Column: 'Jane the Virgin' is needed now more than ever

It was a brisk January morning in 2017, and my mother and oldest sister lay huddled on the couch, watching TV. Still wrapped in my fuzzy penguin blanket, I trudged into the living room and plopped down by the fireplace. That weekend was especially cold, I remember — too cold to do anything but sit around and do nothing. Donald Trump had just taken office for the first time. 

The show they were watching, as I would learn, was “Jane the Virgin,” a modern American twist on the soapy telenovelas of Latin America. Throughout its five seasons — which followed Jane Villanueva, a Latin American woman in her twenties, through an epic story of romance, family and crime — I would also learn a lot of things that most ten-year-olds wouldn’t until later on: What a “pap smear” was, why someone might sue for medical malpractice, the significance of being accidentally artificially inseminated, etc. Maybe I didn’t understand the extent of the “adult content” that I was watching, but I laughed and cried along nonetheless.

That’s the beauty of a telenovela: they guide you through a range of the rawest human emotions, stripping away your composure until empathy’s all that’s left. Outlandish plots hold up mirrors to real life, and characters on a screen reflect the most intrinsic parts of the watcher. 

So, eight years and countless rewatches later, when I logged onto Netflix to find my favorite show missing, I stopped to think about what else “Jane the Virgin” had taught me. 

I remember being delighted at episodes that showcased the dynamic between Jane, her mother Xiomara and her abuela Alba. Living together without a man to claim dominance over the household, the three women navigated the increasingly unthinkable curveballs that the show’s plot was throwing at them as a team, each filling different roles and contributing different perspectives. 

The unity and simultaneous independence of such a tight-knit trio of Latina women made me, an awkward, half-Hispanic pre-teen girl, feel empowered — even in a country that had elected a man accused of sexual assault over a female candidate as president. The woman I’d grow up to be, I hoped, would be as capable and accomplished as any of the Villanuevas, even if the world I was living in desired otherwise. 

Though many of the show’s more sexual themes fell on deaf ears, I am glad that I was exposed to “Jane the Virgin’s” particular conception of sexuality at a relatively young age. Highlighting diversity in lifestyle through the Villanueva women, the show presented three distinct characters who each had differing and dynamic relationships with their respective sexualities. While Xiomara was very outspoken and comfortable with her sexuality, Alba, a traditional Catholic, preached sexual conservatism. Jane lay somewhere in the middle, at first conforming to the values of abstinence that her abuela had instilled in her, but later experimenting with a more liberal outlook on sex. 

It wasn’t the mere presence of sexuality in “Jane the Virgin” that would inform my current view of sexual liberation, but the anti-shame narrative with which it was framed. Xiomara’s character was not made any less worthy of respect because of her more provocative attitudes, and neither Alba nor Jane were ridiculed for their religious ideals. The Villanueva women supported each other despite their varying perspectives, helping each other to navigate periods of their life when those perspectives were shifting. In turn, I entered my teenage years with a concept of sexuality free from shame. 

When I open TikTok today, my “For You Page” is flooded with videos of young mothers preparing meals for their husbands and children in silky-soft voices, advertisements for alluring-but-not-too-revealing fall wardrobe pieces and makeup tutorials on how to achieve the perfect clean-girl look. It’s not the existence of these videos that irks me, but their prevalence; as social media trends toward modesty and the so-called “tradwife aesthetic,” I am seeing a plummet in diverse representations of lifestyle. For younger generations, adhering to the masses is second nature. And the masses, decidedly, are edging slowly but surely towards uniform conservatism. The anti-shame narrative is no longer trendy. 

Shame, as we have seen in matters of reproductive rights, becomes dangerous when it is integrated at a political level. In a post Dobbs v. Jackson world, where a woman’s right to terminate pregnancy and a healthcare provider’s right to carry out such a procedure has been left unprotected by federal law, choice and bodily autonomy are more important than ever. 

“Jane the Virgin” excelled here, too. When Jane became pregnant due to a medical accident in season one, she struggled between raising the child herself, despite the setbacks this would undoubtedly bestow upon her career, giving the baby to the biological father and his soon-to-be ex-wife or terminating the pregnancy altogether. Again, it was the existence of choice in this scenario that empowered Jane to act in a way that made most sense for her. Though she ultimately chose to go through with the pregnancy, and eventually to raise the child herself, her ability to do otherwise was a comforting force — and one that was stressed by Xiomara, who mused that “having [a choice], it helps, I think.” In season three, this sentiment came to fruition when Xiomara herself chose to have an abortion rather than carry out an unplanned pregnancy. 

Alba’s character arc was, for me, one of the most emotional to watch. I particularly appreciated the humanizing portrayal of her immigration storyline. From fearing a trivial encounter with cops due to her undocumented status at the beginning of the show to proudly claiming citizenship in season four, Alba’s character subverted harmful stereotypes that categorize undocumented immigrants — especially ones of Hispanic background — as “criminals.” And we can use that kind of representation today. In President Trump’s second term, we have seen unprecedented mass deportations of Latino immigrants. 

While I admire “Jane the Virgin’s” progressiveness, what makes it relevant today is how it teaches us to interact with beliefs that are different from our own. Just as the Villanueva women took up different perspectives, whether it was political, cultural or religious, and respected one another nevertheless, we must learn to do the same. In an age of political divisiveness, “Jane the Virgin” teaches us that sometimes what’s needed is to step back from frustration and take a breath. Or, in the words of Jane Villanueva, “Inhala, exhala.”

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