MTV’s newest sitcom “Awkward,” is one that has really caught my attention. It is definitely a show that I look forward to watching every Tuesday evening at 11pm. So here is the rundown of the show according to IMDB.com:
“’Awkward’ is about the specific incidents in our formative years that define us -sometimes for the best and sometimes for the worst. The show centers around fifteen-year-old Jenna Hamilton, who, like many, feels invisible to her peers and desperately wants to find her place–which is hard to do in a day and age where fitting in means standing out. Unfortunately, Jenna’s visibility comes on the heels of an accident that gives her a not-so-fun stigma. And while the stigma of her accident could be the curse of her life, Jenna’s determined to make it her life’s blessing.” Source: Imdb.com
This show in my opinion brings me back to high school days. Now, my story was not like Jenna’s in that she had an accidental suicide attempt that gave her popularity, but the relationship with Matty McKibben (played by Beau Mrichoff), is similar to a lot of the relationships I witnessed in high school. Jenna lost her virginity to Matty at summer camp in a random shed (not romantic at all). This sexual encounter blossoms into an interesting relationship between these two. Jenna falls head over heels for Matty, and as the season has progressed, she has been hoping that Matty will DTL (Define the relationship). There is just one problem; see, Matty is a popular football player so he has an image to keep. Because Jenna is not the popular girl in school he is ashamed to claim her in public but is perfectly fine with her being his booty call. Jenna’s desire to be with Matty turns into almost an obsession, and it gets to the point where she really loses herself as well as her identity.
I, like Jenna at 15, was in a similar situation in that I was head over heels for this guy and I actually let him talk me into losing my virginity to him (EPIC FAIL by the way). But I, like Jenna did not realize how much I was really giving when I made the decision to give myself away. There was so much emotional turmoil for me after because I was dumped within weeks of the sexual encounter. I did bounce back fortunately and who even knows where he is now…lol.
During last night’s season finale, Jenna talked a lot about being “that girl” which really made my mind ponder. I wanted to look up what “that girl” means so I went to urbandictionary.com. Some of the definitions that I found were the girl who doesn’t realize that her relationship is over, and/or the girl who turns into the late night booty call (Urbandictionary.com). After seeing this I thought about all of the teenage girls and women in the world that turn into “that girl” because men do not want to commit, or because men are afraid of their feelings. I wondered how many teenage girls have to live with the regret of giving way too much to the guy who refuses to define the relationship. I will say that Jenna, like most teenage girls will tolerate so much stuff in order to get the guy of their dreams. Throughout the season she played the part of “that girl” and I would get so frustrated because she would practically let him get away with murder. I mean I do understand the saying that you cannot help who you fall for, but my goodness, where is the line drawn? Can the male population be solely to blame, or do we (both sexes) have to share some of this responsibility?
I know that this was sort of a word vomit, but the show is pretty cool and has caused a lot of discussion within my circle of friends. The first season has wrapped up, but you can always check out the episodes on mtv.com, or you probably could look on YouTube as well.
ShoutOut! James Madison University 
I thought this post was very interesting! I’ve never heard of the show but it seems like it has more value than the rest of the reality shows on MTV I seem to always hear about *cough, Jersey Shore, cough*. I think that this idea of “a girl will do anything” is really cemented by the stereotype that women always have more feelings/emotions than men. Which, I honestly think is false. Both sexes share the responsibility, obviously as teenagers we are generally much less rational about our “first loves”, I mean i know I was.. But, i don’t think that makes the male population to blame. After all, women have free will to feel and act as they want, as do men. In the context of relationship dynamics, the way a man or a woman acts is completely on their own accord (assuming the situation of Jenna).
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Sounds like a pretty amusing show, sad I missed it =/
As far as men or women taking the blame, I think that’s silly. Both have responsibility because of one important thing you are forgetting: Not all men date women, and not all women date men. The same issues of defining a relationship, being afraid to commit, or just wanting someone to be a booty call happen whether that relationship is two men, two women, or a man and a woman. I think the responsibility should rest on the personality of the specific individuals involved in the relationship and not be dependent on the perceived sex of the person.
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