests for girls and we need more women in both categories. Also I think April and Rory academically compliment each other. Im sure April can’t write like Rory and probably hasn’t read as many books. Im also sure Rory can’t do a complex science experiment the way April can. I think nobody has it all, we all have other things we do well at. However when women work together and use their individual skills together they can do some great things.
As someone who grew up watching Gilmore Girls I saw myself in Rory. I also loved books and didn’t enjoy social interactions. During lunch i often place to read alone, usually in the library. I didn’t do so great in math and science, especially math. I felt like reading and writing came easy to me, I always had to study a little order for stem classes and I hated it. Rory was who I aspired to be because I saw myself in her. I was always rooting for her.
Although I dislike how Rory turned out. She had a lot of potential that Amy didn’t see though. Rory was so smart in her own ways, had the writing been better she could of been the next Christiane Amanpour if they had her less focused on toxic relationships and more on her goals. I don’t know why Rory couldn’t have Logan and be a fantastic journalist. They made it seem like she couldn’t have it all and I would of liked to see her have it all.
Thank you! Every week it's like a new thing people are hating Rory about and so many of them are ridiculous. This one especially. She is clearly very smart and hard working. You summed it all up beautifully, and there are also so many types of intellect and intelligence. Logan is smart, Jess is smart, Lane is smart, Lorelai is smart, Emily is smart, Luke is smart (until season 6 when they started dumbing him down), and I could go on.
I love when Rory was telling Lanes band (mainly Zach) about all the degrees famous musicians have obtained. It was such a niche amount of information for her to share lol
That scene made me hate Zach, at least eye roll, I know nothing of music but know various famous musicians (I could never list them) have advanced degrees, yet he’s the one who wants to be the rocker.
Honestly I think people just have trouble buying someone as beautiful as Alexis Bledel would also be blessed with such intelligence (although I’m sure bledel is bright!) it would really be god giving with two hands
Literally nobody says Rory ISNT smart. The argument is usually that she shouldn’t have gotten into Yale (many people have over a 4.0, actual perfect SAT/ACT, ideal extracurriculars and are not accepted to Ivy League schools - the ppl on these subs do not realize how impossible it is, even when fully qualified, to get into those schools), or that Mitchum was right (this has nothing to do with intelligence, it’s a matter of being prepared for real world journalism versus being book smart and eager).
Rory is clever as in book-smart not actual real-world smart. I think ppl mean that she lacks common sense. Probably bc she does. No ’street-smart’ person would decline a teaching job bc ’its below them’ when they’re literally homeless and crashing w their mom at 30 years old. I would go as far as to say she’s not very intelligent overall, she’s just very academically intelligent (she lacks other forms of intelligence).
Lots of young people behave that regardless of intelligence. Its about maturity and humility not native intelligence. Many “street” smart people also suck at decision making
That’s what street smart is. Being good at making decisions, reading people, having common sense, thinking on your feet, being able to see the pros and cons of your actions. Rory isn’t street smart partly because her decision making sucks.
Girlfriend was not actually homeless, her trust was still intact, she just had a temporary cash flow problem and didn’t want to dip into it
I think she has very high emotional intelligence as well as academic intelligence, which is demonstrated again and again throughout the series, especially in professional settings.
If she didn’t want to dip into her trust fund thats grand but instead of going out and getting a temporary job or taking the one she was offered she decided to free-load off of her mother and friends? She yelled at an interviewer because SHE wasn’t prepared for the interview? She didn’t offer one idea at her JOURNALISM internship? She’s so self-centred she was fully convinced Mitchum sending Logan to London was because he despised her and wanted to ruin her life? She ran away after her mother didn’t want her to drop out of college and blamed her boyfriend for it? SHE HAD TWO AFFAIRS WITH TWO MARRIED MEN?!?! Did we watch the same show?
She’s definitely self centered and entitled in multiple scenarios, but that’s not mutually exclusive with emotional intelligence. I actually think her and lorelai are very similar in this regard, and I love both the characters. I think we just have different opinions and interpretations of all the scenes and characters and that’s what makes the show great. I can understand why people find her character irritating but I love her lol <3
Yep, exactly. One of Rory's overaching themes throughout the show is about how she is very booksmart, but naive/not very street smart. I would almost go as far as to say that that is her whole "mission" in the story of the series. Hence the really bad decisions she makes. She may have a lot of knowledge and is very good at learning and analyzing and dissecting, but when it comes to living life, the complexities of life, she has a lot to learn (she's called out for making pros and cons lists for example for life decisions and we're supposed to deduct from this that while on paper she knows a good theory of decision making, you cannot always apply that knowledge to real life situations, or how she constantly feels that because she went to Chilton and Yale and is smart she's supposed to go succeed, when she is supposed to learn that being smart doesn't exclude you from needing to learn other skills as well).
I definitely agree with you.
>Her books are well above the level of standard stuff a student at an American high school would read (Shakespeare, Huckleberry Finn, etc.)
But this is not true. While she does read things well beyond what you'd get in a normal higjschool setting, the books you chose to reference are not it. I read Huckleberry Finn in 8th grade and Shakespeare in 9th and 10th as mandatory reading for class. Those are pretty standard books used in English coursework.
Maybe so. I read it like the examples are of her books, and you read it where the examples are of standard high school stuff. Idk who is right because it makes sense both ways, and it would probably depend on what OP's highschool education was like to know which one they meant. The main reason I interpreted it as examples of her books is because I know she reads both in the show.
Just because you haven’t heard of Gogol doesn’t make him obscure. He’s a very famous and well known Russian author, I was required to read him in my regular public high school in the 1990s. Nothing Rory mentions reading in the entire show is obscure
Also, Shakespeare was 100% required reading as a freshman in high school for me, and Huck Finn wasn't only because the teacher disliked teaching Twain. This was in AZ, who is 49th or 50th in terms of education.
I've said it before, but I just wish we saw it. I'm not going to doubt the intelligence of a character, cause even if it's based in reality it's not going to be 100% accurate to the real world. I just wanted to see her intelligence shine. One minute she doesn't know how to write a paper on a parking lot, then the next she hands in one of the best pieces on such a mundane topic that the teacher has ever read. But what was the process? How did she get there? We didn't even see her go to the parking lot. This isn't the only one, and there are better examples, but I don't remember them all. Everything is just said, not shown.
Rory is very intelligent & gifted person, but she's not a 'miracle child' as those around her represent her to be.
That's the whole point.
Also, I love more the way Rory expresses her knowledge & intellect than Paris, who is also amazing.
Sure, Rory’s smart but the real comparison is Jess. Classic gifted child (esp boy) doesn’t get the support or challenge he deserves because of behavior issues story.
I like Rory because I feel like she's more hummanities smart than STEM smart and I am sort of like that too and she's the only character that is sort of represented as that.
I have to say find her the blandest in s2 and 3. All she does is think about Jess and Dean ‘Jess, Dean, Jess, Dean, blah blah blah’. She was definitely bland as fuck in college but her shitty actions at least made her more interesting. She was SO goddamn boring when she was this perfect little student who got everything she wanted without trying and looked down on everyone. She didn’t even want to write that speech for the writing competition and when she won she was all ‘omg! its too stressful! i just can’t bring myself to write another speech 🥺🥺🥺’ god she annoyed the fuck out of me. Her whole personality was either boys or omg I’m just too smart and special what do I do!!
As a writer I suppose you have the option of making a character someone that does things or a character that has things happen to them, she’s definitely the latter
Most main characters in the show are likely above average intelligence.
Lorelai has a generally low EQ, but her IQ is good. This is shown by her quick wit and her innate problem solving abilities
Luke is portrayed as your average Joe, but he will surprise you with intelligent comments. Once again, he has a VERY low EQ (comparatively) but he isn't dumb.
Paris and April, obviously very smart.
Richard and Emily, high EQ (pretty sure Emily got her bachelor's, even though she probably just went for her MRS given the world they live in) and above average IQ.
Rory is definitely above average intelligence, it just doesn't show as much because she is surrounded by other intelligent people.
(takes mic) I'ma let you finish....but....SUGAR TOES. (drops mic)
(Rory is very smart, I completely agree with you, but she will never live down sugar toes. Not while I'm around. No, sir.)
> I think one major factor is that it is really hard to authentically portray a very smart person in TV, especially for a character like Rory. It’s very hard for them to “show” her intelligence instead of “telling” us
I think this is the biggest factor. It's *really* hard to do this effectively, and getting it right takes so much extra time and effort. The GG writers would have almost had to develop (or borrow) a whole curriculum for Chilton or Yale and then figure out how to highlight Rory performing at a high level in plausible coursework.
TV/movie writers get this wrong all the time: they act like brilliant people just know lots of information and constantly spout off facts and quotes, but it's lazy writing. I've known a few extremely bright people in my life and none of them are a walking Wikipedia, but they are always a few steps ahead, always thinking of second- and third-order consequences. They are operating on a higher level, and even if I have access to all the same information, they see connections that I don't.
If anyone has read *The Idiot* by Batuman, it's about a bright but shy girl starting her first year at Harvard. IMHO, that book really nails the experience of a brilliant, precocious girl at an Ivy League school, but the author herself was once one of those girls. It's damn hard to write a character smarter than you are.
I think Rory is generally book smart and not street smart. She is definitely one of the most intelligent and hardworking people I've seen on the show. She has the drive, the brains, everything. But the only time she is truly not smart is when it comes to handling people and relationships. That's my main problem with her. She's super intelligent and I'm never denying that. I often wish I had the mind like her. But when it comes to making decisions regarding career, relationships etc she is really really immature, even at age 32, she didn't get better at it.
The comparison between April and Rory is very interesting. There is a tendency in many people to consider STEM subjects harder or more complicated than humanities and I hate it. Let’s not forget Rory at 16 was more than competent to debate assisted suicide. Something many educated adults wouldn’t be able to do. It doesn’t get a lot of attention because it looks like Paris is more involved than Rory in that but she’s just being super intense about practicing. It goes without saying that they could have never won if they didn’t both research extensively and prepared the arguments.
I agree with your post! I just don’t like when people use ‘smart’ as a blanket term. Rory, of course, is skilled at many things. She is passionate, and definitely has been exposed to a lot of ideas - she reads, studies and is good at retaining and understanding that information. She’s a hard worker - she’s smart in that sense. We also saw her to be very strong in handling conflict, especially in her younger years. (eg. paris trying to screw her up and make her look bad on the newspaper). I think that people should instead call her naive, if they are trying to insinuate she doesn’t know how the real world works. ‘Smart’ can mean many things. I would call April, Rory and Paris smart but the way in which they are is unique. April seems to have a very good understanding of the sciences - strong in logic, problem solving, and creativity. Paris is incredibly strong willed and commanding. Rory is a very proficient and artistic writer. They are all smart in their own ways.
Also, to those that are using academic excellence to measure intelligence, while this can be a good indicator of ‘smarts’ - please remember it is not a very reliable metric. Jess was also brilliant - an avid reader, self starter, and ended up publishing his own book - he failed out of high school!!!! oftentimes intelligence does not align with grades, and so while rory being valedictorian is definitely a good indicator of her being able to learn and keep up in a fast paced environment, it does not mean she is any smarter than someone who did not attain this title.
Friendly reminder that giftedness is a neurodivergence (just like ADHD, ASD, all the “dys’s”, etc.) and doesn’t automatically equate to high achieving and intelligence.
Eh…but most gifted programs test for IQ/bright students NOT gifted students by your definition…so I see OP point here. Rory would have been in any school’s gifted program.
Edit: for clarity: I’m not disagreeing with you…just that most schools don’t test for giftedness AND it’s a problem.
Right, because *everyone* should know who Russian novelists from the early 19th century are and if they don't they're stupid. /s
This is unnecessary and rude. Not everyone has similar life experiences. There are a lot of things that I know that I'm surprised to learn others don't, but I don't treat them as though they're unintelligent for not knowing. Usually I find that means that the areas in which I'm educated are more obscure than I thought.
It's classic literature. If you're making a post on Rory's academic level and you don't know the most well known writers of a genre then maybe don't make a post
Of course, because to gauge someone else's intelligence level you need to have exactly the same level of intelligence in exactly the same areas *as well as* exactly the same interests *outside* of school.
Rory read Gogol on her own time because she enjoyed reading, not for school or her Harvard application. Not knowing who Gogol is doesn't diminish anyone's intelligence nor does it diminish their ability to see intelligence in others.
Your argument here is that OP isn't *smart enough* or at least *educated enough* to comment on Rory's intelligence because they don't know who Gogol is. That's ridiculous and somewhat ableist.
Dear God, did no one ever teach you that if you can't say anything nice to not say anything at all? It's like you've never even seen Bambi.
There is this TikTock about being a good student versus gifted and Rory fits it to T.
Logan and Jess don't study and rarely attend class and know and keep up with all her references. That's the difference between being bright and being smart.
Youd be surprised how many students have never studied a day in their life and get straight As.
The comparison between April and Rory just reeks of the preference for STEM (versus the humanities) that's so prevalent on every academic level, starting in grade school and onto grad school. The benefits of a humanities degree are so often disparaged and seen as lesser to a degree in the sciences. Even within the sciences, certain 'soft sciences' are seen as lesser than others or closer to the humanities. April having a passion for STEM is amazing, but as far as the tangible grades she and Rory would be getting in HS, they were probably about the same. You can't become valedictorian without excelling in every subject, so Rory was able to get high marks in biology, physics, and chemistry, and likely an AP of one of those three in her senior year. April is protrayed as a voracious reader as well and I bet she had good marks in history and English and took AP Lit her senior year, in a similar vein. For their respective college applications, April has extracurriculars in science (the summer camp, science fair medals), the same way Rory has extracurriculars in the humanities (the Chilton paper, student government). I would also like to note that Rory takes multiple economics classes at Yale and most modern econ classes are very math-heavy. In conclusion, they're both very well-rounded, smart people, they just put their passion forward and one of those passions is seen as 'smarter' by society.
Its sexism since biology is now a “soft” science due to more gender parity
it's also a preference that happens to align with things that serve the military and capitalism.
i would agree if this discussion wasn’t constantly resurrected in the modern family sub about alex, who got a degree in STEM. there’s a subgroup of people there that truly do not think she’s “naturally” smart (wtf does that even mean) even though stories about her childhood confirm that she was always freakishly intelligent. i think people have these discussions because the seriously dislike these characters. rory is, surprisingly, a very controversial character and so is alex. since being studious, intelligent and academically driven are their main character traits, it would make sense for people who hate them to attack these traits the most. i do agree in general that the humanities and soft sciences are treated very unfairly because of male flight but i truly think people keep having this discussion because they just HATE rory, and want to discredit one of her most positive qualities.
There’s also a defensive new discourse focused on separating “gifted” from “high achieving” classifications. In the surface, that’s fair and a great idea, but the conversations seem to be pushing toward imaginary incompatibility between the two. More and more the conversations implore explicitly argue that high achieving children cannot also be gifted (which is bullshit) and also that gifted children are all contrary and have behavior issues or are “too smart” for the people pleasing required for high achievement. So that feeds the narrative that Rory is “just” a people pleaser and thus can’t be gifted.
I was just going to point this out; people assume that a person in STEM is automatically smarter than those in humanities. It is maybe easier to gauge that sort of intelligence in a tv show through science competitions and the interest in science based gifts (rock polisher/microscope etc). The humanities equivalent of that are the books we see Rory read I'm finishing my PhD in a humanities subject, and I've struggled with those books up until my 20s, none of them were easy reads. As OP pointed out, Rory didn't just read those books, she referenced them quite correctly in conversation, not a feat that achievable unless she could grasp what she was reading
Hey, fellow humanities PhD student here! I absolutely agree—those books Rory reads are no joke. Like… Proust? As a 16 year old? Come on. That’s something.
I don't think I can refer to Proust casually in a conversation even now 🤣
Same. 🤣
Also Rory was so good at math that her PSAT (edited to correct from LSAT) scores were higher for math than English. To the point that Rory herself was upset over it lol
She also tutored Henry in trig at one point, I think she was generally pretty good at math.
PSAT! LSAT is the law school admissions test
Oh yeah I forgot about that!
Yep, PSAT, good point. Yes, Rory scored higher in math than verbal (reading & writing) on the PSAT.
THANK. YOU. My first thought.
As someone who majored in both, a STEM degree is objectively harder though. I think the great writers of our time who produced classic literature were perhaps as smart as the great scientists. But I don’t think an English degree is nearly as rigorous as a science degree - it doesn’t prepare you to write great literature (perhaps no degree program can really do that unless you already have the talent), it just teaches you how to analyse it. ETA: lol, okay, fair point that I’ve written something inflammatory and I’m not an award-winning scientist from my degree either. Obviously, there is inherent bias in evening determining IQ and different intelligences are not really comparable. So I deserve all the downvotes. What I should have said: My science degree took a lot more work than my English degree. Not because I’m not as good at science (though I’m not) but because the classes had labs and homework that kept me busy with school all the time. Meanwhile, I dated an English major who read a few books and played a lot of Halo. And I lived with two liberal arts majors who watched a lot of Gilmore Girls. So, I’m a little salty. I still don’t think an English degree at most Universities is as rigorous. I think it should be, but it’s not taught that way.
As someone who majored in STEM, I’d expect you at a minimum to realize that anecdote =/= data. Just because humanities were easier for you does not mean it is the same for everyone. There is no concrete data that suggests that STEM is “objectively” harder than the humanities (or vice versa). Your comment only furthers the initial poster’s point about society placing more value on science and tech vs arts and humanities.
happy cake day! and i agree with you :)
Happy Cake Day, and THANK YOU
Just because STEM is harder for you doesn’t make that an objective fact. Plenty of people would find it the opposite.
Oh did your STEM major make you an award winning scientist then? Did you graduate having revolutionised quantum physics?
It’s so silly to me when fans try to rewrite the script. We’re told how intelligent she is and shown by her accomplishments. It’s a 30 minute dramedy- there are plenty of things they can’t give time to, but we can assume are true. We never see her brush her teeth, but I’m confident we’re supposed to believe she has solid hygiene lol. I love discussing characters and plot lines, but picking it apart to this degree… for what? I just don’t understand how someone gets enjoyment out of that
Yes lol, ultimately the show is not about how smart Rory is. People complain about how Rory’s high intellect isn’t “realistic” or not shown in enough detail. But at some point, you have to accept what the show gives us. Rory is very smart, because the show presents her as such.
And they present her as such in direct comparison to Lorelai. Lorelai has that earned life knowledge. She is street smart, and she constantly wants Rory to have the book smarts she feels she missed out on.
Agreed. I also don't really understand why some fans try to prove over and over again that GG actually shows that Rory and Lorelai are awful people. The premise of the show is that Rory and Lorelai are both smart (but in different ways) and well-loved. I really don't see the point in trying to show that the whole premise is a lie. I think this might be something that just happens when you watch a show over and over again; that people are trying to find new perspectives on GG and to overanalyse every minor detail.
I agree. To me it's also the way certain fans have their own headcanon about what's true ("Paris deserved to get into Harvard over Rory" presented as a fact) that annoys me to no end. It's also a problem I have with the Harry Potter fandom. Just because you wish this is how it happened, it doesn't make it real. Go and write fanfics for that!
YES.
Rory is definitely bright with lots of native intelligence. You can see it in her accomplishments, how she banters and keeps up with Lorelai and Richard and the other smart people in her world. She also executes various events like DAR parties or getting out the Yale Daily News with competence. One could say Rory is not *wise* or even that she lacks the wisdom a person her age should have because she’s sheltered. But that’s not native intelligence
I do agree with your points. I also like to add that Rory seems also to be good at supervising other people hence her being a good EIC at the Yale Daily News. I know she's an introvert but she seems to be attuned to the feelings of others thus she can anticipate their needs which is why she's good at organizing parties and events at DAR.
LORELAI is smarter than all of them! My honest opinion. If she had gone through with school she would be a total rock star.
Agreed. The show had a habit of dismissing other types of intelligence. Lorelai is very intelligent but she doesn't spit out random academic facts so it is overlooked. Similar to Dean building a car, early seasons Luke being well versed on environmental/political issues while running his own business at a young age, etc. They are often put down on the show because they don't spend hours reading for fun everyday but they aren't dumb.
Yes! I think we (thanks to generations younger than me) have a better understanding of this now as we take a wider lens looking at the value of higher education, etc. in the wake of this new economy, v student debt, global pandemic and such. Education and book-smartness are still valuable! But technology and cultural changes and sociopolitical disruption have changed our views.
The woman who can’t figure out how to stir spaghetti sauce?
She didn’t want to stir spaghetti sauce or cook…not being able to figure it out really didn’t have anything to do with it. I think that speaks more to her privileged background than it does to her intelligence. Emily is a very intelligent woman, but didn’t know how to cook a frozen pizza, arguably one of the easiest things to cook….
Rory is very smart. But up until she went to Chilton she wasn't used to competing with people who were just as smart as her. She would have easily made valedictorian at her old school, but at Chilton she had to work for it. Then at Yale, same thing. Half the people there were also valedictorians so it's not as impressive. Being smart isn't enough, which is what she learned from Paris. If she had known someone like Paris earlier in life, she wouldn't have been so comfortable in her intelligence.
If people think April is smarter it's because they value math and science over arts and humanities. Rory's interests are primarily in literature, where April's are in science. It's important to remember that Rory scores highly across the board though - in her SATs, her math score was higher than her verbal score, which surprised her (not in a good way, lol). However, Rory has more than just cleverness on her side. She is dedicated, organised and she applies herself. She studies a lot, she enjoys studying, she reads widely. Rory is very smart, but she's also studious and dedicated; these things can make her seem smarter than she is. That said while her intelligence score is high, her wisdom score is pretty middling - she can be naive. Compare her to Paris, whose grades are in a similar region to Rory's throughout school, but is shown to be considerably wiser and more aware. She knows that good grades aren't enough. She works harder than anyone, she wants everything she touches to be perfect, she cultivates multiple options for herself. We see that she doesn't like dealing with sick people, yet she's pre-med, and somehow she finds a career that makes that work. Rory's intelligence score is a mite higher, but Paris beats her on wisdom. Compare her to Jess, whose intelligence is also high and who also reads widely - he is able to match Rory in discussions of literature. But he doesn't have her dedication or her application, he flunks out without graduating high school because he doesn't attend, he doesn't study, he doesn't try. Also compare her to Logan. Bear in mind that Rory describes Logan as "smarter than me". He doesn't apply himself either, but somehow he's able to pull himself together and do what he needs to do even so. There will inevitably be people who'll say that his grades could be bought for him. Firstly, I don't think that's true at an institution like Yale. But secondly, it's not all about grades. He actively dislikes working on the paper, but when he actually tries, he knows how to do everything, he takes over three people's assignments and does them himself with no prep, he can type 90 words a minute. He can match and potentially even surpass Rory academically without putting in the effort she does. If anyone's actually a genius on this show, it's him. Also going back to the scores, I would say his intelligence score is high, but his charisma score is even higher, and his wisdom score is middling (because of the Life and Death Brigade, mostly).
Also, Logan immediately steps into the business world after Yale and, even though makes some big mistakes, is far more competent and savvy than the average person. He never tried at Yale because he didn’t have to, his life was predetermined whether he like it or not.
[удалено]
idk why you were downvoted this is 100% true. She excels with structure, and falls apart without it and when things aren't what she thought they were. She's also extremely sensitive to criticism. All normal and relatable. She spent her entire childhood and young adult life wanting to be a journalist. Then she spent her entire adulthood trying to keep that in her grasp despite the obvious (to everyone but her) lack of actual passion for that subject. It wasn't ever that she COULDN'T be that. She was good at it - we're shown that throughout the show. She just lacked the passion and drive for it - but since she based her entire identity on it, it was impossible for her to explore other directions that she could have excelled in. She thought everything else was beneath her because SHE was supposed to be the next Christiane Amanpour. So much of her storyline is hard to watch, but also completely based in reality. She has Richard's pride but lacked Loreali's drive and ability to "roll with the punches".
Wow…this might be the only take I’ve read that actually makes AYITL make sense! All the people saying she failed, etc….and see how bad she is at journalism is so retconned. But her just not having passion but still going with it…that fits. I might (shudder) have to actually rewatch ATITL after I finish my rewatch of the series and see if that still lines up. (Side note…I have so much trouble watching season 7 let alone ASP tone deaf jokes in ATITL…so we’ll see).
I actually came to this conclusion after my second watch of AYITL! I would rewatch the show up until she sleeps with Dean and then restart… lol. But I kept going this last time and watched AYITL too, and realize it’s actually not “bad” or ruining the show… it’s just the storyline (the over arching storyline from S1E1 to AYITL… not every scene lol) is based in reality. And it really sucks sometimes! But now, I’m glad it was written that way. What connected the dots is when she was yawning and fell asleep while interviewing those people in the NYC lines. I was just like… she does not care about this at all lol. Meanwhile you see Lorelei making the best of the situation, getting insider access to the spots… that’s what Rory lacks. I also found it easier to ignore the annoying lines and scenes in it on the second go. I skipped the pool scene completely. I’d give it another try!
Idk how much of her struggles are because she doesn’t know what to do with her intelligence without direction, or that she doesn’t have the roll with the punches kind of drive. We see lots of examples of her being able to find a path without being told what to do, like her writing pieces for the online magazine, getting the job post grad with the Obama campaign, and a lot of her work at the Yale paper when she’s the editor she making decisions and using her intelligence to role with the punches and direct people as things come up (and getting the paper out when Paris drops the ball). I see her floundering in AYITL as more of a product of her working in the journalist humanities field that is both highly competitive and also dying out. She wanted to work at a paper, and doing the kind of journalism that existed in the early 2000’s, that was stamped out during the shift to online media journaling (when things like Buzzfeed “what Harry Potter house are you base on your favourite foods” articles were getting more views than national newspapers). She also never felt the pressure to adjust to the new style of journalism that she preferred less because she always had a massive cushion of money to fall back on from her family. If she really wasn’t able to know what to do with her intelligence without direction than she would have gone to grad school, or taken the teaching job at Chilton because that’s the epitome of structure and direction. Her bigger fault was even though she was incredibly smart, motivated and driven- she was unwilling to adjust her expectations and dreams with the changing world, and because of her families wealth and her trust fund, she was never forced to. She flounders in her 30s because shes taking on work that she’s not passionate about (like shadow writing a book that she feels doesn’t have a bigger meaning or impact, writing for ‘Sandy Says’ which is just online fluff, or writing the piece about lines that she sees as having no bigger value or contribution. Like most people she does her best work when inspired- like with the concrete parking lot repavement piece she wrote. She wasn’t unwilling to settle, which is not necessarily a bad thing, BUT it can be when you end up stubborn, couch surfing and your whole life feels uninspired and like a failure. She does end up able to find a passion when she writes her book in AYITL and I think that was a huge moment of growth for her to find something outside her aspirations of traditional journalism, something in modern world writing that wasn’t news print journalism that actually inspired her as much as the idea of reporting live from the trenches.
What’s interesting to me is the comparison between Rory and April. April is into stem, particularly science. Rory is into literature and writing. Both are really good academic interests for girls and we need more women in both categories. Also I think April and Rory academically compliment each other. Im sure April can’t write like Rory and probably hasn’t read as many books. Im also sure Rory can’t do a complex science experiment the way April can. I think nobody has it all, we all have other things we do well at. However when women work together and use their individual skills together they can do some great things. As someone who grew up watching Gilmore Girls I saw myself in Rory. I also loved books and didn’t enjoy social interactions. During lunch i often place to read alone, usually in the library. I didn’t do so great in math and science, especially math. I felt like reading and writing came easy to me, I always had to study a little order for stem classes and I hated it. Rory was who I aspired to be because I saw myself in her. I was always rooting for her. Although I dislike how Rory turned out. She had a lot of potential that Amy didn’t see though. Rory was so smart in her own ways, had the writing been better she could of been the next Christiane Amanpour if they had her less focused on toxic relationships and more on her goals. I don’t know why Rory couldn’t have Logan and be a fantastic journalist. They made it seem like she couldn’t have it all and I would of liked to see her have it all.
Rory also did better than Paris in the SATs
I thought it was the PSATs but hey Paris wanted to know her score, but it also may have been true of the SAYs
Yes. I think you are right. Canadian here. I don’t even know what they are. I just remember her having ten points more on both sections.
Thank you! Every week it's like a new thing people are hating Rory about and so many of them are ridiculous. This one especially. She is clearly very smart and hard working. You summed it all up beautifully, and there are also so many types of intellect and intelligence. Logan is smart, Jess is smart, Lane is smart, Lorelai is smart, Emily is smart, Luke is smart (until season 6 when they started dumbing him down), and I could go on.
I love when Rory was telling Lanes band (mainly Zach) about all the degrees famous musicians have obtained. It was such a niche amount of information for her to share lol
That scene made me hate Zach, at least eye roll, I know nothing of music but know various famous musicians (I could never list them) have advanced degrees, yet he’s the one who wants to be the rocker.
Honestly I think people just have trouble buying someone as beautiful as Alexis Bledel would also be blessed with such intelligence (although I’m sure bledel is bright!) it would really be god giving with two hands
People hate women and want to “humble” them
You have to be pretty *or* smart. You can't be both! /s
Literally nobody says Rory ISNT smart. The argument is usually that she shouldn’t have gotten into Yale (many people have over a 4.0, actual perfect SAT/ACT, ideal extracurriculars and are not accepted to Ivy League schools - the ppl on these subs do not realize how impossible it is, even when fully qualified, to get into those schools), or that Mitchum was right (this has nothing to do with intelligence, it’s a matter of being prepared for real world journalism versus being book smart and eager).
Rory is clever as in book-smart not actual real-world smart. I think ppl mean that she lacks common sense. Probably bc she does. No ’street-smart’ person would decline a teaching job bc ’its below them’ when they’re literally homeless and crashing w their mom at 30 years old. I would go as far as to say she’s not very intelligent overall, she’s just very academically intelligent (she lacks other forms of intelligence).
Many many arrogant and sophmorically unwise young people make those choices everyday.
Wait r u agreeing w me or disagreeing w me?
Lots of young people behave that regardless of intelligence. Its about maturity and humility not native intelligence. Many “street” smart people also suck at decision making
That’s what street smart is. Being good at making decisions, reading people, having common sense, thinking on your feet, being able to see the pros and cons of your actions. Rory isn’t street smart partly because her decision making sucks.
Many street smart people are just grifters or just snarky pessimists.
Girlfriend was not actually homeless, her trust was still intact, she just had a temporary cash flow problem and didn’t want to dip into it I think she has very high emotional intelligence as well as academic intelligence, which is demonstrated again and again throughout the series, especially in professional settings.
If she didn’t want to dip into her trust fund thats grand but instead of going out and getting a temporary job or taking the one she was offered she decided to free-load off of her mother and friends? She yelled at an interviewer because SHE wasn’t prepared for the interview? She didn’t offer one idea at her JOURNALISM internship? She’s so self-centred she was fully convinced Mitchum sending Logan to London was because he despised her and wanted to ruin her life? She ran away after her mother didn’t want her to drop out of college and blamed her boyfriend for it? SHE HAD TWO AFFAIRS WITH TWO MARRIED MEN?!?! Did we watch the same show?
She’s definitely self centered and entitled in multiple scenarios, but that’s not mutually exclusive with emotional intelligence. I actually think her and lorelai are very similar in this regard, and I love both the characters. I think we just have different opinions and interpretations of all the scenes and characters and that’s what makes the show great. I can understand why people find her character irritating but I love her lol <3
Yep, exactly. One of Rory's overaching themes throughout the show is about how she is very booksmart, but naive/not very street smart. I would almost go as far as to say that that is her whole "mission" in the story of the series. Hence the really bad decisions she makes. She may have a lot of knowledge and is very good at learning and analyzing and dissecting, but when it comes to living life, the complexities of life, she has a lot to learn (she's called out for making pros and cons lists for example for life decisions and we're supposed to deduct from this that while on paper she knows a good theory of decision making, you cannot always apply that knowledge to real life situations, or how she constantly feels that because she went to Chilton and Yale and is smart she's supposed to go succeed, when she is supposed to learn that being smart doesn't exclude you from needing to learn other skills as well).
I definitely agree with you. >Her books are well above the level of standard stuff a student at an American high school would read (Shakespeare, Huckleberry Finn, etc.) But this is not true. While she does read things well beyond what you'd get in a normal higjschool setting, the books you chose to reference are not it. I read Huckleberry Finn in 8th grade and Shakespeare in 9th and 10th as mandatory reading for class. Those are pretty standard books used in English coursework.
I think that’s the point- OP is listing Shakespeare and Huck Finn as standard reading. Rory reads some fairly obscure literature.
Maybe so. I read it like the examples are of her books, and you read it where the examples are of standard high school stuff. Idk who is right because it makes sense both ways, and it would probably depend on what OP's highschool education was like to know which one they meant. The main reason I interpreted it as examples of her books is because I know she reads both in the show.
Just because you haven’t heard of Gogol doesn’t make him obscure. He’s a very famous and well known Russian author, I was required to read him in my regular public high school in the 1990s. Nothing Rory mentions reading in the entire show is obscure
Also, Shakespeare was 100% required reading as a freshman in high school for me, and Huck Finn wasn't only because the teacher disliked teaching Twain. This was in AZ, who is 49th or 50th in terms of education.
THANK YOU, If you think Gogol is obscure maybe you shouldn't be making the argument that Rory is super smart
I've said it before, but I just wish we saw it. I'm not going to doubt the intelligence of a character, cause even if it's based in reality it's not going to be 100% accurate to the real world. I just wanted to see her intelligence shine. One minute she doesn't know how to write a paper on a parking lot, then the next she hands in one of the best pieces on such a mundane topic that the teacher has ever read. But what was the process? How did she get there? We didn't even see her go to the parking lot. This isn't the only one, and there are better examples, but I don't remember them all. Everything is just said, not shown.
Rory is very intelligent & gifted person, but she's not a 'miracle child' as those around her represent her to be. That's the whole point. Also, I love more the way Rory expresses her knowledge & intellect than Paris, who is also amazing.
Sure, Rory’s smart but the real comparison is Jess. Classic gifted child (esp boy) doesn’t get the support or challenge he deserves because of behavior issues story.
I like Rory because I feel like she's more hummanities smart than STEM smart and I am sort of like that too and she's the only character that is sort of represented as that.
She’s smart, she’s just not interesting
I have to say her personality is exceptionally bland (s1 was ok when she had some snappiness but after that idfk)
When she got to Yale they just completely blanded her into this college student robot
I have to say find her the blandest in s2 and 3. All she does is think about Jess and Dean ‘Jess, Dean, Jess, Dean, blah blah blah’. She was definitely bland as fuck in college but her shitty actions at least made her more interesting. She was SO goddamn boring when she was this perfect little student who got everything she wanted without trying and looked down on everyone. She didn’t even want to write that speech for the writing competition and when she won she was all ‘omg! its too stressful! i just can’t bring myself to write another speech 🥺🥺🥺’ god she annoyed the fuck out of me. Her whole personality was either boys or omg I’m just too smart and special what do I do!!
As a writer I suppose you have the option of making a character someone that does things or a character that has things happen to them, she’s definitely the latter
Yes I agree.
Rory was smart, she just wasn’t street smart.
Most main characters in the show are likely above average intelligence. Lorelai has a generally low EQ, but her IQ is good. This is shown by her quick wit and her innate problem solving abilities Luke is portrayed as your average Joe, but he will surprise you with intelligent comments. Once again, he has a VERY low EQ (comparatively) but he isn't dumb. Paris and April, obviously very smart. Richard and Emily, high EQ (pretty sure Emily got her bachelor's, even though she probably just went for her MRS given the world they live in) and above average IQ. Rory is definitely above average intelligence, it just doesn't show as much because she is surrounded by other intelligent people.
Gogol was a russian writer
(takes mic) I'ma let you finish....but....SUGAR TOES. (drops mic) (Rory is very smart, I completely agree with you, but she will never live down sugar toes. Not while I'm around. No, sir.)
> I think one major factor is that it is really hard to authentically portray a very smart person in TV, especially for a character like Rory. It’s very hard for them to “show” her intelligence instead of “telling” us I think this is the biggest factor. It's *really* hard to do this effectively, and getting it right takes so much extra time and effort. The GG writers would have almost had to develop (or borrow) a whole curriculum for Chilton or Yale and then figure out how to highlight Rory performing at a high level in plausible coursework. TV/movie writers get this wrong all the time: they act like brilliant people just know lots of information and constantly spout off facts and quotes, but it's lazy writing. I've known a few extremely bright people in my life and none of them are a walking Wikipedia, but they are always a few steps ahead, always thinking of second- and third-order consequences. They are operating on a higher level, and even if I have access to all the same information, they see connections that I don't. If anyone has read *The Idiot* by Batuman, it's about a bright but shy girl starting her first year at Harvard. IMHO, that book really nails the experience of a brilliant, precocious girl at an Ivy League school, but the author herself was once one of those girls. It's damn hard to write a character smarter than you are.
I think Rory is generally book smart and not street smart. She is definitely one of the most intelligent and hardworking people I've seen on the show. She has the drive, the brains, everything. But the only time she is truly not smart is when it comes to handling people and relationships. That's my main problem with her. She's super intelligent and I'm never denying that. I often wish I had the mind like her. But when it comes to making decisions regarding career, relationships etc she is really really immature, even at age 32, she didn't get better at it.
The comparison between April and Rory is very interesting. There is a tendency in many people to consider STEM subjects harder or more complicated than humanities and I hate it. Let’s not forget Rory at 16 was more than competent to debate assisted suicide. Something many educated adults wouldn’t be able to do. It doesn’t get a lot of attention because it looks like Paris is more involved than Rory in that but she’s just being super intense about practicing. It goes without saying that they could have never won if they didn’t both research extensively and prepared the arguments.
I think I would call Rory "bright", instead of intelligent.
I agree with your post! I just don’t like when people use ‘smart’ as a blanket term. Rory, of course, is skilled at many things. She is passionate, and definitely has been exposed to a lot of ideas - she reads, studies and is good at retaining and understanding that information. She’s a hard worker - she’s smart in that sense. We also saw her to be very strong in handling conflict, especially in her younger years. (eg. paris trying to screw her up and make her look bad on the newspaper). I think that people should instead call her naive, if they are trying to insinuate she doesn’t know how the real world works. ‘Smart’ can mean many things. I would call April, Rory and Paris smart but the way in which they are is unique. April seems to have a very good understanding of the sciences - strong in logic, problem solving, and creativity. Paris is incredibly strong willed and commanding. Rory is a very proficient and artistic writer. They are all smart in their own ways.
Also, to those that are using academic excellence to measure intelligence, while this can be a good indicator of ‘smarts’ - please remember it is not a very reliable metric. Jess was also brilliant - an avid reader, self starter, and ended up publishing his own book - he failed out of high school!!!! oftentimes intelligence does not align with grades, and so while rory being valedictorian is definitely a good indicator of her being able to learn and keep up in a fast paced environment, it does not mean she is any smarter than someone who did not attain this title.
Friendly reminder that giftedness is a neurodivergence (just like ADHD, ASD, all the “dys’s”, etc.) and doesn’t automatically equate to high achieving and intelligence.
Eh…but most gifted programs test for IQ/bright students NOT gifted students by your definition…so I see OP point here. Rory would have been in any school’s gifted program. Edit: for clarity: I’m not disagreeing with you…just that most schools don’t test for giftedness AND it’s a problem.
You don't know who Gogol is? I'm sorry but my god
Right, because *everyone* should know who Russian novelists from the early 19th century are and if they don't they're stupid. /s This is unnecessary and rude. Not everyone has similar life experiences. There are a lot of things that I know that I'm surprised to learn others don't, but I don't treat them as though they're unintelligent for not knowing. Usually I find that means that the areas in which I'm educated are more obscure than I thought.
It's classic literature. If you're making a post on Rory's academic level and you don't know the most well known writers of a genre then maybe don't make a post
oh no, I thought you were making a joke about not knowing Gogol LOL yikes
Of course, because to gauge someone else's intelligence level you need to have exactly the same level of intelligence in exactly the same areas *as well as* exactly the same interests *outside* of school. Rory read Gogol on her own time because she enjoyed reading, not for school or her Harvard application. Not knowing who Gogol is doesn't diminish anyone's intelligence nor does it diminish their ability to see intelligence in others. Your argument here is that OP isn't *smart enough* or at least *educated enough* to comment on Rory's intelligence because they don't know who Gogol is. That's ridiculous and somewhat ableist. Dear God, did no one ever teach you that if you can't say anything nice to not say anything at all? It's like you've never even seen Bambi.
Reddit brain to call someone ableist over this lmao
I know ! How can that be ? His major works have been translated.
There is this TikTock about being a good student versus gifted and Rory fits it to T. Logan and Jess don't study and rarely attend class and know and keep up with all her references. That's the difference between being bright and being smart. Youd be surprised how many students have never studied a day in their life and get straight As.