Social Commentary within ‘Daria’ that Remains Relevant Today
A spin-off of the popular animated series Beavis and Butthead, Daria utilizes the unique, unadorned perspective of teenager Daria Morgendorffer, to satirize high school, as well as wider 1990s society, in the United States. In this article, I’ll be extrapolating the brilliant social commentary within Daria as it pertains to: race and racism, institutional corruption, stereotypes and conformity, and gender and sexuality.
Race and Racism
Daria is a revolutionary show in a plethora of ways. To this day, it is one of few shows that has allowed characters of color to tell their own narratives, without shaping their identities around white characters. We see every character of color as exquisitely multi-dimensional; from Mack - an intelligent, kind Black man - to Principal Lai - a powerful, self-assured Asian woman. Furthermore, we see the characters of color as their own saviors in their frequent encounters with racial microaggressions. For example, when Daria and Jodie, (another student at Lawndale High), visit a high school for the gifted, both Jodie and her mom Michele are quick to call out problematic quips and attitudes.
In arguably one of the most iconic moments of the show not centred directly around Daria, we see Black characters Mack and Jodie engaged in a discussion about tokenism, as they’ve won Homecoming King and Queen for the third year in a row. In a poetically adolescent tone, Jodie tells Mack, “We may be tokens, but we’re damn good-looking ones” (“I Loathe a Parade”). In a later episode, the theme of tokenism is further explored, this time in regards to higher education, as we see Jodie struggle with a decision many Black and Brown high school students face, whether to attend a “highly prestigious” predominantly white university, or to attend a second or third-tier college with diversity. In a confrontation with her parents, Jodie explains to them the exhaustion she’s experienced from spending four years as a “model minority” student at Lawndale, where she’s had to work twice as hard in order to feel as though she’s proved herself (“Is It College Yet?”).
Furthermore, Daria doesn’t skim over the aspects of the protagonist’s identity which give her privilege. It is thoughtfully demonstrated throughout many of the encounters between Jodie and Daria, that while Daria can thoughtlessly criticize and separate herself from the society she despises, Jodie must dedicate herself to actively changing it - both within her high school and within the larger Lawndale community. However, this brilliantly intersectional dynamic isn’t explored as deeply as it could have been, which highlights issues embedded in the show’s portrayal of race - for example, why do the Asian characters have their eyes drawn slantedly?
Institutional Corruption
As is the case with many traditional institutions in the United States, Lawndale citizens, especially those in positions of power, are frequent victims of the foils of capitalism. This is best demonstrated in the episode ‘FizzEd’, when Lawndale High faces a budget crisis that leads to a widespread lack of school materials such as modern maps, art supplies, and football equipment. Ms. Li, the school’s principal, secretly signs a contract with a soda company where, in exchange for monetary funding, the school will install soda machines and post-Ultra Cola related propaganda. However, a serious problem arises when events escalate, and everything in the school is overtaken by Ultra Cola - references to the soda have been integrated into class curriculums and extracurricular activities, and Ms. Li has even bribed students with improved grades, all in order to ensure the sale of Ultra Cola. Even when Daria successfully swades the superintendent to put an end to the school’s Ultra Cola contract, after he first considers implementing similar programs in other district schools, the presence of Ultra Cola still remains subtly in her school on event tickets and a large painting on the roof.
The contents of this episode can be understood to thoughtfully examine the ways in which “leaders” are willing to sacrifice the common good for the sake of a profit, and the seeming normalcy of this phenomenon within smaller institutions and in larger infrastructures.
Stereotypes and Conformity
One of the predominant focuses of Daria surrounds the ideas of conformity and individual identity (with the added complexities of coming of age). We see constant encounters between Daria, her best friend Jane, and their peers, and authority figures, which revolve around the turmoil of difference at any age - yet the show remains a subliminally anti-establishment work.
In one episode, Jane is forced to enter an art contest responding to the theme of “Student Life at the Dawn of the New Millenium”, to which she feels utterly uninspired until Daria explains to her that her art doesn’t have to be positive. The pair work together on a poster which shows a traditionally beautiful girl staring into a mirror accompanied with a poem about how the girl has an eating disorder. The piece is faced with displeasement from their English teacher and the principal alike, despite their explanations that they are accurately shedding light on the price of beauty due to the demands of their contemporary society. In spite of the girls’ efforts to submit their poster as it is, it is ultimately edited and submitted by their principal without their permission to instead be a commentary on healthy eating - a censorship of their seemingly unconventional perspective (“Arts N’ Crass”).
The episode ‘Quinn the Brain’ explores the idea of trends and their implications on human authenticity. When Quinn, Daria’s younger sister, lucks her way into writing a decent essay, she is overly lauded by peers and teachers alike. Quinn initially fears that her academic recognition will lead to a loss of her popularity, and to her being labeled a “brain” like Daria. But, her attractiveness allows her to instead make being smart appear cool. This even goes so far that many other girls at their school mimic Quinn and her faux smart persona. At the same time, Daria undergoes an identity crisis, in which she feels as though her original personality is being co-opted for the sake of Quinn’s social prowess, and believes there is no way she can compete with her due to the superficial hierarchy that their school operates on.
In a similar fashion, Daria explores individual identity in the episode ‘The F Word’, when teacher Mr. O’Neill challenges his students to, “succeed at failing”, by taking on a task they know they’ll fail at. The vapid, but well-liked Kevin and Brittany choose to, “fail at being an athlete”, and, “fail at being popular”, respectively, and when they each succeed they lose their places at the top of the social hierarchy; Kevin is kicked off the football team, whilst Brittany is ousted from the cheerleading team. Jane chooses to, “fail at being conventional”, but unwittingly fails at that and ends up becoming one of the most popular girls in school, even joining the cheerleading team. These events cause her to have an identity crisis, as she’s surprised at how easy normalcy is and believes she’s been pretending to be a troubled artist all along. These characters' struggles allow us, as an audience, to understand just how much influence the outside world has on how we see ourselves, but they also remind us that we get to decide who we are.
Gender and Sexuality
As the show centers on a young woman in the 1990s, it’s to be expected that Daria comments on the manifestations of misogyny, while pressing its own wonderfully feminist agenda.
In ‘The Misery Chick’, we briefly meet Tommy Sherman, a former top student athlete at Lawndale High, who’s being honored with a goal post on the football field in his name. In our first encounters with Tommy, we see him as nothing short of a douchebag who revels in his self-proclaimed glory, and belittles the school’s current football players. Furthermore, he sexually harasses Brittany, who is not only four years younger than him, but also immediately rejects his advances - not that it dissuades Tommy. As the episode progresses, and we learn that Tommy has died in a freak-accident when a goalpost falls on him, we watch as Brittany struggles to reckon her hatred of Tommy with the obligation she feels to grieve his death - one of the more insightful moments involving Brittany. Furthermore, we also watch as he objectifies both Jane and Daria by defining their worth to him by their attractiveness, and his desire to have sex with them. In response to this, Daria calls him out for his need to constantly prove his masculinity, as well as pointing out that the best years of his life are behind him.
Similarly, we see commentary on problematic gender dynamics in ‘Life in the Past Lane’, when Jane dates Nathan, a boy obsessed with the culture of the 1930s and 1940s, and immerses herself in that culture in order to further connect with him. As an after effect of Nathan’s, “I was born in the wrong decade” syndrome, he is casually misogynistic, which leads him to be overly controlling of Jane in their relationship - he dictates how she should dress and act, as well as who she should hang out with. Once she realizes this, Jane breaks up with him and explains to him that if he really liked her, it wouldn’t matter what “aesthetic” she aligned herself with.
Furthermore in feminist fashion, Daria responds to the thoroughly demanding beauty standards which shaped 1990s popular culture. In ‘Fat Like Me’, Quinn and the other members of Lawndale’s Fashion Club, Sandi, Stacy, and Tiffany, are reviewing guidelines for club membership when Sandi pushes the other members to back her proposition to reduce the maximum weight allowed by a club member. Ironically, later that week, Sandi falls and breaks her leg, and her inability to exercise regularly causes her to gain a significant amount of weight. This causes her friends to treat her differently, and alters everybody’s perspective of her, so she barricades herself at home in embarrassment. Fearing that Sandi’s “predicament”, (as she calls it), might cause her to lose her popularity, Quinn works tirelessly to help Sandi lose weight. The pair are ultimately successful, and it seems as though the world is back to normal in time for the next Fashion Club meeting - except Sandi alters the weight requirement of the club to be more inclusive, which is a surprisingly beautiful end to an otherwise ridiculously satirical episode.
When Daria’s “drivers ed” is made more difficult by the fact she wears glasses, she is prompted by her mother to consider wearing contact lenses instead. This leads to an exchange between Daria and her mother, Helen, (who’s tirelessly working to “break the glass ceiling” at her law firm), where Daria argues that not wearing glasses won’t make her a more valuable or attractive human being. Her mother turns the argument against her daughter by stating; “instead of seeing your glasses and jumping to some moronic conclusion based on ridiculous stereotypes and their own ignorance”, people will have to get to know Daria before making assumptions about who she is based on how she looks. However, when she asks for Quinn’s opinion, Daria becomes insecure when her sister interprets her interest in contact lenses as a newfound interest in her appearance - thus appearing to dismantle her persona as someone who doesn’t care what other people think. In the end, Daria begins to wear contact lenses, but is surprised at how differently her peers and teachers begin to treat her. After continuing to struggle with the decision to wear contacts, and even mildly endangering herself by deciding to wear neither contacts nor glasses, she is convinced by Jodie and Jane that caring a little about her appearance doesn’t make her “anti-Feminist” or “unauthentic”. Brittany even tells Daria that learning that Daria cared about her appearance made her feel less shallow and, “like, we’re not that different, just human, or whatever”. Daria eloquently dismantles the importance of obeying beauty standards by highlighting all the ways in which they are constructs which we invent for ourselves and each other - or better yet, consumerist propaganda - yet does so in a uniquely inclusive way.
However, in spite of all of the ways in which Daria was remarkably progressive for its time, the show fell short when it came to LGBQT+ representation, as the only canonically Queer or Trans character shown in the entirety of the series was Alison, a bisexual cis-woman who was defined by her remarkably predatory behavior towards other women.
The brilliance of Daria’s social commentary can be used in juxtaposition to social dynamics and the state of popular culture in the late 2010s and early 2020s, to allow us to gain further insight into the ways in which we continue to fall short as a society. Through media and entertainment, we are able to look at the world around us more critically, which allows us to properly understand the bombardment of social and political issues we are constantly faced with, and their real world implications.