Analysis of TV series Friends free essay sample

TV is a very popular source of entertainment meaning allot of people are watching and absorbing everything that is being said and done. Mass media has a huge impact on the way people perceive certain people, situations, etc. especially when it is coming from a show loved by many. The TV series Friends premiered on September 22nd in 1994 and became an extremely successful sitcom that lasted 10 years ending in January of 2004. Friends is a sitcom that involved the lives of 6 friends that lived in New York City. Throughout the seasons the viewers were able to see each character’s lives develop, and see the everyday struggles they come across, whether it is relationship problems, marriage problems, or the everyday random issue. Each character had specific qualities that made the viewers fall in love with all the characters in different ways. This sitcom had a huge fan base of people of all ages and is still popular 9 years later meaning that it has a significant influence on many and not always in the best way. We will write a custom essay sample on Analysis of TV series Friends or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The TV series reinforces stereotypes and gender roles through the characters. David Crane and Marta Kauffman created the series Friends. When they decided to develop a TV series they were inspired by their own lives. They thought back to the time when they had just finished college and began to live on their own in New York City. The time that they spent living in New York City is when they were trying to find a career that they were passionate about to start their lives, and at the same time attempt to balance a relationship. Finding careers while dating, and handling everyday issues seemed like a good concept for the show. They thought it was such a simple idea that so many could relate to that it would eventually progress into something big. Although Friends2 Friends did become big it was not always as popular. At First the reception of the critics started off to be a very harsh evaluation. Later as the show continued it did progress to more positive reviews which eventually ended up in ranking the best sitcom of its time therefore playing a hug role in influencing many. Throughout the series the scenarios and characters at times reinforced stereotypes and gender roles without the viewer’s recognition. The comedy in the show displays the gender roles and stereotypes in a lighter sense without directly offending anyone which makes the viewers unaware of the influence it is having on them. Friends reinforces gender roles mainly through the characters of Joey, Chandler and Ross. Gender roles are cultural and personal, they determine how males and females should think, speak, dress, and interact within the context of society. Each character is put through several situations where their reactions reinforce a certain gender role influencing viewers to think that is how a male or female should be/act. John Sloop the author of the SAGE handbook of gender and communication demonstrates how the characters reinforce gender roles by acknowledging the episode titled â€Å"The one with the baby on the bus†. The episode involved Joey and Chandler being mistaken for a homosexual couple because they are seen together with a child. When they are approached as a homosexual couple it is noticeable that they are both offended by the comment. The offence they take to the comment is noticeable due to them both rambling on about how they are straight of course, reassuring the person that they are in fact heterosexual. The way they ramble on shows that their ego was hurt in fact they acted as Friends3 if a piece of their masculinity has been taken away. Their reaction in this episode gives viewers the idea that being homosexual makes you less of a male which is far from the truth, but because this is how popular celebrities are reacting it is reinforcing the mind set of gender roles because many people look up to these characters. Throughout the seasons of Friends there is a point where Chandler is unemployed. At this time Chandler and his wife Monica are trying to start a family. During the time of his unemployment he is very bitter about not having a job for several reasons. The main reason he is upset, is that he feels since he is the male he should have a job to support his family. The fact that Monica is working and he is not he feels that their roles are reversed. If anything he feels he should be out working paying the bills, bringing in the income while Monica stays at home and takes care of other tasks such as housecleaning and preparing dinners. Since they are trying to start a family he will be staying home with the children until he is able to find a job. Knowing that he will be the one staying home with the kids someday he expresses many times to his friends that he feels less of a man. He feels less masculine because he sees staying at home with children as a women’s job. Signorielli author of Children, television, and conceptions about chores claims that the way Chandler is reacting to his situation of being unemployed is reinforcing the traditional notion of gender roles. The traditional notion of gender roles being the male is to work and be the breadwinner of the family while the female stays at home with the children and does the housework and prepares meals for the family. The series Friends started in 1994 by this time the notion of traditional gender roles was in the past. It was Friends4 common for both male and female to be working, but Chandler’s reaction is giving people other ideas putting them back into the old mindset of how things used to be for males and females. (Signorielli, 1991). Stereotypes which are a widely held but fixed and oversimplified images or ideas of a particular person or group of people are reinforced throughout many situations in the series. Galvin author of The SAGE handbook of gender and communication demonstrates stereotypes being reinforced by using an example from The episode titled â€Å"baby on the Bus† involved Joey and Chandler being put into a situation where they are in need of making an important decision. In the episode Joey and Chandler loose Ross child on a city bus and have to go to the bus services to get the baby. When they arrive to bus services the lady brings them into a room where there are two infants. Joey and Chandler both are unsure of which baby is Ross but must make a decision. They both decide that it makes sense to flip a coin to decide which child to take. The actions they use to solve this problem are highly immature and give people the idea that men lack any parental and caretaking instincts (Galvin, et al, 2006). The way they decide to handle the situation is not realistic but the seen mocks the little parenting skills that males have. The scene gives males the stereotype of not having the capability to care for a child compared to how a woman would. The scene is stereotypical because a male is just as capable of taking care of a child as a woman would. Friends5 Stereotypes are reinforced in the series but most viewers do not notice them due to the comedy in the show. The comedy makes the scenes that mock stereotypes funny oppose to being offensive. Phoebe Bouffay fits the stereotype of the dumb blonde. The definition of the dumb blonde is an attractive blonde that lack both common sense and academic intelligence to a comedic level. (Dictionary, 2001). Phoebe Bouffay fits all the qualities of the dumb blonde. She is beautiful with blonde hair and does lack both common sense and academic intelligence. For instance Phoebe at the age of 30 still believes in Santa Claus. Believing in Santa Claus at that age proves that she does lack both common and academic knowledge. Phoebe Bouffay gives people the impression that all attractive blondes are ditzy and have no knowledge. The hair color of a female and how attractive she is does not make them any less smart than a beautiful brunette, it is just a stereotype that Friends is reinforcing to all its viewers. Television is a source of entertainment that is used by many people of all ages and it cultivates viewer’s perceptions of reality and over time, since it is so popular shapes culture as a whole. Cultivation theory argues that television cultivates people’s behaviors and values that are already present, but it reinforces their mindset to keep those behaviors and values. Evidence proves that depictions do carry along consequences. For instance a child that watches television more than the average person will carry more traditional notions of gender roles because they are used to seeing it on television. (Signorielle, 1992). Friends6 Friends is a sitcom watched by many meaning allot of people are taking in the behaviours and actions of the characters. The characters have a huge influence on many people and at times in a negative way. (Villani, 2001). People are influenced when characters behave a certain way because they see the characters as role models. Many of the times kids are influenced negatively by the person they look up to and admire due to the characters values, behavior and actions. (Munoz, 2011). Friends is a family TV series, and most of the episodes mock situations and sceneries that involve gender roles and stereotypes. The comedy does hide the way it enforces gender roles and stereotypes but it still does reinforce certain mindsets.