Jocelyn, Jodie, Jennifer, Jacqui, Joelle. Ignoring the optimistic advice of elders, these five working-class teens in the Rust Belt band together in their embrace of bad behavior and poor taste as they navigate sexuality and identity with loud-mouthed joy and clear-eyed cynicism. Winner of the 2021 Blue Light Books Prize, Rochelle Hurt's The J Girls: A Reality Show is a tribute to the grit and glitter of millennial girlhood and a testament to its dangers and traumas. Hurt's creative, genre-bending mix of poetry, fiction, and screenplay brings the girls to life with campy performances of monologues, soap opera clips, mock interviews, talk shows, commercials, and even burlesque. Vulgar, rhapsodic language serves as costume and shield, allowing the J Girls to script their own images and project glowing, outsized versions of themselves into the safe space of the TV screen. Playful and poignant, The J Girls is a flashy ode to performance and a nostalgic elegy for adolescent friendships.OPENING CREDITSMontage: close shots of the items described with VO from all five J GIRLS in unison.Adoration of The J GirlsJocelyn, Jennifer, Jodie, Jacqui, Joelle: Gaudeville girl-gods of quick fingers and full pockets. The J Girls who lap the block garbed in exaltation: Jocelyn of black thongs and push-ups swapped out in dressing rooms. Jennifer of sweater-swaddled kittens from behind garage doors. Jodie of Oxy-filled purses and money to hide. Jacqui of sleeved Slim Jims and pregnancy tests. Joelle of white cutoffs and lilac bruised thighs. The J Girls who pool-hop apartments to christen each other bikini-clad diehards. The J Girls who laugh in spirals and slather themselves with joy: Jocelyn of blue eyeliner and numbers scrawled on her palm. Jennifer of translucent eyelids and cheeks stained self-tanner orange. Jodie of chlorine-green hair and lipstick swiped from the drugstore. Jacqui of Kool-Aid dyed bangs and henna-etched arms. Joelle of mascara freckles and a double dimple on one side. The J Girls who breathe chains of smoke O's from the blessed flames of their mouths and cough together in rounds:Jocelyn of gold-ringed thumbs and Newport 100s. Jennifer of turquoise nails and Virginia Slims. Jodie of hemp bracelets and spliffed Camel Wides. Jacqui of silver star anklets and Salem Full Flavor 85s. Joelle of the Zippo filched from her sister and trembling Marlboro Ultra Lights. The J Girls who gospel in gossip of plush tongues and soft-slurred consonants and bent-backed vowels. The J Girls who know more than they spill:Jocelyn of pink pig Latin love notes. Jennifer of new foster brothers each year. Jodie of the hot dad who got caught jacking cars. Jacqui of the Ms. mom who smokes pot. Joelle of the recurring stepfather curse.The J Girls who reign extreme in the kingdom of making-do:Jocelyn, queen of Hearts in juvie that one time. Jennifer, queen of the Westside babysitting ring. Jodie, queen of flea-bombed carpets and snarling yard mutts. Jacqui, queen of beaded doorways and leaky waterbeds and torn Naugahyde. Joelle, queen of lonesome skinny-dipped midnights. The omnipotent J Girls who swim circles through shame. The J Girls who say no duh, no really, no jinx, no takebacks, no fair, no shit, not sorry, not dead, not hardly, not long but not never, whatever, not finished, not enough, not yet.MONOLOGUE: JOCELYNINT CAFETERIA. JOCELYN stands in an empty cafeteria wearing a red tube top and a silver mini skirt. Posters hang on the walls behind her: "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle;" the "Hang in There" kitten; a diagram of a cartoon girl that illustrates proper skirt length and notes: "All hair colors must come directly from God;" a flyer for Modesty Club, on which someone has drawn a vagina.Less is MoreWe fast through lunch & pocket pills at recess. Gold letters on our gym class asses crown us each a Princess. School nuns scold, so we dig little graves in our minds & they fill them with etiquette. Bet they'll better us yet. In church,our voices rise, a sour choir of spit & pride. We stir the nuns' words in our mouths til they curdle: less is more. At home our mean mothers pour Suave into Avon bottles, stacking dimes as we lay like strips of jerky on our roofs. We tan. We turn. We cure ourselves & wonder: how far down our throats can these new woman hands go?Together we trace rows of looping red X's & O's into our arms with paring knives. We carve our skin to the bone, becoming instruments of less—but we make it up in excess: rhinestone eyelids, two-inch acrylics, hair frosted in three tones. Each hotbox ride with garage boys is a fantasy of proving the nuns right: we see the road stop like a cartoon cliff & we're driving on air tilsomeone looks down & we drop & that's allwe've wanted. To hell with other kids' futures, our parents' tired rising above. A new high:the long whistle of wind like a lullaby against the slicked reeds of these whittled bodies as we fall glittering to the bottom.MONOLOGUE: JENNIFERINT CHURCH. JENNIFER stands in front of a marble altar and large wooden crucifix holding a bag of communion hosts and drinking from a silver wine goblet.Prayer for EffacementO my fear-snuffer, my sensitive sigh-huffer, my infernal grace-breather, my sin-sucker, my most holy vampire, my tawdry tear-drinker, my gory grief-strainer, my pulpy vice-eater, my dull mind-cleaver, my gentle heart surgeon, my acid bath, my quick-drying lime wash, my most patient primer, my tongue-scrape, my meticulous airbrush, my aerial lightbox, my travelling sunspot, my beautiful cataract, my personal snow machine, my salt-n-plow, my spongy ink-blotter, my stack of sorrys, my emergency stain stick, my cup of bleach, my benevolent eraser, make me an eternalthumbprint, your most stubborn spot of grease.Preface Cast List Opening Credits: Adoration of the J Girls Episode 1: The J Girls Get HighLess is More Jen's Prayer for Effacement Wifebeaters Middling Thigh High Ode on My Upspeak Commercial Break: Bath & Body Works Pastoral Episode 2: The J Girls Chase TailTo My '81 Chevy Celebrity Weeknight Jen's Prayer for Containment Ode to the C Word The Birth of Anger at the Roller Skating Rink Origins & Outcomes The Cut Felt Round the World Commercial Break: Lip Smacker Fantasia Episode 3: The J Girls Give FacePluralizing Mall Haunts Glitter Ode Demolition Derby Queens Dangling Modifier Ponytail Politic Cunts in Girls' Room oo yay & eye yay Commercial Break: Wet n Wild Romance Episode 4: The J Girls Get Caught (on Camera)Documentary What the Thief Learned to Take Early Jen's Prayer for Exposure Viral Ode to an Empty Womb Mimi Double Negative Commercial Break: Avon Grotesque Episode 5: The J Girls ReunionY2K Confessions Episode 6: The J Girls Cash OutSelfward Silence is Golden— Circular Argument I Could Eat You Up Who Taught You That One? Can I Call You Ellie? McDonald's 4-ever Possessives End Credits: Beatitudes for Meek Girls Acknowledgments
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