What We'll Do To Spite Our Mothers

Is it okay to do blog posts on TV shows as long as Ms.Robbins is in love with the show?

Note: The underlined blue words are links to videos of scenes I'm talking about (my form of textual evidence) and the time in parenthesis refers to what part of the video it happens in.

My inspiration to write a blog post on My So Called Life came from here; please read it, it's amazing.

‎"Lately i can't even look at my mother without wanting to stab her. Repeatedly." (5:00-5:10)

Every girl has felt this way before. Don't even try to deny it. And it doesn't mean that you're insane or sadistic or homicidal-- it just mean that you're a teenager. Mother/daughter relationships are so complicated and so confusing and next to impossible to ever explain. What I love about Angela Chase from My So Called Life is that she always can for us. And if she can't explain something, she'll explain just why she can't seem to explain it. From obsessive friendships to the kind of love where he doesn't even know you exist, Angela describes every moment of female adolescence perfectly-- and she doesn't leave out mothers.

I don't think that you can leave out mothers in a TV show about being a 15 year old girl, because no matter how awful or wonderful, present or absent, protective or lenient your mother is, she will affect your teenage years in a huge way. Hands down, flat out. Because she's your mother.

When I saw the first episode of My So Called Life, I felt like someone had read my diary and made it into a script. I was Angela Chase and Patty Chase was my mother. No question about it. Just like Angela, my friends would exclaim how nice she was and just like Angela, I'd mutter that it was only because they were there. Just like Angela, I'd refuse to clean my room or eat a balanced meal because I knew that it would give my mother too much satisfaction. Like there was some war going on between us that I had to win and she didn't know about it, and maybe I didn't either. And lately when I look at her, I feel like stabbing her. Repeatedly. And half the time I don't even know why.

Just like Angela.

But sometimes, I have that knot in my stomach, that urge to run to my moms room and crawl into bed next to her and cry and cry and cry and not have to explain anything and for her to just hold me and make everything better again like mothers do.

Just like Angela.

I don't think that anyone purely hates or loves every aspect of either of their parents- just like no person is fully good or bad- it hits somewhere in the middle. Angela creates that perfect balance of feelings that everyone can connect to. She hates her mother, she loves her mother. She's introducing her to Jordan, she's not talking to her. She's listening to her, she's disobeying her. She misses her, she can't even stand the sound of her voice. She's being a moody, indecisive teenager.

And that's why I'm Angela and my mom is her mom. That's why every girl who's ever watched this show has immediately declared that, they too, were Angela more than anyone else who claimed the same, and that her mom was their mom more so than each anyone who might've thought the same. Because they each have at least one quality that cannot go unseen in any mother or daughter. Because Patty Chase is the dedicated, loving mother that's only human, that makes a million mistakes because of it, and that cares all too much if her daughter stays out late. Because Angela is all of us, she is the perfect example of a flawed, angry, blissful and at times, lost teenage girl. Because she shows us we're not alone. Ever.