A television show centered around an attractive female high school student sounds fairly common at this point. We all know the story about the cheerleader and the difficulties she is forced to navigate as she discovers herself to be more than just a pretty object. That storyline has been played. When we first look at Veronica Mars we expect a similar storyline. There is an attractive high school girl who has been ostracized in a rich high school community. We expect to follow her on her journey as she attempts to make it in the big sea of high school. Fortunately for the viewer, this is not the premise for Veronica Mars. Veronica is not your average pretty high schooler; instead she is of a new bread that we will refer to as a “chick dick.” This can be seen initially in her name. The title of the show pokes fun at the popular book by John Gray, Men are From Mars, Women are from Venus. Still, Veronica does have to deal with the everyday occurrences any high school girl would. She needs to be concerned with grades, social status and boys. These anxieties are what make her relatable, but it is her unique story as a private investigator that makes her entertaining.
Tzvetan Todorov argued that, “mystery narratives have a double or ‘dual architecture’ in which ‘the story of the crime and the story of investigation’ eventually converge.” (134) This idea is on front display in Veronica Mars as she helps to investigate both her own rape and the murder of her best friend which in turn led to her social demise. It is interesting to watch Veronica’s navigation of the Private Investigator role as a high school female. She often uses her youth and non-traditional mold of a private investigator to her advantage. She uses her femininity not as a weakness, but as strength. She is seen flirting her way into positions and being deceptive, as we see in her deception as a gamer among other instances. Veronica remolds our view of both high school girls and of fighters of crime. She blends the two together in a powerful and scary mixture. The “chick dick” is a new breed that is exciting for everyone to watch. There are not many shows with a central women character that appeal to men, but Veronica Mars certainly does.
Veronica challenges the roles that were previously reserved exclusively for men. The show, Veronica Mars, also attempts to dispute prejudices about race and class. Veronica and her father claim to aspire to a lower middle class lifestyle, but they life in a nice apartment in a wealthy neighborhood. She is an avid user of nice technologies, which help her solve her problems. It is true that her accomplices are often minorities, but as a white attractive blonde girl her claim as a minority is not taken seriously. Still, the show does a great job at changing the way we look at TV. It challenges norms and does so in an entertaining manner, the emergence of the “chick dick” in popular culture is not one that will soon go away.