For those of you not familiar with the lazy summer indulgence which is endless episodes of Geordie Shore online, let me enlighten you. Based on MTV’s Jersey Shore, Geordie Shore takes the same concept of putting a bunch of twenty-somethings into a house, adding shedloads of alcohol and filming all the shagging, yelling and falling over that ensues. Now in its sixth season (and a seventh one being filmed), the show features eight housemates and is an anthropological study in the all the bad choices we make after the first two decades of living (and, well, all the fun that is had, too).
The paralytic drunkeness is worrisome and the men’s sole focus on “banging birds” makes one wonder how far feminism in the UK has really come since Emily Wilding Davison threw herself in front of the king’s horse a hundred years ago. Gary Beadle, known as Gaz, is the show’s top womanizer and has expressed his dislike of dates: “I don’t see the point in them. You might as well just skip the bullshit, go home and do [what] yous both wanna do and just bang.” (Although in an interesting inversion, he expresses distaste at being objectified when he is auctioned off at a charity event by his boss. “We’re not a piece of meat, Anna,” he says with indignation and absolutely no realization of his hypocrisy.) Despite his love of shagging random girls, he does, however, conduct himself in a consistently morally correct manner by telling the truth, criticizing others who cheat on their partners, and considering the feelings of Charlotte, his on-again-off-again love interest.
Gaz likes to go out drinking and pull as many women as possible (“pull” is a British term for pick up). In nearly every episode, he expresses this desire and we almost always see him follow through on his plan. In the first series, he has sex with Charlotte and we begin to see them develop feelings for each other. They will often fall into each other’s beds throughout the series if the other hasn’t pulled. However, not once does Gaz lie to Charlotte about their situation. He tells her he likes her, he enjoys their bedroom romps, but he cannot be her boyfriend. Even though Charlotte is clearly enamoured with him and will sleep with him even when she tells herself she shouldn’t, Gaz doesn’t use her infatuation just to have sex.
Although he enjoys his own promiscuity, Gaz is highly critical of other male’s philandering behaviour. When Sophie’s boyfriend Joel is flirting with different girls on spring break in Mexico in the third season, Gaz is not impressed: “For me, Joel’s got a bird, he’s seeing Sophie, he should be in Jay’s mindset [a Geordie Shore character who has a girlfriend at home and refrains from hitting on girls]…Joel’s still in my mindset…Joel keeps forgetting he’s got a girlfriend.” Gaz is similarly unimpressed with Vicky at the beginning of season 2 when she is getting closer and closer to housemate Ricci, but has a boyfriend on the outside. At the beginning of season 4, Charlotte arrives in the house with a boyfriend of two months, however she gets drunk and climbs into Gaz’s bed one night. He leaves the bed and expresses confusion as to why she’s doing this if she has a boyfriend.
Throughout the series, we watch the relationship between Gaz and Charlotte unfold: from their lovemaking to their fighting to their jealousies to their attempts at friendship. What emerges is actually a really sweet and caring relationship. They both enjoy each other’s (clothed) company and make honest attempts at a friendship free of the complications of sex. Gaz has been truthful with Charlotte from the beginning about his inability to commit just to her, but still realizes how much he hurts her when she sees him flirting with other girls. And he is entirely forgiving of her when she freaks out over his conquests: “There’s only so long I can stay mad at Charlotte for, so I give her a little hug and that’s it, forgotten.” At many points in the later seasons, Gaz expresses his fondness for Charlotte above others and his desire to have her around. And it is he who makes the rule later on in season 3 that he won’t sleep with her because he knows how much that complicates things for Charlotte.
Gaz shows himself to be a morally superior character for much of Geordie Shore by consistently telling the truth, expressing his distaste for people who are unfaithful in a relationship and by showing empathy for Charlotte who loves him and wants a more stable relationship. I do use the phrase “morally superior” with just a hint of irony: much of the behaviour on the show would be morally reprehensible to large portions of the world’s population. Morality has to do with what is right and what is wrong and those opposing ideas can be very different throughout humankind. But Gaz lives his life according to his own principles and his behaviour reflects his beliefs. Now if only we could get him to see that he treats women as part of an endless supply of faceless pleasure. And maybe Charlotte is the girl to do it.
